Managing PHP content

jpn

I have been asked to build a site that will have an 'Up and coming Events' section. I will be using PHP to build the site as I will be using MYSQL behind the scenes.

My problem is that the client wants to be able to add / edit the Events section themselves.

Can this be done if the page has been written in PHP? Is there a way around this problem?

Someone suggested Macromedia's Contribute.

Can anyone offer any opinion on this software. Can it deal with dynamic content? etc etc.

Any advice welcome

jpn

Rodney_H_

As I understand it, MM's Contribute allows users to write their own content once a site has already been layed out. Think of it as a template system that allows users to upload new content, thereby making it 'psuedo-dynamic' in the sense that the site gets updated everytime the client wants to say something new.

However, it is not truly dynamic in a web developer's definition of the word, as it does not allow for adding, changing or deleting info in the db. What happens is that content on the htm pages, or even php pages are updated with new text, images, etc. You can even create new pages with it. But it doesn't interact with a db directly.

For that, you will need the php / mySql combo.

PHP / MySQL together can do exactly what your clients need. You will be implementing a CRUD system (Create, Retrieve, Update and Delete).

Have you ever created a DB, tables in the DB, and connected to it via a .php web page?

If not, there are plenty of tutorials online. (I started with this one and this one [but there are plenty of others] ).

In my opinion, you will get more bang for your buck if you look beyond Contribute, and do things the truly dynamic way with php/mysql.

jpn

Im not sure if I would like the client to tamper with the DB. Primarily, PHP would be used to display member names, random images etc. The 'Up and coming Events' text would not be held in the database. It would be static inside the .php file.

Rodney H. wrote:
Have you ever created a DB, tables in the DB, and connected to it via a .php web page?

I have created tables in MYSQL and written data to a .php file. Im just not familiar with CMS's.

Rodney H. wrote:
What happens is that content on the htm pages, or even php pages are updated

It would only be a very small portion of each page that would need to be updated. My concern was that because I was using PHP for some parts of the content I was afraid the Contribute could only edit .htm / .html pages. But your quote above suggests that Contribute can indeed work with .php files.

Would this be correct?

jpn

Rodney_H_

jpn wrote:
It would only be a very small portion of each page that would need to be updated.

Have you considered a flat file that the client could update, and which you could include into the page?

If you are still interested in Contribute, check this out: http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/contribute/articles/contribute_php.html

rikmoncur

Contribute is wrong for this job. It will open a php page but only allow wysiwyg editing.
What you need are master/detail pages: here's a tutorial -
http://www.macromedia.com/support/dreamweaver/building/master_detail_php
Then you'll need an admin suite to log in and a page for editing/adding/deleting entries.

cretaceous

Yeah, I had a client who even messed up using Contribute
Building a crud system (that's a new acronym on me, not sure I'll use it in front of a prospect)
if you can break the page into discreet html chunks it's no problem - and it won't let the client "mess" with the db - they just add edit or delete events.. what's the worry?