a few questions

[jaymanson]

Hi Henri,

Since this is my first post, let me congratulate you on an absolutely fantastic CMS. I've previously used Joomla for my clients when they request a CMS but many of them get too confused trying to actually use it to update their content! Let's face it - they've got businesses to run and they don't want to pi$$ around an over-complicated system to change a few words on their special offers page! So, 100% to you for usability 

I have a few questions to ask before I buy though  :

1) I'm more than happy to pay for 5+ licences initially (for the discount of course ), but do I need to immediately specify the domains the licenses will be assigned to? It wouldn't take me long to assign these to new / existing clients, but I may not know immediately which ones.

2) More of a suggestion really: I notice that the 'select a file' option disappears if there are no files/snippets to select, but the 'select a folder' option remains even when there is nothing to select; i.e. when I've restricted access to only the specified base folder by adding all other folders to be excluded for that list group. Would an 'only this folder' option be possible in the future, or coding the drop menu to disappear when there are no folders to select?

3) I'd also love to see the defined snippet names in the drop menu instead of index.htm, etc. I read from a previous post regarding this that you were planning to upgrade the entire navigation system, but that was over a year ago - is this still on the cards?

4) I like to keep all my sites standards compliant to XHTML Strict but I could live without it in the admin area in exchange for functionality. However, I see there's been a few previous requests for more manipulation of the styles than is currently available though. Please don't take this the wrong way, but as a web designer rather than a developer, I'd like to style much more than the header and footer  . Removing all tables and adjusting all the styling to CSS would allow end users (with a rebrandable license of course ) to fully customise the layout while still allowing you to protect your code. If you were interested, I'd love to contribute there in return for some free licences 

Again, well done on the most usable CMS i've come across 

Jay

[admin]

Hi Jay,

Thanks very much!  SnippetMaster was designed to be as simple to use and understand as possible.  My target "market" is basic website owners who don't know anything about "HTML" or "code", and just want a simple and reliable way to update their website content without worrying about messing things up. 

1) After purchase, the licenses are assigned to your license management account and you can use them at any time.  There is no need to specify the license domain during the order.  Basically, the first time you use a license it will become "locked" to the domain it is used for.  You can then 'clear' the license information if you want to transfer it to a different website later...

2) I am considering to add this option.  My concern is that if the entire navigation system disappears, it might be confusing for folks who are using Snippetmaster but haven't got it set up correctly...  (I hope that makes sense.)  I am considering to add a feature where you can select to hide the navigation system entirely.  This would be then be a per-user setting you would have to specifically enable, so it would still be clear that you've enabled it, etc..

3) An upgrade of the navigation system is still in the works, but unfortunately my time is extremely limited recently due to my "other job".  I am planning to switch to a more "windows explorer" style of interface, where you can navigate through folders/files using collapsing branches, etc.  I think that will be more intuitive then drop down lists.  The added benefit is that I can then add "popups" to show what snippets or page title are in the file currently located under the mouse or selected, etc.

With the current navigation system, I decided not to include page titles or Snippet names because it would  (in general) be too much information for the user.  I found that about 80% of website pages all have the exact same page title.. and users were complaining that it took too much room to display them and did not add any value, etc...  So I removed them and just left the file name.

4) I am definately interested in switcihng to a totally xhtml compliant templates.  Can you be sure to sign up for the announcements newsletter mailing list?  This way, when I request help to design the new interface for the admin area you can reply and we can work out an arrangement. 

Thanks again. Let me know if you have any additional question or concerns or suggestions. 

Cheers!

[Jenkinhill]

Henri, if I may jump in here. 

With question 2, the 'select a folder' option, this can be changed in the Snippetmaster language file. I change it for my users to "Select a file from the right" - assuming there is only one directory of editable files.

With respect to showing snippet names, I use page names which are obvious to the client, so that they know, for instance, that tariff.html contains snippets related to their tariff. I have never had a problem with this, as the current simple drop-down menu is easily understood.

Customisation of the editor page layout is achieved for me by placing the SnippetMaster index.php in an iframe, so the client has what appears to be one of their "normal" site pages which happens to contain the site editor. A fully XHTML compliant editor template would be a real bonus!

[jaymanson]

Thanks for the quick replies

You know, I was looking at another similar CMS which is about $200 per non-rebrandable site licence - the trial version I download didn't work and appeared to be missing some files, so I emailed for support. I got a quick enough reply initially but 5 days later I appear to have been forgotten about! I guess they can't be bothered trying to work out what's wrong so no marks out of 10 for support - you guys get 10 so far

@ Henri - I know what you mean about not having enough time - I have to squeeze in my my web design business around my "other job", and then make sure I have enough time left over to be a good husband and father on top of that! The navigation is fine right now - I'm just being picky! I've always used relevant page titles from an SEO point of view anyway, so my clients won't have any problems identifying pages. But I am looking forward to seeing what you do with it one day! I've signed up to your mailing list as requested and I'll be purchasing 5 rebrandable licenses at some point later today.

@ Kelvyn - Thanks for the hint about the language file - I'll have a look at that. As far as customisation goes, I'd like the ability to customise everything rather than simply framing the page. It's the designer in me, but I feel that branding my business is important and I'd like to match the styling of the CMS with any other web apps I sell to my clients. That's just my preference anyway! I can live without it for now, but hopefully in supporting the project by paying for licenses and helping out with the code if I can, an XHTML compliant, fully customisable SnippetMaster is definitely something I'd like to see in the future.

Thanks again 

[admin]

Thank you!