Below are answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about SpryPanel. If you are looking for technical support please contact us from our support page.

What is Web-based Content Management?
Content management is the separation of the technology behind the web-site (the look and feel) and content (up-to-date information). If we separate technology and content, the roles of the web-developer and a non-technical web-editor can be separated so each can specialise in their own area. This will enable the web-site to have more up-to-date content and let the developer focus on creating a more effective web-site.

 

What does design independent mean?
SpryPanel is a design independent content management solution (CMS). What this means is that, unlike nearly all other CMSs, SpryPanel will not force you to use a predefine template or create your own. You can apply SpryPanel CMS to any web-page or design you wish to create. This is done by breaking content into content elements. Any page can be broken into content elements, for example, the page you are looking at at the moment has two standard content elements (title, main content - the block of text at the top) and two list content elements (faq question and faq answer). The list content is used for repeatable content. This is all explained fully in section 2.1 of the SpryPanel documentation.

 

What expertise does SpryMedia UK have in the area of web-content management?
The SpryMedia UK team is made up of individuals with exceptional talent and a long history in web-design and content management. As a team we have been working together for more than three years and over the last year we have been designing, developing and testing SpryPanel to be the most cost-effective content management solution on the market.

 

Who will benefit from me using SpryPanel CMS?
There are three groups of people who will see the main benefits of SpryPanel being used on your web-site.

First and most importantly is the visitors to your web-site who will benefit from up-to-date content on an web-site which has given the developer time to work on the technical aspects and not worry about content.

Secondly, content editors. Instead of asking someone else to make changes on the web-site and content editor can make then changes themselves through a simple and easy to use web-based interface.

Thirdly web-developers. Using SpryPanel CMS on a site allows a web-developer to concentrate on make an easy to use, simple to access and navigate, beautiful and functional web-site - with no need to worry about the content on the site. This also allows for a consistent look and feel across the web-site, which makes for a much better end-user experience.

 

Do I need any technical knowledge to use SpryPanel?
SpryPanel has been been designed form the ground up to make content editing as simple and accessible as possible. SpryPanel's content editing features are completely web-based. This means that anyone how can use a web-browser can edit content on a web-site on the web. SpryPanel uses a standard word-processing like interface for content editing.

For web-developers, no knowledge beyond basic design skills is required, be it through Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Golive, hand coding (or any other web-design package/method). SpryPanel will give you all the information you need in order to include SpryPanel controlled content on your web-site. Administration functions, like content editing, are all access through a web-interface.

 

Can I create a custom look and feel for SpryPanel?
Yes you most definitely can. SpryPanel sports a completely theme-able interface which means that you can customise it to integrate with your web-site as you wish. A number of themes are included by default with SpryPanel, and more are available from this web-site. We also provide documented themes to make the development of a custom theme for your site easier.

 

How many people can use my installation of SpryPanel?
You can add as many users as you wish to SpryPanel on your web-site. Each user can then log-in with their own preferences and access privileges, which the administrator can set. Privileges can be set for each user on a per page basis.

 

Can I use SpryPanel to write a blog?
Yes! SpryPanel makes it a one click process to add a new blog entry, or news entry, podcast or whatever you fancy. The list content support provided by SpryPanel means that repeatable content is very easy to edit and manage.

 

Does SpryPanel have security controls?
SpryPanel has been designed from the ground up with security in mind. We realise that you might be using SpryPanel for sensitive material and have taken it very seriously at all stages in the development. We have built a large number of security measures into the SpryPanel core. No one who does not have access to a particular feature or content page for editing will be able use that feature. We have even used white-hat hackers to test SpryPanel's security so that we can remove any potential security holes long before they pose any risk to your web-site.

 

How is SpryPanel priced?
All licenses offer free upgrades to the latest version of SpryPanel v.3.x and free e-mail based technical support. Licenses are sold per web-site (domain name - sub-domains require a different license) and are available as a single license for a single web-site or as a multi-pack of licenses for re-sellers or web-developers who wish to offer SpryPanel with their web-site.

 

What content can SpryPanel control?
SpryPanel can control almost any content you can throw at it, including standard web-sites, content for wireless handheld devices and flash based content. Any platform that will run the free and open source PHP engine and MySQL database will run SpryPanel, and all that is needed on the client side to actually edit content is a web-browser. This means you could edit content on the move with a light web-browser on your mobile phone if you wished.

The different content element types that SpryPanel can control is extensive including standard html/text, images, files etc.

 

Does SpryPanel have a WYSIWYG editor?
Yes, SpryPanel has a built in word-processor like What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor. Anyone who is familiar with word-processors like Microsoft Word will feel right at home editing content in SpryPanel.

 

If you have any questions about SpryPanel's features or sales please feel free to get in touch with us using our contact form or e-mail us at [email protected]. For technical support questions, please use our support web-site