CMS-ing a static website

[garethedmondson]

Hi Guys,

I have been working on a website using CMS. I started learning at 1.0.2 and have just updated it to 1.0.4. It is a fantastic piece of software and my first effort can be seen at http://www.cbams.net/portal

I did this for a guy up the road. He is happy with it. A good learning curve. I still have a lot to learn about style sheets, but this project is finished for now.

I'm ready for the next one - can anyone advise? I am looking to turn http://www.yggwyr.swansea.sch.uk into a CMS installation. I have looked at Drupal, but because I have already had some (small) experience with CMS Made Simple, I wonder how easy it would be to turn the current static sschool website into a dynamic one.

Any advice would be welcome.

Gareth

[chead]

Unless you're already familiar with Drupal, you'll likely have an easier time with CMSMS. If your clients will be doing any site maintenance themselves, they'll also probably find it more intuitive.

Your post prompted me to post the school site I just developed in the "Show Off" area:

Dallas Int'l School

You'll find good tips in the forums and wiki, and you can PM me if you have a specific question on the Dallas site.

Good luck!

[JohnnyB]

INMHO, it will be easy to turn the school site into a CMS MS site.

A few things to consider:
First - create CSS files instead of using inline css rules in the
Suggestion - use a "Template" CSS file for any CSS rules related to the structure/layout of the html page templates and a "Style" css file for rules that govern the presentaton of the site, i.e, colors, size of texts, etc...

Next, take the source of the html pages and put them into a text editor that allows you to manipulate the code, i.e., not a wysiwyg editor.  Then, remove all the content and replace with the CMS MS content calls, for example, {title}, {content}, etc.
Suggestion, use the Global Content Blocks as include files and then add the global content block to your template.  For example, the header can be a global content block that is called into every CMS MS Template file, using {global_content name='header'}.
You may have more than one page template and each page can be assigned a different template, so it is not a problem.

The Template Externalizer Extension is very helpful because it creates files of the templates and Stylesheets that can be downloaded to your computer and edited in your favorite text editor.  Use an FTP client to do that.

Here's a good starting point in the handbook to get you started and expand upon the above:
http://wiki.cmsmadesimple.org/index.php ... d/Designer