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Macguide Issue 12
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| Using the inbuilt browser, choosing the
page to edit is as simple as surfing the net |
There's nothing more likely to reduce a grown web developer
to tears than to see a site they developed destroyed after it's been
handed over to someone with a limited understanding of how web sites work.
It's often not the fault of the new person, as they may have been asked to
be responsible for the site with limited training, but it can be a gut-wrenching
experience to see your baby becoming so disheveled, nonetheless.
Of course, there are ways to overcome this with Open Source
or commercial content management systems. But until recently, if you were developing
in Macromedia's popular Dreamweaver application, the only way to attempt to
stop your site being ruined was through the use of templates and specific user-editable
regions. This still required that the person altering site content used Dreamweaver
and didn't separate the page from the initial template to regain control. Grrr!
Macromedia Contribute (which makes its first appearance on Max
OS X at Version 2) overcomes these problems by allowing web developer to lock
sites and page regions down more strongly, but Contribute also makes the interface
for those updating the pages much more simple. In fact, those responsible for
content may not have to understand HTML at all, just how to process words.
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| Looking more like a word processor than
a web tool, Contribute's easy interface should appeal to Dreamweaver-phobes |
Sophisticated control
The first part of the set-up actually takes place with the administrator's
version of Dreamweaver. There the web developer assigns folder access permissions,
file deletion permissions, protect-scripts embedded in pages and other settings
for a site. You then move to the person to supply content and their copy
of Contribute, wherein you enter access and verification details.
If you have a lot of users, Contribute allows you to develop
a connection key file that you can send to users to help them with all the
tricky setting up process. Even nicer is that the Mac version of Contribute
can even be set to access web pages on a .Mac account.
While complex tasks such as defining users and setting rollbacks
(allowing the system to automatically archive older versions of pages which
you can revert to) might seem daunting, most experienced web developers will
be at ease with the process. It does seem a lot of work, and only time will
tell how successful you have been in restricting users working on the site.
Unfortunately, the feature I was looking forward to the most
is in fact missing in the Mac version. On the PC the inserting and formatting
of Excel and Word documents has been improved beyond the stripping of poor
code that Dreamweaver supplies. The Flash-paper facility (nicely transforming
word and PDFs to uploaded Flash content) is also missing in the Mac version.
Users access a page by surfing to it in Contribute, or by typing
the URL address into the program. By indicating a desire to edit the page they
have loaded, the interface changes to that of a word processor and even allows
the user to store draft pages. Your CSS styles become available for the user
to select, restricting their ability to go crazy with various fonts.
The 230-plus page manual seems a bit daunting, and web publishing
is still web publishing. However, with Contribute those with central control
may sleep a little more soundly and snugly, knowing their web site is moderately
safe from overly enthusiastic novices, while knowing that new content is being
uploaded directly from source instead of slowly (sometimes, anyway) via the
developer.
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| It's actually back in Dreamweaver MX where
the strength of Contribute shows when you activate previously unused administrative
settings for your site |
Pros
Makes web editing slightly less daunting for the unskilled
Allows drafts and rollback of pages (up to 99 previous versions)
Keeps most control with the designer/administrator, including assigning groups
to pages
Cons
Expensive when requiring a large number of contributors
Lacks publishing approval process that some Open Source systems have for
free
Administrator has a lot of work to do to establish appropriate set-up and
minimise mistakes
© Parkside Media 2003
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