ASP.NET Template Selector/Builder - Dynamic CMS

Question

I am currently building my own CMS for various reasons that could take a long to explain...

However i am looking for a dynamic solution to create templates for pages within the CMS and all areas must be editable via the administration area, maybe large text areas broken into multiple areas, text and image area on a page etc.

Following on from the above i would like to create the following:

Create a new page (selecting a pre-defined template like below)

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/9872/nestedpages.png

and then upon editing the page it would have created as many text editors required for each editable region or a file upload control for an image area for example.

i am thinking of using nested masterpages for the design elements, just unsure the best-practice way to achieve the above (db structure etc)

I somehow hope this provides enough information but are happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thanks

Answer 1

Umbraco (http://umbraco.codeplex.com) is a open source cms that does something like what you are talking about. I would suggest at its code base for a solid starting point as it is a really well-designed CMS. It uses nested masterpages and placeholders and injects html using what it calls macros. Very cool stuff.

If you buy even the cheapest commercial option ($1150) you can even rebrand it and lose the open source license. Not saying you should use or buy it, just throwing it out as an option.