Thursday, February 3, 2011

Google Docs CMS

More often than not, I find myself in need of a quick site that allows an otherwise tech un-savy client the ability to make changes to the content.

In the past, I've tried popular open source CMSs like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. I've even programmed a few custom CMSs from scratch. But nothing ever seemed to fit the bill. There was either way too much overhead, too much setup time and/or the content management part was too complex for the client.

So having done all that, I was intrigued by a post (insert link) that claimed to use Google Spreadsheets in a novel way to allow a client to update a part of a webpage.

The concept seemed promising. Inherently limited due to its infancy, but very promising nonetheless.

I decided to see if I could develop it further to establish a system that would meet my recurring needs:  Minimal Setup (preferably none), No Database Setup or Administration, No Backend Programming, and Minimal Learning Curve For The Client.

I decided to see how far I could take the idea. And here's what I've learned.