Softidiom WEBSmith

Providing you have the appropriate funds, getting that snazzy website designed, built and published isn't a problem for the average small business or professional. But what happens next month when it needs updating? Either you go back to your original web designers and ask them to do it (for the appropriate fee, of course), or you bring the whole thing in-house and take the DIY approach.

It isn't just a case of finding the energy and skills for changing the appearance and design every few months either: your online presence should be dynamic and constantly updated. There will be news to add and modify, up-and-coming events to broadcast, new services to advertise, your latest price lists to add and so on.

Softidiom believes it has just the answer in WEBSmith, and it could be right. WEBSmith is essentially website management software, but it also creates sites from scratch. What's more, it doesn't cost the megabucks usually associated with such a product.

The idea is based around a typical web developer's application - think Dreamweaver or FrontPage. The working environment comprises an editing screen, source code and browser-based views of your site. You can then drag and drop components from the toolbar onto your page wherever you like. Once in place, the components may be tailored via their properties to provide the effect you want. You don't have to waste all the time and money spent developing your existing site either, because WEBSmith can use this as a template and add to it.

So, if you already have a news section on your website, it's possible to use this page as a template for the news section of the site WEBSmith will create. Simply call up the existing page as a template and replace the hard-coded text elements there with WEBSmith's 'news detail' component. Your existing page isn't altered - the new one will have not only the static design layout, but also the new dynamic elements in place when it's published. You can even have a 'news summary' element in the sidebar of your home page, so visitors are able to see a menu of items and visit the ones they're interested in.

A good set of components is already in place, including product lists, catalogues and item summaries, along with purchase elements like shopping carts, checkouts and order forms. User management is crucial, and WEBSmith is also able to create user logins and customer registration pages. For example, you could have a sales rep log in via the home page and the site will automatically display the appropriate notes and reminders for that person's day ahead.

There isn't much point in creating dynamic items and pages if you have to be running the software used to create them to update the contents. WEBSmith doesn't fall foul of this problem, because the software has a whole set of 'manage' components to drop into your site. You can manage specific item types and combine these with specific logins, or allow one manager to update the lot. In effect, all you do is log into your site as an admin visitor with the appropriate privileges, then add, amend and remove news items and other dynamic content live and online.

WEBSmith does have its limitations, though. Implementing a full e-commerce shopping site takes an awful lot of time, and business rules like shipping and tax are nowhere near as comprehensive as they would be using a dedicated online catalogue creator. But, if you only have a few products and a basic shipping plan, everything is here to implement, from the product pages, through the checkout items to payment. If you just want some links straight to WorldPay, for instance, the Drop-in payment button makes light work of taking credit card details online.