Faq

Frequently Asked Questions

Who's using (and who can use) OCOC?
OCOC is pretty new. The first to use OCOC were Venus, TX Chamber and ApplegateValley.org. Since then OCOC has been downloaded 575 times and among them, is also being used by the Bellmead, TX Chamber. The miniCMS in OCOC can be "dropped in" and used to implement most of OCOC's features for other types of commercial and non-profit sites too, such as for small businesses and larger associations. There has been interest in OCOC from locations in Europe and Scandinavia, too.
What's required to use OCOC?
OCOC must be installed on an Apache2 webserver, with MySQL and PHP4.3 or higher and the GD libraries enabled. OCOC typically requires only about 1 megabyte of storage (depending on the number of images you upload!).
How do I change the 'look and feel' of OCOC?
OCOC is designed using current XHTML and CSS standards. The look and feel of the site is completely controlled by the stylesheet. OCOC comes with several example stylesheets that illustrate some of the many ways OCOC elements can be arranged. Most customization can be done in the stylesheet and in only a minimum of site global variables. The furnished documents include descriptions of configuration files and variables.
Is OCOC easy to customize?
Fairly. As with most dynamic sites, most initial OCOC customization should be done at the file level by an experienced XHTML/CSS web professonal: site globals, stylesheet modifications, image replacement and header design. From then on, your clients or Chamber staff can update and create content -- even new pages -- using only the browser-based miniCMS included in the package.
You say client staff can add pages; how is that done?
It's as simple as 1-2-3: Add a menu item with the menu editor, define the page with the page editor, and enter content with the "page" field of the article editor set to the name of the new page. Add more articles or paragraphs to any page by creating more content with the same page name. Control the order of articles with the "sequence" field.
Is knowledge of HTML required to enter content?
No, that is the whole point of OCOC! The content editor is a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) type. It gives you editing tools common to many word processing programs you already use. There are even table-creation tools. Of course, knowing a little HTML is always helpful, and it is also possible to edit the raw HTML of an article.
Are 'help' files available to content editors?
Yes. There is a complete indexed user guide available both online while editing and directly browsable. It even has a special CSS stylesheet for printing to be used as a training manual. The event and membership admin tool also has an online help file. There is also context-sensitive help on various editor pages in the CMS.
What level of support do you provide?
Will I install and customize OCOC for you? Yes, but only for a fee, because that is my business. If you encounter problems implementing OCOC, report it as a bug, and I will add your problem to the buglist I keep. If the solution is easily determined and solved, I frequently respond the same day with code changes by email. That's all I can offer.

Like most newly-released open-source projects, and for the forseeable future, OCOC is the part-time labor of love of a single individual. I use the OCOC "engine", consisting of blocks of PHP code and a function library, as well as the miniCMS at every opportunity to augment web applications and site designs. When I find bugs, I fix them and publish patches or new files on the OCOC site. I welcome bug reports and requests for features. I also welcome bugfixes and language translations. Use the SourceForge.net resources and my contact information at http://www.watersgulchdigital.com/oscc
Help! Lots of content is locked and I can't get in to fix it...
You probably changed the Site Admin user's name to something else when you changed the password. Now you have to use phpMyAdmin or Webmin or other host tool to directly edit the ccAuthors table and restore Site Admin as the admin's name. Now you can login as site.admin and go to the CMS Content page and click "Unlock" all.