Technical Details

WebOnTheFly is a dynamic website platform that allows designers to control layout and features while businesses control their own site structure and content. This powerful and highly flexible application is built in the industry-leading web application environment, ColdFusion by Macromedia.

With a dynamic site built on WebOnTheFly, the designer works with the business in the beginning to create templates that establish the "look" of the site. Then, the business takes control -- adding, removing or modifying pages as the need arises.

Templates

WebOnTheFly templates may include HTML, JavaScript, Java and Cascading Style Sheets. Static page elements (those that remain the same on various pages) are incorporated in the templates just as in any other HTML page.

Modules

For each dynamic page element (one that is specific to the page being viewed), the designer inserts a single "custom tag" to call on any of a robust set of modules. These modules handle various types of web content, such as text, images, links, advertisements, forms, site maps or search results. For example, a large area of detail text might be incorporated like this:

<cf_OnTheFly module="Detail" name="Body Text">

Handlers

Behind each module is a set of handlers that display or edit its content. Visitors to the site only see the work of the display handlers formatting the elements on the page. The webmaster sees the same display, but with the addition of small buttons near each module. Clicking these buttons invokes additional handlers with forms and wizards for editing the content.

Customization

Basic Formatting - Each module has one or more "tag" attributes that allow the designer to pass HTML tags into the display handler to customize the format of the content. This feature can even be used to incorporate Cascading Style Sheets.

Custom Displays - With minimal knowledge of ColdFusion (or a little bit of our coaching), the designer can have total control over module display - incorporating dynamic content with mouseovers, select boxes, even Java or DHTML drop-down menus.

Custom Modules - For unique site requirements, we can even provide completely custom modules. These modules can be used to integrate custom data or third-party applications.

Permissions

In addition to the webmaster, other users can be granted limited access to specific modules, pages using specific templates, or specific portions of the site. Roles are completely user-definable, so several different types of users can have different levels of access.

Dynamic Navigation

Links between pages are dynamically displayed based on the latest changes to the site. So, if a page is deleted or "un-published", all links to that page from elsewhere on the site are automatically removed. If the page is restored, those links are restored also.

Content Organization

The webmaster can define one or more sets of topical categories to describe the site's content. As pages are added to the site, the webmaster may assign them to appropriate categories. This category structure may be made a visible part of the site's navigation, or kept hidden and used to automatically cross-reference similar pages, provide highly-targeted advertising or sell products in context.

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