A couple pre-sales questions...

Originally posted by kushmit:

Thanks for the info! One final question: So then I MUST have PHP and access to a MySQL database to run an Esselbach site?

Yes. However, disabling referer logging and using the file caching system will limit MySQL access to ~2 requests/hour. With a small code modification, it is even possible to disable MySQL completely and serving the entire site from the file cache. PHP is still needed.

I see no real advantage to generate plain HTML pages because:

1) The current way can handle alot of traffic. The largest Storyteller website  http://www.majorgeeks.com had peaks with over 1 million pageviews/day.

2) Storyteller is using PHP own gzip function for the pages. That means that the script is sending the pages compressed to HTTP/1.1 compatible browsers. This save alot of traffic in the long run.

A couple pre-sales questions...

Originally posted by Philipp:

Originally posted by kushmit:

2. Is it possible to turn off all dynamic features and just have the system publish static HTML?

The URLs looks dynamic but nearly all pages are already static. The caching system is generating static HTML in the database or on the file system to keep the server load low as possible.

If you like to have more static looking URLs, you could use  mod_rewrite. Let me know if you need any help.

Hi Philipp-

Thanks for the info! One final question: So then I MUST have PHP and access to a MySQL database to run an Esselbach site? Or can I have Esselbach build a set of static HTML pages, and then place those static HTML pages into a directory?

I have sites running on several different servers - some are dynamic and some are static, and I am looking for a single solution to manage all of them, but I don't want to have all the sites be dynamic. For some of them, I want to be able to have everything as HTML. Can Esselbach do this?

A couple pre-sales questions...

Originally posted by kushmit:

1. How does the multi-site feature work? I couldn't find it in the demo. Can sites be packaged and deployed to different servers?

Each website use their own Storyteller CMS installation but share the same database.

To install another website, you simply need to upload the entire script to the new webspace account and use the database login from your first installation. The installer will recognize the first installation in the database and setup the current one as website #2. Now you can login on any of your websites to published news on all sites.

The templates are not shared after they are file based. To edit the templates, you need to login to each site separately.

Each website can be installed on different servers, however, they must share the same database server.

Originally posted by kushmit:

2. Is it possible to turn off all dynamic features and just have the system publish static HTML?

The URLs looks dynamic but nearly all pages are already static. The caching system is generating static HTML in the database or on the file system to keep the server load low as possible.

If you like to have more static looking URLs, you could use  mod_rewrite. Let me know if you need any help.

Originally posted by kushmit:

3. What about search? I see that several of the example sites are using Google to index and search their content. Is there a way to do that within the context of the system?

The CMS has a search function based on MySQL's fulltext search.

A few examples:
 http://www.ntcompatible.com/search.html
 http://www.majorgeeks.com/search.html
 http://www.esselbach.com/search.html

The main reason why webmaster are using Google search is simply because Google pays them. You find more info  here.

Originally posted by kushmit:

4. Can I easily filter the RSS feed generated by Esselbach for my own content? (only make certain stories publicly retrievable via RSS)

Not yet, but already on my do list

A couple pre-sales questions...

I'd like to hear more about multisite function as well.

There's no information about it on the website and this is one of my reasons for not yet purchasing this product as i don't know if this feature will work the way we hope.

Appreciate any clarification on the matter

A couple pre-sales questions...

I'd like more (elaborate) info on how the multi-site feature words to. For that is the "whole" reason I am interested in this script.

MrLeN