Hi there…
Just moved onto RW8 and foundry and I’m really impressed with the new set up of 8 and Adams rapid feedback. I’ve been asked by a client to build a site that can take text and photos with limited human intervention and in an ideal world, load them onto his website automatically. So some sort of form based stack with the addition of being able to upload photos (or a comb of a few stacks to do this?)
Whatever software is running this forum is doing something similar, and I have Armadilio but it appears limited in its styling, as the client is after some sort of wall layout of the items.
So basically Im after trying to emulate a layout similar to Classic Cars For Sale | AutoTrader UK
Where the content and photos are filled in by the customer (in some sort of form/CMS/password protected area) and then displayed in the style of the above, without me having to format the page.
To the best of my knowledge there is no specific stack or plugin that will get you all the way there. Quite often I see people lumbering along with mashups of stack x along with stacks y and z then inevitably it falls apart when something changes.
You would be much better served by a ‘proper’ PHP script/application which was actually designed to give you what you want and need.
Check these out:
There are some nice looking applications there which may well do what you need.
The issue you will have is carrying out the integration between your RW project and the PHP Application; both from a functional and a UI/theming perspective. Given you are asking this and that you found Armadillo “limited” (whereas its actually highly customisable with the relevant code) , I’ll go ahead and presume that you are not going to be too confident.
I’m sure there are ppl here who would be willing to help you out either on a paid consultancy basis or by answering questions when you get stuck.
There is a big difference between using something like RW and Foundry to whack out a competent website and using same to build a web application like autotrader.co.uk You might need to spend some money to get what you really need.
I’ve got a script for car sales from CodeCanyon, CarDealer Pro. It’s in use here http://slipwayautos.co.uk/sales. I don’t use it for ‘customers’ it’s purely run by the garage staff. There is an option to be very Autotrader like and have it usable by people paying a fee to list there car on it, but I’ve never tried that functionality out.
The developer can be helpful for getting the basics set up and you can customise it if you can read through the code and don’t mind editing php files.
Also can give you a database list of makes and models that I put together more suited to the UK market. Down sides are it doesn’t have OpenGraph tags, no social sharing buttons (adding those myself at the moment) and it had a sitemap generator in a previous version that was removed in the current version. This is allegedly getting put back at some point but no sign after nearly 6 months. It’s frustrating as I need one to have the listings searchable from the RapidWeaver built part of the site. Trying to code my own, so will see how it goes.
@joeworkman this is maybe a job for TotalCMS 2, if it’s for a car sales site with all the variables that people want to filter searching by.
Thanks Guys… Plenty to consider for me there.
Kiaatu, sorry I was meaning Armadilio appeared to be ’limited‘ as to proving the style I was after, its a great piece of software, but just doesn’t appear to be able to fill the hole I’m trying to fill. (happy to be proved wrong ) and yes being a graphic designer for the past 35 years, style and layout isn’t a problem, where as customisable code is Im fortunate that the client does have a ‘limited’ budget so perhaps something bespoke could be made, but I was just trying to gauge whats already out there, that caters for code hating designers
Im 100% sure he won’t end up with an Autotrader site, from just RW and foundry, but thats what Im trying to aim at in the first instance. Again thanks for the feedback everyone.
Joe, I‘d be interested in your thoughts re trying to use total CMS to get there. Im off to have a closer look at the software . You may get an email off me over the Christmas break
Cheers Jon
total CMS this could be a contender. Will be giving the 30 day trial a go. If I wanted more than one person updating …will it / does it… support multiple uploads at the same time (if that makes sense?)
Total CMS does not have user management. It allows you to lock the admin page with a single passcode. You can upgrade to my Page Safe stack that allows multiple passcodes for multiple users. You can also use Sitelok for a more traditional username/password setup.
I’ve been asked by a client to build a site that can take text and photos with limited human intervention and in an ideal world, load them onto his website automatically. So some sort of form based stack with the addition of being able to upload photos (or a comb of a few stacks to do this?)
but does anyone have any recommendations as to where I should start looking, or who I should speak to?
You might need to spend some money to get what you really need.
) and yes being a graphic designer for the past 35 years, style and layout isn’t a problem, where as customisable code is 
Im fortunate that the client does have a ‘limited’ budget so perhaps something bespoke could be made, but I was just trying to gauge whats already out there, that caters for code hating designers 
. You may get an email off me over the Christmas break 
total CMS this could be a contender. Will be giving the 30 day trial a go. If I wanted more than one person updating …will it / does it… support multiple uploads at the same time (if that makes sense?)