xml editor for clients
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- felizfeliz
Anybody have experience of using this:
http://www.codeandvisual.com/rai…I've got a Flash site that loads content from an xml file. I simply need a simple visual cms editor for my client to simply edit the text within the xml.
I was thinking to quickly program something my self either in Flash or directly with php. But it'd be nice if there was something already out there - perhaps a nice javscript app. Are these the only choices?
- doesnotexist0
why don't you just have him use notepad?
- felizfeliz0
i could...
- felizfeliz0
A list of XML based CMS for Web Developers:
http://tutorialfeed.blogspot.com…
that's what i'm after. a cms that outputs xml files that i can then load into flash.
- rounce0
Why on earth are you using XML files? Slap it all in a database and use this: http://pastebin.com/f71fb73cc
You'll need to edit the objects being called in the loop to match your fields in the DB, and for that particular example you'll also need to compose the list of images in a pipe ' | ' delimited string in the database; but if you can live with that your client's life (and also yours) will be shitloads easier.- DIdn't read the above post, but yeah thats a super basic one right there.rounce
- mathinc0
^^ Why on earth would you use a database for simple flash content data?
Feliz, I'm looking for the same thing. Haven't found anything great yet... :(
- acescence0
you would use a database because editing an xml file is a pain in the ass and your clients WILL fuck it up. of course, using a db means you also need some sort of tool to manage the db content, so you've just shifted the problem elsewhere.
- Agreed. Clients should never ever access anything except a tinymce interface or something similarsection_014
- mathinc0
"your clients WILL fuck it up. of course" - totally agree, which is why we're lookin for an xml cms! :)
- acescence0
building a cms that stores all of its content in xml files is not a good idea, you'll have better luck finding a cms that stores its content in a db and outputs xml
- rounce0
@mathinc: Great job understanding the mechanics involved. I'm part way through writing a rather large site (on my own) with a Flash UI, PHP Rest API, and the site's core serverside functionality, and a Java RTMP media upload/transcoding/stream server. So I dunno, maybe I have 2 cents or so to offer on this kinda thing seeing as it's a current project of mine.
- fyoucher10
I use XMLPad to update my site on my site. It'd be pretty hard for your clients to f-up (and it's for PC). It lists everything in an easy to use tree menu where you can copy and paste nodes, select them, edit them etc etc. It's kind of like Rainbow but without the fancy dancy interface...and it's free.
- I'm retarded this morning.fyoucher1
- my client is using a MAC. wow!felizfeliz
- vaxorcist0
CDATA all the way!
But seriously, I built PHP/mySQL systems that output XML, and it worked though clients had a way of wanting to randomly change structure, thinking that it should be as easy to re-order things as Powerpoint... they just didn't get the idea of information design for quite a while... and when they finally got it, they felt resentful, saying the designers had straightjacketed them into a system....
clients kept wanting to add subheads and bullet points and footnotes upon footnotes.... and more and longer photo captions that would break the layout.... it all seemed like endless CYA to me, they were more worried about not saying EVERYTHING that information heirichy and actual priorities meant nothing.... at one meeting a client guy said "why can't I just make everything bold!"
so, beware culture differences!
- cuke4260
purchased that rainbow cms last month, couldn't set it up correctly on first pass, haven't spent any time on it since...
- felizfeliz0
I'm not going to start adding an another layer of complexiticity - a database - when all I've got is a 3 page flash website with just a text box that needs to be CMS'ed.
All I need is a text box much the same as this QBN 'respond' text box that I'm typing in right now, that will display the current text in a xml node, allow it to be edited and then saved back to the xml file. That's it. sheer simplicity.
Some I'm learning php DOM stuff after going down the wrong path with php simplexml which is so simple you can't do anything with it (eg replace text in a xml node that is wrapped in CDATA tags).
Nightmare. And worse of all, clients just expect CMS and don't even have any budget for it...
- NONEIS0
TW is king of free for a mac, but mac only...
http://www.barebones.com/product…
- acescence0
a database doesn't have to be complex. if i were you, i'd use php object generator to deal with the database, dead simple...
http://www.phpobjectgenerator.co…
TinyMCE as an editor to format and filter text from the client..
and then stitch it together with a little php to spit out a new xml file whenever the db is updated.
my 2¢
- acrossthesea0
Why not spend an hour, and teach them how to edit a nicely commented xml file and upload it to the server?