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Content Management Systems: CSS & Contribute

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    • CommentAuthorkloche
    • CommentTimeApr 13th 2006
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    I just started working at a university, in the marketing department and our IT department plans to introduce Contribute, so that different departments can manage their own websites. Now I am a staunch handcoder (I use only notepad or HomeSite and Topstyle) and huge CSS proponent while IT is steadfastly stuck in the tables Ice Age. From what I have seen Contribute is similar to the WYSIWYG set up of Dreamweaver and markup that is css dependent appears to be out of wack when viewed in Contribute.

    This affects me, because I am part of the redesign team for the university's websites - improving funtionality, accessbility and aesthetic design. I also am designing specific websites for different departments and hate having to "table" it up because the css may not gel (and many in IT can't code or understand CSS!).

    Has anyone worked with Contribute? Can it play well with CSS? Or is just a CSS Hater?! And how can I be a CSS champion in a world of table fans.
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      CommentAuthordroppyale
    • CommentTimeApr 13th 2006
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    Contribute does not play well with CSS based layouts period... however there is a way to get contribute to use a different stylesheet when in editing mode.

    Basically you create a separate stylesheet for contribute that only comes into play when the author is editing a page, the rules specified in this stylesheet overwrite all other stylesheets.

    It's like coding for a different browser so you must test in contribute yourself and see if you can somehow improve the user experience by eliminating styles, overwriting styles, hiding things etc...

    In contribyte you go to:

    edit ==> administer websites ==> your website ==> users and roles ==> select user ==> edit role settings ==> styles and fonts ==> show only css styles included in this file.


    This is by no means perfect, but it helps a lot.

    Hope this helps

    Alex.
    • CommentAuthorjrodgers
    • CommentTimeApr 14th 2006
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    Actually Contribute plays nicely with well thought out CSS layouts. We have been using at my edu for over a year now.

    The special CSS mentioned above is one way but another is using Design Time Style Sheets when you develop a template in Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is a part of the whole the process although at times it feels like the integration is missing a bit.

    I did an article for devnet on Contribute and CSS:

    http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/contribute/articles/css.html

    But if you want to talk about some specifics send me an email.
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      CommentAuthordroppyale
    • CommentTimeApr 14th 2006
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    I guess I should've said it plays well with basic css layouts... once you get into complicated layout, it's a whole different story... more effort must go into contribute or dreamweaver specific stylesheets.

    The lastest build of Dreamweaver has pretty nice CSS compliance. Contribute does not have that same rendering engine yet to my knowledge.
    • CommentAuthorjrodgers
    • CommentTimeApr 14th 2006
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    No it doesn't but CT3 acts a lot like IE 6 in quirks mode, just a bit better. Problem is how it handles browser hacks -- that can kill you. Dreamweaver 8 renders in more IE standards mode with a couple bugs... I have tried a lot of zen garden layouts in CT3 and they were fine. Even your standard 3-column layout works fine.

    It all depends on how you code your *complex* layout. For an edu I bet their layouts aren't that complex and work fine in Contribute.
    • CommentAuthorkloche
    • CommentTimeApr 19th 2006
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    Thanks for the insights guys, you have been a huge help. I will be in tough jrodgers
    • CommentAuthorkloche
    • CommentTimeApr 19th 2006
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    haha, that's was supposed to be "in touch".
    jrodgers, do you have a preferred email address, I tracked down your U email address but I know how much that account can get in a day.
    • CommentAuthormrklu
    • CommentTimeJul 7th 2006
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    fyi, contribute 3 IS IE, as it reads IE conditional statements, so i can only assume that is really does register as IE...weird
    • CommentAuthorMacDillon
    • CommentTimeApr 9th 2007
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    I'd recommend a full CMS solution over DW/Contribute. Joomla web content is editable from the browser, not a ftp type client. Take a strong look Joomla (joomla.org). I'm patiently waiting for the next upgrade myself with much greater CSS layout support.
    • CommentAuthorPanic!
    • CommentTimeApr 10th 2007 edited
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    You could recommend that they use Expression Engine as well but that doesn't mean that your particular solution fits their budget or project scope.

    Personally, I've setup a good portion of my clients to use Contribute, and after some tweaking it plays very nicely with my style sheets. Each site has a contribute.css file which allows them to edit their site styles without messing with my nice / neat code.
    • CommentAuthorwacky357
    • CommentTimeJun 7th 2008
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