Question

I recently started learning about drupal integration and because I wanted to learn how to create sites that I give to people with no html experience who want to be able to update their site. Through my research I learned that Drupal is the best supported CMS. It really does have a lot of nice features and accomplishes the job, but it almost has too many features for what I want.

I’m assuming there is some kind of open-source software for

I am an aspiring web developer trying to build my portfolio/gain experience. What I’ve been trying to do is build sites for clients that I can lose complete contact with–so when their store hours change and they have no HTML experience, I get emails about updating their site.

I figure there are three approaches: (tell me if there are more)

1. I write a php app that allows them to edit their site
2. I use a CMS (Drupal) to let them edit their site
3. I write scripts that embed text files formatted with {white-space: pre;}

I’ve so far implemented each method on 3 different sites, and they all work with drawbacks. I would prefer an open-source alternative to writing my own app for stability/security. Drupal seems more oriented towards allowing multiple users to add content, whereas I only want one user update existing content. The third option works well for computer-literate clients, but anyone who can navigate onto their server to change the file could probably figure out how to update the site without any of these approaches.

To sum up my problem, can anyone tell me the term I am looking for? Content Management System refers to the site framework for sites with a growing number of content posts (correct me if I’m wrong). What is the term for the site framework for editing sites with predefined but editable pages? If you could please tell me that, then I can at least research this question on my own. Otherwise, if you have any advice or solutions, they are much appreciated!

Thanks

Answer 1

user1470887, you’ve asked a great question. The answer, unfortunately, is that too many of the existing CMS products overlook this use case. It doesn’t have an exact name as far as I know.

The term “in-place editing” describes one version of this (user clicks text on web page, block of text becomes a form, user edits contents and presses submit button, new text is sent to webserver and saved, and the form becomes normal text again). But I gather you would be happy with anything that lets them edit-existing but not create-new.

I’m also guessing you don’t want to build your own Drupal module or commission one.

I do not know Drupal well enough to know whether there’s a Drupal module that meets your needs. I’d recommend a careful search, though, especially if you are already somewhat familiar with Drupal. (Yes, Drupal can seem like too much CMS at times.)

However … if you can’t find a Drupal solution or want an alternative to Drupal, MODX Revolution does have an answer: set it up and then install Bob Ray’s NewsPublisher add-on. It will put an “edit” button on pages which a user has the right to edit, but not on pages where they don’t have edit rights. (And of course users will only be able to edit the title, body content etc – not the entire page.)

Bob Ray has literally written the book on MODX (MODX: The Official Guide). I was able to successfully adapt NewsPublisher to a project last year similar to what you have described, with predefined pages that the user would only need to edit over time. The latest NewsPublisher version, untested by me, is said to be further improved and can now be styled much more easily using CSS. That should allow you to give your users a customised and consistent interface.

As andmag also notes, MODX is a very flexible system for web developers focused on the presentation layer. It has the best templating system going.