Possible to update content through text files?

I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I am working on creating a website for the HOA of the development that I live in. This site is going to need to be updated weekly and I would prefer to pass the updating of minor stuff, mainly text, off to member of the HOA board. None of which have any web design experience or authoring software.

I would like to keep the update process as simple as I possibly can. Is there a way to create the layout of the web site, but have the text come from a text file of some kind? This way the board members can log in and update the text in the text files which will automatically update the web content.

I'm a bit of a newbie myself to web design, so be gentle...

Thanks.

I advise you to check out <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a> as it is a fantastic solution which will enable you to have users input content without them needing to know any HTML at all. It has three WYSIWYG editor modules which you could use to give the users extra control over the formatting of the content. They're a very good way to get non-programmer types to construct good looking content and are not as slow as this one I'm using to enter this content. Drupal is a vast system and, on top of the very versatile core package, it has hundreds of modules each providing additional functionality to the system. I cannot sing its praises enough.

The only down side is a bit of a steep learning curve as some of the termonology is not easy for the novice to instantly grasp and the number of possibilities provided by the modules is a tad overwelming.

There are a large number of contributed themes which, once you have installed drupal, you can simply drop into a folder and select from an administrative 'backend'. These provide a quick and easy way to get a site up that looks good and functions well.

Drupal is open source software which has many benefits. One of the key benefits in my mind is that a whole community including core developers, contributors and everyone else are all continually contributing to and bug testing the system. If you wanted to create a system with any of these features you would have to do some serious testing before you could go live.

The emphasis of drupal is to make it easy for developers and users to use the system to build and maintain a community of users but the system can be used for anything. I am currently using it for my <a href="http://www.freestylesystems.co.uk">web design site</a>. I provide drupal setup and full web design services in case you need any help.

If you don't need the lovely interface and obvious usability benefits from using this sort of system and wanted to keep to your original idea of creating text files to update content you could do it in PHP quite easily but then you would have to learn basic PHP and figure out a way to format the content (i.e. detect line breaks etc). Doesn't that sound like a lot of work? Seriously, go get <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a> now!

Rich

Sounds like you need a CMS "Content Management System". After you set it all up as you want it to work, they can update the content through a backend interface. You don't need text files, you can do it all from within a web browser using forms and other enhanced input technologies such as TinyMCE.

"Mambo" CMS would be a good place to start, its one of the biggest open source CMS systems. Download it for free and have a play, it may take you a while to setup but there is loads of online help available from various experts.

To answer your question directly, yes, it's possible through either JavaScript (which I highly discourage) or PHP (which I advise). You may be able to use other languages, but those are the most common two.

I advise you to check out <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a> as it is a fantastic solution which will enable you to have users input content without them needing to know any HTML at all. It has three WYSIWYG editor modules which you could use to give the users extra control over the formatting of the content. They're a very good way to get non-programmer types to construct good looking content and are not as slow as this one I'm using to enter this content. Drupal is a vast system and, on top of the very versatile core package, it has hundreds of modules each providing additional functionality to the system. I cannot sing its praises enough.

The only down side is a bit of a steep learning curve as some of the termonology is not easy for the novice to instantly grasp and the number of possibilities provided by the modules is a tad overwelming.

There are a large number of contributed themes which, once you have installed drupal, you can simply drop into a folder and select from an administrative 'backend'. These provide a quick and easy way to get a site up that looks good and functions well.

Drupal is open source software which has many benefits. One of the key benefits in my mind is that a whole community including core developers, contributors and everyone else are all continually contributing to and bug testing the system. If you wanted to create a system with any of these features you would have to do some serious testing before you could go live.

The emphasis of drupal is to make it easy for developers and users to use the system to build and maintain a community of users but the system can be used for anything. I am currently using it for my <a href="http://www.freestylesystems.co.uk">web design site</a>. I provide drupal setup and full web design services in case you need any help.

If you don't need the lovely interface and obvious usability benefits from using this sort of system and wanted to keep to your original idea of creating text files to update content you could do it in PHP quite easily but then you would have to learn basic PHP and figure out a way to format the content (i.e. detect line breaks etc). Doesn't that sound like a lot of work? Seriously, go get <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a> now!

Rich

TinyMCE is a set of JavaScript modules that allow you to create the dialogue boxes that contain formatting controls like the ones used in this forum. You can't create an input box with these controls, inside a browser interface, using PHP alone.

JavaScript is the best solution for creating these types of controls, the only other way I could think of doing it would involve installing an active-x control or plugin, this would be mass overkill and far less supported.

I personally use TinyMCE for creating this type of input interface, it's highly configurable and works on just about any browser. Why re-invent the wheel?

You do have to implement your own set of callback functions and their is no image manager unless you buy the upgraded version. You can code your callback routines and server side scripts in any language you choose, possibly PHP.

I advise you to check out Drupal http://drupal.org as it is a fantastic solution which will enable you to have users input content without them needing to know any HTML at all. It has three WYSIWYG editor modules which you could use to give the users extra control over the formatting of the content. They're a very good way to get non-programmer types to construct good looking content and are not as slow as this one I'm using to enter this content. Drupal is a vast system and, on top of the very versatile core package, it has hundreds of modules each providing additional functionality to the system. I cannot sing its praises enough.

The only down side is a bit of a steep learning curve as some of the termonology is not easy for the novice to instantly grasp and the number of possibilities provided by the modules is a tad overwelming.

There are a large number of contributed themes which, once you have installed drupal, you can simply drop into a folder and select from an administrative 'backend'. These provide a quick and easy way to get a site up that looks good and functions well.

Drupal is open source software which has many benefits. One of the key benefits in my mind is that a whole community including core developers, contributors and everyone else are all continually contributing to and bug testing the system. If you wanted to create a system with any of these features you would have to do some serious testing before you could go live.

The emphasis of drupal is to make it easy for developers and users to use the system to build and maintain a community of users but the system can be used for anything. I am currently using it for my web design site http://www.freestylesystems.co.uk. I provide drupal setup and full web design services in case you need any help.

If you don't need the lovely interface and obvious usability benefits from using this sort of system and wanted to keep to your original idea of creating text files to update content you could do it in PHP quite easily but then you would have to learn basic PHP and figure out a way to format the content (i.e. detect line breaks etc). Doesn't that sound like a lot of work? Seriously, go get Drupal now!

Rich

Textpattern transforms pure content into valid XHTML with simple markup. It's actually quite a genius little PHP class. All you do is upload it to your sever and run text through it. It spits the XHTML right back at you.

My appologies. Textpattern is a full-on CMS. I meant Textile.

Drupal is a great CMS and also uses the TinyMCE module for it's wysiwyg interface. I've not heard of Textile but I'll be taking a look, thanks Ryan.

No problem. Textpattern is quite a useful CMS. It's mainly used for blogging, but Textile is absolutely awesome for transforming text into valid HTML. It's not that it doesn't use markup, it's just simpler than HTML tags; it's something with a quick reference file to glance at, anyone can make it work.

Drupal may well be a fantastic CMS solution.... but did u honestly have to post about it 100 times? jeez

My advice.... use php & mysql and create you own

Accurax,

The post wasn't submitting. After waiting for over 24hrs I posted it again. There seemed to be some problem with submitting as it still wasn't showing. I ended up posting that many time because I thought that there was a problem with the forum.

I have to say that I disagree with your post. Since jwilliams31 is new to web design it won't be a trivial task to go the custom route. Open source software has the advantage that it is tested continually and whilst it may be overkill for what jwilliams31 needs to achieve it will provide an excellant platform for future advancement.

Drupal also provides a good way to setup role based access which coupled with the security, WYSIWYG input modules and any others jwilliams31 may care to install it seems ideal.

Rich

Haha, that's weird. I think it was a problem with WebForumz. I don't remember seeing all those duplicate posts. I could just have been blind, though.