UNIX-based "Template" Software for Web Design?

jedinite asks: "I work for a large company looking to expand our web development offerings to cover lower-end sites. We are looking for a template-based program which we can offer our customers where they can "point and click" to develop their own website over the net. Basically, the user could provide a few graphics of a specific size, cut and paste some text as content, drag and drop a few links, and have a very basic website which they create & maintain themselves. I'm having serious trouble finding a package such as this which runs in our UNIX environment (we're mostly a Solaris/Apache house, but have some Linux/BSD boxen as well). Does anyone have any comments on or experience with any software package or module which performs this desired functionality? Anyone know of a software package for UNIX-hosted 'template web design'?" This is an interesting approach to the thought of homepage design. Thoughts?

HTML::Mason and other

[Etyenne]

I am not aware of any package that does exactly what you need, but HTML::Mas on [cpan.org] could help you roll your own solution in Perl. You could also have a look at Perlfect::Template [perlfect.com].

Interesting approach?

[penguinboy]

Might I point out that this is what most of those website "communities" (Geocities, Xoom, Angelfire, AOL, and others I can't think of) have been doing for a long time.

PHP and Fast Templates

[drewpc]

If you're already using Apache, then it's worth taking a look at PHP (www.php.net [php.net]). PHP is an open source project that has done an incredible job of competing with ColdFusion, Active Server Pages, and the like. To go along with your question, PHP offers a class called FastTemplates that does exactly what you want. The newer version even uses a caching algorithm that makes it even faster. You can read about it here: www.phpbuilder.com/columns/sa scha19990316.php3 [phpbuilder.com] and you can download it here: www.thewebmasters.net/php/ [thewebmasters.net]

Best to roll-your-own with Perl

[ikekrull]

Seriously, the easiest way to do this is to write your own code in Perl.

I use this for all my sites, putting a set of variables into a flatfile database, and using Perl regular expressions to replace tags in an HTML template. Its essentially a quick n dirty approach that i keep extending as i make new sites, but it gives me exactly the results i want.

You could get an off-the-shelf tool, but typically you'll find that off-the-shelf tools support everything except the one function you really need.

You'll also have to spend time learning the tool's syntax, and if youre going to have to provide support to your clients, you'll probably want a good understanding of how it works at a fairly low level.

Zope, PHP and others are also valid approaches, but if you ask me, time spent learning perl is time well spent, and after Perl, PHP is a breeze.

Not being a Python man, i can't really comment on the merits of Pyhton/Zope but Zope certainly looks like a very functional and complete product for lots of web publishing tasks.

Web based template software

[b100m]

Check out : http://www.nomatterware.com .

It is developed and runs on Windows using ColdFusion. They may sell the entire concept to you to rebrand for your own. I believe Allaire has a ColdFusion server that runs on Unix now.

The NoMatterWare template has a very Windows look and feel, and I've found that ColdFusion doesn't always look as good in Unix environments (especially text), but I'm sure with a little effort you could remedy that. If your customers are Windows users, they'll love it.
_____________________________________________ ____
$which weed

Servlets and XML

[zantispam]

Something that may be outside the scope of your question, but I thought I'd include it too.

I recently attended a coference on EJB and CORBA. I met a guy who does customized home pages. He starts with a generic XML template. Based on user preferences, he has servlets (using a SAX compliant tool; look here [google.com]) parse the user-defined template and insert whatever info is needed.

The coolest thing about this is the fact that it's all very lightweight. Also, the process is infinately scaleable (if you want to go full blown EJB and CORBA).

Mail me for an example...

Here's my [redrival.com] copy of DeCSS. Where's yours?

Perl

[randombit]

Just write up a Perl script that randomly chooses words and HTML tags. That's how slashdot works, you know. :P

Python with htmlPARSER module

[RevAaron]

I used this a while back to generate pages from a template for a project where I work. You'll have to to a little work (write some Python code saying what variables to substitute with what), as well as taking a HTML page and making that into a template, but both are really easy and can integrate with the web via CGI (or Zope) really well.

You can find htmlPARSER here [heimat.de], and Python here. [python.org]

www.editthispage.com

[krowcore]

Editthispage.com is an example of what your looking for. It uses a program called Manilla. Editthispage.com [editthispage.com]

AXDTK

[Matts]

I can't resist posting this, although it doesn't really answer your question about a point and click interface, it may help you develop something similar...

If you have Perl skills, then you may be interested in the Apache XML Delivery Toolkit. It's a suite of modules that help you with the following:

- Delivering XML to web browsers in a desired format.
- Delivering the same page in different styles
- Delivering the same page to different media (e.g handhelds (WAP), browsers, tty's, etc).
- Developing a consistent style across your site.

It's all built around mod_perl, and it works in much the same way as Cocoon does, except that it's built in Perl, not Java.

If you're interested, take a peek at http://xml.sergeant.org/axdtk/ [sergeant.org].

Turnkey or roll your own

[yelvington]

It sounds like you're looking for something like Urbanite [urbanite.com], which is a commercial turnkey suite of tools for building a Geocities-like system.

Most of the large players have either built their own tools or contracted with integrators to have tools built for them.

Platforms such as Midgard [midgard-project.org] (based on PHP) and Zope [zope.org] (based on Python) make it radically easier to develop such tools.

There also are any number of open-source Slashdot-like environments such as Squishdot; some browsing around in Freshmeat.net will churn them up quickly.

How about Zope?

[twstdpear]

Check out Zope [zope.org] (and the ZDP [zope.org]).

It's an open source web application server and it would make the job you're referring to a snap.

Some sites which use Zope:
www.zope.org [zope.org]
www.technocrat.net [technocrat.net]
appwatch.com [appwatch.com]
www.codecatalog.com [codecatalog.com]

Hrmrmrm

[GoRK]

Well... as for web development environments that use "templates" - e.g. server-parsed scripts that are a little less involved (program-wise) than CGI scripting include:

1) ColdFusion (my personal choice even though it's a bit slow) www.allaire.com (commercial)

2) PHP (And w/ 4.0 Zend) www.php.com

3) Zope www.zope.org

4) iHTML www.ihtml.com (commercial)

5) MetaHTML www.metahtml.com/www.metahtml.org (commercial and GNU versions)

I have used all of these on Linux with sucess in each. All of them could allow you to create templates that replace "blank spots" in web pages with user-entered information from a database.

What you are asking though seems a little bit different -- you seem to be looking for a prebuilt approach like a tripod, geocities, xoom, or AOL "home page wizard/generator"

You might have a look at www.cgi-resources.com. They have a VERY good listing of CGI's and I believe I've seen a categor for page wizard scripts.

~GoRK