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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Cheltenham, United Kingdom
    Posts
    43

    Post Editable pages for the 'End User'.....

    Hello again,

    I have been asked to produce a website that contains some pages that may need small changes at a later date. The end user wants to be able to access these particular pages, then save the changes etc, perhaps with a username and password.

    I am a designer more than a coding expert which has left me being unable to answer the question.

    I hope i have explained clear enough.

    Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

    Many thanks

    Nick.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Andover, Massachusetts, USA, Earth, Milky Way, Universe
    Posts
    427

    Default Re: Editable pages for the 'End User'.....

    Couldn't they buy a copy of XWD and update the site as they wanted?

    If they use the Registry utility Available to us, it would make a backup copy every time they saved and prevent them from losing anything.

    They could also email a copy to you or anyone else if they were worried about losing it.

    It sounds easy to me to have them spend $50 and make all the changes they want.

    Otherwise, they could only update the specific pages individually. Name them properly and upload each one at a time.
    -h
    ===============
    (a.k.a.) Bobby Harris

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    2,439

    Default Re: Editable pages for the 'End User'.....

    What you're searching for is a Content Management System (CMS) or the little brother, a Weblog system (with different users, password protected, the concept of separation the design and the content of a website).

    see our threads about Content Management Systems and Blog systems

    Regards,
    Remi

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Cheltenham, United Kingdom
    Posts
    43

    Default Re: Editable pages for the 'End User'.....

    Thank you for that Guys.

    I had a feeling it might have to be CMS or similar, though i am not sure that giving the customer the key to the door so to speak is the best idea? I guess if they did have a copy of XWD, i would have to stipulate to them that if they mess up what i have designed for them, on their heads be it....

    I have offered them the option of paying a small monthly fee, and i would do the updates for them which they seem ok with, but keep mentioning that
    "in an emergency!" how can they access the pages.

    i have mentioned that they could in fact use Dremweaver or Expression Web or similar to import the relevant .htm page and make subtle changes that way to text perhaps, then save and use an FTP program to upload to web server.

    Ultimately of course i would like them to use me for all updates.

    I will have a look at some of the suggested cms options.

    Many thanks, you guys do a great job on here, especialy for those of us who are more designers than coders.

    Kind regards

    Nick.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Canton, GA
    Posts
    666

    Default Re: Editable pages for the 'End User'.....

    I made a simple little "pseudo-blog" thing with the tips I've found on here.

    Essentially, I created a fairly large box as a background, then placed another box a little smaller on top of it, giving it a placeholder scrollable div. with sample content written as straight html, with limited options used.

    Then, I created a small bit of site matching css (three tags: h1, h2, and p) and stuck that in a placeholder with the name <head> to get it in the heading code.

    When I export this code, that page looks like this:
    The <head> css
    Code:
    <style type="text/css">
    
    h1 {
    	font-family: Verdana;
    	font-size: large;
    	font-weight: bold;
    	color: #132c5a;
    }
    h2 {
    	font-family: Verdana;
    	font-size: medium;
    	font-weight: bold;
    	color: #616161;
    }
    p {
    	font-family: Verdana;
    	font-size: small;
    	font-weight: normal;
    	color: #000000;
                    padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px;
    }
    </style>
    The HTML
    Code:
    <script type="text/javascript">var xr_xr=document.getElementById("xr_xr")</script>
     <img class="xr_ap" src="index_htm_files/0.png" alt="" style="left: -1px; top: 28px; width: 955px; height: 671px;"/>
     <img class="xr_ap" src="index_htm_files/1.png" alt="" style="left: 250px; top: 208px; width: 657px; height: 486px;"/>
     <div class="xr_ap" style="left: 270px; top: 227px; width: 635px; height: 447px;"><div style="overflow: scroll; overflow-x: hidden; height: 100%; width: 100%">
    <!-- This is the Area you want to update
    
         h1: Title of Article
         h2: date and author
         p: paragraph text
    -->
    <h1>Technology in a Nutshell</h1>
    <h2>March 23, 2009 - Scott Lavelle</h2>
    <p>To be fair, one has to look at technology as if it were a universe unto itself.  There are so many variations of things that can affect any configuration that it is impossible to begin to imagine the length of time it would take to develop a program or Operating System that works with every one of those combinations.  They are certainly in the billions.</p>
    .
    . more data in here
    .
    are slim, let alone the odds that they were tested in combination with the other obscure items you've chosen for the system</p>
    <!--
    DO NOT UPDATE PAST THIS POINT
    --></div>
    
     </div>
     <img class="xr_ap" src="index_htm_files/3.png" alt="" style="left: 272px; top: 179px; width: 342px; height: 35px;"/>
    You can see that the middle section is very easily editable and will live within the confines of the placeholder box with a scroll bar as necessary. Done right, it look ok.

    The above code produced this result: www.technicalrs.com/testing123

    So, this allows the end-user to edit without having to know much about the code, allows for as much content as they want to put in without breaking the design, and keeps it simple so that there are no databases, wordpresses, joomlas, or whatever needed.

    Obviously, this is a very simple example. I've expanded slightly on it where I created a MySQL database that has a number of fields for title, date, paragraph1, paragraph2, etc. Then the html like the above has a bit of php in it to read the fields into the respective html tags. It's pretty straightforward. Then, I cheated a bit and used the coffee cup form creator and had it save the entered data to a mysql table and put that in an XWD placeholder branded to look like the site - could have done this from scratch, but why? It took a little screwing around, but in the end it is similar to the above except that the user needs to know even less about code, since they can just use the site's form to update the page - like a CMS does, but WAY simpler.

    This has been proof of concept for me so far, but I know I will be adding it to some upcoming pages for "real".

    Hope this helps.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Editable pages for the 'End User'.....

    The Nikster,

    I seen your post and think you might be interested in this for your question.

    FlySpeck

    With this program, the end user can edit parts of the web page that you choose.

    Hope this helps..

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Hollywood Florida
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Editable pages for the 'End User'.....

    I just don't get it ! My assumption is that 1 you are using
    XARA WEB designer But it seems no matter what I do I am not
    able to include the ref library to this using placeholders for
    html I am very new to WD gone through many tutorials
    and can not figure how to put the html in place

    thanks

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Harwich, Essex, England
    Posts
    21,895

    Default Re: Editable pages for the 'End User'.....

    Hello & welcome eek. Perhaps you need to pause for breath

    Could you possible word your question in more detail?
    Egg

    Intel i7 - 4790K Quad Core + 16 GB Ram + NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1660 Graphics Card + MSI Optix Mag321 Curv monitor
    + Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB SSD + 232 GB SSD + 250 GB SSD portable drive + ISP = BT + Web Hosting = TSO Host

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    4,501

    Default Re: Editable pages for the 'End User'.....

    Quote Originally Posted by The Nikster View Post
    Hello again,

    I have been asked to produce a website that contains some pages that may need small changes at a later date. The end user wants to be able to access these particular pages, then save the changes etc, perhaps with a username and password.

    I am a designer more than a coding expert which has left me being unable to answer the question.
    Check out this LINK from Xara Online. The simple version is even free.

 

 

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