May
21Adobe InContext Editing - Last Stop Before a Full CMS?

Unless you're running a one-person blog or website, there is always a need for distributed content management.  The worst-case scenario with web management is that everybody emails changes to one person to post them online.  It's inefficient and it is no fun to be that content funnel. A better model is to give content editors tools they need to make changes themselves.

Adobe just updated the InContext Editing service, which is a system of distributed content management that could fill the gap for anybody not yet ready for a full web-based CMS. This is technically a product from Adobe, but it may be better described as a service, as it looks to be positioned as an entirely web-based subscription model for editing web content.

InContext editing is a web-based system that lets web developers give users the ability to edit content directly within the browser. Unlike Adobe Contribute, InContext Editing does not require a desktop software installation. It isn't as feature-rich as Contribute, but the Live Demo of InContext Editing shows that simple text editing is possible without much trouble. InContext Editing requires Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 to take advantage of all features, so this option ties you to the latest incarnations of Adobe's good (and not inexpensive) software tools.

It looks like the basic approach here is that developers create Dreamweaver templates with editable regions to specify page parts content contributors can (and cannot) change. As shown here, these editable regions can also be managed, making it possible for users to change element order, in addition to editing the content directly.

Here are two pages with more information about Adobe's InContext Editing:

• Using Dreamweaver, InContext Editing, and Spry to build a dynamic site Tutorial from ColdFusion Jedi, Ray Camden
• Adobe Updates InContext Editing Service good overview of InContext features

It is still not clear how Adobe will price InContext Editing subscriptions, but for anybody already using Contribute or not using a CMS, this latest update looks useful.