Simple CMS?

April 14, 2007 1:45 PM

Client says: "I should to be able to update the text on this website whenever I want to." Simplest possible solution?

I've set up wordpress for people before (pruned down to bonsai size, of course), but I don't want to bother with all that. There really isn't a need for anything other than a WYSIWYG way to edit page content -- no blogging needed, no creation of new pages, even.

posted by Tlogmer to computers & internet (17 comments total)

you're looking for something simpler to set up than wordpress? if you don't need the backend, uh, yeah, i'd go with a text editor.
posted by phaedon at 1:54 PM on April 14, 2007

What does simple mean to you, Tlogmer? A simple backend Perl script? Setting up your client with FTP?

In other words, what specifically are you trying to avoid?
posted by amtho at 1:57 PM on April 14, 2007

Adobe Contribute would allow your clients to change text without screwing anything up. I set up a web site for my 9-year-old nephew, and he has no problem adding, removing, and changing things with that software.
posted by wryly at 2:06 PM on April 14, 2007

Wetpaint wiki?
posted by fire&wings at 2:18 PM on April 14, 2007

Ok. First off, do you want to go with a database/script backed solution or a FTP & static-files based one? How many files are we talking?
posted by Firas at 2:29 PM on April 14, 2007

Joomla, fo so many reasons.
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 2:45 PM on April 14, 2007

I found a post on AskMefi some time ago that recommended Content Editable. It's mostly cgi-bin files, only works with IE, but with my limited technical skills I found it pretty easy to install and setup. You then add tags to your web pages to identify which parts of a page can be edited. This makes sure the client doesn't mess up menus etc. I'm quite impressed with it, though one client recently reported that an XP update made things screwy in some way. $49 for the license allows you to use it on multiple sites.
posted by valleys at 2:52 PM on April 14, 2007

If its really just text, just make a quick PHP script to provide text input boxes for all the text on the site & write it to a text file/db.
posted by devilsbrigade at 2:55 PM on April 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

I've either been using php includes plus a simple html parser for the content along with a simple upload manager in these cases or a simplified Wordpress install and giving the client Author privileges.
posted by maniactown at 2:55 PM on April 14, 2007

Seconding Contribute. I have set it up for several of my clients. Charge the client for the license. It's pretty easy, and it does what you want: allows the user to change the text of web pages whenever they want. They can also change images, or create entire new pages. But the permissions are all up to you.
posted by The Deej at 2:55 PM on April 14, 2007

Oh, plus with Contribute, you don't have to remake the site to implement it. You can make any site work with it. (Of course you have to have administrative access to the site.)
posted by The Deej at 2:57 PM on April 14, 2007

I'm thinking along the lines of what maniactown suggested, but hte client doesn't know html and isn't interested in learning, really. Is there a barebones wysiwyg plugin for php (or something) that I can just hook up to the simple scripts?
posted by Tlogmer at 4:47 PM on April 14, 2007

BrodieShadeTree: Does joomla come with a million built-in functions that I have to prune out? 'Cause it's a more time-consuming, for example, to build a wordpress template than an ordinary website -- and in any case, the site is already built, and I don't feel like re-doing all the html as php++.
posted by Tlogmer at 4:51 PM on April 14, 2007

simple html parser for the content

Missed that line. Are you converting from markdown?
posted by Tlogmer at 4:53 PM on April 14, 2007

Your client may say, "I should be able to update the text on this website" but you may want to question if that is the true goal. My guess is the requests won't stop there. The next request will be to "just add images", "just add an item to the toolbar", "just add this youtube video", etc.

All reasonable requests, but you might want to tell your client that at some point they will have to sit down and learn HTML and css if they want to maintain their website. WYSIWYG is not gonna cut it.
posted by kamelhoecker at 5:25 PM on April 14, 2007

Publish2Go
posted by spinturtle at 8:50 PM on April 14, 2007

and, again... Webgui. Hosted.

Do people search anymore? Third time /this week/.
:-)
posted by baylink at 7:41 AM on April 15, 2007