Advanced Search and other questions
2 posts by 2 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: December 13, 2008 (RSS)
I purchased CMS Builder about 3 weeks ago and must say I am impressed with the power of the product for building and managing backends. I've been using PHPMaker for the last year or so to build backends for custom cms solutions and though you can do quite a bit with it, since its a code generator, there is more work in making design updates (though it does have the advantage of a single license fee). It is much quicker to work with CMS Builder for rapid prototyping as the immediate synchronizing of the schema to the interface really saves time. I have been able to build a frontend cms framework library of wrapper functions in a very short period of time because of the strength of the backend and viewer function. This includes; integrating a css dropdown menu, a lightbox type of photo gallery, categorized searchable events list, dhtml slideshow, menu category treeview and a flash video player.
Now a couple of questions on the current CMS Builder limitations.
#1) Is there anything coming for CMS Builder to provide advanced search abilities? I have sections with dropdowns to categorize content; for example - news items or a photo gallery. To make life easier for the person editing content it would make sense to give them the search ability to have a dropdown list of the categories so they could select a category to filter the rows on. Same thing holds for dates. We need to be able to search for a range of dates.
Also on the issues of dates. I much prefer the ability to use a popup calendar to enter dates then 3 dropdown lists. Would like to see this become an option for date fields.
#2) Is there any way to have additional indexes for the tables? Seems like num is the only index we can have. I like to create indexes to optimize queries where appropriate; for example - on the news category mentioned above; or dates if querying on them.
#3) One more question. Has there been any thought to a developer license? My goal is to build a framework that allows me to quickly wrap a custom design around it to provide a simple cms with standard features that I can market to clients in my area. Most of them are small businesses that have very limited budgets and my target will require a low price point.
Now a couple of questions on the current CMS Builder limitations.
#1) Is there anything coming for CMS Builder to provide advanced search abilities? I have sections with dropdowns to categorize content; for example - news items or a photo gallery. To make life easier for the person editing content it would make sense to give them the search ability to have a dropdown list of the categories so they could select a category to filter the rows on. Same thing holds for dates. We need to be able to search for a range of dates.
Also on the issues of dates. I much prefer the ability to use a popup calendar to enter dates then 3 dropdown lists. Would like to see this become an option for date fields.
#2) Is there any way to have additional indexes for the tables? Seems like num is the only index we can have. I like to create indexes to optimize queries where appropriate; for example - on the news category mentioned above; or dates if querying on them.
#3) One more question. Has there been any thought to a developer license? My goal is to build a framework that allows me to quickly wrap a custom design around it to provide a simple cms with standard features that I can market to clients in my area. Most of them are small businesses that have very limited budgets and my target will require a low price point.
Re: [jsantari] Advanced Search and other questions
By Dave - December 13, 2008
Hi jsantari, welcome to the CMS Builder forum!
Thanks for your feedback and suggestions:
>#1) Is there anything coming for CMS Builder to
>provide advanced search abilities?
Nothing is immediately planned but this is something that is on our radar. We have some advanced searching like this in our other products and we'd like to bring it to CMS Builder in a way that would allow you to customize what advanced search options are available for each section. So, not yet, but planned for the future. No ETA, though.
>Also on the issues of dates. I much prefer the ability to use a popup
>calendar to enter dates then 3 dropdown lists
Also for the future, we're planning to abstract the fields into libraries in /lib/fields/ or something like that so it's easier (or possible) to add custom field types with their own unique user interface.
>#2) Is there any way to have additional indexes for the tables?
For custom jobs we currently just do this manually through mysql (with MySQL Query Browser, phpMyAdmin, etc). You can also set custom column types in the schema files with "customColumnType". See /data/schema/uploads.ini.php for examples. Eventually we may add something to the database editor to allow creation and management of column indexes. The challenge is keeping it really simple for people who don't know MySQL without being cumbersome for those who do.
>#3) One more question. Has there been any thought to a developer license?
We actually lowered our price from what it was previously and don't have developer or unlimited licenses. For what you've described, though, I've seen a number of developers charge a setup fee and then a monthly fee for CMS access and hosting. Which can actually bring the initial costs down quite low while providing ongoing revenue over the long term.
Also, if you haven't already done so, hae a look at our free CMS marketing material here: http://www.interactivetools.com/products/cmsbuilder/marketingcopy.html
Hope that helps, thanks for the suggestions! :)
Thanks for your feedback and suggestions:
>#1) Is there anything coming for CMS Builder to
>provide advanced search abilities?
Nothing is immediately planned but this is something that is on our radar. We have some advanced searching like this in our other products and we'd like to bring it to CMS Builder in a way that would allow you to customize what advanced search options are available for each section. So, not yet, but planned for the future. No ETA, though.
>Also on the issues of dates. I much prefer the ability to use a popup
>calendar to enter dates then 3 dropdown lists
Also for the future, we're planning to abstract the fields into libraries in /lib/fields/ or something like that so it's easier (or possible) to add custom field types with their own unique user interface.
>#2) Is there any way to have additional indexes for the tables?
For custom jobs we currently just do this manually through mysql (with MySQL Query Browser, phpMyAdmin, etc). You can also set custom column types in the schema files with "customColumnType". See /data/schema/uploads.ini.php for examples. Eventually we may add something to the database editor to allow creation and management of column indexes. The challenge is keeping it really simple for people who don't know MySQL without being cumbersome for those who do.
>#3) One more question. Has there been any thought to a developer license?
We actually lowered our price from what it was previously and don't have developer or unlimited licenses. For what you've described, though, I've seen a number of developers charge a setup fee and then a monthly fee for CMS access and hosting. Which can actually bring the initial costs down quite low while providing ongoing revenue over the long term.
Also, if you haven't already done so, hae a look at our free CMS marketing material here: http://www.interactivetools.com/products/cmsbuilder/marketingcopy.html
Hope that helps, thanks for the suggestions! :)
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com
interactivetools.com