Set up CMSms sites for IT-challenged users to manage themselves
Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:00 am
I've searched the forums for many hours and found several useful posts for pieces of what I need to do, but still not sure how the whole project can be done. If anyone can point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful. The idea is this:
I need to create multiple CMS sites for people with zero website expertise to manage all by themselves. My idea is to build the initial site for them, and include an admin section which would work similar to this:
1. They click on some button to put them into "Edit site content" mode
2. They view their site the way it is displayed in normal mode, navigate to the page and section they want to change, then click on the section (content block?).
3. The system displays all available content (in summary form) that would work in that specific section, i.e. if it's a news article all news articles are listed, if it's a link all links are displayed, if it's the Joke of the Day all jokes are listed, etc.
4. Once they then click on the item (article, link, joke, whatever) they want to use, it automatically replaces what was in that section originally.
5. Done!
The source of the new content would include the website's own DB as well as that of a master "library" site which all website owners have access to. If the user (website owner) selects content from the library site, it is automatically downloaded and saved to their site's DB, then inserted into the appropriate section.
How easy(?) would this be to do? I'm not looking for someone to detail exactly how to do it (although that would really be nice!), just want to know if it's doable (either exactly as described or similar) and where I could go for guidance. I only know very basic php, html and css, but have created several ecom sites (via Zen Cart) after lots of documentation reading, trial and error coding and forum posts, and hope I can do the same with CMSms.
Thanks!
I need to create multiple CMS sites for people with zero website expertise to manage all by themselves. My idea is to build the initial site for them, and include an admin section which would work similar to this:
1. They click on some button to put them into "Edit site content" mode
2. They view their site the way it is displayed in normal mode, navigate to the page and section they want to change, then click on the section (content block?).
3. The system displays all available content (in summary form) that would work in that specific section, i.e. if it's a news article all news articles are listed, if it's a link all links are displayed, if it's the Joke of the Day all jokes are listed, etc.
4. Once they then click on the item (article, link, joke, whatever) they want to use, it automatically replaces what was in that section originally.
5. Done!
The source of the new content would include the website's own DB as well as that of a master "library" site which all website owners have access to. If the user (website owner) selects content from the library site, it is automatically downloaded and saved to their site's DB, then inserted into the appropriate section.
How easy(?) would this be to do? I'm not looking for someone to detail exactly how to do it (although that would really be nice!), just want to know if it's doable (either exactly as described or similar) and where I could go for guidance. I only know very basic php, html and css, but have created several ecom sites (via Zen Cart) after lots of documentation reading, trial and error coding and forum posts, and hope I can do the same with CMSms.
Thanks!