CMS Composer - Design Perpective
Now that the 'State of the Web' has evolved so that any sophisticated website requires a backend database, providing solutions to manage the data that runs a website has become a challenge, especially for less than technically inclined website administrators.
To address this challenge, we at Imaginal Web Design designed the totally dynamic, automatic, full-featured CMS Composer, an automatic code generator tool that produces the code for a ready-to-run data entry application for each database table the user specifies. This allows a CMS system to be built from the bottom up as data needs arise during development. All you need to input into the tool is the layout of your table data items (e.g. name, address phone number), and it will generate a web-based PHP/javascript data entry program to add/edit/delete records.
This tool allows each table layout structure (called schemas) to be edited on-the-fly, even when they contain live data. New columns can be added (altered), renamed (modifed), moved, and deleted (dropped) within each table. Once the data struture of all of the tables used in a website is defined, it becomes relatively straight-forward to read the data into your web pages as needed.
The website deployment process is usually approached by the web designer from the perspective of their own technical expertise. If the designer is less-than-technically proficient (often a small business owner themselves) they can opt for one of the many open-source, low cost, CMS systems available including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and dozens more. Although there is often a steep learning curve, these solutions are often ideal for completely non-technical website designers. They tend to package front-end design tools with back-end data access tools to create an integrated website. These solutions work best for small to medium scale sites, however they all have limits to scalability and 'hooks' to increasingly complex functionality. Unfortunately, after these limits are hit, there is no practical way to reuse the code investment. The look and feel of the design can easily be replicated, but in order to scale to another growth plateau, the code foundation needs to be completely rewritten. This is when a website re-write is in order.
At the other end of the technical-know-how spectrum are clients who recognize the scope of their needs and hire long-time experts (like us) who have the skills to design custom websites that meet the clients needs more closely than by using any other approach. This allows virtually unlimited scalability and complexity because there are no contraints caused by pre-existing software package requirements.
However, we've identified a growing segment of website clients, as well as evolving website graphic-designers, who have acquired enough technical savvy to be able to code a custom front-end for a website, but need some support on the backend - and who don't want to be exposed to the limits of the off-the-shelf CMS systems
With CMS Composer we cater to those of you who want total control over your data and code. Not only is each data entry program generated for each table in your database, but the 'interface functions' needed to access the data from your website (e.g. 'add data', 'read data', and 'delete data') are created for your use as well. We also provide technical support for integrating your data into your website if needed.
One way we keep development costs low is by focusing on what has become the bread-and-butter development suite for developers all over the world, the open-source (free) development tools composed of the MySQL database, PHP server script, and JavaScript client script. Virtually all web hosts support these tools, so if your design requirements can include them, there are no constraints to your ability to incorporate our back-end solution into your development solution.
Database design is a science that borders on an art. We provide information about the basics of database table design and also specialize in custom programming solutions for general applications for those of you who can't find an off-the-shelf package or who want to work with an independent developer to create a one-of-a-kind masterpiece.So if your web hosting account currently supports MySQL and PHP (and they all do), then you should consider using our CMS Composer
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Please contact us for questions or more information about our CMS Composer data entry application generator.