new site - editor recommendations please!

[joe.woods]

Hi,

I'm planning on creating a small review website in my spare time. I
haven't done any site design for about 10 years, back in the days of
static html pages done in notepad!

I'm not a design type person whatsoever, I'd just like to be able to
sit down every evening, type up some reviews, upload a few photos, not
have to get involved with any design or layout or technical issues.

My ultimate aim is to make the site self sufficient. I want to set up
the bare bones, then users can add to the content themselves. Nothing
too fancy, perhaps something like I set up the initial review, then
others can add comments and their own reviews and upload their own
photos perhaps.

Can anyone recommend a good tool that I should use for all this?
Perhaps Dreamweaver? And what methods I should use? Bearing in mind I'd
like to add user-interaction facilities. I'd like to get things right
from the start, so I don't have to migrate to a different tool half way
through the project, or change to a different language.

Thanks!


Joe Woods

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

Hi,

I'm planning on creating a small review website in my spare time. I
haven't done any site design for about 10 years, back in the days of
static html pages done in notepad!

I'm not a design type person whatsoever, I'd just like to be able to
sit down every evening, type up some reviews, upload a few photos, not
have to get involved with any design or layout or technical issues.

My ultimate aim is to make the site self sufficient. I want to set up
the bare bones, then users can add to the content themselves. Nothing
too fancy, perhaps something like I set up the initial review, then
others can add comments and their own reviews and upload their own
photos perhaps.

Can anyone recommend a good tool that I should use for all this?
Perhaps Dreamweaver? And what methods I should use? Bearing in mind I'd
like to add user-interaction facilities. I'd like to get things right
from the start, so I don't have to migrate to a different tool half way
through the project, or change to a different language.

Thanks!


Joe Woods

Hi Joe,

The generation of editors to follow bare-bone HTML was WYSIWYG packages, as
controversial and appalling as they may be, but at present, content
management packages (CMS) seem like the only way to go.

I wrote about packages that I know and/or have experience with of a couple
of week ago <
http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archives/2005/08/05/open-source-content-management-systems/

, but let me refer to your requirements and highlight what I think would

suit you best.

If you write reviews, you probably need the invlusion of article-writing
that is not time-dependant. PHP-Nuke (see URL's in item above) does that
fairly well, but Drupal can be considered as well. If you upload some
photos to serve as a gallery rather than accompany an article, then
consider Gallery < http://gallery.sourceforge.net/ >. It is rather mature
and the amazing version 2 is now in Release Condidate stage.

If you want users to add content themselves, e.g. submit items for you to
approve, then PHP-Nuke may serve you well. PHP-Nuke also has threaded
comments support, but its level of complexity can be daunting. If you want
something that is simple to use, see WordPress. Version 1.6 will have a
WYSIWYG editor that produces top-notch HTML code.

If you use Gallery, users who are logged in can add photos. It's worth
mentioning that all the tools that I mentioned are free and reliable.

Hope it helps,

Roy

 

[joe.woods]

Thanks for all that info, really appreciate it. I'll let you know how I
get on. Just got to find a decent host now that'll offer me those
tools!

-
Joe

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

__/ [Arne] on Thursday 01 September 2005 14:46 \__

You will be ignored if you top post, don't quote what
you are replying to and cut of only the signatures!
http://www.safalra.com/special/googlegroupsreply/

I must confess that it was hard for me to bind context to your message. It
came 10 days after my original follow-up to your original post and
considering the fact that I view this newsgroup in one particular way, the
best you can do is bottom-post and quote (so that I can spot my name at the
top).

Thanks and please let me know if you have further problems as I'll be glad
to assist. Arne is generally critical about people who abuse netiquette so
do not be intimidated or put aback. *smile*

Roy

 

[Arne]

Thanks for all that info, really appreciate it. I'll let you know how I
get on. Just got to find a decent host now that'll offer me those
tools!

You will be ignored if you top post, don't quote what
you are replying to and cut of only the signatures!
http://www.safalra.com/special/googlegroupsreply/