Fast Edit (edit content on the web page) My first php script!

[Beverleyh]

Hi all,

I've been dabbling in basic php for a few years but only using enough to get by, mainly integrating pre-written scripts into websites and editing code snippets to suit my needs.

Anyway, I've finally got around to writing my first simple, yet functional, mini "software".

I call it "Fast Edit" and basically it allows a site admin to edit web page content right there on the page (an "edit in place" tool).
(editable region content is stored in text files in a sub-directory)

Please have a play on this demo setup and let me know your thoughts: http://www.jemcon.org/process_scripts/fast_edit/

Thanks

[djr33]

I didn't log in because I don't know what the username and password are-- that's fine if you don't want to post them here.

From what I see it looks fine, but it's basically just another CMS. There are many reasons to write your own (especially just that you'll then have it do exactly what you want), but because of that, I don't have much feedback. Perhaps take a look at other existing CMS tools and figure out what you'd like to add later.

A couple thoughts:
1. Security is important, so the most important thing is that you are positive the username and password are required for any 'admin' action. This might not be the case if, for example, there is some form that submits to a page that doesn't check this. You'd never be able to see the FORM without being an admin, but if you are trying to hack someone's server (with a copy of this software yourself) it would be easy to just submit from your form (your server) to their server and bypass it that way. This is just one possible example, but double check. If you're checking the login (or session or whatever) each page load and each time you change/delete/add data, you should be fine.

2. One complex problem with this is that you are using PHP to create the pages and I am guessing you only allow HTML. This is the main reason I don't use CMS systems-- only a few of them allow PHP code. I have no idea if this matters to you. In many cases it won't. But if you ever need to use PHP for your content, you will need to find a way to allow that. And that's another big security issue as well, not to mention a logic problem: I suppose you can store it as an included file, but using eval() [execute a string as php code] is generally a bad idea.
Again, this is just something to think about if it's relevant to you, but it'll be a hard problem to fix if you need to.



Aside from that, looks great-- you've used PHP to save yourself work and automatically do stuff. That's what's great about it.

[Beverleyh]

Thanks for the feedback Daniel.

Yes, I agree - its another simple CMS. I made it simple, to suit my needs, without being bloated out with somebody elses requirements, but it is probably like plenty more others doing the rounds. Its was a great lesson for me though.

The login processing script checks for specific username/password inputs, and on success, sets the session which carries through the other pages - it only shows the editor window if the session is there. The session is then destroyed on logout. Its only simple but I hope thats a secure enough starting point. I'm learning more about php each day so thanks for the prompts and I'll keep revisiting the scripts and retesting once my knowledge increases.

This sccript suits my needs for this particular mini-project as I only need HTML in the editable region for a few simple sites (although I have also made an alternative version with a customised TinyMCE that allows php inputs too - this is used on sites protected by crpss-site phpBB3 login sessions and serves a more advanced TinyMCE editor to the uppermost-admin only)

BTW - the login details are in the blue box on the "home" page of the demo ;)
Easy to miss so no worries.

[djr33]

Ok, I tried logging in now. It's very smooth and very simple. I like it.

I didn't see a way to manage pages: does it not do this yet? That would be an interesting next step. And then some sort of template manager would make it useful for others.
I could imagine this getting popular for beginning designers because it's so straightforward. It has potential, assuming they don't want anything complex.


As for security, you are probably fine. My point is that there may be security loopholes you didn't think of: the first thing you must do on EVERY page is kick them out if they are not logged in as admin. This is crucial for situations where data is being submitted and saved or anything else like that is occurring: just hiding the editor doesn't mean they can't hack you: it means they can't use the editor to hack you. If anything the editor can do can be done without logging in (for example submitted post data including fields, etc) then this will get around your security. This is probably more of a concern if you intend to release it and it's so simple that you probably did not miss anything. I'm just pointing it out. It's something that we all have to remember and when things get complex it's easy to miss.
For example, an ajax routine (grabbing some sort of secure data) must ALSO verify the session, not just the page that calls the ajax. Hope that clears up what I was talking about.

[Beverleyh]

Hi again,

I could add some sort of page manager - maybe that could lead to a "Fast Edit Plus" step in the project, with template options too - but at the moment, I'm going for the "less is more" angle with this "lite" version. Its "lite" status is limited by my pitifully fragmented php knowledge in the here and now though, but I like the idea and will certainly aim to build on the project.

In its current guise it's intended as a simple, non-bloaty, little flat-file plugin to aid the editing process directly on the page. It's minimal so it doesnt fall into the trap of having lots of functions that arn't wanted/needed, which is what I found while trying to find alternative, pre-made scripts before I decided to make "Fast Edit". If anyone wants to do more advanced updates/ammendments/make new pages, they should either do it via their webhost's control panel but they could change the TinyMCE toolbar to the full/advanced option and get more control on the HTML at least.

At the moment, "Fast Edit" can be added to any existing php web page, with the login include at the top, stylesheet and javascript in the head and the fast edit include right under the editable content region. The editable region content would then need to be seperated out into a text file.

I'm quite happy to release "Fast Edit" publicly (when complete) but my code at the mo is probably not the neatest, or most optimised that it could be, so if a more advanced php coder reads this thread and would like to help guide me through clean-up and security checks, I would be most greatful for the help. If so, please PM me. Bear in mind though that this is a free project and I still would like to learn things for myself, so I'm not looking for someone to rewrite and code for me - just guidance and suggestions and maybe a few code snippets if I'm really stuck (it wouldnt be a learning curve for me otherwise, eh?!) :)

Also, I would like to understand more about what you said here:

the first thing you must do on EVERY page is kick them out if they are not logged in as admin so if you could point me in the right direction of a good tutorial, that would be fab.


Back to the "Fast Edit Plus" idea you mentioned -
I have muddled together a script to create new pages and insert the various php includes to build a page automatically. It just requires you to enter the page name into a form field and submit. The script is ugly though and mashed together from code snippets I found on the web so I dont want to add that option yet until I've fully pulled it apart and understood it and cleaned it up.

For a menu in another project I also use a little script which reads the php files in the root directory and sorts them alphabetically into an unordered list. Its quite limited though as I havent yet learnt enough to allow the user to specify their own button order, but I guess that could be used as a basis for a menu builder.

[djr33]

...so if you could point me in the right direction of a good tutorial, that would be fab.I don't know of anything that exists like that. What I've said is basically all the information you need: make sure that all admin-only actions are either main actions (within the main page) or that you double check the login for any minor actions (not within the main page).
In your (current) case, I think it's just fine.
The idea is just that if you have anything that does not run through the main verification part of the script, like an ajax request, etc., that might be a possible loophole.

In other words, before you run any database queries, file manipulations, etc., make sure that at that point there's no way a user could have gotten there without first passing an admin-check. If this is all within a single page that checks for admins at the top, then you're most likely fine. This is probably more relevant if you do decide to expand it.


And yes, I completely understand your current purposes: if this does what you want, then that's great. There's no need to change it. If you do decide to release it, though, you'll probably need to add a couple more things (page manager would be nice) so that it's really easy to use. On the other hand, what you have now isn't really a "CMS" in the traditional sense, but rather just a page-section editor: and that might be useful.
For example, I can imagine that a client requests a webpage they can edit. Then you build it for them and they need to edit 3 specific parts of the site and have no idea how to use FTP, HTML, etc. In this case, then, it's easy for them: they just log in and change those parts. So, yes, it might be exactly what someone needs.

[Beverleyh]

OK - I think I'm OK with security now.

I've also done more work on a simple "Page Manager", and made a "create new page" and "delete page" listing function, along with adding some code snippets to make a dynamic <title> for every page.

I havent yet worked out how to engineer a flat-file mechanism to order pages in the menu (not with my current knowledge anyhow) - they are currently sorted alphabetically (except the home page whoch always appears first) I thought about using a number prefix on file names to allow a user to fudge the page-sort manually but I'm still um-ing and ah-ing on that. Any ideas there?

Now for templating.... What might you suggest for something like that?
At the moment, this script could be plugged into an existing site, so maybe I could just do some php stylesheets which accepts user defined colour inputs for the main styling tags, via a form? (body, h1, p, td, li, etc.)

[djr33]

Actually, if you are looking for a general simple templating method, then you don't even need to worry about PHP. Just allow the user to manage a .css file and that can handle everything needed. Just make sure that it's easy to use and that the layout is minimal in the html/php, so that the css is as effective/powerful as possible.

If you want to get more complex later, look into templating in the sense of generating html. It's not easy and I don't see any reason you need it yet. I'm sure there are lots of tutorials out there also.


Regarding the files, I can't think of an easy other way to order them. Of course you could store a list somewhere (flat file, database, etc) that allows the user to set the order, but I don't really see much of a point there. For the links that the (end) user sees, you can just have them code them into the wysiwyg content and you're fine. Maybe add a 'hard' link to the home page if that makes sense.

[fileserverdirect]

The only minor thing I could add is to make the admin action text clickable and not just the icon. You could stylize it so it was black and all and then a.Hover to underline. But you probably know how to do that. Just my 2 cents.

[djr33]

Oh, and my advice is that if you plan to make this site go live, I would suggest hiding the admin link. There are two reasons: 1. It looks cleaner if the user doesn't see it, 2. It will help make it more secure: if they user doesn't know it's there, they won't try to hack it. (Regardless of whether it's secure or not).
So basically just have a special link that the admin can go to, like /admin, and then that'll load it.
There's no reason you can't leave it there if you prefer it. And as I was describing above, if this is for a very inexperienced administrator (someone who doesn't know the first thing about ftp, etc), then it that case leaving the link there will probably make them happy.

[Beverleyh]

I put the admin link on the front page so its obvious in the demo but it could very easily be pulled out into a seperate page that could be bookmarked by the admin (or but in the footer etc) so that idea would work well Daniel.

While I think more about css/templates, I could also integrate a simple file/upload manager, just to get most of the "important" things in one place. Any recommendations there guys?

Thanks for your help so far - I really appreciate the feedback.

[djr33]

This is a simple system. Adding uploads will complicate things. I don't recommend it (unless you're looking to expand this significantly).

You can add it if you want and there are lots of tutorials out there, but it'll be a lot to program: you must handle the actual uploading, handle file management (renaming, moving, deleting, replacing [if a filename conflicts, what do you do?]), then manage security -- that can be done by just using a list of allowed filenames, but there are some complications. Especially if it's only for admins, you can worry less about security.

That's one instance though where you'll want to consider security: make sure that when saving the file the user must be logged in as an admin. Just make sure your security check is before the file saving commands.

[Beverleyh]

True, true - maybe for now, this is enough since its just for the end-user to make final page edits and simple page additions. It would be their webdeveloper's concern to integrate "Fast Edit" into the final website before handover, and if they want any more advanced update options, they should discuss that with the webdeveloper.

In the few websites I've made for people, their only concern has been to be able to add an updated image and tweek the text now and again so just thinking to make it slightly more functional, what about integrating something pre-made, like this, and just allowing image uploads?: http://www.lunarvis.com/products/tinymcefilebrowserwithupload.php
The usage license requirements are:
your application source code should be freely available and open to modification and redistribution. So thats applicable to this project.

Apart from passing over the session id, all the security checks then seem to be made for me.

I think as an end product it should be the web developers call though. If the end-user (client) had no HTML experience, giving them the ability to add images at will (and hap-hazzardly) could completely ruin the look of the web developer's carefully designed website template.

On the other hand, if the end-user (client) had some basic HTML knowledge and just wanted to use "Fast Edit" for the convenience aspect, an image manager might be a valuable tool.

[Beverleyh]

hi All,

I'm just trying to determine if this would-be free script might be useful to anybody other than me and whether is viable for me to keep working on it?

So far, the feedback from potential users looks slim so is it just too simple and straightforward to be useful to anybody? :(

If you're a web designer, would it be a useful thing for you to offer to clients as a simple means of editing their own pages?

Login details are in the blue panel on the home page: http://www.jemcon.org/process_scripts/fast_edit/

LMK

Thanks

[fileserverdirect]

I think it is a great Idea, and I would personally use this for clients. However there is a bug when editing a video: http://www.jemcon.org/process_scripts/fast_edit/trololo.php
The video plays fine, but when it's edited, just a blank box. Limitations of a text box I suppose, but maybe you can replace it with text like [html] instead of the popup.
P.S. Watch the video, it will change your life and it's 18 seconds long.

[Beverleyh]

Thats probably because I've only used a basic configuration for TinyMCE in the demo and its attempting to "clean-up" the code, so its not really a bug as such as TinyMCE is only trying to do what I instructed it to do during setup.

You could customise the toolbar however you choose though and set any additional plugins at the point of integration (TinyMCE does come with a media plugin so I assume thats the one which would need to be activated here)

The full TinyMCE toolbar with all the plugins can be found here: http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/examples/full.php

[Beverleyh]

Sorry for the delay in the script update - I've been sick with the the flu for the past week and only just got around to uploading the updated scripts.

Anyway, I've done a bit more work on the Page Manager of "Fast Edit" - it now has the following functions: http://www.jemcon.org/process_scripts/fast_edit/ -

1 - Create a new web page
2 - Last update times list of all pages
3 - Menu status switch to toggle menu visibility of page (hide or show page in the menu)
4 - Backup selected page
5 - Time of last backup (if it exists)
6 - Restore selected page (if it exists)
7 - Delete selected page
8 - Clickable sorting table headers
(the index/home page is hard coded to exclude some of the above functions - this is to give the site a "base" so it cant all be deleted by accident)

I'm happy with the progression so far but not so thrilled with the menu status visibility switch I concocted since it currently just renames the selected page with a "hidden_" prefix and then removes it again when the switch it toggled. This means that the page URL changes (hence the warning in red at the bottom of the table in case static URLs have been made on other pages) FIXED as of 12th June 2010

I'd like to maybe use some sort of array in a flat file database to write/read the "hidden_" status to/from, but I'm not sure how to go about it or if its possible.
Does anybody have any advice or tutorials on doing that? Or even just some feedback on a more appropriate solution? A simple example would be great too if you have one prepared.

Other things for me to do;
1 - Integrate a file manager (http://www.lunarvis.com/products/tinymcefilebrowserwithupload.php) both inside and outside of the TinyMCE WYSIWYG toolbar.
2 - Add a "code protect" fix to TinyMCE.
3 - Preview backed-up page before commiting to restoration.

Thanks for the feedback so far - Any further suggestions are also greatly appreciated.

BTW - just a note on the project when its released -
There will be a very basic version of "Fast Edit" which just has a page edit/save option, login/logout and simple WYSIWYG toolbar, and also this "Plus" version with all the bells and whistles (like in the demo)
Both versions will be free, but I thought I'd give users the option of downloading both in case they only have need for the basics (as what I originally did - the reason I created it)

[fileserverdirect]

I think renaming the file with a preface of "hidden_" is a bad idea.
Here's my approach. When a new page is generated a page id is generated. This id will stick to this page no mater what the end user renames it to.
I would then use something like this when a new page is made:


$entry = "$randomid: $hstatus";
file_put_contents("database.txt", $entry, FILE_APPEND);

$hstatus would default to 0, for unhidden. New pages should have something like <!-- ID: xxxxxxxx --> somewhere. To change the hidden staus, you read the page, RegEx the id, read the database file and RegEx the id to match, the use substr after the colon and tell whether the page is hidden, then go from there. You need to open every file and do this to display it's "hidden-ness" There might be an easier way like just naming the page the id number, but that doesn't look good to the user... This is very complicated and beyond my personal coding abbilites, however the djr, jschuer, Nile, bluewalrus, etc. may be able to help.

[Beverleyh]

Thanks for the the ideas FSD - while I didnt use what you suggested, it got the cogs turning and I've come up with a solution that logs the menu visibility status but which doesnt alter the page URLs (yey!)

I'm still working on the preview option for backed-up pages but not having much luck at the mo. My brain is fried too much for one day.

[fileserverdirect]

How do you store your backups? Renamed php files? If so, then here's an idea for backup viewing. Make a new php page called backup_preview or somthing:


<?php
$page = $_GET['page'];
include('./backups/$page');
?>

Then just use an Iframe with a query string of ?page=Trololo.php And you're done.
If they are stored as a text file or any random extension, then do this:

Copy the desired file to a temporary folder
Rename it to *.php
Use that as the include
Then delete the temporary file

All on one page. Just go to php.net, they should be able to have all the required functions there.

[Beverleyh]

Thanks FSD - That was the line I was going down on Saturday but I couldnt get it to work after bombarding my brain with the menu status issue (a little knowledge usually goes a long way, but not after a bout of the flu). Since having a good night's sleep though, I have got it to work as planned, so that's finished the "Preview" function.

While I'm still putting the finishing touches to the Page Manager, are there any other functions/tweeks you'd like to see there? Or any other features in general? (apart from the File Manager, which I'll be adding in the next few days)

BTW - I removed the long URLs and made the Page Titles hyperlinks instead (saves space)
http://www.jemcon.org/process_scripts/fast_edit/

[Beverleyh]

small fix

The Save Changes icon is now only enabled when the Fast Edit window is open. This is to prevent the user from accidentally clicking it when no changes have been made (assuming that changes will be made once the WYSIWYG window is in view) which would otherwise falsely change the "Last Updated" time stamp.

[fileserverdirect]

The only minor thing I could add is to make the admin action text clickable and not just the icon. You could stylize it so it was black and all and then a.Hover to underline. But you probably know how to do that. Just my 2 cents.
This never happened, also do it with all the other links, it's more user friendly

[Beverleyh]

I had problems getting a text link + icon button to look and behave the same in different browsers.

Some of the functions/actions are tied to links and others to form submit buttons so it was easier to use the icon images for everything (ie - as a hyperlinked image or as <input type="image" ...>)

An alternative might be to combine the 2 and create button images with the text included?

Personally I like the small icons though

BTW - another small fix -
I made it so the first backup is created immediately when the backup icon is pressed, but subsequent backups prompt the confirm alert "Overwrite existing backup file?", so the user can decide if they really do want to overwrite their previous backup and it not be killed by accident.

[Xarcell]

hi All,

I'm just trying to determine if this would-be free script might be useful to anybody other than me and whether is viable for me to keep working on it?

So far, the feedback from potential users looks slim so is it just too simple and straightforward to be useful to anybody? :(

If you're a web designer, would it be a useful thing for you to offer to clients as a simple means of editing their own pages?

Login details are in the blue panel on the home page: http://www.jemcon.org/process_scripts/fast_edit/

LMK

Thanks

I would love to be able to use this script. I design simple websites(1-5 pages) for small businesses. These people tend to be computer illiterate, let alone able to manage a CMS or edit HTML of a page.

This is a script I would love to use for my clients. Just the ability to make pages an edit them. Ever since I saw this script in action, I have tried finding others like it, but was unable.

Any chance I could get it for use?

[Xarcell]

Thanks FSD - That was the line I was going down on Saturday but I couldnt get it to work after bombarding my brain with the menu status issue (a little knowledge usually goes a long way, but not after a bout of the flu). Since having a good night's sleep though, I have got it to work as planned, so that's finished the "Preview" function.

While I'm still putting the finishing touches to the Page Manager, are there any other functions/tweeks you'd like to see there? Or any other features in general? (apart from the File Manager, which I'll be adding in the next few days)

BTW - I removed the long URLs and made the Page Titles hyperlinks instead (saves space)
http://www.jemcon.org/process_scripts/fast_edit/

I personally like as it is, wouldn't want any more features. It's hard to find something that is soo simple to use, that a person who isn't familiar with the web can be shown how to use it.

The simpler the better. The only other thing that "might" be a good idea, is facebook/twitter integration. Users that are logged in to facebook/twitter can make comments to some of the pages(make option to allow comments per page, turning it into an article). This way, the site can be somewhat interactive, but with no need to maintain a memberbase. Nurph does this, it can be found very useful. http://nur.ph/

[Beverleyh]

Hi Xarcell,

I looked at Nurph but it seems to be a chat plugin that requires individual online registration for every website it appears in. As Fast Edit would just be a plug-in to an existing website, Nurph isnt something I can integrate into Fast Edit myself - the webmaster using Fast Edit would have to register and integrate Nurph themselves.

Fast Edit is currently not ready for release as I have still have some work to do on it and I also need to make a website to house it. I will try to get everything up as quickly as possible around my other work but I will need a couple of months yet (holidays, work deadlines, etc).

Thanks for your feedback though and I'll keep everyone posted here to advise of the official release date of the beta version.

[Xarcell]

Sounds good.

I was using nurph as an example of how facebook & twitter login intergration could be used. Yes, nurph would be something installed seperately.

Maybe this will help: http://dev.twitter.com/anywhere/begin

Basically when you use twitter/Facebook login intergration, you can login anywhere. You could even login through fast_edit.

If it was intergraded into fast_edit for example: in fast_edit you could login in facebook, post a comment to a page, and then in your facebook wall it would say something like "Xarcell just posted a comment at this site HERE".

Same goes for twitter.

Here are some examples of how twitter intergration is used at the new york times: http://www.nytimes.com/

Here is an example of how facebook intergration is used at http://cnn.com (click to login, you will see the option).

There are many ways to use the integration. I've yet to see anyone build a very simple CMS like yours, and it would be even cooler if it used facebook & twitter intergration for posting or for whatever.

If you got twitter & facebook intergration working, then maybe later on you could add a plugin/extension system which uses the facebook & twitter login. Like a very simple forum plugin, or gallery. All this could be done without having to worry about a user/member base.

But for now, twitter/facebook login for fast_edit would start something revoluntary in my opinion.

Fast_edit with this feature would be very helpful for web designers who build websites for clients.

Just my 2 cents.

Keep me updated on the project.

Thanks.

[Beverleyh]

I have a thorough read but I'm currently having difficulty seeing how Twitter/Facebook integration could be written into Fast Edit.

It seems that each website requires seperate account registration to acknowledge the seperate API Key instances (for example), so surely its something that the webmaster would need to register for and integrate into a website themselves during build stage.

From the other angle, if I were to integrate these applications into Fast Edit (with blank space for API keys, etc, that would be procured for each website from Twitter/Facebook account registration) I would also need to provide 3rd party instructions for their installation and usage to account for their inclusion in Fast Edit.

A better solution would probably be to maybe promote the Twitter and Facebook facilities alongside Fast Edit (on the Fast Edit website once its built) and the webmaster could then choose whether or not to install them at their side and read the developers usage and integration instructions first hand.

I'm guessing that you're recommending the Twitter and Facebook inclusion because you use them in your own client's projects? Perhaps you could tell me about how you have found their installation process and what your clients think of these facilities? It might help me understand how it could be possibly to write them (and their many integral functions) into the Fast Edit scripts and have them work/install easily for Fast Edit user's websites.

BTW - todays latest fix is the use of cookies to persist the open state of the Fast Edit window and Page Manager between pages/actions.

[Beverleyh]

Update - The TinyBrowser plugin that I would have hoped to integrate into Fast Edit is no longer free to use under the GNU License (status changed this the last week) and required individual payment. There is a devloper license available but as fast Edit is a free script it's not something I can now afford to integrate.

Never mind - this was a learning curve right? I will try and develop a simple file manager to TinyMCE integration myself as part of Fast Edit development.

[djr33]

There are lots of free WYSIWYG editors that should be easy enough to switch in for what you're using.

[Beverleyh]

Hi Daniel,

I know FCKEditor has the file manager already integrated so I may switch to that.

I also realised right after posting that the Tiny Browser version which is no longer free is a very recent v1.42 upgrade but the previous v1.41 one was free on the GNU license so I've emailed the developers to ask if I'm still OK to integrate the earlier 1.41 version. I just though it was better to double check first rather than leap head-long and stir up trouble.

Failing that, if I still want to use TinyMCE for the WYSIWYG editor, I could see about using Swampy Browser: http://www.swampybrowser.com/ which looks very nice and uses the same free (famfamfam) icons that I've been using. The downside is that it doesnt support multiple uploads like Tiny Browser though.
I've also seen an ajax plugin, so I have a few options yet :)

[Beverleyh]

Further to Daniel's suggestion way back when, I've now added a simple "Template Manager" which is just a textarea to edit a custom stylesheet for the site where Fast Edit is installed.

A typical setup might be to have a default stylesheet containing all the critical CSS for your site pulled away from the end-user so they cant wreck layout, and then this additional editable stylesheet stored within Fast Edit to give the end-user a bit of control over the CSS you actually want them to be able to play with.
(seperate critial layout CSS from the less critical/basic styles CSS)

The Template Manager also has backup, backup preview and backup restore functions.

If you think CSS is too complicated for your client and you'd rather not go there, you can set Template Manager usage to no in the config file to turn it off. The Template Manager button will then be removed from the Fast Edit toolbar.
http://www.jemcon.org/process_scripts/fast_edit/

Afterthough - I've updated the CSS and javascripts so if you're following, please do a hard refresh (CTRL+F5) to make sure the new files reload in your browser.

[Xarcell]

fckeditor how now become http://ckeditor.com/

[Beverleyh]

The author of TinyBrowser got back to me and gave the go ahead to include it in Fast Edit.

So, the revised Fast Edit now includes a File Manager - accessible both through the insert image/media/link dialogues of the TinyMCE toolbar and also as standalone versions via the slide-down File Manager.
Upload size limit and allowed file types are all customisable in the config file.

I've also integrated a "code protect" plugin to allow custom code to be inserted on the page (disabled in the demo).

Nearly there - just a few more tweeks and the beta version will almost ready for release.

[Beverleyh]

If you're following the development of Fast Edit, please do a hard-refresh to purge the old scripts/CSS (CTRL+F5) http://www.jemcon.org/process_scripts/fast_edit/index.php

The "save changes" button has now been incorporated into the Fast Edit WYSIWYG toolbar. It's more logical in the context of the edit function and also allows a save to be performed in full screen edit mode.

It makes the Fast Edit icon toolbar a bit neater too! ;)

BTW - the insert/edit image dialogue from the WYSIWYG toolbar now works properly and embeds images in the edit area. I dont think I copied across all the script lastnight which means it hasnt been working on the demo site until now (oops)

[Beverleyh]

Almost ready for the beta release everyone.

Today I added an option to use a "basic" or "advanced" Page Manager as defined in the config file. Using the "basic" option disables the following features;


Create a new web page
Menu status switch to toggle menu visibility of a page (hide or show page in the menu)
Delete selected page


This would be in case you didn't want to give the end-user the ability to alter their default website page setup.

[Beverleyh]

Just another small fix -

I've now added an option in the config file to either order the menu items A-Z or sort them by page creation time.

Using page creation time you can control the menu order by making new pages in the order you want the buttons to appear. It's a quick fix for now but at least it adds a little more control.

[Beverleyh]

I just wanted to let you know before I shoot off on my holiday that the Fast Edit website is now complete and downloads are available.
http://fast-edit.co.uk/

[djr33]

Looks good. You may want to call this a beta (version .5 or .9, maybe), until you've had some feedback. You have been testing this a lot, but feedback from others is really the only way to move beyond the beta testing phase.

The site for it looks really good.

[Beverleyh]

(back from holiday now)

I hear what you're saying but from experience on other projects, people dont seem to be very forthcoming with feedback except where its to complain. Human nature I guess. The rating seems to be quite good though so as a measure, I'm quite pleased with that.

(BTW - I added DD to my Acknowledgements page)

[Xarcell]

I finally checked back on this and great job! I love it. You should consider setting up donation link for yourself. Some people will want to thank you in other ways...

[Beverleyh]

Thanks Xarcell. I will think about a donation link once version 2 comes out as it supports multi-level dropdown menus and sub-categories for content, so its probably more "desirable" than the 1st installment :)

[jeraldfler]

Is it really that fast?

[maximaweb]

As editor activate more options, ie add options like justifyfull, and run the option to create tables.

[maximaweb]

As editor activate more options, ie add options like justifyfull, and run the option to create tables.

[Beverleyh]

Hi All and Merry Xmas!!!

Its been a while since I had time to sit down and work more on Fast Edit but I just wanted to let you know that I've put a trial demo of v2.0 if anyone wants to try it out: http://fast-edit.co.uk/ >> Demonstrations >> Fast Edit v2.0

The main difference with this version over earlier ones is that it supports manual menu button ordering and multi-level menu sub-pages, which I know is a much sought after feature in many small CMS's.

Sub-pages are just as easy to create - just select a main menu category for them to go in and the multi-level menu is created automatically.

This version of Fast Edit also has a configurable page quota and space quota to limit the end user to the number of pages they can create on their site and also to the amount of server space they can use for uploads.

I should make a point here of thanking DD admin for allowing me to use the All Levels Multi Menu logic/javascript as part of the Fast Edit v2.0 software - I've used the HTML menu structure and built my php code around it: http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/ddlevelsmenu/
Acknowledgements to DD for use of the scripts are included in the documentation in the soon-to-be-released download pack and will also be added to the website on the Acknowledgements page shortly.

Fast Edit v2.0 will continue to be free and released under GPL but it needs a little more work to iron out some kinks before official release.

[Beverleyh]

Another Fast Edit v2.0 update - Pages and Sub-Pages can now be renamed.

Please note - the page heading, as printed into a new page during page creation, is hard-coded HTML so this will not change automatically when a page is renamed. You will physically need to edit headings in web page content as you would with other HTML content.

[Beverleyh]

The latest addition to the Page Manager and Sub-Page Manager in Fast Edit v2.0 is a page status feature that allows the admin to "activate" and "deactivate" web pages.

Unlike the menu visibility toggle, which merely hides or shows pages in the menu, while leaving them accessible to visitors via a known hyperlink, the page status toggle hides the selected pages from the menu AND makes their content unviewable to website visitors, displaying a "Sorry, this page is unavailable" message instead.

The admin however can still view a deactivated page while logged in, making this feature ideal for private archiving or just for keeping pages unviewable while the site administrator completes work on them.

See the Fast Edit v2.0 demonstration for reference. http://fast-edit.co.uk/demo2/

[Beverleyh]

Almost ready for release now - I just added a "move page" option and I think that just about ties everything up (all on my current to do list anyway).

To compare what Fast Edit v2.0 can do over Fast Edit v1.0, please see the comparisions page: http://fast-edit.co.uk/version_comparison.php

I'd like to ask a favour now though - If possible can somebody give v2.0 a whirl and let me know if it all makes sense (it does to me but I've made it so am too close to the project to evaluate it effectively)

Also, does it need some sort of user guide or is it intuative enough?

[Beverleyh]

I've decided to add a Metadata Manager - set default (global) keywords and description metadata for the entire website or custom (page-specific) metadata for specific pages.

If custom metadata is not set for any page then the default metadata is used instead.

The Metadata Manager is optional so you can choose whether or not to use it in the main config file and, if enabled, will be accessible both via the website front-end and admin back-end.

[Beverleyh]

Given that page names are cleansed during new page creation I've now added a "menu alias" option to Fast Edit v2.0 which is just a cosmetic thing to type what you want on a menu button instead of sticking with the default text that is set automatically.

[Beverleyh]

Just tying up loose ends -

Fast Edit v2.0's Sub-Page Manager has now been equipped with "mass-action" buttons to backup, restore, move or delete all sub-pages (of a particular category) in one go.

You can test these mass-actions in the Fast Edit v2.0 demonstration: http://fast-edit.co.uk/demo2/

And follow all updates and developments here: http://fast-edit.co.uk/updates_log.php

[Beverleyh]

Please note - the demos are reinstalled afresh once every hour so please do not leave comments for me in the demos themselves as there is little chance of me actually seeing them.
I'm only saying this now because I've just got an email from somebody asking why I havent replied, yet keep deleting their correspondense!!! The truth is, I didnt even know they had :(

If you'd like to make a comment or get in touch with me via the Fast Edit website, please use the online contact form: http://fast-edit.co.uk/template/contact_form/contact.php

(in answer to the never-received message - yes, the alias text on the menu button is now working properly)