Looking for ASP-based (HTML) page editor

[David Winter]

I'm not a developer myself, but I am looking for something that maybe
one of you guys

- has done
- knows about
- would like to do - yes, I have a small budget for this.

The basic idea: A browser-based editor for *static* HTML pages, like
this:

1) When the script is first called, it will display a list of editable
(= HTML) files in a given directory.

2) The selected page is parsed by the script. It will look for
sections marked in a Dreamweaver-like comment style:
<!-- #BeginEditable "content" -->
CONTENT
<!-- #EndEditable -->

3) Contents of these sections are parsed and converted using a list of
RegEx expressions that translate HTML entities and markup into a more
readable, Wiki/Textile style format. E.g., <h1>foo</h1> would become
==foo== (see http://textism.com/tools/textile/ for a nice variation of
the same theme).

4) These "cleaned" content sections are presented as <textarea> fields
in a form, where a person who knows nothing about HTML can edit them.

5) After editing, the user can send the form back to the script, where
the modified sections are translated back into HTML using a
complementary list of expressions, replacing the previous content.

The whole thing should also have authorization (password protection
and/or user accounts) and maybe some kind of rollback feature.

I know that I could probably make a hundred CMS do this, but I want
something very simple and straightforward with just these features; no
database backend etc.

Does an ASP solution like this exist, maybe in someone's "unreleased
masterworks" drawer?

TIA.

 

[Steven Burn]

I'm not a developer myself, but I am looking for something that maybe
one of you guys

- has done
- knows about
- would like to do - yes, I have a small budget for this.

</snip>

www.rentacoder.com (don't use it myself, but quite a few other dev's do)

The basic idea: A browser-based editor for *static* HTML pages, like
this:

1) When the script is first called, it will display a list of editable
(= HTML) files in a given directory.

</snip>

You'd need FSO (FileSystemObject) for this.... (there's probably a few other
ways but, FSO would be my personal choice)

2) The selected page is parsed by the script. It will look for
sections marked in a Dreamweaver-like comment style:
<!-- #BeginEditable "content" -->
CONTENT
<!-- #EndEditable -->

3) Contents of these sections are parsed and converted using a list of
RegEx expressions that translate HTML entities and markup into a more
readable, Wiki/Textile style format. E.g., <h1>foo</h1> would become
==foo== (see http://textism.com/tools/textile/ for a nice variation of
the same theme).

4) These "cleaned" content sections are presented as <textarea> fields
in a form, where a person who knows nothing about HTML can edit them.

5) After editing, the user can send the form back to the script, where
the modified sections are translated back into HTML using a
complementary list of expressions, replacing the previous content.

</snip>

I don't get it.....

Your obviously going to have to do part of the pages manually anyway as
you'll need to insert the markers, so, why not just use a web-based wysiwyg
editor?. Not only will it save a heck of alot of hassle, it will also save
alot of unnecessary work (and I'm sure the users themselves would prefer
such).

The whole thing should also have authorization (password protection
and/or user accounts) and maybe some kind of rollback feature.

</snip>

PP and UA are simple enough, as is the rollback.... (if by "rollback" you
mean, backing up the file's before they are opened/edited?)

I know that I could probably make a hundred CMS do this, but I want
something very simple and straightforward with just these features; no
database backend etc.

</snip>

Why a hundred CMS?. All you'd need is one CMS solution that supports
multiple users.

Does an ASP solution like this exist, maybe in someone's "unreleased
masterworks" drawer?

</snip>

Not aware of any that currently exist (atleast, not publicly anyway, there's
probably a few dev's around that have developed something similar and just
not released it).

Out of interest, why do the pages need to be "static HTML"?

--

Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!

 

[Jeff Cochran]

Check ASPIN.COM for HTML Editor components. There are dozens.
Newsletter or mail managers also do this, maybe even more what you're
looking for.

Jeff