adding new sections to admin... not as module

[redkevin11]

I am very impressed with CMSMS.  I have been messing w/ mambo for the last month, and this just cuts right to the core of what I need.

I am wondering if it is possible/practical for me to do the following:

I have already created lots of home-grown "modules" for my client, that are in my own custom backend.  My client is a church, and I created an upload system for adding pdfs of weekly bulletins and monthly newsletters, and some php includes to easily add a "latest bulletin, etc" block, or create a list of the latest documents. 

Is it possible to simply add my files to the /admin folder and "wrap" them in the cmsms admin structure, using its permissions, then statically add links to the admin main navigation?  My includes can be simple user-defined tags.

Also, how can I wrap a page in the default template that is outside cmsms?  I have a gallery system in place that has a header and footer.  how can i make it always use the smarty template?

If this is discussed elsewhere, just show me the links!  I searched the forums for quite a while to not be redundant.

thanks a million... K

[Alex_Leipzig]

Consider supplying your user-defined tags in the wiki (http://wiki.cmsmadesimple.org/tiki-index.php)...

[redkevin11]

I guess I should further clarify:

I have created lots of backend functionality long before I came across CMSMS.  My custom "modules" have nothing to do with CMSMS.  I am wondering if it's possible/practical to simply wrap my non-CMSMS admin tools in the admin of CMSMS?  Then, for the front end, I could make user-defined tags that query the DB and print the info I need.

Let me know if this doesn't make any sense.

[Ted]

All of the admin pages use the same structure.  With a header, footer, etc in them.  Just take a look at any page in there to see what I mean.

As for using CMSMS outside of CMSMS, you're in for some work.  It uses Smarty, but not in a regular fashion.  It takes content from the database, does some pre production work, and then puts everything through smarty to get a final page...

If you want to swing by IRC for some more details, you're welcome to.  Brain is kind of fried at the moment.