foevah Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 please view the website by removing the dollar signs (I have done this so search engines don't follow it): http://$gul$aab$.co.uk/test/menu.php Basically I have made a site for a friends restaurant and I want him to be able to edit the content. Right now there is no CMS in place and I am not sure what one is best to add to this site? I want my friend/client to be able to add to the main content area, updated the side columns with deals, add pictures to the cool flash gallery, add to the customer comments and most importantly edit the menu.php page so he can add new dishes and manage the content related to that page. Right now the menu.php page has includes for all the content. For example if you click on korma dishes on the left hand menu the content for this is stored in /menu/korma.php I have no idea on the best approach for this. I don't want to do site maintenance for him - I want to give him the site and he will be able to run with it. He has zero computer knowledge he is a beginner so I will be here to help but eventually I want him to be confident in the CMS and he won't need me. Does anyone think wordpress would be suitable for this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runnerjp Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 easy...use forms for him to fill in on a admin page which changes the db input... plenty of open source cms you can implament into the website http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=cms+php+open+source&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=4&oq=cms+php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyhoney Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 Wordpress is more of a blogging platform, but it can definitely be used as a CMS. Drupal is perhaps the most popular PHP CMS. I think you need to approach the problem differently. Don't think about it as "adding a CMS to your simple site". Think of it as "Configuring/Themeing a CMS to look exactly like the old site". Once you choose a CMS, you will want to either download or create a theme to make the CMS look how you want it. Then move the content from the old site over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foevah Posted June 23, 2009 Author Share Posted June 23, 2009 runnerjp - your idea of adding forms to the pages has struck me before but when I tried to get the data to display in the form from the db nothing worked... do you know any tutorials that could help me get this working? if i was to follow that method would the left column in the menu.php page be in a form aswel? How could he add a new include content page that relates to the new category he added to the left column? flyhoney - "Configuring/Themeing a CMS to look exactly like the old site" this makes me think its going to be really hard how to do this. Do you know any similar sites to mine that use a CMS that they have configured to suit their needs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foevah Posted June 23, 2009 Author Share Posted June 23, 2009 runnerjp - would the form be a similar to phpfreaks post form with style options? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyhoney Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 flyhoney - "Configuring/Themeing a CMS to look exactly like the old site" this makes me think its going to be really hard how to do this. Do you know any similar sites to mine that use a CMS that they have configured to suit their needs? The site you are building is EXACTLY what a CMS is for. I would choose a CMS, and then look at the themes available for that CMS and choose one that has a similar layout the site you are building. Then you can change the rest to match your template. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foevah Posted June 23, 2009 Author Share Posted June 23, 2009 i like the idea of actually getting a CMS and configuring it for my needs. if I was to find a CMS that suits my needs then I would feel safe using it where as if I follow runnerjp's suggestion I would have to worry about security and those issues are fixed in open source CMS'. theres alot of open source CMS' in that link you provided runnerjp i need help narrowing it down to a simple configurable one. Has anyone seen this ? http://www.webdesignerwall.com/trends/30-untypical-wordpress-sites/ I like the idea of using word press but I have never customised it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foevah Posted June 23, 2009 Author Share Posted June 23, 2009 does anyone know a good starting point to make wordpress into something that will work for my site? I don't really want to find a template that has the same layout and then work backwards id prefer to start from scratch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyhoney Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 In that case I would start here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foevah Posted June 23, 2009 Author Share Posted June 23, 2009 mm i want a tutorial that will hopefully give me a quick guide on how to get this rolling heres one i found: http://www.cypherhackz.net/archives/2006/12/13/make-your-own-wordpress-theme-part-1/ the guys english isn't perfect but i think i can work with it.. if you know anything better than cyberhackz tutorial let me know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foevah Posted June 23, 2009 Author Share Posted June 23, 2009 *edit cyberhackz tutorial is giving me errors i do not recommend using it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.