novella

NEW POST: What would you like to see?

flyingpenguin — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:39:16 GMT

Hey Rorik, I am glad you like the app.

I definitely will be adding the cleaner links...that annoys me as well when I use novella on my client sites.

In the meantime, I would checkout the options that are possible with TinyMCE (http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/). You can add a lot more features than I currently have enabled right now. I was going for a more barebones approach because I didn't want to overload my clients. However, adding more of the features is pretty easy and I think you will be able to do what you are aiming for.

Feel free to email me at david at visionaryonline dot com if you run into any problems.

Thanks,
David

NEW POST: What would you like to see?

rmelberg — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:38:40 GMT

David,

I like Novella and am planning on integrating it into a small project I am working on. The question I have is about being able to format the text while editing it. Is there a way to enable applying styles or tags (like h1, h2) to parts of text during edit? I know some of the gui editors allow this, but I haven't used tiny_mce much (more experience with FCK). This and being able to create links in a nice manner (not editing HTML) would be awesome next features.

Thanks for your hard work, I really appreciate having the block style of CMS as opposed to DNN (which I have used) and others that want to take over the entire web site. Install was easy as was integrating the master pages that I had already built.

Thanks,
Rorik

CREATED RELEASE: novella 3.5 (Mar 31, 2008)

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:51:48 GMT

I have updated novella to work with the new .NET 3.5 framework.

From a user's perspective, nothing has really changed. It all looks and feels about the same. However, if you are a developer wanted to extend or change anything, then you will quickly notice that just about everything is different.

By upgrading, I have greatly simplified the architecture by using the new LINQ libraries. Also, this version no longer used the .NET membership and role providers so that greatly simplified the database. Both really good things...

Now for the bad news...if you are using Visual Studio 2005 or .NET 2.0 (or 3.0), then this version of novella will not work for you. However, the 1.01 version is perfectly good for those platforms, so please feel free to download that version if you want.

I have tested all the functionality for this build, but if you run into anything, please email me at david at visionaryonline dot com.

Enjoy!!

NEW POST: What would you like to see?

garetjax — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:24:32 GMT

Hey David,

I'm not exactly new to asp.net however, I seem to have run into a snag setting your application up on a shared host like godaddy. Medium trust and all...I also, have a SQL Server 2005 DB not necessarily access to the Express Edition. So, with that in mind perhaps, a SQL Script to install to SQL2005 + How to enable on Medium Trust ISP Hosts ( or install for that matter.)

Seriously though, I've tried DNN, MyWebpages etc Starter kits and yours seems to be the best possible solution. If you have time please connect with me on this... garetjax@cox(dot)net

NEW POST: What would you like to see?

flyingpenguin — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:22:05 GMT

So novella has been around for a few weeks now and about 200 people have downloaded it.

I feel it is a good time to "gauge the audience".

If you have played around with the app, what do you think is missing? Also, what a killer feature would you like to see in the next version?

Thanks, in advance, for the feedback.

David

UPDATED WIKI: Home

flyingpenguin — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 03:53:17 GMT

For more information on novella visit the project home page at http://www.devmade.com/novella.

Also, I write about novella from time to time on my blog at http://www.creativeui.com.

Project Description
Novella is a web-based Content Managment System that is easy to setup, use, and, most importantly, completely free . It is built for the .NET 2.0 framework (C#) and uses SQL Server 2005 Express as its database.

The software is free to use, extend, and customize for both personal and commercial use.

Features:
Unbeatable Flexibilty: With most CMS packages it becomes the website. When you design your site you have to take into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of your CMS rather than just building the site that you want. Novella is the opposite. Design your site however you want and then place the content wherever you want.

Developer control: Other CMS software has two levels of users: Admin and Contributor. Novella adds a third, Developer. The developer is the person who is building the site so they have ultimate control as to how the content is used. They get to decide what the admins can and can't do, such as being able to add new pages or users.

CSS Zen Garden-esque: I am a big fan of CSS Zen Garden, and I am not ashamed to admit that I used their style of CSS as a foundation for this tool. The administration side of novella was designed to be completely customizable using only CSS. There is no formatting in the markup so you as the developer have complete control if you need to rebrand or customize the tool in any way.

The basics: Adding, updating, deleting content...autosaving...uploading files...rich text editing. All the standard stuff that clients need to use and maintain the site is here and easy to use.

UPDATED RELEASE: novella 1.01 (Jan 24, 2008)

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:49:34 GMT

This release is very minor, but I fixed a few bugs and did some cleanup. Also has the updated help file in it.

CREATED RELEASE: novella 1.01 (Jan 24, 2008)

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:45:16 GMT

This release is very minor, but I fixed a few bugs and did some cleanup. Also has the updated help file in it.

UPDATED RELEASE: novella 1.0 (Jan 16, 2008)

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:03:36 GMT

This is the initial release of novella. It includes both the CMS application and the novella homepage to use as an example.

There is a version of the help file in the zip, but if you want to get the latest and greatest, visit [url:http://www.devmade.com/novella/novellaHelp.doc]

If you want to learn more about the project visit [url:http://www.devmade.com/novella].

Enjoy!

RELEASED: novella 1.0 (Jan 16, 2008)

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:48:31 GMT

This is the initial release of novella. It includes both the CMS application and the novella homepage to use as an example.

Also included is the setup and help file to get you up and running.

To learn more visit [url:http://www.devmade.com/novella].

Enjoy!

UPDATED RELEASE: novella 1.0 (Jan 16, 2008)

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:48:31 GMT

UPDATED RELEASE: novella 1.0 (Jan 16, 2008)

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:27:36 GMT

UPDATED WIKI: Home

flyingpenguin — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:49:59 GMT

For more information on novella visit the project home page at http://www.devmade.com/novella

Project Description
Novella is a web-based Content Managment System that is easy to setup, use, and, most importantly, completely free . It is built for the .NET 2.0 framework (C#) and uses SQL Server 2005 Express as its database.

The software is free to use, extend, and customize for both personal and commercial use.

Features:
Unbeatable Flexibilty: With most CMS packages it becomes the website. When you design your site you have to take into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of your CMS rather than just building the site that you want. Novella is the opposite. Design your site however you want and then place the content wherever you want.

Developer control: Other CMS software has two levels of users: Admin and Contributor. Novella adds a third, Developer. The developer is the person who is building the site so they have ultimate control as to how the content is used. They get to decide what the admins can and can't do, such as being able to add new pages or users.

CSS Zen Garden-esque: I am a big fan of CSS Zen Garden, and I am not ashamed to admit that I used their style of CSS as a foundation for this tool. The administration side of novella was designed to be completely customizable using only CSS. There is no formatting in the markup so you as the developer have complete control if you need to rebrand or customize the tool in any way.

The basics: Adding, updating, deleting content...autosaving...uploading files...rich text editing. All the standard stuff that clients need to use and maintain the site is here and easy to use.