simplecontent

In short, the content is defined as one or more items that can be displayed on a page. As each page is requested, the items that appear on the page are inserted into a template which is then displayed in the browser.

The web designer or developer creates one or more templates, usually in HTML & CSS, that outline the styles, layout and structure required by the website. Some special code is then inserted into the templates to define where on the page the content is displayed. The templates are then placed into the correct folder in the website. If all the website pages have the same design then only one template is needed, however, templates can also be assigned on a per-page basis, allowing many different page designs to be used.

The base version comes with several generic content types that can be used in lots of ways to create dynamic content, including Formatted Text and Simple Picture. The optional add-ons contain more specialised content types, such as picture galleries, RSS feeds, and product lists.

When a page is created, it can be given a simple name that makes sense. This avoids the problem that most CMSs have where the page URL ends up being extremely long and made up of arcane sequences of numbers and letters. It is much easier to tell a client who wants to see your products to go to a page called ‘products’ than something like ‘index.dll?FF3DF0...’

SimpleContent’s extensibility allows for the development of content types that can enforce a structure to the content, or can gather content from any other source, such as existing databases or other legacy systems. If you have a requirement for a particular custom content type, these can be created easily by any developer with good coding skills. In short, just about any content from any source that can be accessed by software, can be displayed on a SimpleContent page.

Definitely. There is a powerful optional add-on that enables form functionality to be added and managed as a content type. This includes the ability to use the supplied mail and data gathering forms, custom designed forms, or even functionality defined as ASP.NET Web User Controls.

In most cases, yes. If the functionality can be converted to work as ASP.NET Web User Controls then this could quite simply be incorporated using the Forms & Functionality add-on. In other cases, it may be possible to call an existing form handler to perform the operation. Feel free to contact us to discuss your requirements.

Yes, each item of content is given a unique name; this name can then be used to specify an item to be displayed at a particular position on the page. For instance, an item of content containing news could be placed within the page’s navigation bar, completely separate from the rest of the page content.

The main principle behind SimpleContent is to keep content, style and design separate from each other. However, this is not always practical, so there are two ways of applying CSS styles to your content. The first is within the content itself, where the WYSIWYG editor will allow you to apply styles from your main stylesheet to selected text. The second is by applying styles based on the name of the item and/or a CSS class assigned to it. This approach gives the greatest flexibility while still ensuring that style information is not embedded directly within the content.

Although the output from the current version of SimpleContent is HTML specific, it was designed from the outset to be able to be used in many other ways, such as Flash and PDF. Development is currently ongoing of RSS and Flash-based presentation layers. Please feel free to contact us if you have any specific requirements in this area.

SimpleContent is currently available for Windows IIS systems. It will work with IIS 5, 6, and 7, and requires at least ASP.NET version 2.0. As supplied, it is designed to work with all MS SQL 2000/2005 editions, including MSDE and Express. Data layers to support other types of RDBMS are available or can be developed on request.

Development is currently under way to allow the use of SimpleContent data with a variety of presentation layers. One option will allow content to be accessed via an XML Web Service , which can then be served by any other front end. For example, a PHP website or a Flash application. We will also be offering content-only hosting with a dedicated administration interface for use in these cases. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to join us in evaluating these facilities.

The developers of SimpleContent, coderscollective.pz, will be happy to discuss your custom development requirements.

Please contact one of our Design Partners, who will be able to help fit SimpleContent to your requirements.

SimpleContent cannot automatically translate your content for you, each language’s content has to be entered into the system. However, we can recommend human translators for French, German and Spanish. It is worth noting that, if the content is at all specialised, it may be best to contact a translator with expertise in your particular field to ensure that you get the best service.