Hi, I just started as a webmaster for a person who wants to be able to
edit her webpages from a browser window. She had this capability with
her old site, which was written in JSP, but her new site is pure html.
How it worked with her old site was she went to a specific directory
known on her site and a p***word protected JSP page opened. This page
allowed her to change portions of any page on her site. The tool took
advantage of the fact that every page on the site was written with JSP.
Now she wants a similar tool built for the HTML pages. I'm uncertain
how to proceed. I've considered using Javascript, but I don't know how
I would do that without having some editing capability on every page,
and this opens the site up to the risk of allowing any visitor to edit
the pages. Does anyone know of a method of doing this or even an
existing tool that might allow her to do this? She doesn't want to
learn html or any wysiwyg editor like Dreamweaver. She just wants
something simple so that she doesn't have to deal with technology. Any
suggestions on how I should proceed?

Thanks,
Josh

On 17 Dec 2006 10:53:45 -0800, EMAIL REMOVED put finger to
keyboard and typed:

>Hi, I just started as a webmaster for a person who wants to be able to
>edit her webpages from a browser window. She had this capability with
>her old site, which was written in JSP, but her new site is pure html.
>How it worked with her old site was she went to a specific directory
>known on her site and a p***word protected JSP page opened. This page
>allowed her to change portions of any page on her site. The tool took
>advantage of the fact that every page on the site was written with JSP.
>Now she wants a similar tool built for the HTML pages. I'm uncertain
>how to proceed. I've considered using Javascript, but I don't know how
>I would do that without having some editing capability on every page,
>and this opens the site up to the risk of allowing any visitor to edit
>the pages. Does anyone know of a method of doing this or even an
>existing tool that might allow her to do this? She doesn't want to
>learn html or any wysiwyg editor like Dreamweaver. She just wants
>something simple so that she doesn't have to deal with technology. Any
>suggestions on how I should proceed?

You need a Content Management System, aka CMS. There are plenty of
them around, but they all require the use of server-side scripting
(such as PHP, or JSP as used by your client's previous site). There's
no way to edit static HTML online without some form of scripting.

My guess is that your client's previous site was using the built-in
editor provided by their own CMS - that's a fairly common setup for
services aimed at beginners and people who don't have the time to
learn HTML properly. If she's since moved to a new host, then if they
don't offer an online editor then setting up a dedicated CMS is the
only reasonable alternative to learning how to edit offline.

Mark
--
Visit: http://names.orangehedgehog.com - British surname distribution profiles
"Wherever life may take me, I know that it won't break me"

yeah a content management system is alot cheaper than hiring a
programmer.
you can also add your template to most content management systems to
keep your layout.



Mark Goodge wrote:
> On 17 Dec 2006 10:53:45 -0800, EMAIL REMOVED put finger to
> keyboard and typed:
>
> >Hi, I just started as a webmaster for a person who wants to be able to
> >edit her webpages from a browser window. She had this capability with
> >her old site, which was written in JSP, but her new site is pure html.
> >How it worked with her old site was she went to a specific directory
> >known on her site and a p***word protected JSP page opened. This page
> >allowed her to change portions of any page on her site. The tool took
> >advantage of the fact that every page on the site was written with JSP.
> >Now she wants a similar tool built for the HTML pages. I'm uncertain
> >how to proceed. I've considered using Javascript, but I don't know how
> >I would do that without having some editing capability on every page,
> >and this opens the site up to the risk of allowing any visitor to edit
> >the pages. Does anyone know of a method of doing this or even an
> >existing tool that might allow her to do this? She doesn't want to
> >learn html or any wysiwyg editor like Dreamweaver. She just wants
> >something simple so that she doesn't have to deal with technology. Any
> >suggestions on how I should proceed?
>
> You need a Content Management System, aka CMS. There are plenty of
> them around, but they all require the use of server-side scripting
> (such as PHP, or JSP as used by your client's previous site). There's
> no way to edit static HTML online without some form of scripting.
>
> My guess is that your client's previous site was using the built-in
> editor provided by their own CMS - that's a fairly common setup for
> services aimed at beginners and people who don't have the time to
> learn HTML properly. If she's since moved to a new host, then if they
> don't offer an online editor then setting up a dedicated CMS is the
> only reasonable alternative to learning how to edit offline.
>
> Mark
> --
> Visit: http://names.orangehedgehog.com - British surname distribution profiles
> "Wherever life may take me, I know that it won't break me"

Do either of you have any idea of a decent CMS that offers simple
editing capabilities? That's really all my boss needs is to be able to
edit the text on the web pages. Having the ability to add new pages
from a template might be nice as well, but that's totally secondary.

Thanks for your help.
Josh

On 18 Dec 2006 13:02:51 -0800, EMAIL REMOVED wrote:

>Do either of you have any idea of a decent CMS that offers simple
>editing capabilities? That's really all my boss needs is to be able to
>edit the text on the web pages. Having the ability to add new pages
>from a template might be nice as well, but that's totally secondary.
>
>Thanks for your help.
>Josh

Josh:

I asked a similar question several days ago in conjunction with a
client that wants to have one of his employees "do it himself," not
because I am charging them much for maintaining the site I built, but
because they just want to be able to do it rather than call or email
me.

The responses I got here caused me to look into what kinds of programs
are available out there. I found you can spend between $0 and $1,000
or more to get a CMS system. Here is a pretty cheap one that I haven't
tried, for example:

http://www.perlscriptsjavascripts.co...ter/index.html

There are many others. Most require to install them on your server as
CGI scripts and/or databases and the like.

The "client" has asked me to teach his employee how I update the site.
I use Dreamweaver to do so, and have no idea how much of my free time
time that is going to take. Next time I do this, I am going to have a
contract.

free easy and basic would be http://www.cmsmadesimple.org/ - i have not
tried it for ages mind you..
my recommendation would be mambo - it makes you want to get up and
dance on a table, it has lots of features however it takes some time to
install/customise if your new with CMS.
the link is http://www.mamboserver.com/

your welcome


EMAIL REMOVED wrote:
> Do either of you have any idea of a decent CMS that offers simple
> editing capabilities? That's really all my boss needs is to be able to
> edit the text on the web pages. Having the ability to add new pages
> from a template might be nice as well, but that's totally secondary.
>
> Thanks for your help.
> Josh