Greetings, I was wondering if an

[jade1001]

Greetings,

I was wondering if anybody knew of a solution where one could make a website automatically update itself.

I currently have a website that needs constant updating. However, before I can update it, I have to consult different departments about its content. After much consultating, stress, and retreival of information I can then post this information. After a week, the information needs to be updated again. --Like every Monday. So I have to go through the whole process of consultating and dealing with crabby secretaries to retreive information.

After about a whole academic semester of this, Spring Break occurs, I get a week to myself, and I get to thinking there has to be a better way. It would be nice if the Administrative staff could update their own information. The problem is most of my staff are techno-ID10T's. So it has to be easy. Real easy. Like solitaire (which most of them play all day).

So I have this idea. Maybe the staff could update their pages via a forum type interface and that way they can be responsible for updating their own content. As they update their content it could go to a database of some kind then the webpage with the area that needs to be constantly updated could point to the database. Also, while I'm at it, this database could store old content in an "archive" so when we have certain activities that occur annually, instead of having to recreate stuff, we just pull it out of the archive.

The problem then is, how does one do this? I also have to take under consideration, that I will not work here forever and that I am a temp. The solution has to be easily maintainable. Most all employees here have zero programming experience. According to my manager, I am the first ever hired with programming experience.

Does anyone have any ideas? If so let me know. I'd like to hear.

Thanks,
jade >:O>

 

[nryan1980]

Hey man, I have no ideas, but I just wanted to let you know that is one of the most entertaining posts I've read in a while! Haha, play solitaire all day....

I understand your frustration however, it always seems to be us young IT prospects that have these great ideas on how to improve some outdated systems...

I worked at a place that was trying to set up a vpn so that the users could log in and check their email. I was like "Why don't we just set up Outlook Web Access?"
Them: "What's that? Does it cost more money?"

haha, so I set it up with no prior experience really and it worked great. Then cop-op was up, went back to school, graduated with honours, and there was no money in their budget for someone else... yet they still call me for assistance.

*sigh*

Now I do tech support over the phone in a call center. Waaaahhh! All I want to do is get my ass in the door somewhere decent and start doing some REAL work...

~~~ It's like eating an elephant, you have to do it one bite at a time.~~~

 

[jade1001]

nryan1980,

I have no prior experience in this stuff either.

This summer, when I don't have to update it every week, I'm going to create a Microsoft Access Database and experiment. I think I can pull off getting the website to link with the database. It’s the user interface I have to be cautious of. If my faculty sees anything that looks demanding or hard they'll say they can't do it. So that's why I'm thinking of the forum idea. If I use all Microsoft Products I should be safe. The person who takes my place will hopefully know how to read the help menu--I hope.

Who knows, maybe I can get a little solitaire looking interface going on. --And then they'll dive right into it.

For the most part, techno-ID10T's like being "un-informed" about things. I had to teach one guy how to use his zip drive this week. And you never want to say "Your zip disk works the same way a floppy does" cause then he will cram that thing into the floppy drive and you'll **NEVER** be able to get it out (and of course he'll ask if we can save his data off the jammed zip disk). Its difficult to imagine how it would fit there but they'll find a way, (they're the ID10T's). --He's the kind of guy who is a PhD professor (An Educator) who graduated from Harvard. (My manager claims they get two-fer diploma's there and its written with Crayon.) --He's the kind of guy who has to change his password once a week (every Monday) because he can't remember it. –He's the kind of guy who comes down **ALWAYS** asking us if we can give it to him when we tell him **EVERY** week that all we see is asterisk. And for fun (BOFH style), we ask him his name everytime he asks us for his password and he stands there looking at you weird, like a 486 computer that just BSoD'd or just plain stopped responding because you asked to much from it. --He's the kind of guy who is the classic definition of the techno-ID10T who has many diplomas and degrees and **YEARS** of education (none of which helps him figure out where the zip disk goes), is commonly found in upper management, and fortunatly gives us job security. --Your Techno-ID10T defined .


If anyone else has input on my "updating webpage" problem, I'm all ears.

Thanks for your input,
jade >:O>