Thoughts on Macromedia Contribute...

[ChadHerring]

Does anyone have thoughts or experiences on Macromedia Contribute?

[Adrians]

We've deployed a Contribute solution for several smaller clients. It's pretty good but we've been experiencing some minor problems when the site is not specifically designed to be updated using Contribute. Weird things happen like extra spaces and fonts are sometimes off. I'm not technical but I will be discussing this with my development team to ensure style elements aren't thrown off in the future. It's not easy to add extra sections with this software if the person using it is non-technical (which we can assume since it's not designed for technical users). Overall, it's one of the better client side Content Editing solutions we have seen. The version control/admin system is a big plus too. I give it 4/5 stars becuase it's cheap and easy to use.

Hope this helps.

[MikeDF]

Many thanks for the comments re. Contribute. I have a client who is wanting to add 2nd hand equipment details to his web site - I have been discussing the use of Contribute with him and it seems to fit the bill even more since reading your comments - Thanks

[oneeye]

If configured correctly with the right user rights contribute has worked well for me. I have had great results with contribute as far as changing page content. I have never allowed the users to create pages from templates so I am not sure how that would go. The best thing is the price.

Sometimes it can be used instead of a serverside ASP or PHP site which is a big time saver as far as the dev of the site goes.

Oneeye

[brianzajac]

We also have a couple clients working with macromedia contribute. The best and worst part of Contribute is the allowing the client access to all the design areas in the "body" of the html content. So, you've got to watch out when they put in pictures too big, mess with the fonts, and all other sorts of issues. However, these are usually all panned out in the 1st month...and you usually don't have to worry about your clients using it the wrong way again.

The other issue (as with most other CMS) is the ability to work with the search engines. Things like title and metatags aren't easy to just add in. But I do have to confess that I haven't looked at v2 of the program. Does anyone know if they've changed that?

[thusmann]

On the occasion that a client doesn't need or want the full functionality of our Sitemanager, we recommend and setup Macromedia Contribute. This software's primary purpose is to allow contributors to add content to a website without needing to understand html or ftp.

The last post states that this software allows for the user to control everything within the body tag, which is not true. Using Dreamweaver, you can insert editable areas anywhere within the body. So you can create your tables that preserve formatting and insert editable areas where they are appropriate. In cases where the design is very static and sensative to minor deviations in length and size of content, you may want to insert an Iframe or a DIv with overflow:scroll in order to avoid formatting problems.

Contribute is very handy if you want to add text to an existing layout, however, if you are trying to manage a business website I would suggest http://www.ibuilt.net or http://www.dotnetnuke.com

[brianzajac]

Hello thusmann,

what is a div with overflow? Can you give me an example?

[paulhiles]

Hello thusmann,

what is a div with overflow? Can you give me an example?

Hi Brian,

I can answer that for you! ;o) Take a look at some of the examples shown at this link.
http://www.beforethedog.com/tutoriali/tut1.htm

Hope that helps,

Paul

[athula]

In the past 12 months we have implemented Contribute on a few of our client sites very successfully. They are computer newbies, but use it very effectively to update text on their sites. Works well if all you want is to update text (which is the case in 90% of small business clients who want a CMS in their site). Just tell them to steer clear of the graphics and layout, and they will!

[brianzajac]

Thanks paulhiles! Good information pertaining to CSS. However, thusmann's description runs true if you're not worried about search engine problems. For me, I stay very clear of framing any part of a site that I want the search engines to see. I would rather teach a client about the pitfalls of graphics and such than risk losing a client because he/she cannot be indexed.