I don't know where to begin...

[mikefrankthedesigner]

Hello all! I'm new to the forum, and to scripting as a whole.

I have a client who wants me to set-up a new web feature for their site. The goal is to allow his employees to go in and make updates and changes to the content of the site without my assistance as a webmaster or administrator. And to tell you the truth, I'm a graphic designer first and foremost. So when it comes to development stuff, I honestly don't know where to begin.

I do know that CGI scripts and stuff can make this possible through the use of input forms and such, but thats about all I know. I haven't even yet learned enough about CGI or other server based programs to build a CGI script and make it work. I did talk alot with my client about forms and stuff, what I know of it anyway, and he likes the idea of having a homepage or control panel for his employees to log into and from there be able to enter the information into forms, and when submitted the data would appear on the page in the format that I decide using CSS and HTML based formatting. So I wanted to ask for advice here first about how I should proceed.

I'm not sure if there are more efficient ways of doing this, or if there is even a way to do it. I could use a bit of enlightenment as to how these type of things work. I will take your suggestion and learn from there, but truth is I don't know where to star as far as what program and language I should use for this. I could really use some direction here as to where I should begin. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure if this is even the right forum for me to post this topic, so if it's not, please don't be mad, I just don't know for sure.

Thanks for your help guys!
Mike :)

[PeejAvery]

What you are looking for is known as a Content Management System (CMS). To make it easy on you, instead of making your own, I would suggest using Wordpress (http://wordpress.org/). It can easily be integrated into current systems and allows people to edit only certain portions.

Your other option is the best, but quite expensive. Adobe Dreamweaver is a great way to manage a site. Then, you can get Contribute so that others may access ony certain portions of your site.

[olivthill]

Understand the notions of client side vs. server side.

- CSS and HTML are on the client side.

- CGI is on the server side.
CGI modules are usualy compiled and are usually written in languages for advanced developers. Nowadays, CMS packages are providing an easier solution. Or you can learn PHP, which is a very good language, free, and widely used, see http://www.php.net .

[Nibinaear]

You could also try looking into using Drupal as this would allow you to make a website and modify it easily, although if you already have a website that needs changing I don't know how easy this would be to integrate with Drupal. I ave a friend who doesn't know web development and has successfully built a new website in a couple of months using Drupal.

If you want to go down the full-scale development by hand route, you need to learn the PHP Scripting Language (don't bother with Perl, ASP.net might be too much to learn at once) and also how to use databases, namely MySQL which means learning SQL first. You then need to learn how to configure PHP/MySQL. I suggest using http://www.ricocheting.com/server/ for tutorials on how to do this. This might be a long-term goal for you if you are going to be given other duties such as this.

[mikefrankthedesigner]

Peej, Do you mean I should install Dreamweaver and Contribute on my client's own PC? Or on his Linux server? What do you mean? I will be using Dreamweaver to build the pages (the form page) but how would my client use it without having to teach him how to use Dreamweaver and Contribute?

And I'm coming to the unfortunate conclusion that I cannot write up a CGI without learning PHP and SQL first. That makes this project pretty much impossible for me as I don't have the time to do that before my client needs the product.

Sigh*, this is a pain in the butt.

[PeejAvery]

Contribute (http://www.adobe.com/products/contribute/) is a software package by Adobe that works hand-in-hand with Dreamweaver. In order to allow someone access to change certain parts of your website, you can enable Contribute access using Dreamweaver.

Then install Contribute on the machine that you want to be able to change things with limited access. Contribute, after you set it up, will download pages, edit them from the temporary files, and then re-upload them. The files are not completely stored on the Contribute machine.

Go to the site to read more about it. Adobe has a lot of support information for you.

[mikefrankthedesigner]

Thanks guys, the advice got me researching all kinds of stuff.

I think I want to make them a page on their server that they have to log into with a username and password. That brings them to a page with form fields for each entry. Upon submission, the form will add a new table data cell to the calendar page. I think a CGI script is the way to do this, and as I understand, I have to learn C or Perl in order to make a CGI script to do this.

Am I right? Or is there a way around learning the whole programing language to create a CGI script that is specifically designed to do this?

I'm surprised I haven't found a user-friendly type program that makes these kind of scripts, like Dreamweaver is to HTML and web design. Is there any such thing?

[PeejAvery]

I think I want to make them a page on their server that they have to log into with a username and password. That brings them to a page with form fields for each entry. Upon submission, the form will add a new table data cell to the calendar page. I think a CGI script is the way to do this, and as I understand, I have to learn C or Perl in order to make a CGI script to do this.
Personally, I would not bother with CGI. It is getting old and very tricky to learn at times. I highly suggest PHP. It is easy, loosely typed, and well documented. A language that is not well documented can be a huge pain when trying to learn.

I'm surprised I haven't found a user-friendly type program that makes these kind of scripts, like Dreamweaver is to HTML and web design. Is there any such thing?
Scripting languages are not easy to create by automation. There is, however, a huge library (http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_list.php?form_cat=183) of which you could be investigating.