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A Content Management System for website developers

The 123Live CMS will shortly become available to third party developers around the world.

123Live is not a big ticket CMS (about £40+vat/month) but it is a big hitter in terms of usability for the end user and flexibility for the designer. It's a hosted, fully AJAX driven CMS that has been used by many hundreds of people since 2002. The last six years have taught us a lot about what end users really want from a CMS.

End users rave about the ease of use and minimal learning curve (read some reviews). Now we are making the experience just as pleasant for website developers.

I would be delighted if you could give me some feedback on what's important to you. This will help us shape the CMS to your needs.

I will let you know when the launch date has been finalised, but meanwhile feel free to contact me, Tony Blighe, on 01264 848122 (direct) if you would like to see the CMS in action or to discuss it's suitability for your websites.

How do you write your code?

To avoid 'bloatware' the 123Live CMS does not provide developers with a WYSIWYG 'drag and drop' environment. You build the templates and stylesheet with raw HTML/CSS. This gives you full control over the resulting code.

You can either hand code HTML/CSS directly into the template/stylesheet editors or you can copy and paste from Dreamweaver or similar WYSIWYG editor. The CMS lets you instantly (a fraction of a second) preview your work and provides built in CSS and HTML validation.

It would help us to know how you develop your websites

I always hand code my websites. WYSIWYG editors are for wimps.

I use a WYSIWYG editor combined with hand coding.

I use a WYSIWYG editor. Hand coding is for geeks.

My preferred website development tools are:

Comments

Hosting

The CMS is hosted on our servers and delivered via a browser so you don't have to instal any client or server software.

The 123Live CMS publishes a complete 'ready to go' website by FTP to any web server. So you have the option of hosting the website (not the CMS) yourself if you wish.

Where do you prefer to host your websites:

I'd prefer to arrange my own web hosting thank you very much.

I would prefer you to do the web hosting but only if the price is the same as I'm paying now.

I would prefer you to provide web hosting even if it costs a little more.

Search engine stuff

Search engines are often a concern with any website development tool. The 123Live CMS generates very search engine friendly websites. Really, the website is as good as your code because the CMS does not add 'bloatware' of any description, it's just your code, even the menus.

How important is search engine optimisation to you?

Search engine results are everything to me. I would welcome any CMS that made SEO easier, quicker and more effective.

So long as the CMS reproduces my code I'm happy. I don't need a lot of bells and whistles.

My clients are not usually concerned about search engine results.

Comments

What's your experience of Content Management Systems?

We are building a picture of why CMS is not used more often for lower budget (£1,000 to £5,000) 'marketing' websites.

What's your experience with CMS 

I could write a book on CMS. We are experts and do some pretty clever stuff with CMS.

I have a favourite CMS that I use wherever I can.

I rarely or never have cause to use a CMS for a client's website.

My favourite Content Management Systems are:

Here are some reasons why I don't use
CMS more often for lower budget websites: 

Server side code

The Content Management System publishes whatever HTML or CSS you put into it via FTP. So there is no need for any server side coding, unless you need it.

You can have some or all pages processed by the web server to give more advanced functionality such as password protection. This can be done with the CMS easily by putting server side code into your templates.

Pages can have any extension you want, .asp, .php, whatever you choose. Obviously the server code will not execute within the CMS. Your client side scripts will work within the CMS.

This provides a very powerful way to plug an exceptionally user friendly front end onto your own powerful back end.

How often do you need server side functionality?

Most or all of our sites will involve bespoke or customised server side stuff.

Some of our sites involve server side stuff but many do not.

I avoid complex websites and prefer websites that are simple and quick to build and support.

Who will edit the site?

The 123Live Content Management System provides a very pleasant user experience with minimal training and support. We encourage developers to allow their clients to edit there own website.

Who edits your websites?

I wouldn't let our clients anywhere near a CMS.

I or a member of my team would provide the initial content and once the website is up and running we would want the client to maintain all or some of the site.

I don't get involved in content generation and input, so I would want the client to use the CMS as soon as possible.

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Finally

If you have any other comments, or perhaps some questions, here's a place to put them.

 

 

Many thanks for taking the time to complete the questionnaire. I will be in touch as soon as we have more details of the launch.

Yours

Tony Blighe

Managing Director