HTML, XHTML, and CSS All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 4. Taking Control of Content

In This Chapter

• Using CMS Made Simple (CMSMS)

• Adding new pages in CMSMS

• Adding themes

• Working with templates

• Approximating CMS with SSI and AJAX

• Creating a CMS with PHP and MySQL

The idea of a content management system (CMS) is very appealing because it gives you a great deal of additional control of your site and allows the user to manage his own content. Of course, when you use a content management system, you're somewhat at the mercy of that system's designers. In this chapter, I show you how to customize a relatively simple CMS, including adding new styles and layouts.

I also show you several ways to approximate a CMS with your own code using technologies introduced throughout this book. Finally, I develop a rudimentary CMS using PHP and MySQL. Even if you don't end up building your own CMS, looking through this code helps you see how "real world" CMSs work.

Getting Started with CMSMS

Content management systems are certainly useful, but it's no fun to be stuck with somebody else's design. You probably have your own design ideas you'd like to implement in the CMS. Of course, you can build new themes for any CMS, but that's not always as easy as you might think. You have to be comfortable with using most CMSs before you can write your own themes.

I show you CMSMS (or CMS Made Simple), a CMS that's so simple you should be able to customize your site with it completely in just a couple of days. For small to medium-size projects, it's a good blend of simplicity ...