13amp Content Management System for Coldfusion:

Why do I need a content management system like SparkPlug?

A content management system (CMS) allows you to design your site in such a way that it makes it easy and convenient for non-techical users to make changes or update the site using only a Web browser. Instead of having to send minor changes to a Webmaster or Web design house and wait days or weeks for the changes to be made to the site, company employees with the right permissions can log into a CMS like SparkPlug and make the changes in a matter of seconds.

What do I need to run SparkPlug CMS?

SparkPlug runs on Macromedia Coldfusion 4.x/5/MX (http://www.macromedia.com). You’ll need an ISP that supports Coldfusion or if you have your own servers a copy of Coldfusion running on the server.

Can I use the free developer edition of Coldfusion MX to run SparkPlug?

Yes. The free developer edition of Coldfusion MX can be downloaded from http://www.macromedia.com. The only restriction of the developer edition is that it only responds to http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 which means you won’t be able to access the SparkPlug Admin interface over the Internet. You can however create sites on your local machine or laptop using developer edition and publish the static pages to any Web server or ISP hosting account.

How quickly can I install SparkPlug?

Typically installation takes under 5 minutes. Run the executable, add two ODBC datasources, configure two application.cfm files and you’re ready to go.

How do I run my entire site off a single template like 13amp.com?

Create a single section. Assign an article template to the section. Wrap your HTML header and footer around the dynamic Coldfusion code. Now add your site content to the database, remembering to assign it to the section you created earlier. Make sure the status of your content is Live and that it has a rank. Preview the content in your browser. The link will be something like http://www.yoursite.com/content.cfm?id=100. Modify the menu in your article template to point to the live content files. Alternatively you can write a query that lists all content belonging to your single section and ordering the results by rank. Outputing this query, gives you your dynamic menu. In the future, adding new pages will be as simple as adding content to the database, changing its status to Live and given it a rank.

What kind of sites can SparkPlug handle?

SparkPlug can handle any kind of site - corporate sites, portals, directories, broadband and multimedia sites and Flash sites. The only limit is your imagination.

I tried adding content in another language to your Demo site but it didn’t display properly. Why?

When you create a new site in SparkPlug you select a Language and encoding type for the site. The demo site uses iso-8859-1 which is suitable for English and some European languages. To add content in a language such as Arabic, Chinese or Arabic, you need to create a site in SparkPlug with the appropriate encoding type for the content to display properly.

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