Here are answers to frequently asked Presto technical and service questions.

How does Presto store data, in a SQL DB, what version?

MS SQL 2000 or MySQL 4.12 (or any of these can be a more recent version.)  We have phased out the use of MS Access due to its less reliable nature.  Read more...

Does Presto come with Version control or is this an add-on module that would have to be built by your team?  Does it always present the most updated content?

Presto has an archive and publish system, which combined with the content author and content manager user types, enables documents to be edited by one set of users, approved by managers, and then published.  Content managers make the decisions about whether old or recent versions of content are published to a website.

Do you provide support to end-user clients who use Presto?  Is there some sort of License agreement?  What happens if an end-user modifies the Presto application code?  Does that void the support agreement?

Our main, long term business is in providing support to Presto clients and VAR's on an hourly, retainer, or project basis.  Each Presto sale comes with the right of the client to use and modify the code for their own purposes (reselling or transferring Presto is not allowed!); this enables a client to be independent from us should the need arise.  Since we plow ahead with new improvements that conform to our Presto philosophy, we feel the benefit of sticking with our version evolution outweighs "forking" a particular Presto instance.  At the very least, we do not recommend changes to the core Presto software since this would impact on the possibility of future upgrades.  There are folders where client-related custom files and modules are located.

The right to future upgrades are not included in the purchase of a Presto license.  There's more about upgrading here.

Can you integrate custom JavaScript functions into Presto?

Public website page templates are completely open for the addition of javascript and other embedded object code.  Backend modifications can be made to pass any necessary parameters to your scripts from the website content database.

Does Presto have the ability to support JavaScript rollovers on pages or this an add-on module?

Presto usually doesn't limit the kind of JavaScript or DHTML that its web developers employ on page templates.  It does not provide a standard toolset for menu effects.  For special effects (e.g. fly-down menus) Presto programmers apply existing 3rd party DHTML menu systems (e.g. Milonic or HierMenus), or customize them, depending on the needs of a website navigation system.  JavaScript rollovers therefore are usually not managed directly by Presto, although there are some exceptions.  We have had Presto manage a dynamically generated and cached graphical menu for example, on the http://communicopia.net website, that modifies itself when new pages are inserted in the backend.

Does Presto come with a Permissions Manager?  I.e., one of our user requirements is they want the administrator to be able to manage a number of smaller sites created by a mini-version of Presto (the people creating the smaller sites are affiliates of the company and they would go in and create 1 page sites, the global Administrator would approve or disapprove their content before allowing it to go live on the web?

Yes, Presto can do this.  An administrator can hand out a "page manager" login account for a particular page; the page is automatically on hold when the administrator creates it, and a logged-in page manager user can then enter content into it, which the administrator can later take off of hold.

Does Presto have the ability to create HTML forms on the fly and submit them to a database or email them to the client?

It has form creation tools (with many validation options available on both browser and server side) and can email and log form entries automatically, but some extra database work is required to store a particular form's contents into a database.  Training is required in using the forms interface - so far we have just been using this tool in house and so is not developed to a shrink-wrapped software standard.  We normally set all of a client's simple or sophisticated forms during the Presto installation of a website. 

Also note that Presto WYSIWYG editors like ActivEdit can hold forms in their web content, but there too training is required to properly manage them. 

If you have spreadsheets you would like to place online, you may find the www.exceleverywhere.com Microsoft Excel to HTML form (& graph) generator handy.

From what I understand, when the agreement with Presto is setup, we send you our templates to build the site.  What happens if these templates change?  What are the fees associated with these changes?  How does Presto handle site wide redesigns, do we send you back the whole site, have you work on it and than send it back?  What are the fees associated with this work?

We certainly provide the service of making changes to templates in part or in a whole website package, either on a contract or hourly programming service rate.  As well, if clients have staff who are well versed in the current complexity and tricks of HTML / XHTML and cold fusion programming, we can train them in the modification of templates.

Does Presto come with reporting features?  I.e., who has been doing what, where, when?  Page usage, etc

Yes, a standard set of Presto reports is provided to help administrators keep track of the basic behaviour of all pages on their website - whether pages are in search indexes, whether they are on hold, what upcoming page pubishing events are occuring, which calendars have which events, etc.  All form data (including logins) can be captured for simple reporting; custom reporting can be created if desired. 

What about website statistics?

Presto does not provide Website Statistics Reporting directly.  This reporting is usually provided by the very specialized stats software offered by the ISP on which a Presto site is hosted (e.g. Urchin), or is done through a 3rd party system (like the one Webtrends provides as a remote service). 

Generally, Presto has been designed to enable these systems to track individual CMS pages economically (i.e. without buying into Urchin's or Webtrend's more expensive options).  In other words, since Presto's page references usually don't need any URL parameters (e.g. "page1234.cfm" instead of "apage.cfm?this_id=1234"), it therefore doesn't confound the stats software.  The one drawback that some stats software has is that when reporting on a page it doesn't visually include the page title (as it appears at the top of your browser), so one may have to consult Presto to make the association between page1234.cfm, say, and the CMS page it points to, e.g. "Presto FAQ".

We integrate a Presto installation with Urchin or Webtrends in an hour.  Integration to other Webstats packages (e.g. DeepMetrix's LiveStats) can be estimated seperately.

Can Presto integrate with third-party databases? I realize that code would need to be written, but is this possible? Have we done this for other clients?

Yes, via customization. There are no built-in provisions for linking in real-time to content provided in other databases. Scripts have to be written to query and provide content from these databases; alternately, the databases must come with a provision to supply content via web requests.  We've done this for NORML.org.  All the news tidbits and articles are actually provided via another website. 

Can Presto import different content formats other than MSWord (HTML, SGML, XML, etc..).

Users can cut and paste some kinds of document content (like MS Word document content) into Presto content fields that have been set up to receive and edit HTML text.  The Presto interface can insert into the database other content types as raw code, but they will not be displayed in their native format unless custom code is involved.  See the WYSIWYG page for more details and cautionary notes.

There is a module for importing an XML RSS feed.

Can Presto support an unlimited number of content publishers and editors?

An unlimited number of users (people with login accounts) are supported, but there is a practical limit to the number of editors logged in on the system at the same time - depending on the performance of the server.  Up to 15 would be a good rule of thumb.  Currently there is no check-in/check-out process that ensures a document is being edited by only one individual at a time.

Can Presto operate across / support multiple Websites? Limit?

Yes. It can manage content for multiple home pages and their underlying web pages.  There are some limitations - the home page, section, and page templates need to have the same or similar fields, for example.

Can Presto automatically prompt users when new content needs to be updated? Or be scheduled to update content automatically on a specific date or time?

Presto can notify users via email of new content awaiting approval, but it does not have Instant Messaging, i.e. it's only medium for communicating with users is via Email, or if someone is logged in.

Presto's publication and archiving system does have a sophisticated way of scheduling content changes on the website into the future.

Does Presto have a workflow system? Does it allow one person to write the content, but then you can set it up so that an editor has to review it before it is published?

Yes, there is a simple workflow that does just that.

Preview capability - Does Presto allow you to preview the content on the Website, within the design templates, before releasing it live?

Yes.  Any new page that is created is in "Draft" mode by default, and can be saved and viewed as though it were live on the website.  Later it can be published, i.e. chosen as the live content.

Does Presto allow for version control? So you can save different versions of the content on the site as you are writing them and as they are published with some indication of who made the changes? Allows you to revert to previous versions of content if the need arises?

Yes to all of the above!  Content versioning can be turned on or off for any particular kind of content.

Can you organize content with unlimited folders and subfolders?

Yes, insofar as both the backend Presto Explorer pane can have any depth, and there are no restrictions on file folder depth on the webserver itself. Note that Presto does not literally store the pages it manages in a folder tree.  Instead, placeholders for all publicly accessable Presto pages are located in the /cms/ folder.  We caution against the design of a website navigation system that has more than four or five levels of depth.

Can you enforce Web site branding/design standards - fonts, styles, layout, etc..

Font styles: Partially.  The WYSIWYG editor that Presto uses provides style options, but by cutting and pasting or by editing of HTML source in the WYSIWYG editor, new styles can be introduced that break the HTML template, so there are no bulletproof solutions yet.

Layout: Yes, to the extent that "structured" content can be defined, and an editing form crafted for it, so that each field of content can be channelled to a specific area of a template.  Layout is controlled by templates that take database content and so it is more a function of the template design than of Presto.  Part of the project process is to identify the extent to which each kind of content needs to be split up into seperately controlled fields, versus maintained as a single WYSIWYG edited content blob.  

Also, stylesheets help to ensure all content areas of a certain type are treated the same way across the website.

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