Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with software and website

Pros & Cons of bringing web development in-house?

MeatLightning — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:33:22 -0800

Pros & Cons of bringing web development in-house? Hi all -
I manage a mid-size e-commerce website. We currently work with an agency to build and maintain our site. We are considering hiring a dev (C# / .NET, SQL) and taking over development... or at least much of it (still may go out of house for UX, front-end dev).

Anyone have any advice, experiences, warnings, etc they can share?

Have you gone down this road? How did it go? What should we watch out for?

thanks in advance!

ISO Easy Tool/Software to Create Web Site

If only I had a penguin... — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:25:56 -0800

I need a tool (web-based or software) to create and easily update a web site that will be hosted in a subdirectory of a domain that I don't own (i.e. myemployer.ca/myname). I created my web site on Weebly. Love the ease of use and all the drag and drop loveliness and it basically does everything I need, except one thing: I can't publish my site. I put my site on my employers domain (it's a professional not personal site) in a subdirectory. Weebly can't cope with anything other than my owning my own domain. I can download my site as a zip file, which would be fine except that none of the site internal links work as-is. They all point to the root directory rather than a subdirectory, which means I have to edit them, which is asking for trouble. A friend wrote a script to change them automatically, but the thing is this: I haven't updated the page in 3 years because it's too much of a pain. Update on weebly, download, run script, re-upload whole site, etc. Not worth it for small changes and even with big changes I can't be bothered.

I have three options:
1) Find a new development tool. This is the ideal choice if it exists)
2) Buy a domain name and continue using weebly. Not a great choice. It's the easiest but no one does this. None of my colleagues have their own domain so it would likely seem weird and full of myself. (They either have assistants do their pages, have crappy ugly pages that haven't been updated in 5 years, or have no pages at all).
3) Buy a domain name, use weebly and somehow mirror my domain at myemployer.ca/myname. This would be second best: All the ease of option 1, but still having my site on my employer space which is the more professional way to do this. But I have no idea if this is even possible.

THE QUESTION: I'm looking for 1) Advice on which option to choose. 2) What site development tool I could use for option 1. and 3) Whether or not option 3 is possible and how I would make that work.

REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW SITE DEVELOPMENT TOOL (Option2)
- Must be able to create site-internal links that will go to the subdirectory not straight to the domain's root directory. This is where weebly fails me.
-Should make it relatively easy to transfer all needed files into my web space by FTP.
- WYSIWYG point-and-click, drag-and-drop, and all the other marks of a weenie wannabe are all great for me.
- Should put together the structure of the site more or less automatically (e.g. add new pages to a menu bar, create site maps if necessary, etc.)
- I have no design sense other than saying "that looks nice" or "that looks amateurish. If I have to do my own design work, it will look amateurish, so bring on the templates.
- Free or cheap. ~$40/year would be acceptable.
- I don't currently include a blog page, embedded media, or any password protected areas, but I could imagine doing that at some point so bonus points if does this.

The site includes ~6 pages listed on the menu. The pages include e pictures, links to pdfs (also hosted as part of the site), external links, and a few pages of text. I've checked out blinkweb.com and sitekreator.com. Blinkweb can't do the subdirectory thing (like weebly) and sitekreator requries that they host the page and costs too much.

Using the Windows "find" command is getting really tedious...

fvox13 — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:23:17 -0800

We need a web-based photo and video storage and tagging system. Does anyone have recommendations? I work in the IT department at a small college, and our Marketing department needs a photo and video storage and tagging system. We can definitely provide them with the hardware, in the form of a NAS in our datacenter, but the software is difficult to find.

Basically, their requirements boil down to a software package that is:
- Web-based, so that staff and consultants can access these files remotely
- Tag-based, so that, as images are added, they can get tagged as "biology" or "commencement 2008" or whatever
- Limited to authenticated users, so that the entire world doesn't steal our pictures and videos
- Able of being hosted internally, due to speed and bandwidth concerns

As IT, we need it to be secure, easy to maintain, and for the authentication piece, it really should do LDAP or Active Directory. If it's written in something common like Python, PHP, or ColdFusion, we can probably add that functionality ourselves.

So, my question to the hive mind is: Is there such a software package in existence? If so, is there an open source package, even if it's a commercial open-source package? We'd like to be able to customize it.

What does, for example, photos.com, or other stock photo websites use for this purpose? If we could buy that type of software, it would meet our needs perfectly.

Podcasting software

tdreyer — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:42:02 -0800

Looking for website software to host podcasts & generate an XML feed to sent to iTunes. I've got the site, space, and bandwidth; now I just need software to organize the podcasts (audio) and generate an XML feed to submit to iTunes. Any suggestions for good software or tools to do this will be appreciated.

Questions about creating websites for small businesses.

JeffL — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:33:48 -0800

I have a few questions about creating websites for small businesses. A couple of small businesses have approached me about creating websites for them. I am experienced in software development, but only as a full-time employee at large corporations. I have a few questions for people who have done/are doing this sort of small-scale work:

1. I assume that I would include the price of the domain registration and the hosting (using a shared hosting company) as part of my price, right? However, would there be issues with me being listed as the owner/contact for the domain registration? I'm imagining that a concern of the client would be what would happen if I got hit by the proverbial bus - how would they get the domain registered in their name, etc.? Is there a standard approach for handling this type of thing?

2. Is it standard practice to charge the client for the initial work, and then have a monthly charge for support/maintenance/enhancements? (If so, I suppose it would make sense to roll the cost of the hosting into that monthly charge).

3. I understand that this is something I will mostly need to figure out myself, BUT: Is there any sort of standard charge (hourly or fixed bid) for doing this sort of work? The sites will probably be Microsoft ASP (active server page) based, driven by SQL Server databases. The sites are for retail businesses that have a physical presence (sales lots) that sell big-ticket items (similar to car dealerships). The businesses want prospective customers to be able to browse through photos and "plans" of the items, and search for items by perhaps a half dozen criteria. Because the businesses want the ability to maintain the information themselves, I will also need to create maintenance pages for them to use, as well.

Thanks!

How to download website directory?

abdulf — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:01:03 -0800

I'm trying to download from links en masse, any software solutions? I'm trying to download files and links from a website "directory". It sorta looks like this. I guess it's directory made with html links.

Wish I could just drag and drop the folders.

I found a website copying program but it doesn't handle spaces in the address very well. Any ideas besides having to manually click each link by hand?

Grab a pic, move a mouth, add a voice?

thinds66 — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:17:45 -0800

I'm looking for easy/cheap (free?) software or website to make quick/simple animations for a nephew. Nothing too nutty, because not lots of free time.. maybe like a toned-down version of JibJab where I can use existing photos, make mouths move, and add some dialogue or sounds. Thanks for any help.

Which PHP CMS?

hatmandu — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:56:11 -0800

I'm involved with an arts festival, and want to use a CMS. I think one (possibly any) of the following would be suitable, to varying degrees: Joomla, Drupal, Textpattern, Expression Engine, Wordpress. (I've deliberately gone for PHP.) Which would you recommend and why? Here are the functions that are vital:
- managing several mailing lists, with customisable fields to gather data on subscribers
- a discussion forum
- facility to upload files such as PDFs and Word Docs
- events programme (with dates, times, venues, ideally with option of pictures)
- picture gallery
(I'm aware that some of these things will need plug-ins.)

Design doesn't matter so much - probably an out-of-the-box template will be fine with minor tweaking. One crucial thing is that the users of the site are very non-techie, so will need to have something easy to use (this is to save me having to do it for them all the time!).

Sorry - I know there have been a lot of CMS questions at AskMe already, but I wanted to narrow down the question more precisely. Each package seems to attract love and venom in equal measures. Thanks for your ideas!

Looking for software to crawl/spider websites to find hubs, core websites on topics.

IronWolve — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:14:04 -0800

Looking for software to crawl/spider a term in google to show me main websites for a topic. And if possible to generate graphs like this. I want to find main websites, hubs for key topics, and display a graph like gnutellas maps. graph map

I dont know the correct terms to search for software that will crawl websites and make me a link map with hub/nodes.

How do I clone an IIS 5 Website to another Server?

LMG — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 05:00:18 -0800

Does anybody know if it is possible to clone an Microsoft IIS 5 website to another webserver running IIS 5? I understand how to copy the files and permissions to another server but how do I copy the information contained in the metabase such as virtual directories and directory settings?

Best CMS for a closed but transparent bid for services website?

Dreama — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 03:33:06 -0800

Best CMS for a closed but transparent bid for services website? Some of you may recall the website for which I'm inquiring, which provided technical and design services to bloggers on a barter, rather than cash basis. We are looking to reopen our site and we're hoping to find a better way of managing things than the combination of blogging software (for news and static info pages) and phpBB setup that we were using prior to shuttering the site (allegedly temporarily) in 2005.

The process, thus far, has been like this:

Clients post a new thread, outlining the work that they're looking for, as an RFP.
Staff respond to the request with bids for the work.
- Staff may choose to take on entire project or only a portion, based upon their availability and skillset.
Client accepts bid(s)
Process then moves mainly to private communication (e-mail, private message via website, IM, phone) between client and staffer(s) working on the project as project is completed.
Staffer(s) post updates on the progress of the project on the public site as a means of maintaining accountability.
At project completion, staffers(s) and client post regarding their satisfaction with work.
Staffer(s) report to administrators when payment for the work is received.
Administrators publicly deem project closed and complete at this time.

The phpBB system worked, but it wasn't as clear as it may have been. Some clients chose to use an "Agent" to negotiate their projects for them because the process (and their needs) were too complex for them to manage on their own. This ended up being a problem because the agent was rarely appropriately compensated for their work on the client's behalf.

The perfect CMS for this probably doesn't exist, but there may be better ideas than what we've got, and that's what I'm asking about. Anybody have any suggestions for applications that may work for us? We've talked about Xoops with some combination of modules, but there are concerns about the need to take a client case from module to module to module (post your request here, talk about it here, etc.). Is anybody aware of anything that might help us to get back to business without the process serving as a stumbling block, especially for net newbies who are turning to us specifically because they need simplicity?

Best Collaborative Content Management Software

billtron — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 08:25:14 -0800

I am about to create a website for a university class on collaborative ethnographies. What software would suit my needs best? Right now, ExpressionEngine and Drupal 5 are my top two choices. If I am barking up the wrong tree, please let me know. Our project requires some combination of the following:

1) some sort of blog-like space where groups can post their ethnographic reports. Inspirations include Politics of Food and How Stuff Is Made, but we are looking for a more flexible, css based layout.

2) a forum, in which students can discuss their projects and issues relevant to the class.

3) Clean, user-friendly photo, sound, and video repositories where visitors can browse the work of the students.

4) Contributory permissions for all students, to upload media, write reports, add comments to postings, etc. At this point, all student accounts and permissions can be set by an administrator. Accounts should work for all areas, including content, media repositories, and the forum. Email capability is a bonus.

2) Eventually we might expand the project to include non-students as contributors. For the administrators' sake, some sort of automated account registration would be nice, with a public permissions type that is more limited than what the students have.

How to build a family website?

mono blanco — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 03:43:45 -0800

How do I build an interactive family website? How do I build an interactive family website?

I'm just now getting up to speed on XHTML and CSS thanks to all the great suggestions in this thread (I'm almost finished with the Head First book, woo hoo!). Now I want to try my hand at building a simple family website which would (1) require a password for entry (2) allow family members to post text and images (3) allow for thread-like discussions and, perhaps (4) permit members to have their own separate pages or sections of the site.

Suggestions? So far I'm doing everything through a text editor to make sure I learn the concepts, but I'd be happy to use appropriate website software. Is this something I should be able to do with, say, WordPress or Moveable Type? Does the interactive element mean I need to learn PHP? My website host says they provide PHP and MySQL Replication, if that's any help.

Software/scripts for user profiles and coming events calendar.

winston — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 17:22:34 -0800

Looking for suggestions for pieces of web site software to manage (1) user profiles and (2) a coming events calendar. I've seen some possibilities but nothing that makes me say "Oh wow. Perfect."

1) Software/solution that allows users to create/edit a profile page (e.g. with photo, name, contact info, bio and/or resume, etc.) and allows users to search the profiles or browse by category. For members of a professional organization.

2) Software/solution that creates a coming-events calendar. There are a large number of contributors to the calendar (who should each be able to log in and add/change their own events) and a variety of categories of events. Being able to search (or at least filter by category) would be very nice.

In both cases the ideal solution would be something that (once it's properly installed and up and running) doesn't require anyone involved to know anything about cgi/perl/php/etc. to keep it going on a day-to-day basis.

What are alternative search programs for a website?

ajbattrick — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 06:00:28 -0800

I am investigating search programs for a website. Which have you installed and/or used? There are about 13000 documents to be indexed on this site, some PDF and .doc but mainly HTML. Currently the site uses htdig, but I want to investigate 'better' alternatives. It has to run on Linux.

I am aware of htdig, phpdig and swish-e, but I would like you to share your experiences of them

Blog Sitemeter

guictx — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 23:17:38 -0800

What free hit counter do you guys recommend for a blog?

Friendly online website builder?

lobstah — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 09:57:34 -0800

TechFilter : Looking for online website building software for a free webhosting community. (MI) I am considering starting a smallish, (100 or so members) free web hosting community for local artists. In the interest of full disclosure, I would hope to make this venture self sustaining through the use of ads, so it would NOT be a non-profit entity, but on the other hand,...I don't expect to make any money either. I would like to make the site user friendly, with some sort of online website builder ( like Geocities Pagebuilder, or better still, Yahoo Sitebuilder) that would allow the members to easily self-design their site within the framework of the Geocities type model. Is there any such software around that can do this without breaking the bank? I'm willing to spend $500 or so, but open source would be nicer : ). I have seen some commercial stuff, but either the price was outrageous, or the license was too restrictive as far as how many users could access it. Any ideas folks?...comments?

One-stop homepage for all my current projects?

grefo — Wed, 21 Jul 2004 11:36:25 -0800

I'm looking for an application or web page that I can use as a start page when I get to work in the morning. Ideally, it should have current projects, documenation, links, etc. What would this "something" be called and does it exist?

Does anyone here have experience with a bit of shopping cart software called MivaMerchant?

anastasiav — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 12:19:58 -0800

Does anyone here have experience with a bit of shopping cart software called MivaMerchant? I'm trying to integrate it into an existing website, but with mixed results, and I've been unable to find a quality, free support forum on the web (although I have read that they exist).

Best content management software for website management?

tranquileye — Wed, 28 Apr 2004 20:08:54 -0800

What is the best free or low-cost content management software for Web site management?

Website Mirroring Tools

namespan — Sun, 28 Mar 2004 16:27:31 -0800

Website Mirroring Tools: I usually use wget, but find that it seems to have at least one nasty flaw: it doesn't fetch stylesheets, or images named in stylesheets (it may also have other flaws I'm not aware of). Is there something better out there that I can just give a homepage URL and have it suck down an entire site?

What's the best online content management system?

jpburns — Fri, 06 Feb 2004 11:54:26 -0800

Can someone tell me what's the easiest web-based website content updating scheme out there? I'm convinced that this is the way to go for most sites, and want to read up on it.
In a related question; What's the right way to refer to this technology?

Hometown Q&A site software recommendations

pzarquon — Thu, 29 Jan 2004 16:08:13 -0800

Any recommendations for software to run a public, community knowledge base? This came up in a MeFi thread (a site called "Life Support" that supposedly answered any question), as well as in MetaTalk when Ask MetaFilter became reality, and now I'm looking for something similar. In short, I want to build a Q&A/FAQ/KB site where people can turn for advice about my hometown. [more] I know these sites exist for other cities, some better organized than others. I used to maintain a text FAQ for a local USENET newsgroup, but that became unmanagable fairly quickly. I think KB software has definitely evolved to the point where it'd be a great solution for a community resource like the one I have in mind.

Questions like: How hard is it to get a local ID? How do I ship my stuff? Any recommendations for preschools? The unorganized, scattered, uneven stuff bulletin boards, mailing lists, and USENET are choked with.

I'm looking at Lore and Knowledge Builder, which aren't free/open source, but have most of the features I'm looking for. I want the public to have access to the Q&As, and to be able to submit questions (perhaps after registering); I want to be able to have several "technical support" folks giving smart answers to the questions, but allow the public to comment on them; and ideally some way of ranking/"modding" official and public comments/answers.

Anyone know of an active sourceforge or other open source package that can do what I want?

How to easily add/modify content to a site once development is finished?

Grod — Sat, 24 Jan 2004 13:57:23 -0800

I'm building an online gallery for an artist friend of mine. It grew from a small holiday present to a major project, and I have reached the edge of my current skill set. I need a way to easily add and modify content after I am no longer developing the site. [more inside] Here's the problem.

I have a template that I just plug images into. I want a script that will let me do something like the following.

add an image, title, and description and have it appear on the first page of the gallery. To do this it needs to regenerate the old content with updated names so that what is now page1 becomes page2, page2 becomes page3, etc. It needs to use my stylesheet and only the html I give it.

I know I could use MT to do this, but my artist friend may want to sell her work online, if not through an online store than by indicating whether a painting is available and providing contact information. At that point the site is commercial. MT is great, and I'd gladly pay the licensing fee if I were planning on using all its features, but it seems like overkill for what I want to do. Any suggestions?

Why doesn't my website work properly?

einarorn — Wed, 14 Jan 2004 06:14:29 -0800

I've been having a weird problem with my website: eoe.is. It seems that when some users enter my website, some of the images don't appear, and when they click on a link on my site, the images on the linked site don't show either. People have to turn off their browser to make images appear again. I've only heard of cases with IE, WinXP. Any suggestions?