Hi all,

I'm looking for advice on the better way(s) for me to start a new website. I used to administer a site using an older version of Dreamweaver. That site was built by a local design firm and supplied to me as templates. It was basically a bunch of static pages built using circa-2000 design practices (a mix of tables and CSS, VBScript navigation, a few small Javascript calls for things like email obfuscation and form validation). I was comfortable managing the site, but it was quite burdensome as the content was integral to the layout, so changes and updates were done using the copy-change-publish routine. Navigation changes also required me to directly modify VBScript files, which I could do, but it also contributed to inefficiency.

I'd like to use a better mechanism for my new site(s). I am not a designer, so I really need a solution that I can buy a "template" for and then add/remove/move/change pages from some kind of admin "backend". I've looked into "CMS" solutions such as Drupal, Joomla!, SilverStripe, MODx, and Concrete. I like the concept, but I've found the administration interfaces and proprietary terminology to be cumbersome at best and an obstacle at worst. Maybe I just haven't given them a chance.

As a past user of Dreamweaver, I'm attracted to staying with my "roots" but I'm not sure if Dreamweaver will provide me with the ability to run a site as more of a content editor. That will be my role in the short term, with future branches [maybe] into working with the site design and layout, creating graphics, etc.

Considering the above, what advice would any of you offer? Would you recommend a different forum to present my question to?

Thanks,

Chris

Hi Chris,
here's my 10c worth !

You are asking a really good, relevant question that more people ought to ask before wading in and building a site <img src=../images/dmxzone/forum/icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>

I used to do all my sites with DW, BUT . . . the maintenance load is too much. As a freebie I have done several church sites and the updates can become a real problem. I evaluated CMS like you, my first encounter was about 2 years ago, when I decided that none of the frontrunners was up to the task that I needed to do. Then about 9 months ago I was taking on a new church site and had another look at Joomla. The progress that had been made was remarkable. So I persevered and installed version 1.5 - I also bought a couple of commercial templates

As far as these free jobs go, what I am looking for is a CMS that does the job, looks good and lets someone else do the updates. I too found Drupal too complex. In general the documentation with the open source cms lags a long way behind the product. That goes for Joomla too, that's why I set up www.newtojoomla.com so that I could document some of my experiences and point the way forward.

Getting to grips with Joomla is not easy, but once it's in place with a good template you can add new pages, new menus, re-arrange stuff etc so easily. You can buy a commercial template for about US $40 that looks good and works well, or you can modify the standard template, I've done both.

Have a look at www.listentothepeople.co.uk that's my weblog where I rant and rave on a daily basis, it uses the stardard Joomla BEEZ template but modified using the override mechanism, which is very sophisticated, and try www.carrigrohaneunionofparishes.ie for a site that uses a commercial template, or www.mckernanchurch.ca/index.php that one is currently being converted from static hrml to Joomla, so it's not got all the content yet, and in some cases you will link back to the old static site.

BTW the calendar you see is a commercial one <img src=../images/dmxzone/forum/icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>

One thing I should mention - Joomla uses an editor to build articles (pages) and you can change that for a different editor if you like, when you set it up it's not fully WYSIWYG but with patience you can put in a sytlesheet that makes it WYSIWYG.

The best thing I can suggest is that you take a spare domain name, put a Joomla 1.5 standard installation on it and try it out. It does take some getting used to, but I've got non-computer people who are using the admin back-end to build and update sites that are needing almost no work from me <img src=../images/dmxzone/forum/icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

Edited by - sitemaster on 20 Nov 2008 10:58:18

Is good that you build your own website and administrate it with frontpage.

In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with Joomla or Dreamweaver.

The one thing I've found over the years is once you build a site your clients, they typically want to be able to update their site themselves because they DON'T WANT TO PAY YOU to do it.

The problem with that it is, they typically screw it up. Good for you right? No. Once they screw it up, they are embarrassed that they didn't back up the site first place and won't admit they screwed it up and will seek someone else to fix it.

So, I will now start building in the cost of Adobe Contribute into my quotes, at least as an option, that allows them to update the content WITHOUT screwing it up.

Hi there!
I also looked for some advice for me to start a new website and now I got more knowledge from this thread.