Content Managament System that supports PHP scripting?

[Koobazaur]

Hello,

 

I am working on a website right now and wanted to use some sort of content managament system so that others who know nothing about web design could change stuff easily. However, the website I am designing will not be static. I want to have some interactive portions (ala website personality quizzes) and, on top of that, a system where I have certain content blocked off from public viewing and to access it the viewer needs to register and account and obtain proper permissions (different content would require different permissions). This content, in itself, would also be very interactive, with lots of stuff to fill out/select by the user (again, similarly to online personality quizzes), and also tracking the user progress in it (by saving the data in a database).

 

Now, implementing the above isn't that hard, I know how to do it with PHP. But, as I mentioned, I wanted to add a content management system to easily edit the content. However, I am not having any lucking funding anything that would work. I have checked out several things (mambo/joomla, wordpress, php/postnuke etc. I even tried phpWCMS but it crashed my server whenever I tried creadting articles or directories) and the problem is, since they store the data in a database, they do not allow for any sort of scripting (save HTML and maybe javascript) within the content. Hence, I cannot implement the system described above using these tools, save by "hacking" the core files (such as the themes) to do my bidding (which is not a very elegant solution).

 

The main problem is that what they aren't just content managers, they are full-website managers that, consequently, force me into a certain framework in which I cannot achieve what I want. What I would find more useful would be a pure content editor, something that would let me create/link/edit files in a WYSISYG environemnt, but without the entire website framework and layout. (Thus I could allow others to modify the content easily, while keeping the website structure outside of that).

 

Either that, or some content-management software that fully supports PHP inside the content. The furtherest I got was using Wordpress with PHP exec plugin that allows me to use PHP, but due to the fact it is itself heavily PHP based it would not allow me to implement certain features (for instance, I couldn't start/end a session or store session variables).

 

Thus, in a nutshell: I need to build an extensive and interactive PHP-based system, but want to use a content-managament software for managing, creating and editing the actual content inside my system. At the same time I don't want to take an existing CMS and end up rewriting half the source code to accomodate my needs. Any suggestions on possible software (or even alternatives to my design) would be much welcome.

 

(I have been thinking about php/postNuke since it appears to be the most robust system and maybe writing my own module that would take care of the user/account/content access stuff, and using another premade module of editing of such content. However, I am not sure if it is possible, or if trying to implement my own system (with sessions, cookies, logging in etc.) wouldn't interfere with phpNuke itself like it did with Wordpress. any thoughts?)

Thanks!

[cooldude832]

If your so worried about using scripting in the content then ask your self the question why do you need this robust content management.  However if you can't figure that out then maybe you should think about flat filing all the content areas into their own files.

[Koobazaur]

If your so worried about using scripting in the content then ask your self the question why do you need this robust content management.  However if you can't figure that out then maybe you should think about flat filing all the content areas into their own files.

 

And that is because the company for whom I am designing this system wants to be able to edit the content afterwards. It is a mix of static and dynamic content, so I am guessing they want to be able to edit the static parts themselves, while leaving the dynamic thing to me. Hence why I am looking at a combination of both.

[cooldude832]

Use Flat files. If they want to manuaually update they shoudl at least be able to write basic html and ftp it.  What I use for my site is a skeleton called index.php then inside it i have a header that is an include file, a news blurb that is included and then the content on each page is its own include file.  To edit content i just manually edit the index_src.inc.php works like a charm and I can include php/html/javascript/anything in that.  I have probably about 15 modules built and basically when a page loads it figures out where it is then it loads in which modules I have set for each page. (that is in a flat file also)  Its a semi complex system however you can probably set up something similar.  Also if they aren't worried about SEO you can probably do this in as few as 2-3 pages for dynamic content of what is really 100+ pages the trick is writing a good function that says what goes where.  Also the second trick is using the same layout on all pages, just changing the modules

[redarrow]

Sorry i love your post that the first thing.

 

please tell me what are they going to be able to alter.

 

i get the thort that there only going to be able to alter the design and some words and p

ostion this and that am i correct mate.

 

 

[Koobazaur]

Use Flat files. If they want to manuaually update they shoudl at least be able to write basic html and ftp it.  What I use for my site is a skeleton called index.php then inside it i have a header that is an include file, a news blurb that is included and then the content on each page is its own include file.  To edit content i just manually edit the index_src.inc.php works like a charm and I can include php/html/javascript/anything in that.  I have probably about 15 modules built and basically when a page loads it figures out where it is then it loads in which modules I have set for each page. (that is in a flat file also)  Its a semi complex system however you can probably set up something similar.  Also if they aren't worried about SEO you can probably do this in as few as 2-3 pages for dynamic content of what is really 100+ pages the trick is writing a good function that says what goes where.  Also the second trick is using the same layout on all pages, just changing the modules

 

That is essentially one of the things I am planning to do that I mentioned in my first post. Hence why I was asking about a WYSIWYG editor for editing those pre-made files. Then I can make a simple admin.php where they can choose the file they want to edit and feed it to the WYSIWYG editor and we're done.

 

@redarrow

 

There will be some static content there too that they could be updating themselves like daily news, about the company, information on the product, testimonials, contact info, links to other websites and any other information related to their business they would want to put. This is the part they'd want to be able to edit and create themselves.

 

The whole website will be a mix of static and dynamic content. I wanted to use a Contant Manager to allow easy modification of the static stuff, but all the solutions I've looked at severly jeopardize my dynamic capabilities. It's either finding something simpler (a simple WYSIWYG editor for static pages), a CMS that allows for full PHP extension, or separating the two system completly.

[cooldude832]

try phpBB you might be able to stripe wsywig html editor out of it

[redarrow]

have a look at this then

 

http://www.interspire.com/devedit/

 

 

but there meny free out there ok.