EXTRANET NEWS * Week of
Editors: Joel Orr and N'omi Orr
http://www.extranetnews.com
1. CITYDESK: CONTENT MANAGEMENT
FOR ALL
2. THE LIST
3. TIDBITS
4. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
1. CITYDESK: CONTENT MANAGEMENT FOR ALL
Editor Joel Orr spoke with Joel Spolsky, founder and leading light of Fog Creek Software. Visit their Web site at http://www.fogcreek.com.
Google "joel," and the first site in the results is "Joel on Software" (I'm around #17). Joel Spolsky's blog is a very popular destination for software people. It is also a model blog: Well-written; not whiney or self-indulgent; downright edifying, with interesting links, relevant graphics, and an elegantly simple and readable design. Spolsky is a programmer and usability expert, who has strong opinions about managing software development and about user interface issues.
At bottom, an extranet is a Web site for sharing information with people inside and outside of your organization. Many of the products on The List (see below) have forms and functions particular to construction, manufacturing, or other industries. But basically, an extranet is a Web site.
Web sites are produced by all manner of software—and even hardware: Most network routers let you access an IP address with a Web browser to control them, and more and more networked devices are doing so. It's much simpler and cheaper for the manufacturer than building a control panel, and more flexible for the user.
Software that manages what gets put on a Web site is called, as you might suspect, content-management software. If you are, say, the New York Times, you can't have reporters fiddling with html, nor can you assign them personal Web programmers. You use, instead, a system that lets them drop their stories into a directory, from which they are automatically formatted and published in the right place.
Content-management systems come in a wide range of sizes and flavors—hundreds of thousands of dollars in software and consulting for packages like Vignette, down to free, for open-source systems like phpNuke.
CityDesk is a content-management system that is close in price to "free," yet full of powerful functionality (I won't hazard a guess as a percentage of that of Vignette, but it is eminently useful). The "Starter Edition" is free, and lets you build sites with up to 50 files (including articles, pictures, etc.). The "Home Edition" costs $79, and permits the production of sites of up to 500 files. The $349/user "Professional Edition" supports sites of any size, and allows multiple users to edit the same site at the same time. This means it is suitable for newsrooms, intranets, and so on.
Here's how it works: Someone with a little knowledge of html—no need for a real Web designer or programmer—creates a site based on templates. (You can download free templates produced by other users from the CityDesk Forum, or create your own.) Anyone can create articles, using CityDesk's built-in editor, and deposit them in different directories. Depending on the template, the articles will be published in different ways.
This means anyone can add content to the site, without knowing anything about html or Web programming.
The editor is a true "client," not an html-based applet; that means it is as responsive as any lean editor. Nice.
Graphics are often a pain in Web design; not in CityDesk. Just plunk them down where you want them, as you might in Word, and CityDesk takes care of all the details.
CityDesk's true power is unleashed when you learn to use CityScript the simple scripting language that comes with the program. The thought of a programming language is scary to many computer users, and that's as it should be; it's not for everyone. But for anyone who is the least bit adventurous in this regard, it is fun—and opens up a world of possibilities.
You can use standard WYSIWYG editors, such as FrontPage or DreamWeaver, to design templates for CityDesk. And you can use CityDesk for just a portion of a site; perhaps a blog or a journal; it doesn't take over your site.
You can also just drag a whole site into CityDesk. It will do the right things with it.
The "help" file is wonderfully written, and comprehensive. A brief tutorial teaches you everything you need to know to get started.
Special CityDesk features: Support for multiple languages and multiple audiences. You can have different combinations of the same articles appear differently on different sites.
This solid product is based on a relational database, but requires no server component. It is scalable, responsive, and solid. More than 20,000 people have downloaded it.
Our take: CityDesk is a
powerful product, especially for small organizations, or for departments of
large organizations. You don't need to involve the IT department to make it
work. Yet it can support very large and dynamic sites. It is inexpensive, easy
to try, and a beautifully designed piece of software, well-supported by both Fog
Creek and its user community. Highly recommended.
2. THE LIST
Total companies: 258 (see who's on The List at http://www.extranetnews.com/).
3. TIDBITS
· Great
offer from Keith James of Aston House Projects: Write to him at bpwp@ntlworld.com, and he will send you his
Construction Project Collaboration Best Practice White Paper, at no
charge. This well-written document will benefit any reader considering
implementing an extranet.
· LCI (Lean Construction Institute) upcoming events:
o 5th
Annual Lean Construction Congress,
o 11th
Annual Meeting of the International Group for Lean Construction,
4. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Young people need models, not
critics..."
John Wooden
1910-
American basketball coach
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