Is there any opensource software (desktop or web-based) similar to Macromedia Contribute?

Question

I'd like to be able to edit some static pages using a WYSIWYG editor, such as FCKEditor or TinyMCE. I was wondering if there's any software which can scan a list of webpages in a folder, and then allow certain tagged areas to be edited. Ideally a PHP-based solution would be best.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I'm not aware of such software, but there is great online editor that i use i my CMS for editing of HTML templates and PHP files

EditArea: http://www.cdolivet.net/editarea/editarea/exemples/exemple_full.html

It's really great editor, it even support tabs, but you will need some javascript knowledge to set callback functions for save and open operations...

Answer 2

According to your answer

Thanks for the reply, but I was more looking for something for non-technical users, who need an easy way to edit the static content with a GUI.

I'd suggest Kompozer as a desktop application.

Answer 3

For similar reasons I'm looking to use Windows Live Writer to send content to either http://blogsvc.net/ or http://www.dotnetblogengine.net/ for a .net solution. I'm sure you could use a PHP Feed capable service (WP / Drupal?)

From there I intend to render the Atom feed to the screen (using XLST to convert to html.)

Clearly not as "simple" as Contribute but using WLW introduces a WYSIWYG editor and your intermediary service can persist your content as XML or to a database without potentially afflicting your live website like Contribute does.

[Be wary of Contribute, the meta blog api, could save you ;)]

Answer 4

Well, it's not open source (so it doesn't exactly meet your requirements) but cushycms does let you add easy editable areas to your html that non-technical users can update. And its basic functionality is free.

Answer 5

I think you could roll your own without too much trouble. HTML files that have editable components sounds like a templating engine, like Smarty in PHP. You can scan a directory with PHP looking for .tpl files using readdir() or scandir(). Then all that's left to do is to handle your Smarty setup, setup TinyMCE of FCKeditor, and come up with a way to store the data the user inputs through the GUI.

Answer 6

There is a commercial solution:

http://www.activecampaign.com/visualedit/ It has a free trial, i think that's exactly what you need :) You'll need a database though (for as far as i read)

Answer 7

It's not a exact replica, but Bluefish is an editor I've heard good things about.