Allowing website "owner" to update content

[mdfoster]

Hi folks! I am not new to web design, but what I've done has been very basic html, nothing fancy. I usually am in charge of updating the content on our company's website, so I would just edit the .htm page with the new info.

I've been asked to help a local non-profit with a new website, and would like to know how I could design this so they were responsible for their own content management. Their website is hosted right now by a local ISP. I can only think of setting up a MySql database and programming it all in PHP, letting them update text in a flat file that gets drawn out by the scripting, but that seems like a whole lot of work - plus, I don't know if their web host allows for database and php scripting. I know they don't have a CMS.

The only other thing I can think of is to give them an ftp program, show them how to change the text in an .htm page, and let them upload it when they make new changes.

What options do you think I have? Thanks much in advance!

Mike

[StarLab]

The first thing to consider is how computer savvy your client is. Will they be able to grasp your tutoring? If so, then teaching them how to update their site with HTML and FTP would be plausible.

Failing that, I would determine what the ISP offers in regard to hosting. (PHP, MySQL, etc) If they don't support what you need, then it's time to move the hosting.

Then, before knocking yourself writing a PHP, MySQL application, perhaps look into a pre-written CMS package such as Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal, etc. There are many options for you there.

Being a non-profit organization, I doubt they would be willing to fund the development of a custom written CMS for their site. Perhaps they will, but I kind of doubt it.

A free open source solution might be the way to go.

HTH

[Radnor]

I've done this with a PHP script. If you do not want to use PHP, how about an "#INCLUDE"????

Linkie

Allow them to add to the info the link add to the page. Could be the ENTIRE body section. If you are using DW, between the EditRegions

[digitaloverlay]

You may want to look into a content management system (CMS) that can be loaded onto their server. I am not sure of your skill set but it uses PHP, CSS and MySQL (or other database) and is very easy to manipulate for the user once set up. Of course it can be complicated as well so do your homework and find a nice easy one for them. Here are a couple links to get you started and the good thing is that they are open source applications.

http://www.mamboserver.com/
http://www.joomla.org/
http://drupal.org/

Take care.

[dotservant.com]

If the requirements are basic content site with multiple authors, I would also recommend an open source CMS program like Drupal to speed up the project development cycle instead of recoding the user management interface, the back end content moderation logic etc. from scratch.

[kushty]

I have done this before for some of my clients and I have advised them to use Nvu as it is simple to use. I just tell them to only change the content, anything major I would do it.