Projects: Tags: PHP: Montana Weed Control Association

Information

Timeline: Fall 2009
Application Type: CMS
Status: Complete
Technologies: PHP, MySQL
Partners: BWD Staff

The Montana Weed Control Association's site was a great example of diverse features which came together nicely. It utilizes many features of the Nifty CMS to good effect. The client wanted to manage site content via two systems: WordPress for news posts and updates, and the Nifty CMS for the rest of the content.

In addition, it uses some other built-in modules. The client posts upcoming events onto the Events module. They also wanted a built-in search, so I configured the Search module of the Nifty CMS to index both the WordPress content and the CMS articles.

Click on a section of the screenshot below to view an explanation of that feature.

MWCA Homepage

Dynamic Navigation

The client requested a two-tiered navigation system: a main menu visible on every page and a secondary menu for pages inside the CMS. The main menu is editable in the backend via a dynamic editor, and the secondary menu for a CMS page is generated from a list of all the other pages at that same level.

The backend menu editor.

The secondary-level navigation menu.

Nifty CMS Integration

Specifically-assigned Nifty CMS articles are pulled and inserted onto the homepage.

The backend version of the homepage content.

Nifty CMS Integration

Specifically-assigned Nifty CMS articles are pulled and inserted onto the homepage.

The backend version of the homepage content.

WordPress Integration

Certain articles are pulled from the site's accompanying blog.

WordPress Integration

Certain articles are pulled from the site's accompanying WordPress blog. This is done by assigning a special category to the articles.

WordPress Integration

The three most recent WordPress articles in the "Articles of Interest" category are pulled as links onto the home page.

Events Calendar

The site uses the Events module built into the Nifty CMS. The site pulls a few of the most recent events for the homepage.

The events editor backend.

The frontend display of the events.

Sponsors Cycler

The client wanted a bit of code to display thank you messages acknowledging their sponsors. Since accessibility was a top concern, I wrote some combined PHP / JavaScript code. With JavaScript enabled, it cycles the sponsors as a slideshow. Without JavaScript, one random sponsor is displayed per page visit.

The back end Sponsor Editor page.

Search

The client requested an on-site search that integrates the CMS content and the content from WordPress. This was easy to do with the Search module of the Nifty CMS.

The search results page.