using Joomla with Dreamweaver?

[TigerMO]

I have been using Dreamweaver for years to manage a fairly basic web site and I love it because I don't need to know a whole lot about HTML. I've gotten pretty good at the MINIMAL basics of HTML anyway and can do some editing by rewriting the code versus WYSIWYG in Dreamweaver.

Now, we've been told we are in need of integrating a content management system into our site and that's a strange new world to me. The designer suggests using Joomla to create the features we need, but when he's finished with the web site creation, I want to be able to resume the upkeep of the web site without constant reliance on an outside party. After the CMS (which I don't understand at all) has been implemented, will I be able to use Dreamweaver to maintain the site going forward and make minimal edits to that content as needed without learning a whole new language? I'm pretty tech savvy, but not in the HTML world. When you start talking front end, back end, etc., I'm lost.

[Jon Fritz]

motiger1@icloud.com  wrote

...After the CMS (which I don't understand at all) has been implemented, will I be able to use Dreamweaver to maintain the site going forward and make minimal edits to that content as needed without learning a whole new language?

No, probably not.

Once a site has been infested with Joomla, or some other better content management system like WordPress has been integrated, that CMS takes over for DW in the vast majority of day to day interactions with your site.

Modifying something outside of what the CMS admin area allows generally takes expert level server-side scripting knowledge.

[osgood_ · Accepted solution]

motiger1@icloud.com  wrote

will I be able to use Dreamweaver to maintain the site going forward and make minimal edits to that content as needed without learning a whole new language?

You wont be able to use DW but you will be able to use the Content Mangement System, which your designer has provided, to make edits and additions to the website . Make sure you liaise with them and clearly indicate to them what you want to be able to do via the Content Management System.

[Nancy OShea]

Working with dynamically driven (database) sites is nothing like working with static HTML.   2 totally different mind sets.  I suspect your developer will lock things down to keep non-coders from potentially breaking the site.   Once you're on a CMS platform like Joomla!,  you're on it for the the life of the site.  There's no going back to the way things were because there are no real pages to edit in DW.  Everything is dynamically generated by the server.    So going forward, the online CMS is probably all you'll ever use.