Common areas of sites

6 posts by 3 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: August 5, 2009   (RSS)

By aussierivers - August 1, 2009 - edited: August 1, 2009

Newbie warning

I typically use SSI includes for common areas, and often this common area will include the Address/contact details or a simple specials announcement

so i would use.e.g.
if. php file

<? include "include/address.htm" ?>
or
<? include "include/specials.htm" ?>


I have a ready built site that i just want to provide a simple CMS for the client to edit text. The site has no fancy calendars, news articles,menu building, or anything requiring multiple menu section types, just single section record type. They do only want to edit the common areas once.

Ive trawled the support documentation and just cant see the solution for the simple site.

I dont want to recreate any html code, just plug in my existing code into the system.

What are the first steps, in particular for setting out the separate pages, and common areas.?

I have something working but wondering if i approached it the wrong way. Per other thread, firstly my html code doesnt seem to quite transplant exactly the same.

help.

Re: [aussierivers] Common areas of sites

By ross - August 3, 2009

Hi there.

Thanks for posting!

There are going to be lots of ways to get this going so don't worry about that part :).

In your other thread I suggested trying to re-create the table structure using the editor itself instead of just copying in code.

An alternative to that though would be to set up CMS Builder so you are editing the fields of your table individually instead of in one big group.

So if you had 10 things in your table, you would have 10 fields in CMS Builder. That way, you are only editing one thing at a time and the HTML for your table isn't really a factor.

Does that make sense? Perhaps you could post me a copy of one common file so I can take a look at what you need.

Thanks!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cheers,
Ross Fairbairn - Consulting
consulting@interactivetools.com

Hire me! Save time by getting our experts to help with your project.
Template changes, advanced features, full integration, whatever you
need. Whether you need one hour or fifty, get it done fast with
Priority Consulting: http://www.interactivetools.com/consulting/

Re: [aussierivers] Common areas of sites

By Dave - August 3, 2009

Hi aussierivers,

A few tips:

- If your site is already setup as .php pages, you can just create a single record section (eg: About Us) and then insert the viewer code into your existing page (aboutus.php)

- Or If you're already using includes, you can create a single record viewer and include that, so replace this <? include "include/address.htm" ?> with <?php include "include/address.php" ?>

Let me know if that helps! If you need more help describe a page you are trying to update and we'll walk you through it.
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Re: [Dave] Common areas of sites

By aussierivers - August 4, 2009

Dave.

Why didnt i think of that! Must have been under pressure the other day.

Cheers

Re: [ross] Common areas of sites

By aussierivers - August 4, 2009 - edited: August 4, 2009

Understand what you are saying but im building in the CMS after the site is built, not as part of the construction of the site. There are dozens to apply it to. So copying and pasting swabs of code is the only economical way to go. And for the majority, its just single record applications.

Also in starting a brand new site, I would have the design and XHTML / CSS coding done as an exercise in itself and then only apply the CMS to the bits that are needed. Of course for news items i would be using CMS builder in the way it was intended.

Perhaps im using this in a way different to the norm but still think it should all work well.