Strategy: Sites managed by Actinic and externally

[Simon TL]

The site I have been building uses Actinic for the main shop functions but, for example, has an Admin section so the client can manage data in a MySQL database. (There are other non-Actinic pages ['NAPs'] but one example will do.)

I am getting in a variety of tangles with duplicate filenames (according to Actinic), being able to refer to files in nested folders during development, etc.

What is the best way to handle this locally?

I can either put the NAPs inside the site, adding them in the Additional Files dialog, or place them elsewhere locally, using Dreamweaver to ftp them into the live Actinic folder.

What do you older and wiser hands recommend? Thanks...

[gabrielcrowe]

http://modxcms.com/

try this.

its php based, and the mod_rewrite extension for seo friendly urls allows prefixing so that they dont get tangled up.

try not to re-invent the wheel

[Simon TL]

A step too far

Gabriel

I think that is a step too far me just now! I wish my first Actinic project has been a nice plain and simple one but it isn't; it has started with rebuilding an existing website with 400 products which don't sit in simple categories, and the need to manage and capture some data in a database. Maybe I should have spent more time with a database-based ecommerce tool

[gabrielcrowe]

ah, sorry, you said:

in a MySQL database

and i assumed you'd written it.

modx is very easy to isntall. a 5 minute job. and it has a website import facility.

hope you get what you're looking for somehow.

[Simon TL]

Just the strategy...

It is all written; all working on the old non-Actinic site. So the task is to merge the stuff without getting duplicate names problems from Actinic's perspective.

I prefer the idea of the 'separate' approach - with all the non-Actinic stuff in a separate folder and tree inside the site folder, but making sure none of the Actinic files refer to anything in this separate folder - 'cos that's when it tries to load those to catalog as well.

[gabrielcrowe]

well, from experience i can tell you that removing your external data from actinic entirely will be your ebst bet for lots of non actinic content.

use actinic only for ecommerce, not pages and pages of fragments. you're in for disaster if you do.

use another cms, and simply make them look the same with the template engines in both.

actinic can create an empty navigation to include in your cms and most cms can have an external navigation outside the cms.

[Simon TL]

Thanks...

Gabriel

Thanks; So for others, particularly if you are using Dreamweaver, the summary of this would be (unless someone tells me I've got it wrong!):

Manage the pages you want Actinic to manage inside the Actinic Site folder; ie this should be self-contained *except* for links between these pages and the non-Actinic pages (which will be prefixed with a path to 'other').

Create a totally separate folder as a Dreamweaver site. This area is suitable for pages with substantial PHP scripting, pages generated from a third source eg an Access database etc. Inside this place the Templates folder with the templates to be used for non-Actinic files, duplicate images, stylesheets etc; ie this should be self-contained *except* for links between these pages and the Actinic pages (which will be prefixed with a path to 'acatalog').

In the Dreamweaver remote site settings, the host directory should be 'other'. This will ensure that Dreamweaver and Actinic do not trample over each other.

[gabrielcrowe]

your actinic site is in a folder called '/acatalog'

having content in your root is the best way to keep it seperate.

providing you dont put any content in the actinic folder, they'll never trample on each other.