Im embarrassed to show this site because I made it so badly. But I have to ask how to fix it!
The client wanted it designed exactly this way… Originally it was very few pages so it was sort of ok.
A few years later he wanted to add to it and I was so busy that I didnt have time to figure out how to do it properly so I added pages the same way as I had started a… Nightmare! Because every page coinsisists of a list of links that are all linked individually. Insane.
Now he wants changes and additions and I can’t face it.
Obviosly I need to ctrate a list (navigation) instead. Does anyone have any ideas?
I’d think that eitherTotalCMS or EasyCMS will be ideal, allowing your client - or you - to simply add new pages via an admin input. No need to open up the RW project file and even better, you’ll only have three physical pages on the site: Home, Post and Admin.
The problem with TotalCMS/EasyCM (and QuickEditor like @pmjd mentions) is that the client can’t add pages: he/she can only edit existing pages. So @Domino would still have to do some of the work.
@Domino as you use Foundry, try and see if Vertical Navigation (part of the Potion Pack) does the job for you. It’s easier to maintain than manually editing linked lists. But no solution out there will “save” you from the work of editing the menu for your client I’m afraid.
Look at it from the positive side: you can charge your client for the work.
No need to be embarrassed by what a client demands and then changes the requirement. Lot’s of us have been there.
I think you should abandon the current system because it looks like it has already become unmanageable. Navigating a Gallery using a printed Brochure just doesn’t work on a website and the navigation needs to be visual. The art names used mean nothing and coupled with the Tripple X’s at the top, ring all the dodgy site alarm bells about what the site is about.
I would suggest you create a scalable menu using a simple grid of images, where each grid item shows an image with a name. This will scale easily when more stuff gets added, and a grid of images is far more intuitive to navigate that a list of text names. Also a grid of images gives an instant visual snapshot of the art and impleented well, will do this on all devices. PS The current menu on a mobile is over 1.5 pages long.
You could use the type of grid at Project23 for RapidWeaver Stacks Source by Webdeersign , but adjust the rows and columns to fill a single page to show 1 screen of all the main images. Clicking on any image could then take you into a series of light boxes that allows the user to quickly advance to the next one as shown in the demo above as well as a buy option, more details , etc…
A proper scalable approach is needed, using warehoused images in a folders (all called colours) for each main umage, that each contain the different coloured versios of each main image, and call the images cyan.jpg, magenta.jpg, etc… E.g. for the art called STRATEGOS, create a coloured image folder as a sub folder of STRATEGOS such as \STRATEGOS\colours. Then using relative links to the images you can duplicate every new piece of art using this type of structure with very little editing for every new piece of artwork.
Alternatively, if the client is unmovable on using text links, then you could use the sidebar approach here at Webdeersign RapidProject 26 for SOURCE that could open into a slider that shows all of the colours with a 1 colour image per “slide”.
I really wouldn’t consider a CMS because you have to get a proper scalable structure sorted out first and I doubt that he is fixed in his ideas about how his needs will pan out. It’s only natural that he may change his ideas and you can use this opportunity as a continuing source of income once the structure is setup.
So when I said to the client …its getting so time consuming to add /delete a page that its not making sense … he said so how is this guy doing it?
I said I’d take a look !
While he does have all the pages linked in lists like me … it looks to me to be old and not responsive … maybe cost him a lot to have made and doesnt want to update!? I dont want to say anything too stupid to the client without some advice from here!