Product Reviews

Keeping website content current isn't usually a problem if you're the person that created the site. All you need do is load the application used to design the site, make the appropriate changes offline and re-publish to the server.

In the real world, however, it's very rare that the owner and manager of the site is the same person who created it, as a company will usually commission a web designer or programmer to make an attention-grabbing online presence. But what do you do when the time comes to update your website with the latest news, keenest prices or a list of up-and-coming events? It's either a case of going back to the designer and paying them to make the changes, or bringing the whole job in-house and getting to grips with the web design software yourself.

Although many web design companies will create a user accessible management system for your site, the cost is typically prohibitive for the small business - and this is just where WEBSmith comes into its own. The application arrives with more than 350 ready-built components for updating dynamic content, and allows you to add components to your existing pages just by dragging and dropping. From then on, you can simply log on to the site using your browser and make changes directly to the web page, without loading up WEBSmith or any other specialist software - a very neat trick.

Looking like a typical web-development application along the lines of Dreamweaver or FrontPage, WEBSmith comprises an editing screen with component toolbars, along with a source code and browser-based view of your work. You typically point the software to your website and use your existing pages as a template - WEBSmith will then update your site with the content managed version.

For example, let's say you already have a news section on your website and you want to make this page dynamically updateable. All you need do is choose the existing page as a template and, using the drag-and-drop toolbar, replace the hard-coded news text elements with the WEBSmith 'news detail' component.

This new version offers many more pre-designed

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dynamic components than before, so along with e-commerce-enabled product lists you also get online news management, resource vacancy booking, up-and-coming event displays and more. Automatic mailing list creation and management is built-in, and you now get far more control over live content during the online updating session. For example, you can add entire new pages while managing content, adding menu options and creating rules to decide who will see these items when you confirm the changes.

This latest version also provides more wizards to help the non-developer get to grips with the software - one of the most crucial being the new Website Creation Wizard. After running through a series of questions that allows the site creator to define the pages and features you require, WEBSmith will then generate the entire site, including all of the components needed to facilitate dynamic website management.

Managing component properties has been made easier by the new Component Manager, which features a simple-to-use tabbed interface that breaks properties down into more manageable areas. WEBSmith 2 also includes the ability to create new site content types tailored to your specific requirements. You can also manage the layout used by site content components while online.

For the non-developer, the new Publishing and Backup Wizards can take some of the technical strain out of managing your uploads and keeping your data safe. WEBSmith automatically gathers together links to pages, templates, graphics, components and local pages referenced by dynamic pages into one data set. This means all of the resources needed for site deployment are automatically included - both for upload deployment and backup purposes. Incidentally, while WEBSmith backs up local and published site resources, the software also makes sure both sources are synchronised.

WEBSmith 2 is neater than its predecessor and manages to go even further in making easier what can otherwise be a very complex job. It's by no means idiot proof - adding dynamically updateable content management to existing websites isn't for the novice - but WEBSmith does manage the job extremely well, and with surprisingly few complications.

Some prior knowledge of the technicalities involved certainly helps and prevents you trying to achieve the impossible (a little knowledge is a dangerous thing), and there's a comprehensive tutorial that sets the basics in motion and gets you started. But even if all you want is a simple newsfeed you can update each week, the results are well worth the asking price. If you want to do more, WEBSmith can go much further and, in the right hands, you'll find it very hard to beat.