You’ll see me remove the site navigation, replace it with a content block, and give my client an easy way to update the main nav on the site.

CMS update video 2

I made a small goof in the early part of the video and called the unordered list a “menu” because I was looking at the id of the opening tag.

I do have to face the fact that the birth of this CMS has taken forever and a day.

Why?

Put simply, I wasn’t satisfied with the end result and started a complete rewrite… and I’m glad I did.

I’ve made significant improvements over the version that you see in the videos. Let me give you an example:

Content Blocks

One of the things I got back from the last round of beta testing was that potential clients wanted a system where they (or their clients) could edit multiple sections of their pages, not just the main content.

Perhaps this movie will explain very quickly what I’m trying to convey:

Click for demonstration movie

When you or your clients are logged in, you’ll be able to edit several blocks of content on the page and have them instantly reflected in the template.

I split out my longer recording into two shorter movies, the first one you can see at the link above, the second one I’ll post soon. It takes this concept further and shows you some of the implications of this feature and how you might use it to give your clients control over the navigation of the website.

Several folks have been asking to beta test, and one gent asked me today, which just happened to be fortuitous timing. So I’ll be working over the next 48 hours to get things ready for that limited test.

By focusing on a small number of beta testers, I’ve been able to squash a few remaining bugs, and see where some problems were preventing folks from successfully installing my software.

One new development is some code I whipped up to switch templates based on the category. It defaults to the main template if no category template is found. Not Earth shattering, but useful and needed.

What to do…

Failing Forward

I wouldn’t call this a failure by any stretch, but it also didn’t meet my over-blown expectations.

But this is one of those cases of “nothing ventured nothing gained.”

Creating software for the masses is extremely difficult. But I already knew this.

Rather than tweaking a few things, I need to go back, analyze some critical elements and revamp.

First Impressions Are 90% of Everything

Those that had an easy install experience were generally pretty enthusiastic about the product. Those that struggled with it seemed turned off from the start.

That’s how it is. I knew all along that the install had to be easy and flawless. That’s where the first impression is made.

Unfortunately, I didn’t predict all the ways that folks would try to install the software. This beta test gave me some new info and I can go back and improve things dramatically.

I’ll Be Back

Time to sharpen the old pencil and see what I can do.

Thank you to everyone that went through the install of the beta test and gave me feedback.

Deadline Blues

Remember my last post where I said nothing happens without a deadline? Well, I definitely felt the heat from the deadline and I really wish I had more time to tweak “this” and modify “that” - but a promise is a promise and besides… it’s time to get your feedback.

The other headache of mine is that today I have to leave the office on a family event that I just can’t get out of… [sarcasm]great planning on my part[/sarcasm]. So I won’t be able to respond to your emails until later tonight… much later.

Oh well.

Last Minute Side Notes

My apologies for the rambling and less-than-spectacular video… I only had time for one take.

My goal was to give you a step by step guide to get you off the ground and up and running with my software so you could test it out.

The installation guide will become more detailed as your questions roll in and I start to answer them. I also have plans for a support forum, help desk, and FAQ section when the new site is launched.

1- I’m too much of a perfectionist
2- Without a deadline, ain’t nothin’ happening

There were some major projects that landed in my lap unexpectedly that took up all my time, including one of my best clients needing a full blown custom made calendar. As much as I would have loved grabbing one of the many calendar apps available — theirs needed to read events from an xml data feed. Lots of moving parts, lots of headache, but good money.

But honestly, I’m a bit ashamed at how long it’s been since I posted anything about the CMS which I’ve worked so hard on and which many of you are anxiously awaiting.

So, I’m putting my feet to the fire and announcing that on Sept 15th, I will make a beta test available to all of you that have expressed an interest. I’ll send out an email to the list and post a download page.

Note - although the final release will be 99% source code-viewable, the beta test will be encoded, while I iron out and clean up some of the spots that are less-than-pretty (from a coding perspective).

Special thanks to many of you who have sent me encouraging, enthusiastic emails describing how desperately you want what I’ve described. Now it’s up to me to deliver.

Finally, as we approach launch date, there will be special announcements to the list that might not end up on the blog. These could include special early bird discounts, opportunities to get your website url on my new home page for the cms, contest promotions, and other goodies.

I’ve come to the conclusion that clients do what they do… and it’s not their job to learn the “ways of the web”. It’s my job to make things work regardless of whether my clients follow my precise instructions.

Besides…

Not only is this your dream… but your clients’ dream too.

After all, they don’t enjoy calling you up to “fix” a problem that shouldn’t have occurred in the first place. They already feel like a nincompoop (sp?) for having to call you for help and now they have to listen to you tell them that they did something “wrong” by pasting from Word.

You hang up the phone thinking the client is too lazy to follow simple directions… while they hang up the phone thinking that maybe they hired the wrong “web guy”.

I think I’ve got a solution for you…

My code fixes 99% of the issues you’ll get with “copy and paste from Word nightmares” so that you get a great result even when the client does everything “wrong”.

Check it out…

Video: Word Nightmares Be Gone

There are some minor requirements for the test, which most of you will already have in place:

1-Hosting account running Apache Linux (.htaccess needed for this test)
2-Safe mode off (server setting your host uses - commonly off)
3-dl() function enabled (common)

If you want to test out your site ahead of time, you could run this code:

<?php
if( !(bool)ini_get( "enable_dl" ) || (bool)ini_get( "safe_mode"
) ) {
die( "Loading extensions is not permitted.\n" );
}
?>


The reason for the last two has to do with the encryption method for the beta test software. I don’t have to encrypt the code, but I am - and I’m using Ioncube.

One of the decisions I’m wrestling with is protection of the source code:

1- No encryption
2- Encrypt using Ioncube - which works on most servers
3- Ponying up the money for a Zend license so that folks could choose Ioncube or Zend, with a virtual guarantee that one (if not both) will work on their server.

I’m leaning towards option 3.

I’m guilty… or I used to be - before creating a better content management system.

It’s one of the things that really bothered me about other CMS apps:

• Clients shouldn’t have to learn html if they hire me and pay me big bucks…
• Clients don’t want to learn HTML and most can’t even if they tried - or they don’t have the time…
• Creating a link from one page to another should be friggin’ easy - but it’s not.

Obviously I wouldn’t be griping if I didn’t have a solution.

So here it is:

Quick 5 minute video

CMS Admin Tweak Video

In short, the feedback I received from my software clients (Ultimate Form Mail) indicated that it was very important to have the ability to restrict users to certain portions of the website.

For example, give Bob access to ‘Articles’, ‘News’, and ‘FAQs’. Give Jane access to ‘FAQs’ and the ‘Main’ category.

I already had a system in place for multiple users and multiple roles with different site-wide responsibilities, but this “tweak” increases the power and flexibility of the system without adding very much complexity for you, the Super Admin.