CMSMS | CMS Made Simple

We’ve released 1.0.5. It’s basically a security release for FCKeditorX with a few bugfixes. I would suggest upgrading when you get a chance.

Here is the changelog…

Version 1.0.5 "Molokai" -- Mar 26 2007
-----------------
- Fixes to Global Settings
- Fixes to Delete Stylesheet Association
- Spaces are no longer allowed in UDT names
- $gCms is now given to smarty by default
- Added ability to test the file creation mask in Global settings
- Added page alias on mouseover when in listcontent.
- Added safe_mode check into the admin section
- Modified listmodules to display a message when safe mode is enabled
  and installing files via XML could be a problem.
- Appropriate modifications to ModuleManager and ThemeManager for
  safe mode.

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All good developers using the CMSMS know how flexible it is and easy it is to develop a good website with solid design and good functionality. One caveat of the dilligent work we put into making websites is that 9 times out of 10 the client wants to take a stab at making the changes themselves. This is a major selling point for people, many of then used to phoning up a web company, only to request a few changes, wait forever for the work to be done to the right standard, meanwhile their own deadlines are shifting and bosses giving hassle wanting to know what is going on. Eventually when an invoice comes in the door in exchange for the hassle, they will only jump at the chance to take this painstaiking process out of their work day.

The important part to know about developing a site with the CMSMS is that the site isn’t done on launch day. The training element is crucial to the successful website. Many days spent on validation and good code can be wrecked by someone in the client’s company copy and pasting from Front Page, or Word, or some other horror that has been imposed on us all. This can invalidate the good put into the site and in the end affects your own reputation as a developer.

It is a good idea to think of the CMSMS not from your own familiar point of view of it, but from the client’s noobie look at the back-end. Simple things like restricting their access to the really important (and dangerous) items such as custom content blocks, templates, stylesheets, php code etc can save alot of grief and questions in the long run. The more comfortable a client is with non-technical areas of the site and the less bewildered they are at the total package, the more eager they will be to make an effort at making changes without worrying about ‘breaking’ something.

Compliant standard editors (we use x-standard as a default) are helpful to clean up bad code inserted from the above mentioned offenders of bad code. But added to this, a small user manual is often helpful. Take the main important sections of the site that a client will be using and put the process clearly down on paper. Numbered lists of what to do in a step-by-step basis, along with screenshots helps guide them through editing or adding pages and images. This gets rid of the fear factor often seen by clients facing an imposing admin panel.

Taking the time go sit with them and go over the manual helps build your relationship with the client, adds to their own assurances that they will not ‘break’ the site and incur the wrath of their respective bosses, and lets them know they haven’t been left on their own to fend for themselves. In our own experience as much as a client wants to ‘do it all all by themselves’, when the time comes to make the leap, they tend to hesitate on actually pushing the ’submit’ button. A little hand-holding in the way of training goes a long long way to the future success of the website.

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One important thing when running websites in corporate environments is the secure feeling that updates will work and be compatible.

But when your biggest fear becomes reality and websites break down after updating to the latest version here are some step you could follow.

You should, ALWAYS, have back-ups, not only because it could crash when updating but also if you experience a HD failure or whatever.

If a website is critical for your business and down-time is not done, you can also restore a back-up in a sub dir on the same server with the same settings, and test the update before you apply it on a live website.

If you have updated your website and it breaks down you can do the following;

If errors occur on the front-end, and you cant fix them within an hour or so, restore a back-up, make a test dir and try again, if it al works well something in the update process went wrong, and you should try again. If it doesn’t and you cant get it to work, get help on the forums, and just keep you live website un-updated for the time being.

If the errors only occur on the back-end (admin) part of the website, you can take some more time trying to fix it because regular visitors wont notice, and if you cant work it out, the forums will probably help you out.

Also make sure that modules you are using are compatible with the new updated version, you can, most of the times, see based on the Php error what file and path is causing what error, if the path is from a module, disable the module and see if everything works well.

So what would be nice to see in CMSMS 2.0 for updating problems.

If all hell breaks lose and no one else can help you, you can, apart from calling the A-team, make a clean install, export and import your theme, but if you have about 100+ pages and maybe 300 news items, it wont be fast job rebuilding the content.

Regular page content and news items is probably the most used CMSMS content, I know lotsa websites have modules and such but they are restored pretty quick most of the times, and if updating really fails you, you have no choice.

So it would be nice to see in 2.0 that one can export pages and news items like you can do with themes, this would make complicated updating errors allot less fearful, since in most cases you could be up and running within one hour if you dont have any special modules which are hard to restore content for.

I you have more ideas on what people can do when having updating problems, or have an idea on how to make the updating safe/easier in the future and reducing forum topic about updating problems please comment.

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Today we will start a new article “Featured Site of the Week” which will show you some of the sites created with CMSMS usually found from “CMS Show Off” forum.

This weeks site is brought to us by forum user kovver. I had the pleasure to interview him a bit about the site.

tsw) Who are you and where are you going to?
kovver) My name is David De Beukelaer and I’m studying in Holland for Waldorf teacher. Currently I live in Belgium and have studied art in Ghent. I work as a freelancer every once in a while, mostly making artwork for myself, but sometimes making sites for friends and relatives. I also do book illustrators and writing but only in dutch.

tsw) So what is this site all about?
kovver) Its the artist portfolio for me and a friend. I designed the whole concept in photoshop after styling the color palette. We will have regular updates on the site, mostly with links, archive products, etc… Me or my friend will do the updates. I did the design for this version. Another large project of mine is: http://www.anthros.net which is mentioned in eight CSS galleries

tsw) Why did you choose CMSMS?
kovver) I discovered CMSMS a half year ago. I work with it when applicable and useful. Sometimes i write extras on it or fix bugs, etc. That makes me think that i should mention them more often, end even help on the development. If needed…

tsw) How do you create your designs?
kovver) Its very useful to make the design completely offline, in photoshop, with guides, color codes and separate layers.

tsw) What have been your major problems with CMSMS?
kovver) The largest problems are currently the bugs between IE opera safari and mozilla.

tsw) But aren’t those problems more CSS related than CMSMS?
kovver) Mostly it is a horror experience for every designer, included the ones not using CMSMS, but. So to answer the questions above: no problems that can’t be solved.

tsw) How did the site launch go?
kovver) I did not yet get pointers or opinions from others, because the site is only redesigned for three days now. I don’t really know how much traffic I receive daily, some 3500 a month I suppose…

tsw) In your own opinion what’s good about this site and what’s bad? What would you do differently?
kovver) I’m recently developing an own style in web-designing which leads me to simplicity! I was wondering what makes a site worth looking at and in the meantime proudly presenting a clear overview, with valid XHTML. This is a new episode in my search for it.

tsw) Thank you very much on taking the time to answer these questions. Now, what would you like to say to fellow CMSMS’ers.
kovver)

• Focus on your CSS skills, they are the basis
• Try, if capable to contribute to the CMSMS development.
• Make your designs in photoshop, know what you want before you change the css.
• Post your designs, take a look and learn form others. Never copy, it might not satisfy!
• I question the overload on css-galleries! So I’m looking for serious volunteers to make one board to connect them all, but how?

Destile webdign to an art. Because kovver says: style life into art.

So take a look at http://www.kovver.com/ and form your own opinion.

We will try to continue this article series once a week to show you some of the backgrounds of the sites done in CMSMS.

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