Adding pages within CMS Builder

4 posts by 3 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: October 9, 2008 (RSS)

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By Vaisoco - October 8, 2008

I applaud the way CMS Builder gives us the flexibility to create pages so easily. The only question I keep getting asked by clients is :-

"Can I add a new page myself and update my website menu accordingly using a simple point and click operation?".

This is a standard feature of all CMS facilities except CMS Builder. I fully understand that CMS Builder does not work in that way. The problem is that the client cannot change the menu or add pages himself - he has to come back to us each time. It is a limiting factor for many clients.

I have no doubt that we can get CMS Builder to manage a menu but I dont know how we can allow the client to add pages as we would first need to define a template for the necessary CMS Builder code to attach to.

Can you advise how I can deal with this.
I hope I am making sense.

Re: [Vaisoco] Adding pages within CMS Builder

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By Kenny - October 8, 2008 - edited: October 8, 2008

We (at Sagentic) get asked the same question all the time. The thing I want to say the most to them is that if they could make the pages themselves they wouldn't need us - that takes money out of my pocket and would cause me to lay off 8 people. But, normally I smile and explain to them that they have their expertise (their business) and we have ours (web design).

The thing I appreciate the most about this software is the flexibility it gives me to design websites the way I want to, with my standards - but, not everyone can do it. I think you would wind up with something similar to Website Tonight by GoDaddy - cheesy and limited.

I know this doesn't quite answer your question, but I just wanted to give a different perspective. We go to great lengths to make CMS Builder control as close to 100% of the website as possible, but I'm not sure if I would want them to be able to do everything.

Kenny

Re: [sagentic] Adding pages within CMS Builder

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By Vaisoco - October 9, 2008

Kenny - I totally understand your viewpoint and appreciate that the lack of ability to allow clients to create pages suits your business model well.
We are undoubtedly somewhat naive but we dont want to have requests for new page creation etc.
Our USP is that we create high level design and enable control of more complex functionality using CMS Builder. Despite all this clients continue to ask how they add and remove pages themselves. It seems to be a fundamental expectation for many and one that has just lost us a significant piece of work.

Guys - can you comment on this.
Sincere thanks

Re: [Vaisoco] Adding pages within CMS Builder

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By Dave - October 9, 2008

Hi Geoff,

Do you have a sample url of the type of site you want to be able to automatically create with CMS Builder?

You're always going to be limited to a set number of designs or options that you setup for the client in advance, but there are a number of things you can do.

Menus can be dynamically generated from all the titles in a section. Your design needs to accommodate this though by using non-image menu buttons, so either text or with something like sIFR.

For page design you could have a number of layouts and have a pulldown that let the user select the layout type, and then display different page structures based on the layout selected.

Let me know if there's something more specific you're trying to do or if you have a sample url I can take a look at.

Hope that helps!

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com