Ideas for much more flexibility in the customer CMS

Feature Requests Website Builder Request
1

For customers who just want to change a text, replace an image or write a new blog article, the Customer CMS is fine as it is now.

But for more demanding customers the CMS offers too little at the moment. Just creating a new page is not possible. Of course it is possible … but then I have to give the customer full access, which again makes everything much too complicated!

So I thought about how this could be improved:

  1. a very practical innovation in Sitejet would be if you could create one or more layout pages. In this layout page you could define three areas: Header, Variable Content and Footer.
  2. so when the customer creates a new page, he can choose on the basis of which layout page this page should be created. The static areas Header and Footer would then be inserted in this new page. Changes to the header and footer could then each be made in the layout in one place. I know, this can be made with references also already. But this approach would be better in my opinion.
  3. in the new page, you can insert any predefined elements or presets that were created and edited on the layout page in the variable content aria.
  4. i imagine this variable content area to be similar to a columns preset. Of course it would be possible to duplicate, delete or move already inserted elements.
  5. so the customer could very easily create completely own pages.

The idea is of course not new. Similar approaches exist in various Builders and CMS.

I think such an innovation would not only be interesting for customers, but would also increase the speed of implementing a website.

I hope my explanations are understandable. Otherwise I can provide more information or answer questions.

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2

We ran into this just now, I think.

We have a customer who wants to be able to make small changes for the most part, the way the simplified cms works now is great for that.

However, they now want to add a page for a project, simply by duplicating an existing page and changing the content. To my surprise, this cannot be done from the simplified CMS as far as I can tell. It seems I will have to rebuild their projects page with corresponding entries as a collection in order for the client to be able to add items.

Your suggestions sound very practical @Patrick_Luescher but just being able to duplicate an existing page would be helpful.

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Thanks for your comment.

I think the customer CMS should have much more possibilities that you can enable or disable certain functions.

For some customers it is enough that you can edit only the existing elements. But other customers want to make an element invisible or visible, rename or duplicate a page and so on. All these things are currently only possible in customer mode with full access, which in turn makes many things too extensive.

I hope that there will be improvements soon!

For certain applications a collection is exactly the right thing. But let’s assume that there are certain variations again: e.g. a picture at the beginning, then some text, then a picture again. In the next article/page a gallery, then some text … and already it does not work really well with a Collection …

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4

I agree. The problem I am running into is with the blogging collection. I have a client that I have set up a blog for and the collection has a CMS Content field. However, there is no way for the client to open up the CMS editor for that field and actually add content to the page. I would like to give my clients the ability to design their own blog posts without be strapped into a template that always needs a certain amount of photos or videos, etc.

My proposal would be to allow clients FULL ACCESS to collections. The ability to add and change categories, utilize the full editor in a CMS Content Field, etc, WITHOUT giving them full access to the sites CMS.

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@Chad_George Like you, I’ve just been looking for this exact solution. I find it odd that it doesn’t already exist to be honest. Client to update blog with the CMS field options - i’d be happy with basic elements even (no presets for example), but I don’t want to give them full access to the rest of the site pages.

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Thank you for the great suggestions. I updated the feature request and increased the priority.

To all supporters: please comment “+1” below, and/or join the discussion!

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Great! Thank you, Martin!

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8

+1 for me!!

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9

I was going to start a thread related to customer website updates, but then I came across this thread. So I will mention all my concerns about this subject (if it happens to be not the same subject, I will create it to another thread).

I will take WordPress as an example, which is a common CMS used by many agencies.
Usually the agency makes the website for the client, then train him on how to use the back office of WordPress on tasks like:

  • How to make updates on WordPress and plugins
  • How to modify existing pages
  • How to add pages and add content (e.g. blog post, informational page)

At this moment, the client is independent and can manage his content on his own. In case the client does not want to make updates on his own, he has to pay for some service fee, so that the agency makes the updates on his behalf.

This brings us to the main question regarding SiteJet’s custromer portal, which is: how to allow the client to apply his updates on his own, without the need of the help of the agency ?
The current answer is the use of the simplified customer CMS, which is not enough, as raised by fellow SiteJet users in this thread.

The only solution to handle customer’s update requests, in this case, is being always present and apply his change requests (like adding pages), which may be time-consuming. And this kind of service will be charged to the customer. Not all customers may accept this service, as they assume that they will be able to make changes on their website without the need of the agency’s help. But in reality, they can’t, because of the limitation of SietJet’s customer CMS feature.

The opinion of @Andre would be helpful about this subject.

I find this subject very important to the business of creating websites for clients as an agency. This point may be added to another important one, which is how to update a website without publishing directly during the process of making changes (but this is another thread). In my opinion, these 2 points are mandatory for smooth experience for both sides, agency and customer.

So +1 for me also. And I hope this thread will get prioritized (also the one for making changes on an existing website in production without having to duplicate it).

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But how can you give your customer full access when there are many backlinks to sitejet in CMS, i have raised this issue many time here … it doesn’t bother you?

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I honestly don’t mind it at all.
The main thing is that it’s a good solution for the customer.
We also make no secret of which tool we use.

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12

That’s weird … so whats the use of white label then, me as an agency can’t reveal business tools to my client.

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13

In my opinion, we should keep the features that come with white labeling. But we may give the customer more freedom, but not full access. Somehow, find a good balance. At the end, we should keep the option to decide on what to give access to.

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14

Hey Umar!

I know certain people care a lot about this white labeling stuff. :wink:
Personally, not so much for me.
It’s much more important to me that it’s a very good and customized solution.

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15

+1 on the added client-side CMS functionality!

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16

+1 also from me!

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18

My clients know that they get a Sitejet website. No need to make a big secret about it in my business.

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19

it’s not necessary what is good for you is also good for me, you have your own business strategy and i have my own which means it doesn’t matter whether it’s important for you or not but it’s important for me and a must have feature as white label.

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Dear Umar @mughal ,

Of course, it is important, what every Sitejetter has to say about this feature request and the possibility.

Barbara is entitled to state her opinion and give insight on how she works with Sitejet. That does not mean, that she does not respect your opinion and wish about it.

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21

Just wanted to share my thoughts. If your business model is different
full whitelabling is important for you.

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