Using the CMS to create pages

The Melati CMS enables you to create and maintain pages of a website through its database interface.

The website can be viewed as a tree with the home page as the root. The tree view can be viewed by clicking the tree link on the top right frame of a Page record within the Admin System .

Creating a new Page

Before creating a new page you should have decided where you want the page to appear in the website tree. You should also have written the text, in notepad or similar text editor, though you can use the system to edit on the fly it is better to have written the text and reviewed it on paper before entering it in the system.

Access the Admin System , where the Page Table is the first screen presented to you.

  1. Click the New Record icon New Record Icon.
  2. Fill in at least the Name, Display Name and Display Order. For example example , Example and 23 . [Leave the Deleted box unchecked.]
  3. If you want the page to appear within the site then select a parent for it.
  4. Select Default as the style.
  5. Ignore the Template field.
  6. Press Update

You have created an empty page! It can be viewed at http://paneris.net/db/Display/page/Example.html .

Adding paragraphs (Divs)

Use the Admin system to navigate to your newley created page.

  1. Press the Div link on the top right pane.
  2. Click the New Record icon New Record Icon.
  3. Enter a pagagraph number.
  4. Select a Style (Default).
  5. Add the paragraph title.
  6. Enter the paragraph content.
  7. Press Update

Repeat for as many paragraphs as you have for this Page.

Creating non-standard pages

The pages that you can create using the CMS are deliberately standardised, to give a uniform look and feel to the whole site which can be easily changed. However there is a requirement to be able to bypass this mechanism.

To create a page which does not fit into the standard framework follow the procedure above to create basic page. Then save that page to your local disk and edit it with your HTML editor of choice.

Use the Admin System to create a new Uploaded File record and upload your editted file.

This trick can be used to overwrite a page from the database, if there is a requirement for a non standard page.

Configuring contacts

The emails sent by the system have the following configurable settings:

WebsiteFromName Ordinary name of sender
WebsiteFromEmail Email of sender
SalesAdminName Ordinary name of sales addressee
SalesAdminEmail Email of sales addressee
NewsAdminName Ordinary name of news addressee
NewsAdminEmail Email of news addressee

Use the Admin System to modify the setting table .