[clue-talk] Updating the ol Website

[Greg Knaddison - GVS]

On 8/15/06, erik at ezolan.com <erik at ezolan.com> wrote:
> Gah. I have a few competitors and they're doing that. Their sites are
> shoehorned into the software, far more complex than it needs to be and
> difficult to add to. Theirs look a lot better, but mine is superior when
> it comes to functionality. And I've barely changed things for the past 5
> years.

Well, then you won't like my recommendation...

Use Drupal and the Swish-e indexer.  I'd be surprised if you, on your
own, can create the features/looks/usability of a CMS like Drupal.

> I'm doing fine with the content. The only issue with that is the users
> want to be able to search through all the stories for key phrases.
> Considering people can upload using any document format, and the
> processing requirements something like that would take, I'm probably not
> going to implement that.

As Sean points out, Swish-e already does most of this.  And there's a
Drupal module for it:
http://drupal.org/node/16428

It doesn't handle zip nor is it updated for 4.7 and it requires some
special utilities on the host, but it does most of what you want,
today.  With a little tweaking, you'd be golden.

> What I need to do is update the design/looks of the thing. Currently it's
> cobbled together HTML. I should also look into updating the PHP so I can
> turn off register_globals.
>
> Just ordered a new CSS book from Amazon. The one for Dummies isn't that good.

I'd just recommend just using drupal and one of the many XHTML/CSS
themes that come with it.  Then use your own CSS-FU to tweak to your
heart's content.

Regards,
Greg

-- 
Greg Knaddison | Growing Venture Solutions
Denver, CO | http://growingventuresolutions.com
Technology Solutions for Communities, Individuals, and Small Businesses