Google Docs + Yahoo Pipes = CMS

So, you’ve got a client that wants to manage their website content. They want to be able to update every field on their Flash website, er I mean “experience”. But there’s a catch… they FEAR technology and complex interfaces. They feel that WordPress is too complex, never mind a proprietary custom build CMS.

What’s a developer to do?

THIS:

1. Create a Google Docs Spreadsheet – For this example I’m using row 1 to hold the field vars.

Media_httpwwwchristes_iugsb

2. Set it to publish as a webpage – Be sure to select CSV format. Be sure to set it to re-publish when any editing occurs.

Media_httpwwwchristes_racnp

3. Set up Yahoo Pipes to fetch the CSV data – Set appropriate data mapping, renaming and use Regex to ensure data is proper.

Media_httpwwwchristes_hrxme

4. Publish Pipe as your favorite data feed – For this example I chose JSON.

Media_httpwwwchristes_cqbkc

5. Load JSON into your Flash app. BOOM!

Bladow, your client can now go on doing what they’ve always done — edit an excel doc ( Google Doc ). They make changes there, it changes on their fancy experiential website.

Genius.