can i change page content remotly ??

[activewebs]

Hi Guys

Is this posible >>Say, We make a site for a client and part of that site is a page with photographs along with some text about the image, we FTP to the host and all works well .
Later the client whishs to change some of the images, but - and heres the rub - they want to do it themselvs , they have no web authuring tools or FTP experiance, but there OK with image manipulation , size etc , I have a vague recollection that this is posible with PHP.

Any ideas ??

Simplest ones work best for us

Tnx Rich

[jonra01]

What you are talking about sounds like a php based admin module. This takes some programming knowledge to create.

As long as the images have the same names as the ones on the site then all they have to do is use ftp to upload the new images. Teaching someone to use ftp isn't that difficult.

[Sharron]

ohhh ohhh, Isn't this what Christina just set up for my photographers site?
Except it is not php it is Shtml and insert tags.

The client only has to open a editable "yes table" based page with just the image showing.

Really all they have to do is know the image names ie: w01.jpg through w24.jpg.

They can actually alter the html page or just rename the picture they have to a name that already exists, and upload. The upload will over right the old image with the new.

See here www.designbyatfb.com/test/shutter/index.shtml

Each page has a table based thumbnail area which is editable. Each pages thumbnails (qty 24) on weddings the images start with a w01.jpg, portraits start with p01.jpg and so on

It may or not be something you are interested in

[activewebs]

Hi guys

I think ur right Sharron this may be what we need , the client ( prospective ) is a estate agent ( real estate etc {insert your favorite word }) and he wants to showcase some proporties , but also be able to change the pics on the "latest proporties" page as they change, without our help (and fee £$$£ ) , but simply from their browser
How did you achive this ??

as John said Teaching them FTP is an option also , > name and overwright the image files in a dedicated directory <

Any other ideas

Rich

[Sharron]

Well I too have been working on a real estate site, but I decided, that the shtml route would not work for it, as real estate content changes quite quickly and often. I didn't want anyone to have access to the actual code, thus this approach.

Using the shtml insert tags requires that you have your main pages ( or the base page) be named with the shtml extension.
I choose to use tables as the client is familiar with those. The thumbnail lower section is built, defined via css then saved separately (minus doc type and all other meta tags, just the html code.) The where in the main page you want the area to show up, (can be within a div) you use an insert named html tag. And then when you see the page uploaded, it shows up. But the client only can download and upload (accourding to how you set up their ftp access) only the editable html files. I imagine that your client could also include a row of table cells for captions and descriptions, that would be included in the editable html file.

Then they just upload the changed file, they can't rename the html pages though nor creat new ones, or else you would have to keep going back in and editing the insert tags. Which is why I decided against this approach on my real estate site. I don't want to keep track of all those insert tags, nor do I feel they could handle getting into the code and doing it, that sort of defeats the purpose of it all.

I also have it set up so that the image names are always the same, client (photographer) does not have to edit the html page at all really, all he has to do is rename his new images the same as existing ones already on line. easy


Christina knows more about this then me as she set me up with it. According to Christina and Jonra, the files have to be in a certain area of the directory and so on. There is a recent thread talking about this very issue. Cant find it at the moment.

If you look at the code we used on the photo site you might could tell how it is done.

Make note that once you set this up the site(shtml pages) will not render quite the way you woudl normaly see them in your own editor program! I made my first attempts to change a few things the other day! I was quite scared as I could not tell on my computer if it was doing what I wanted it too, not until I had uploaded and written over what was already there. It turned out fine though! lol

I can take a few screen shots of my directory for this test site if you want to see the layout we used.

Be nice to Chris and she will help I am sure give you more definite help.

[activewebs]

Hi Guys

TNX 4 ur help , gotta log out know , pick it up later , lookin good so far , Dohh but im so slow on the pick up , in some ways I hope the client opts for us to do the up dates $$££$$££


Rich

gotta go

[webado]

Hmmm, I'd not really advocate using such an approach for anyhting more than just giving the user a simple tool to make simple text changes here and there.

For pages of images I'd much rather set up a simple gallery package (Google for lots of decent free open source ones).

Otherwise migth as well tell them here's your site on a cd, plonk it into Frontpage or Dreamweaver and don't bother calling me when you screw it up - because they will, as sure as the night follows the day.

[Sharron]

Screen shot of folders

Large image: here just change the image name to shutter-folders.gif

[howard]

Rich,

Nobody's talking CMS here, and I wonder why. Various CMS packages,
Mambo (Joomila), XOOPS, Drupal, PHP-Nuke, etc.. allow you to set up the
site with different sections accessible to various users by password.

A real estate agency could, for example, set up a separate set of
parameters for each agent in the house, with master control by the owner
of the business, all below the level you, as the developer, has access to.
Some CMS packages even allow preview before posting. That way, text
and graphics can be perfected before the page goes live.

Another advantage is the html interface, which can be used from any
computer with internet access, via user name and password - no need for
the computer to have an ftp client.

I like what Christina set up for Sharron. Giving the end user ftp access to
only the editible directory. A CMS system simplifies even that, often
giving the end user a wysiwyg editor.

I am probably way off base, if nobody has mentioned CMS. Just ignore
me if that is the case. Edit: Turns out I was. My haste. See below.

Howard

[webado]

Howard, I didn't mention CMS for 2 reasons:
1) The site Rich is talking about seemingly has already been set up, so it will need to be redone under a CMS system.

2) All the CMS packages I've seen so far are extremely clumsy to set up. I find them so myself and I am a computer professional by trade (though no specialized in web applications, to be sure), let alone explaining to the user how to use it.

These applications are either very limited or so general that they require enormous customization efforts.

They usually all require a MySQL or other type of database which may cause more problems that it's worth.

I am experimenting with a javascript application that gets grafted onto a form that I would set up effectively adding a small WYSIWYG editor (TinyMCE) to the form and takes charge of textareas in the html form. Then the user can input text which will be html formatted. My action script then takes that input from the textarea form field and simply creates a file which I will later include in an SSI include on some other page.

Even that is a bit of a hassle to set up properly. I want to eliminate some features which would complicate my life too much if the user used them for instance. Like adding images, or making tables - I want them to use only text, formatted only in paragraphs. This script allows too much by default.

On my sample site www.widget-news.com you have such a thing when you use the Update link. I have set it up on a password protected directory because only an authorized user should be using that and I don't want the additional hassle of fighting script injections. But the end result is that the user can modify 2 set area that appear on the homepage, from there: the news items at the top.

I have tot do the same thing for my current site under development, http://axistech.webado.net - and I'm still debating on the best way to handle it.