Editable website vs CMS

[cssoh]

I am not sure if this is the right forum to post my question, but here goes:

Can someone please tell me what's the difference between an editable website and a CMS? I have a few websites that I want to get up and running in the next couple of months and each has its own purpose and requirements. I am a little confused about all the options out there...

[peterjhale]

hello and welcome

I presume editable means simply hard coded - pure static HTML (for example our home page)

A CMS (content management system) generates pages from a database - like this forum

[cssoh]

Editable websites that I have come across are template based and you don't need to know HTML to edit the content and/or manage them. It does sound like a basic feature of a CMS would be a database functionality and perhaps that's what differentiates it from a custom-designed or template-based website?

[marksteadman]

I get the feeling you may be talking about the same thing, because all a CMS is is a way of editing a website. They can start off very small (like my own ActiveSite system, which is just for editing text only) or scale up to very large systems that help you create new pages, menu structures, and even track your visitors (like the new system I'm developing!)

I think when most people talk about CMS they really mean open source projects like Mambo or Joomla!, which are the current biggest hitters (mainly because they're free; they're actually pretty limited), but it can involve anything that lets you edit the content of a website.

Hope that makes sense!
-Mark

[cssoh]

Thanks Mark. Any chance of looking at the systems you spoke about?

[TWD-Tony]

(mainly because they're free; they're actually pretty limited),

Eh? If you mean that it won't make you toast then okay, Joomla is pretty limited!

All joking aside, I have been working with Mambo / Joomla for years (since the early versions) and the new Joomla is even better... I cannot think of much of the top of my head that it cannot do
The add-ons are endless and - if you can think of it then someone has created a module that just plugs into the core.

It's horses for course really - If you only require simple editing then there are systems available that are just a basic site and a HTML editor backend,

[marksteadman]

Hi cssoh. I'm afraid the new system isn't ready to be showcased. Plus (like the current system) it will only be available to my customers (ie: there isn't an installable package that you can download to run it on another server).

If you'd like to know more about the current system, ActiveSite, you can get more info at http://www.msomedia.com/services/web/cms.htm.

FYI, 95% of the content on msomedia.com is handled by a custom written CMS. The file "/services/web/cms.htm" doesn't actually exist on the system, but when you enter or click that URL, the software looks at the text ending in "msomedia.com/" and finds the appropriate content file.

If you're interested in anything like this, please feel free to get in touch!

Regards,
Mark Steadman

[marksteadman]

Originally Posted by TWD-Tony

Eh? If you mean that it won't make you toast then okay, Joomla is pretty limited!

I find with the whole Mambo crop that it's brought down by its own complexity. In order to simply add a new page, and have that page visible in the main menu, you've got to click through so many menus it's not just funny! Plus there's the fact that you can only host one site per code base - an unforgivable oversight.

I personally think people need to remember who benefits from CMS the most, and that's people with no HTML or web knowledge. The rest of us who know how to design, code and upload pages are fine to carry on using Notepad and Cute FTP or whatever your personal choice, but it's the people who don't know the industry who benefit from a friendly UI and the ability to make changes to their site in a couple of clicks.

</rant>

[cssoh]

Hi Mark...I have just given the go-ahead to custom design a CMS for my new site, to be launched mid-Jan. Your system sounds very much like what there guys are doing for me. Would you be able to PM me on an estimated cost of, say, having something like your own msomedia.com built? I do have another site that may need a CMS...

Thanks!

[marksteadman]

Bugger.

That was a mistake. Meant to PM you that message.

Sorry peeps!