CMS (Content Management System)

phil_j_poore

hello i am designing a website for a company that is basically going to be an online catalog where people can come and have a look at products and services and fill out a contact us form for a quote.
i ave done a first design but i could not aorganise my thoughts well enough and it got very confusing, i am designing a new version so that a admin can login a backend and update stuff and do general admin things i wasnt sure how to add this feature i have all the code but i think the general layout of the site is all wrong.
what is the best way to set up a site??
at the moment i am using Smarty Template Engine but i was wondering if this was worth it?? or what alternatives there are and what i could use or whether i should invent my own system of templates to keep everything looking nice.
the web address is PC Investigations have a look and any ideas would be a great help.
A Pre Thanks to everyone...........

planetsim

Ok well I always keep presentation seperate from logic. So a templating system is always used I use my own which is extremely basic it just basically opens a template file replaces templating tags and displays. Ive never used smarty or any other templating system but most have caching etc.

With this I usually code the PHP side of things and dont try and limit myself to a design.

Also there is no best way to setup a site well not one that is the holy grail or anything. But usually seperate the design and programming is a good way to start and a templating system no matter how advanced can help with this.

I see nothing wrong with creating your own Templating system but you gotta think of how its going to work is it going to be quite basic and have templating tags, in files and just gets displayed each time. Or is it going to be more advanced with more sophisticated templating tags, caching etc.

phil_j_poore

well layout will just be split into 3 main bits but all with sub bits....

HEADER
|---Logo
|---Speed Bar (kind of menu for the top bit)
|---Search Box (Quite Small Not Obvious)

MENU (To The Left Of The Screen)
|---Nice Picture
|---Main Catagories
|---Sub Catagories (Inbetween Main Catagories)
|---Admin Menu (When Needed And Logged In)

MAIN (Takes Up The Rest)
|---Starts With Default Template
|---Changes With What You Select
|---Nice Contained In Borders etc....

I Dont Need Caching but if it isnt a problem to sort out.
the way i have it layout at the minute is like follows
have......
ROOT
|---ADMIN (folder)
| |---home.php (first page loads default template calls top.inc.php)
| |---Contains All Admin Pages (All Call top.inc.php)
|
|---CUSTOMER
| |---home.php (first page loads default template calls top.inc.php)
| |---Contains All Customer Pages (All Call top.inc.php)
|
|---INCLUDES
| |---std.inc.php (contains standard functions that i need)
|
|---CLASSES
| |---auth.class.php (for my authentication)
| |---smarty.class.php (to load the smarty template thing)
| |---mysql.class.php (contains mysql functions like query etc)
|
|---SKIN (contains templates for smarty)
| |---ADMIN (contains templates for admin side)
| |---CUSTOMER (contains templates for customer side)
| |---STANDARD (contains common templates)
|
|---config.inc.php (contains all of the variables needed mysql
| table names, and loads of other stuff to do
| with configing site)
|
|---top.inc.php (included at the top of all pages this includes config
| and all classes and includes and sets them all up)
|
|---index.php (redirects to "customer/index.php" main site)

this is how i have the site set up now but it is very confusing to set stuff up and organise the template files there must be an easier way..............................

Roger_Ramjet

Why write your own CMS? There are dozens of them about, eg easyCMS or XOOPS . Search SourceForge to find these and many more: all free under the GNU/GPL licence schemes.

Even if you don't use one of them, looking over the source code will give you valuable pointers to design your own.

Recoil_UK

I have designed my own templating system which works very well and only uses php as its supposed to be used.

All presentation is seperated from logic as far as possible.

I,ll include a sample for you to look at....

layout.php

<?PHP
echo <<<EOF
  <table class="layout-table" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
  <tr>
    <td class="layout-header" colspan="3">$CONTENT_HEADER</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="layout-l-column">$CONTENT_LEFT</td>
    <td class="layout-c-column">$CONTENT_CENTER</td>
    <td class="layout-r-column">$CONTENT_RIGHT</td>
  </tr>
  </table>
EOF;
?>

webpage....

<?PHP

$CONTENT_TITLE = "Home";

$CONTENT_HEADER = "Header";
$CONTENT_LEFT = "Content Left";

ob_start();
include 'admin/groups/index.php';
$CONTENT_CENTER = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

$CONTENT_RIGHT = "Content Right";

include 'include/header.php';
include 'include/layout.php';
include 'include/footer.php';

?>

As you can see, it only uses normal PHP variables, heredoc syntax, and some output buffering, give it a try.

Hope it helps.

thorpe

Why write your own CMS?

there are plenty of reasons for wanting to write your own cms. unforunately, not understanding the logic is NOT one of them. and posting questions about templating systems is the least of your worries.

if you have to come here asking questions about why you think certain bits of code logic should be used. honestly, you dont deserve the work.

really..... think about it?!? if you cant get the logic together your not ready to build applications for people who are paying you to GET the logic together.

if your clients GOT the logic...they would do it themselves.

most of the work involved in building a cms is the logic. the code is the EASY part. if i where you.... well....