CMS for CSS Styles questions..

Hi Ok, well my client wants full control of his website (which Im building from ground up).

So basically After I created the main template (the layout will be fixed so dont want client to control that otherwise it be a mess).

But he does want control of font type, size, colour to be changeable by himself. Also to control the main top menu items and the submenu items relating to those pages. And of course the main content for each page he wants control off.

I didnt want to use PowerCMS as I want a little more customisation for my project.

First Question...Would I need to write INLINE CSS on each page rather then an external CSS file so that I can store the CSS attributes in my database?

Second Question for the pages, I was thinking of just using the index.php file and then adding something like index.php?Content=About Us , index.php?Contact Us etc etc so that I can pull the page content to the index.php for that particular menu option then for the sub menus for each page I would just do a simple recordset querying the URL.

Would I be on the right track for the two above questions, or is this a silly way to approach this type of project? Im just wondering if there going to be any pitfalls I have overlooked?

Chris

Use HTML Editor for allowing the user to edit the content on pages.

in HTML Editor, then control font sizes and such through the HTML editor toolbar.

using the index page and query string approach for loading certain pages:
index.php?Content=About Us

is done using Framework builder Dynamic Includes.

Thats what I thought.

I expected to use HTML Editor for the main body of content. however for little things such as menu link fonts/colour/size I didnt think it be good to use HTML Editor for this purpose since its just one word (for example) for the menu link, so i figured to store the menu links font, size and colour in a database then rather then a .CSS file I would store in a PHP file and use a recordset to retrieve the database fields for the smaller parts of the website relating to template.

Also I noticed that HTML Editor uses CKEditor and on CKEditor there is a beta version 4 which uses really call Inline Editing:

inlineall.html

Im wondering if there is a way of replacing the current CKEditor in the WebAssist folder (however the version 4 of CKEditor uses a different folder structure then version 3 which you use.

No HTML Editor cannot be upgraded to CKEditor 4 beta.

ok, if I go for a support ticket, would it be possible for CKeditor version 3 which is currently part of HTML Editor be adpated so i can "mimic" Inline Editing, so rather then the Website Admin having to go to a different page to edit the content, they would simply edit the content from the actual website link.?

in addition to your reply about using HTML Editor, and my response about not using it for various parts of the website such as a menu item link or even a footer background or header background etc etc, would the approach of me holding the CSS styles in a seperate PHP file with recordsets for where those CSS styles are stored in the database make sense to that approach...and then for the "main content area of the website use HTML Editor for that part?

Chris

yes, we could help with that in a Premiere support appointment.


as for you question about the css,there is a million and one ways this could be done. you could store it in a separate table. you could do it inline:

<span style="background-color:#000000;">Menu Item</span>


it all depends on which way is easiest for you and customer to use.

Originally Said By: Jason Byrnes

  Use HTML Editor for allowing the user to edit the content on pages.

in HTML Editor, then control font sizes and such through the HTML editor toolbar.

using the index page and query string approach for loading certain pages:
index.php?Content=About Us

is done using Framework builder Dynamic Includes.  

Jason thinking about what you said about using Framework Builder, I am wondering if I explained myself wrong. for this project I wont be using any physical .php pages (apart from index.php)...So.. the homepage (index.php) will have default content thats pulled in from a database...then if the user then clicks on a link in the menu the url address would be something like ../index.php?Content-About Us then the page will "refresh index.php file" and display the content from the database relating to the URL Content=About Us .

So can Framework Builder still be used in the context? as the intial homepage would be just index.php (so it wont have any URL variables after the .php) by the rest of the website will have URL variables after the .php.

Chris

well, your about page would not consist of only the form, you would need to have the universal email server behaviors applied to send the contact us information.

you cant store PHP code in a database.

you would have to create a separate contact us page, add the form to it, the UE Server behavior, then you could add it to the index page as a dynamic plugin.

Hi Jason, to be honest this project doesnt require any forms its just straight copy and photos stored in the database via HTML Editor.

so back to my original question :)

I was thinking that perhaps I need at least 2 physical .php files (1) for the homepage since it wont have any URL variables on the end of the index.php?..) (2) another file mcalled something like "page.php" and it would be this file that will use URL variables so for example page.php?Content=About Us, page?Content=Contact Us etc etc.....

But my main question is how can I just load up the content for my homepage (index.php) fromt he database...and then for all other links from the menu they would load up the page.php file and then dynamically load up the content which the URL references (page.php?About Us, page.php?Contact Us etc etc...(again i am ONLY storing normal content in the database.

Chris

your database would need to have a title and content column

the title column would store the title "About Us"

the content columns would store that pages content.

use a recordset to filter using the title column and the Content URL variable.