Re: CMS Site Structures

Hi Julian,

since we are also developing a CMS for ASP.NET (Kentico CMS - 
www.kentico.com), I'd like to share some lower-level thoughts:

Having separate applications for administration and for displaying content 
makes perfectly sense. One of the advantages is that you can separate 
development of the administration interface from development of the web 
site.

We use this structure in ASP.NET:
/  - root folder containing page templates (ASPX files) used for front-end
  web.config - one web.config for both front-end and the administration 
interface
  /bin - folder with DLL's of both the front-end and the administration 
interface
  /CMSDesk - folder containing the administrative interface
  /files (or /CMSDesk/files) - folder with uploaded files

This structure with one /bin folder for both applications allows you to run 
both web site and the administration interface as one application, which 
means you can share the application, session, cache and static variables.

The page templates are common ASPX files that receive some parameter through 
URL and display appropriate content. The parameter can be passed as a 
friendly URL (e.g. /products/nokia). They consist of server controls and you 
develop them as any other ASPX page in VS.NET, so you have full control over 
the site.

You can download the trial version and see it in more detail. Perhaps you 
will find some inspiration for your own system.

Best Regards,

Petr Palas
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Kentico Software
WWW: www.kentico.com
Blog:     www.kentico.com/blog
Kentico CMS - The most affordable CMS for ASP.NET professionals.
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>
> I don't know.
>
> I am just trying to decide on the best structure for my own CMS and at the
> moment it looks like am going to stick to configuring two sites, one for
> delivering content to the public and one for the administration side of
> things.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Julian
>