Custom Web Sites and CMSs

[al man]

Hi guys,

So, I've been into graphic design, and lately, learning about web design. I understand that CMS helps to update a site constantly or at least, in an automated way.

But... what if I do custom websites? I've heard you can definitely 'merge' or 'code' a .PSD into a CMS like Drupal, WP, or Joomla. Is it worth it? I'm not that backend-coding savvy, but I can read and understand til an extent. I guess I'm looking for some advise in here and perhaps to learn some best practices if you will, about how to ease things when it comes to update content for a custom site.

If you're building a custom website that's expected to be updated constantly with pictures and articles,

Is it better to integrate a CMS to it? (or, should I say, to integrate the site to a CMS?)

If for instance, blogging, am I better by doing a new page (starting with the same thing, naturally), or modifying the same one with new content? and if, doing this is recommended, I've thought about a possible scenario: the latest article or picture is bigger than the former one for a specific page... and u already have a neat, custom frame around it or a div, would I have to go all the way to the CSS or jQuery to adjust height/width values so it works fine with the next page?

or let's say I want to do an Archive section.... will I have to migrate pages to it like domain.com/archive/thispage.html, domain.com/archive/thisotherpage.html, domain.com/archive/thisthirdpage.html for older content? what if I want to show for instance, an article or content teaser and below it, another article/teaser? how would I do next week for doing a content teaser for a newer article and moving the former to the article below?

do CMSs do all of this for you? :S do I make obvious I am pretty n00b to content management? xD


Anyway, any recommendations and suggestions will be more than appreciated. Thank you much for your time

 

[PhilFrisbie]

I have built easy to update sites for years using server side includes (SSI). For example, I create my page template, then I partition it into the portions that will be identical on each page. I then break out the header code, navigation code, footer code, etc, into separate files and then use SSI to include them.

 

[al man]

Thanks for the info PhilFrisbie! Sorry for my late reply, I've been basically living in my office and I can't do progress on my side project from there.

I just read a bit of info about it, and it sounds pretty neat for modifying content. Does it let you also add new content and archive older blog-wise?

 

[PhilFrisbie]

SSI is simply a tool that aids in consistency and ease of site-wide updates.

 

[al man]

Aight will get deeper into it.

Thanks man, u always have an answer for my questions!

 

[al man]

Best answer selected by al man.