New to CMS Builder, and have questions
2 posts by 2 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: August 21, 2008 (RSS)
By fbords - August 21, 2008 - edited: August 21, 2008
I just purchase a copy of CMS Builder to use on our company intranet and have a few questions.
It's definately not what I was expecting. I envisioned the typical CMS type of engine. I setup a database to play around with, and see if I could figure it out, but I'm a little stuck. It appears that this software will allow you to create menus and sections, populate them with content, then I need to copy that content into a PHP template I made, correct?
Are there no options to update a live page from the admin section in realtime? Basically, what I'm looking to do, is have a webspace where I can login as an admin or editor, click the page I want to edit or even create, populate it with content and hit save. Then it's immediately available to the viewer. Am I missing something or were my expectations completely off?
It's definately not what I was expecting. I envisioned the typical CMS type of engine. I setup a database to play around with, and see if I could figure it out, but I'm a little stuck. It appears that this software will allow you to create menus and sections, populate them with content, then I need to copy that content into a PHP template I made, correct?
Are there no options to update a live page from the admin section in realtime? Basically, what I'm looking to do, is have a webspace where I can login as an admin or editor, click the page I want to edit or even create, populate it with content and hit save. Then it's immediately available to the viewer. Am I missing something or were my expectations completely off?
Re: [fbords] New to CMS Builder, and have questions
By InHouse - August 21, 2008
Hi fbords,
Welcome aboard. Your description of CMSB is almost right. However, the part that you copy into your HTML/PHP pages is created for you in the Content Generator. Once you paste this code into your selected page(s) then things will behave as you expected. You will have a backend where you can edit articles, pages, or other types of content and press "Save". As soon as you save the info, it does go live to the site.
The generated code is small and easy to understand. In practice you will probably want to wrap it with styles or other formatting to make it look the way you want.
This is different from framework-based CMS like Mambo/Joomla!, Drupal, and others in that you have the freedom to control the layout and design in a very traditional manner with your chosen tools. I like to think of it as 'atomic level' control where I can pick a single piece of information from the database and put it anywhere at any time. No more 'black box' modules where you have almost no control over what is displayed or where.
As a bonus, CMSB does a very good job of managing your database for you by automatically creating and editing the data tables themselves. Not enough credit is given to this ability - one day I'll write a story about how it made me look like a hero to one major client. ;-)
Give it a try, you may find yourself frustrated by the lack of control that you have in other CMS tools once you wrap your head around this one.
J.
PS: I'm not an Interactive Tools employee, just a fan.
Welcome aboard. Your description of CMSB is almost right. However, the part that you copy into your HTML/PHP pages is created for you in the Content Generator. Once you paste this code into your selected page(s) then things will behave as you expected. You will have a backend where you can edit articles, pages, or other types of content and press "Save". As soon as you save the info, it does go live to the site.
The generated code is small and easy to understand. In practice you will probably want to wrap it with styles or other formatting to make it look the way you want.
This is different from framework-based CMS like Mambo/Joomla!, Drupal, and others in that you have the freedom to control the layout and design in a very traditional manner with your chosen tools. I like to think of it as 'atomic level' control where I can pick a single piece of information from the database and put it anywhere at any time. No more 'black box' modules where you have almost no control over what is displayed or where.
As a bonus, CMSB does a very good job of managing your database for you by automatically creating and editing the data tables themselves. Not enough credit is given to this ability - one day I'll write a story about how it made me look like a hero to one major client. ;-)
Give it a try, you may find yourself frustrated by the lack of control that you have in other CMS tools once you wrap your head around this one.
J.
PS: I'm not an Interactive Tools employee, just a fan.