It's screencast time! This week, I thought I'd change things up just a bit. Today, I'll be going over two things. First, we'll take a look at how easy it is to edit static sites using the free service, CushyCMS. Next, we'll create a nice slideshow by using a jQuery plugin called "innerFade". Enjoy!
*Click on the "Full Screen Toggle" icon to maximize the video.
Cushy CMS
Cushy is a content management system that will allow your clients to easily edit portions of their sites that you designate. While many clients will absolutely benefit from a powerful platform like Wordpress, others will find it to be bloated and too heavy for their needs.
Consider an older man who wants a presence on the web - at the suggestion of one of his Sunday checkers buddies. Trying to teach a person like this how to use Wordpress will prove to be extremely difficult, and unnecessary. Cushy will solve this.
Your client will be able to edit his or her site quickly and easily using this service. How is this possible? You only need to add a class to your document.
The Mark-up
The first step is to specify what part of your document should be editable. When you determine this, add a class of "cushycms" to the parent element.
Here is the information that can be edited by my client.
How Does it Work?
Cushy is a hosted service. When you sign up for a free account, you'll need to input your ftp information for your chosen site. Subsequently, when you, or your client update a section, the file will be saved and transferred over to your server - thus overwriting the current version of the file.
The Conclusion
Many will argue that Cushy CMS is far too weak to be taken seriously. In some ways, they are absolutely correct. However, they're completely missing the objective of the service. Cushy is in no way trying to replace Wordpress. Instead, it's offering a wonderful and easy to use service for your clients. You could even consider charging your clients for this service. I personally have!
The obvious downside is that it's not open source. I'd love to be able to self host and brand every inch myself. While you can purchase a premium plan for about $25 US dollars a month, it would still be nice to dig your teeth into the code, so to speak.
The screencast details each step listed above. As a bonus, it also details a nice jQuery plugin called "innerFade".
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Drew Douglass October 7th
I think this might have convinced me to try out CushyCMS, thanks for taking the time to create this tut
begs October 8th
Ah! I thought the cast was about using the innerFade Plugin and CushyCMS and not of both in single.
But think it works if you define the #box as class=”cushycms” and put your images and/or divs in it in the
CushyCms online WYSIWYG editor.
That would have been the roundup
Otherwise another great tutorial and thank you!
Torsten October 8th
Hi, nice ScreenCast!
thanks for introducing my plugin.
if someone don’t want to google for it, here is the direct link: http://medienfreunde.com/lab/innerfade/
vijay karthik.v October 8th
I have been using cushyCMS since you posted an article some time back,
and I say my clients like it too, it is so easy to setup and use,
a very useful web resource,
Franck October 8th
I have tried out this Cushy CMS. The service is quite cool and well made.
However, for my self, it is not useful. I prefer updating the content directly in the source code.
You could say : “What if your client wants to do it himself ?”
I have not seen an automatic menu generation in this product so I would rather set a real CMS for the need.
Finally, Cushy CMS is quite cool but not so useful for everyone.
Techgerm October 8th
Quite nice video. I really am gonna try innerFade.
insic October 8th
hmmmm this made me think to recommend this cms to my future clients.
Ben Griffiths October 8th
CushyCMS is great for those little sites
MikeTheVike October 8th
I’ve thought about using this CMS a number of times, but it always seems like a client wants more after a simple site is finished.
Spyece October 8th
Thanks mate. and yeah CushyCMS Rocks!
Chris Strom October 8th
Anybody have any luck with using CushyCMS with Wordpress? I had little success with my experiment…
Jeffrey Way October 8th
@MikeTheVike - Well you have no obligation to CushyCMS. If a few months down the line, your client decides that he needs more contol, you can transfer over to a bigger CMS.
koen buysse October 8th
CushyCMS is actually a on-line ftp server that locates, edits and saves a file on your site….right? nothing too spectacular, but indeed very nice for small sites.
secondly, i like the simple jQuery plugin, no really, i like it a lot ! simple, yet it gets the job done perfectly !
nice screencast !
Nate October 8th
A great solution for those clients not wanting to spend the big money for a completely customized CMS. This was a nice present Jeff, thanks!
Steve October 8th
Thanks for pointing out CushyCMS! It’s definitely gonna be useful for some of those really small websites with non-computer savvy clients.
Owain October 8th
Love Cushycms, been using it ever since Collis wrote a tutorial on it on his site…
Works great for clients who have very little technical ability and want to change small sections of text in their website..
Owain
http://www.icomcreative.com
Roshan October 8th
Not really a fan of this CMS but the features are nice. Although I like Joomla/Wordpress over any other CMS because of huge flexibility, plugins and support.
I have used Joomla for 7 websites and I think working with Joomla is one of the best experience I had in my development business. I will try this one also but not sure about it.
But thanks for the info.
Roshan
Freelance Developer
http://www.instantshift.com
Rahul October 8th
I did download Cushycms and I like the simplicity of the design and usability of this. I’d like to use this for some of my smaller clients that do not require any big requirements like joomla or mambo.
Hope they come up with a pro type of version soon. Cheers for Cushycms.
godonholiday October 8th
Cushy is great.. i have clients who I did some static sites for and I did a follow up call and asked if they would like more flexibility and they went for it! so got some extra cash and they loved the follow up call.
I think it works for small to medium sites and you can market it in many many different ways.
great screencast.
Barttos October 8th
Great screencast! CashyCMS is great too
special for small sites! 
chad October 8th
what is up with people adding a signature in there comments? Your name on the left already provides you a link out. Please stop…its annoying!
Kivoiam October 8th
I’ve used this for clients who have trouble with basic computer skills and they love it.
Jason October 8th
Loved the tutorial. I have been looking for something just like this. Thanks for such a great website, I read your tutorials all the time!
Dave Ellis October 8th
Nice tutorial - looks like a decent little service/app.
begs October 8th
I wonder if i should care about my FTP data.
I mean - If i use CushyCMS, i provide my read and write FTP-Data to some online service and i don’t know who else is going to get that data.
insic October 9th
@begs we have the same question in mind.
Felix October 9th
Hey,
I really love this. Awesome for a small site without the need of programming a backend or using a complex cms.
I sure will try it.
Felix
Rob October 9th
I use CushyCMS for loads of clients.. it’s killer!
Taylor Satula October 9th
I have used cushycms with less tech savvy clients untill i can customise/teach them wordpress. Great for people who ask “What is this interweb thing everyone’s talking about?”
Great article
Craig October 9th
@begs This risk can be minimized by putting the content that you want to edit with CushyCMS in include files which are isolated in a folder by themselves. Create an FTP account which only has read/write access to this folder and use that FTP account in CushyCMS. Not perfect, but at least the rest of the site is protected.
Like others here, I find CushyCMS great for small brochure type sites.
Simon Vallee October 9th
I concur, CushyCMS is a great CMS for clients who aren’t so tech-savvy, and I really like the suggestion of pairing it with Twitter for dynamic content.
Benjamin "balupton" Lupton October 10th
No where in this whole article could I find a link to CushyCMS or the Inner Fade plugin it was talking about.
Eduardo October 10th
Greate tutorial!!
some tips about Camtasia:
to begin a recording you can use the shortcut F9.
to pause/resume a recording you can use the shortcut F9.
to Finish a recording you can use the shortcut F10.
Shane October 11th
Nice to see another screencast. I did look at Cushy, and it´s appealing in some ways, particularly for smaller clients. However, I didn´t see how website editors could add NEW content. Also, the method for Content Management is very simple, which falls short in many situations. Also, I´m not too keen on the cushycms classes everywhere.
Rob Vaughan October 12th
Thanks for the brief insight to innerFade, it prompted me to take a look at a jQuery plugin I bookmarked months back which does the same and more. Personally I prefer the parameters and flexibility in jQuery Cycle Plugin
http://malsup.com/jquery/cycle/
Loads of transitions, not just a fade, but if you only want the simple fade then the source code is even smaller than innerFade.
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