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redbrad0
Advanced Member
USA
3725 Posts |
 Posted - 16 August 2004 : 23:32:21
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I have been redoing a very large site in ASP. One thing they wanted to be able to do was edit the files in Front Page like they are able to now. So I am starting to just think of ways to do this and would like people's opinion....
1. Try to create the files so Front Page will be able to edit them and not cause any problem. I hardly know anything about Front Page so not really sure about this.
2. Make each of the pages DB driven so the data of each page is stored in the DB and requested for each page load and able to be edited via a WYSIWYG web based editor. Only reason I would like to stay away from this is that if the DB goes offline then the entire site will not work.
3. Have a WYSIWYG web based editor that they can edit the files and using FSO. This would require every directory to have read/write/delete permission unless I do a NT login page.
Any other ways you can think of? Any of these sound like the better plan? I am leaning towards number 3 at this time. |
Brad
Oklahoma City Online Entertainment Guide
Oklahoma Event Tickets |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 17 August 2004 : 05:23:47
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| wiki? or sharepoint, which does pretty much what you want right out the box, by the sounds of it! |
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laser
Advanced Member
Australia
3859 Posts |
Posted - 17 August 2004 : 06:10:02
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Not knowing anything about wiki, I'd go for 2 - a custom built CMS, maybe with Snitz-like formatting so they can change some things, but not screw things up completely  |
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Gremlin
General Help Moderator
New Zealand
7528 Posts |
Posted - 17 August 2004 : 09:20:17
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| I'd go sharepoint possibly .. but afaik the issues with Frontpage killing code are pretty much long over, I haven't heard anyone saying they have had problems editing .asp files with frontpage since about Frontpage 2002. |
Kiwihosting.Net - The Forum Hosting Specialists
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 17 August 2004 : 10:53:26
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gremlin, you're right, FP is asp-friendly now. However, users aren't, so if they're editing pages and delete a spiky bracket, the page is going to need fixing.
Sharepoint is designed for users to meddle with pages, and has 'web parts' which are shrink-wrapped page controls or sections which you import/write/buy, and the users can play away without any danger of breaking things. Our user-base of >10k users use sharepoint with very very rare disasters, and everyone gets their own sharepoint homepage if they want it  - we no longer use UNC paths for anything user-related, as everyone can put stuff on and off document stores, change sharepoint lists etc. |
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redbrad0
Advanced Member
USA
3725 Posts |
Posted - 17 August 2004 : 13:34:27
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| Well this is a custom built application where basically they will be editing their site. So lets say that http://www.eznthosting.com/services/ is the site I was working on and I wanted the admin to be able to edit that page. They do not need to get into any of the include files but just the body of the page to change maybe a couple words around. My knowledge of sharepoint is limited so I could be wrong in thinking that sharepoint is more of a collaboration product where this is a full website which they just need to be able to edit text when needed. |
Brad
Oklahoma City Online Entertainment Guide
Oklahoma Event Tickets |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 18 August 2004 : 04:31:24
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yup, you're right - in that case yeah, frontpageing your site should be fine, just make sure they stay away from any code (or they'll only hurt themselves)
You could suggest they only use FP in design mode, not split or html, so they are less likely to hurt themselves unless they do something stupid like delete a screen object nearby an important code nugget.
You could also just database the screen parts they need to change and give them an asp lightweight interface, like most portal systems offer :) |
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redbrad0
Advanced Member
USA
3725 Posts |
Posted - 18 August 2004 : 08:29:34
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| Yea that was my question do you think it would be better to make each page DB driven where the content is stored in the DB or make them sign in as the NT username to give them read/write permissions and then allow them to edit the files. The only reason I think the second one would be better is so not every page is DB driven so if their DB crash's the site does not go fully offline. |
Brad
Oklahoma City Online Entertainment Guide
Oklahoma Event Tickets |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 18 August 2004 : 09:29:42
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tough call - but option 3 is going to be most secure and easiest to implement :)
Why would the db be more likely to crash than the rest of the server? SQL Server is rock-solid from experience, but you could just use a simple jet access db.
Or, of course, just use the textstreamobject to write to and read from small files for things like price lists.
Or, best of all (my wonderful new suggestion) is to read the data into application variables from the database|text file at boot and then best of all worlds - when they want a change, couple of mods in a db field, then restart the application :) |
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redbrad0
Advanced Member
USA
3725 Posts |
Posted - 18 August 2004 : 15:40:56
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quote:
Or, best of all (my wonderful new suggestion) is to read the data into application variables from the database|text file at boot and then best of all worlds - when they want a change, couple of mods in a db field, then restart the application :)
This would be the best but afraid of performance on the server. The site has about 1,000 pages with decent size text on all the pages so I would hate to fill up any of the servers memory to store all of these pages in it. But I guess I am not 100% sure how much of the memory it would take to hold all of the data in the application variable.
Thanks for you guys advice questions/comments. Sometimes its great to throw things out at other developers to see if you might be forgetting a better way to code something. |
Brad
Oklahoma City Online Entertainment Guide
Oklahoma Event Tickets |
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Nathan
Help Moderator
USA
7664 Posts |
Posted - 18 August 2004 : 16:05:52
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| It wouldn't be too hard to implement a fully associative cache for the templates in the application variables. That would decrease hits to the database substantually. |
 Nathan Bales
CoreBoard | Active Users Download |
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sy
Average Member
United Kingdom
638 Posts |
Posted - 18 August 2004 : 16:29:46
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quote:
Originally posted by redbrad0
I have been redoing a very large site in ASP. One thing they wanted to be able to do was edit the files in Front Page like they are able to now. So I am starting to just think of ways to do this and would like people's opinion....
1. Try to create the files so Front Page will be able to edit them and not cause any problem. I hardly know anything about Front Page so not really sure about this.
2. Make each of the pages DB driven so the data of each page is stored in the DB and requested for each page load and able to be edited via a WYSIWYG web based editor. Only reason I would like to stay away from this is that if the DB goes offline then the entire site will not work.
3. Have a WYSIWYG web based editor that they can edit the files and using FSO. This would require every directory to have read/write/delete permission unless I do a NT login page.
Any other ways you can think of? Any of these sound like the better plan? I am leaning towards number 3 at this time.
Would it be possible to use <include content.whatever> and use something to strip out any tags FP adds?
I've used that before with something like RoboFTP to allow a customer to change items using word (!!) or FP.
S |
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails
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redbrad0
Advanced Member
USA
3725 Posts |
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sy
Average Member
United Kingdom
638 Posts |
Posted - 18 August 2004 : 17:05:48
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quote:
Originally posted by redbrad0
Boy so many choices.......
There is a friend of mine who has a weblog in ASP and he wanted to have a pseudo static first and last entry, so I <included> masthead.asp and closing.asp around the code.
Works pretty well, and by giving him a template referencing the stylesheet, he can use notepad or frontpage (after removing the stuff it adds, FP XP is pretty well behaved actually) to change his website.
Guess it will depend on the content how you can do it though. |
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails
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