Building CMS with Existing Website

6 posts by 4 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: December 5, 2008   (RSS)

By merid - June 19, 2008

Hi,

We just bought CMS builder last June12. I am really at a tight schedule but I could not find a short-cut method of learning how to build CMS with an existing web site.

The site I am working at is http://www.05.meridianwebdesign.com .

Do you have any recommendations? I could not find any documentations to guide me step-by-step on how to create one. How do you create the template for an existing site like the above? Can you build a template (like left navigation menus) within another template? How do you create links?

Many thanks for the help. [:)]

RollyM

Re: [merid] Building CMS with Existing Website

By Dave - June 19, 2008

Hi Rolly,

Start by just creating a test section for news. Create a list page and a detail page a get them linking together. That will give you an idea of how the system works.

Next, having a look at the site you linked to there's a few ways to do it. Probably the simplest if you're just getting started would be to create a section for each: About Us, Services, etc.

Start with About Us. Create a multi record section called "About Us" with fields for: title and content.

Copy each of the existing pages from "About Us" on the website and create a new record for them. Then create a list viewer that displays "all" the records and save that as "about-us.php". Don't worry about adding the design. First have it list all the page titles on the left side for menu links. Then create a detail page viewer and add that code on the right to display the selected page.

Once that's all setup, you just copy your existing design over.

That's a quick overview. Let me know how far you get stuck or need help along the way. Once you create the About Us section you'll be able to do the same thing to create the other sections.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions or if you need more details.
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Re: [Dave] Building CMS with Existing Website

By chassa2556 - June 20, 2008

Hi Rolly/Dave

Can I jump in on this we build bespoke sites in Dreamweaver and would like to build a site to our preferred design and then add the CMS element. Is there a way of doing this without having to undo the design to do it up again? 

We've just built this site - I must say with a lot of help from IT. In the end I got fairly lost with CMSB I have to say.

http://www.straloch.com/newsite//

I would love it if you guys could come up with a step by step tutorial on the most time efficient way to use CMSB to do this from an industry standard piece of software like Dreamweaver.

Re: [chassa2556] Building CMS with Existing Website

By Dave - June 21, 2008

Hi chassa2556,

Yes, basically what you can do is just make a copy of your existing page with a .php extension and then copy and paste the blocks of code created by the generator (step1, step2, etc) where you want them displayed in your page.

Once you've done it a few times it starts to get really quick.

But yes, we do lpan to add better documentation on it. In the meantime, feel free to post any questions here in the forum.

Hope that helps! :)
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Re: [merid] Building CMS with Existing Website

By andeson2304 - December 4, 2008

Hi,
This is Andrew. Same problem occurring to me also. I am also in such a position. If you got any help please forward same thing I will do If I got reply. Thank you.
_______
Andrew

http://www.widecircles.com

Re: [andeson2304] Building CMS with Existing Website

By Dave - December 5, 2008

Hi Andrew,

The best way to start learning is by just doing one section. Do you have an url to the site you are working on?
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com