Cannot add physical pages?

Hi,

I may be missing something obvious.

I've installed PowerCMS on one of my client's sites. My plan is to offer this to all of my clients to give them the power to update their own sites.

It seems that it is not possible for one to physically add a new page on-the-fly. It seems that the "page" is created in the back-end, but the physical page actually needs to be created separately, outside of PowerCMS and then the snippet of code needs to be added to this physical page?

If this is the case, I think this is a deal breaker for me. The idea of providing the CMS to my clients is to avoid the constant calls from my clients to make simple updates to their sites. If they want to create a new news article on a new page, I don't want them calling me up asking me to create the page on the front-end.

Please--tell me I'm missing something obvious. Or is it true that PowerCMS lacks an extremely basic function of any CMS: The ability for a non-technical user to add a new page to their site on-the-fly.

PowerCMS 2 does not create actual pages, but dynamic "pages" based on a template you set up in PowerCMS.

Your client can create as many "pages" as they need based on this template. They don't need to modify code, all they have to do is get the URL for that new page by appending the appropriate URL variable for that new "page" to the PHP page that you have added the template's Developer Notes to.

For instructions, see this tutorial here:
powercms_templates.php

You can see an example of this feature in use from the PowerCMS demo: www.powercms-demo.com/
- The "Homes" page is the template, and all pages created based on that template are listed underneath.
- An example of one of those pages can be seen here: featuredhome.php?Homes=1

FYI Neil, that bottom-most link you posted.....
all the images in the left column have busted paths...no images showing

Thanks gruant,

The link was incorrect. Everything should work now.

-Neil

Glad to hear it's easier than I thought to add pages. However, one descrepancy:

The “Help” tab in PowerCMS says this:

————
Once you have updated the content, click the Create Link option to see how you can create a link to this new page.
————

I do not see a "Create Link" link anywhere. It seems the only way to get the link is to click the "Developer Notes" link.

Please advise.

Good question!

Only the Super Admin in PowerCMS will see the Developer Notes. However if you were to hand this off to a client, we would recommend that you create a new Administrator account for the client to use.

Any additional accounts have limited functionality to avoid causing problems or frustrations for the client. If you log in as one of these additional admins, you will see that Developer Notes do not display on content (as this assumes the Developer Notes were already handled by the Developer), but for template pages, a Create Link option is available instead.

This way, your client will be able to create pages based on templates, and should be able to find the link to that new "page" without too much trouble or being overwhelmed by the Developer Notes code.

Another thing to note...

The Help page in PowerCMS contains various tips on how to do things in PowerCMS. This help is mostly targeted towards the end-user or client that will use PowerCMS using a non-Super Admin account. However if you are logged in as a Super Admin, you will see a few additional tips at the top of the Help page that are labeled "SuperAdmin Only".

Okay--a follow up question:

What is the difference between, "Add new content location" and "Add new page from template"?

  What is the difference between, "Add new content location" and "Add new page from template"?  

Add new content location refers to any location on your site that you want to manage content for. In most cases this will be an existing page of your site. This could also be a shared location, such as a side navigation that is the same on a number of pages (see the Shared Elements content in the PowerCMS demo).

Add new page from template is only available when you have chosen to make a content location a template. If you select the green + icon that displays when hovering over the template name, you can create a new content location that contains all the same content areas as the template. It is these pages (the ones based on a template) that do not require the Developer Notes for, because you will be provided a URL variable that can be added to the end of the template's URL.

For a Super Admin, these two options may seem very similar, but for the additional admin accounts (your clients) the only option they will have for creating new pages on their site, is the Add new page from template option. This allows you (the developer) to define what your client can create but also giving your client some more control of their website.