[thelist] Updating Web Sites [Was "a question of how to work", was "I gotta vent"]

[John.Brooking at sappi.com]

>Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 15:51:14 -0400
>From: "Nancy Johnson" <njohnson at wheelock.edu>
>To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
>Subject: RE: [thelist]  Was I gotta vent, but now is a question of how to
work
>
><snip>
>
>For my freelance work, I have done everything from create a very simple add

>update script to design basic html pages that are very simple. I again also

>try to get a feel for the client's strengths and weaknesses, as well as how

>and how often they are going to update content and I design for
maintenance.

All,

I have set up and/or am maintaining web sites for a small number of
non-profit clients. None of them use Frontpage or anything like that,
because I'm only interested in coding by hand. Of course, that leaves me in
the content update loop. I'm attempting to solve that problem by creating a
Perl-based scripting system to allow me to set up text and tabular data
files representing changeable content, and allowing the non-techies in the
organization to update it using forms. Similar to the customized database
solution that many have done, but I'm attempting to make this one as generic
as possible, to be installable by FTP on any ISP supporting Perl but not
requiring admin rights, and to not require a database. (It currently uses
CSV text files, 'tho I have also considered XML and may switch to it at some
point.) Obviously I am not targeting large sites with tons of content, I
realize that. I'm targeting small non-profits and small businesses. I'm
calling the product Shoestring CMS.

I have an initial product release at http://www.shoestringcms.com/, but I'm
working on a major upgrade (2.0) which will include an on-line demo, so I'm
not pushing the current release (1.8) at all. But the new one is almost
finished, at which point you are all invited to take a look. I will be
releasing it under the Perl Artistic license and GPL, so anyone can download
it and set it up. (Or, they can hire me to set it up for them. Or maybe hire
you!)

I hope this isn't viewed as a commercial ad. For one thing, I'm not charging
for the software. More importantly, when version 2.0 is ready, I'm hoping
that people on this list might be interested enough to take a look and give
me good feedback on it. (Or offer advice in redesigning my web site, which
I'm liking less and less.) I will make myself available to help you set it
up in return for feedback.

Mostly, I am telling you about it in the hopes that you might also find it
useful, knowing that many of us are in this situation. Maybe if you are
interested, you can reply to me privately and I'll start a list. Then, when
2.0 is released, I can just make a very short announcement to this list, but
can write to the private list with more details, instead of bothering
everyone with another long semi-commercial announcement.

I think that this is on-topic for this list. If not, consider my unsolicited
tip of two weeks ago[1] as payment! ;-)

- John

[1]
http://lists.evolt.org/harvest/detail.cgi?w=20040426&id=6047&orderby=tip_dat
e&orderdir=DESC

P.S. This is a personal project, not affiliated with my employer, who is
listed below and has appended the long disclaimer at the end of this
message!

John Brooking, Application Developer
Sappi Fine Paper
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