Dynamic website, cms and e-commerce shopping cart (wip)

[xtom]

This is a nearly finished preview of a site revamp that I'm working on for a client. I'm using DP6 to do all the presentation, graphics, menus etc. and a cms to handle most of the content/shopping cart/forms etc.

http://www.mgswebdesign.ie/sitepreview/rosannacrothers/

[mikehihn]

VERY nice. I'm marketing guy not a graphics guy, so perhaps I better appreciate how well you convey the "mood" of your client's business.

One clarification please, you seem to imply that you use Xara for the content, layout or whatever. I've done a few custom WordPresses where I did the page design in Xara and pasted it into the WP theme. I've been afraid to recommend that to my do-it-yourself clients with so little personal experience. If I read you right on this gorgeous site, my concerns are solved.

[xtom]

Thanks, I'm not sure the best way to integrate with wordpress but what's basically happening here is...

1. Site is published from Xara to a templates folder in the cms
2. The cms automatically makes changes to the code on these pages, adding some dynamic code and updates script/img links from relative to absolute so the template pages can be used from any url on the site
3. When creating a page or category in the cms you can then select one of these template pages to display the content for that particular page

[champ]

Thanks, I'm not sure the best way to integrate with wordpress but what's basically happening here is...

1. Site is published from Xara to a templates folder in the cms
2. The cms automatically makes changes to the code on these pages, adding some dynamic code and updates script/img links from relative to absolute so the template pages can be used from any url on the site
3. When creating a page or category in the cms you can then select one of these template pages to display the content for that particular page

If I'm hearing right it sounds like you can import xara html files into wordpress. How would I go about importing it and would the cms system through word press be able to update pages?

[xtom]

Sorry that wasn't for wordpress, it's my own cms that I've been working on. I don't know of a way to simply import Xara html files into Wordpress, making an importer might be doable but you'd need to be familiar with developing/modding for Wordpress.

[DigitalJeweler]

Fantastic, I really like the clean layout and uncluttered look. Also, the Shopping cart was nicely laid out, intuitive! I'm working on new site now and would like to learn about setting it up like yours. Very nice work. Mark

[Riftvalley]

Hi xtom,

A very nice site I think that the colour choices match the product brilliantly. May I ask which cms you used?

M

[xtom]

Thanks guys, still waiting on client to put it live.

The cms I'm using is one that I've developed myself from scratch. I'm working on making it available so other Xara users might use it too but it's not quite ready for release, hopefully soon though so stay tuned. I'm putting together a Xara+CMS demo site here

[covoxer]

Looks great.
I see you are using dynamic page tweak with your CMS. Do you have any wishes or suggestions about this tweak?

[xtom]

Thanks John, no wishes or suggestions for the tweak at the moment.