My client wants the ability to not only edit content on pre-designed pages, but to also add pages. They want the ability to add pages to the main menu which creates new pages (giving info on their conference), based on my template.
I’ve looked at the WebYep CMS Menu, but don’t think this is what I’m looking for. Max’s manual says “it is not intended to be used as for main navigation, but for sub-navigation like a products submenu”
So if WebYep (which I love) isn’t the answer, what is? Will Perch (which I’ve heard good things about) do this? Is there a FW Perch Action? How would I get the Perch code into my FW file, or would I have to manually add it to the FW generated code?
I believe Nathan Garner (aka Big G) has done Perch sites which have this feature so perhaps he can help. I’ll shoot him an email and direct him to this thread.
I’ve been looking at the Perch website and documentation - and i don’t like the look of it: looks complicated and messy.
I really like the look of Surreal CMS - simple and nice UI - it will allow clients to create pages, but I don’t think these will automatically appear in the menu/nav bar.
For me, the learning curve with Perch was a little steep, especially since I’m not a coder. However, now that I’ve done a few sites it’s a lot easier and much more intuitive.
Personally, I’ve found Drew from Perch to be quite helpful and more considerate of users with limited coding skills. Plus, there are several Freeway Pro/Perch users on this forum who can help, one of which is Nathan Garner. Here’s a site Nathan just finished that allows his client to add pages: http://www.solentnightz.co.uk
I’ve asked Nathan to respond to this post to give you his impressions of Perch. He’ll have a much better feel for what you’re attempting to do and he has a lot more experience with Perch than I do.
and I’ve just been rereading Max’s WebYep documentation. It appears that I can made a menu bar editable using WebYep, but that clients can’t create new pages. So that’s not much use to me.
Yes, it’s possible to do this with Perch, I’ve done it, but it [Perch] is definitely not a point-n-click CMS for the developer. Clients love it because it is easy to use but unless you have some experience working with code you may find it a little challenging.
Not a solution to a large site. But perfectly good solution for a site with simple needs. The plus side is that the client can edit, sort, rename the pages as they like.
You can also use CSS to make the menu’s horizontal - the caveat being there’s always a limit to sideways menus before they wrap.
Perch would create much better URL’s though.
David
On 24 Jun 2013, at 10:43, “Mark” email@hidden wrote:
I’ve looked at the WebYep CMS Menu, but don’t think this is what I’m looking for. Max’s manual says “it is not intended to be used as for main navigation, but for sub-navigation like a products submenu”
Our clients love Perch - you will need a bit code knowledge to get it going but I have found the support from Perch to be helpful.
I also like Surreal a lot - but they do not have a blog option and for me that is a huge deal breaker. Most of our clients rely on blogs as part of their marketing strategy.
You would create you page in Freeway as normal and publish/upload. In Perch you would create all your regions so that you are happy. Then go back to the generated HTML page from FW, duplicate it, add some specific code to the /head and upload to the ‘Pages’ folder on the FTP. Then get Perch to do it’s funky stuff.
There are video tutorials on how this is done, but as Marcel mentioned, you will need a little coding knowledge to get it working as you want it. But if you are using Perch and are happy with the way it works, doing this is not a major hastle.
So the process you recommend is to take the HTML that FW generates and then add in the Perch stuff by hand in a text editor.
I know this is limiting myself, but I was hoping to be able to keep my work flow within FW - add in the Perch stuff within FW - enabling me to continue to make design changes in FW. Like the excellent WebYep Action allows.
Is this not possible / not efficient way of working?
Once you have the HTML from FW, what do you do if the design changes? Do you have to manually go through every pages HTML and change it by hand?
I’ve been somewhat put off Perch by their website and documentation (to me it looks overly complicated). I’m loving the Surreal CMS website and documentation and might give it a go and try to keep my workflow in FW.
I know this is limiting myself, but I was hoping to be able to keep my work flow within FW - add in the Perch stuff within FW - enabling me to continue to make design changes in FW.
You can continue to make design changes within FW but with the exception of adding the Perch tags to the FW page (easy) the nuts-n-bolts of creating the Perch templates will need to be done outside of FW in a text editor. This is not a shortcoming of Perch but is representative of the fact that most people use a tool that has a built-in editor which FW does not so the workflow by necessity becomes a bit more work.
I’ve been somewhat put off Perch by their website and documentation (to me it looks overly complicated).
Those of us who use Perch regularly all agree the docs are lacking but the devs are making a serious effort to flesh them out and make them more accessible to a broader audience. They have also have a series of podcasts (available for free on iTunes) which they record each week and take requests so the docs are improving.
I’ll shoot him an email and direct him to this thread.