Creating a Mini Content Management System
There are several components to creating a content management system. First, you need a site or at least the pages that you want to allow limited someone without ftp access to update on a reoccurring basis. This can be as simple as one page that has an area that changes frequently such as weekly specials.
Normally this would be database driven which is what my example features. If you do not have database access you could use the form to write to a text file which can be called as an include file. You can use this sort of form update to a page with any web editor's database scripting tools or hand coding.
In this example we will have a simple page that would be updated frequently by someone without any experience writing HTML via a web form that changes the "specials".
First we'll use an Access database with 1 table called specials. The table consists of 3 columns 1 auto number primary key (special-no), date field (entered_date), and memo field (specials). I've created a mock-up page using our HavaJava information to use as our page for the simple content management system were creating in this presentation. The links to other pages on it will be null links since the page is for example purposes only. I have added navigation links within this section below the normal page links.
The other page created is a form to enter the content that will be changed as each new special replaces the old one. For demonstration purposes I have created a very simple 1 field text area field name "specials".
The final component to our mini-content management system is a javascript html editor called HTMLArea that consists of 1 external js file and a few lines of javascript code you put in the head section of the form page. Along with the javascript code HTMLArea includes a detailed instruction page with information on how to customize the default display to match your site if you choose and an image folder with the buttons for applying the various editor function. For today's demo I left the js file with its defaults with the exception of changing pt to px for the text size.