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Show HN: Liberate – Painlessly add user editable content to static HTML webpages

9 points by freshlog ↗ HN
Over the weekend I created a web app to scratch my own itch, called Liberate, which lets you embed user editable sections to static HTML webpages.

http://liberateapp.com

I have initial thoughts how this might be useful some folks:

1. Webmasters - plug these user editable sections into existing webpages and let your users update content themselves, without involving you.

2. Website owners – if you don't know HTML or FTP, you can get your webmaster/designer to do a one time setup and henceforth, you can update the content without involving them, saving time and money.

3. Designers – since the basic user-updatable blocks are essentially DIVs, you wouldn't be constrained by a CMS or blogging engine's template layouts – your imagination is the limit.

Really looking forward to hearing what you brilliant folks think!

6 comments

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callmeed
Watching the video, my first thought is that it's very anti-seo (because it looks like you're inserting the dynamic content via JS).

If that's the case, I'd never recommend this for pages/content where seo is critical.

So, as much as I hate WordPress—and I really do—I don't see this as a viable alternative. I need more convincing ...

BTW, I don't want to just pee in your cheerios, so I will admit the actual execution/tech aspect is impressive.

freshlog
Hey callmeed,

That's right, I haven't found a method for content updated this way to be indexable by search engines.

While it's not going to replace server-side generated HTML, I think certain types of content that needs to be updated regularly aren't going to mean much for search engine rankings.

Announcements, promotions, product updates, statements verses of the week, are some I can think of offhand.

mtogo
How is this different from remote CMS systems like cushycms and pagelime?
freshlog
Hey mtogo,

Here are some differences I'm aware of:

CushyCMS – you'll have to host it on their servers.

PageLime – you'll have to provide PageLime with your FTP login credentials.

With Liberate, all you need is to get your webmaster to add in the DIVs and Javascript that Liberate gives you to the HTML page you're trying to update.

This is handy if there's an existing website that's already hosted somewhere that you'll need to update now and then, much faster than porting the whole site to CushyCMS.

Some webmasters aren't too comfortable saving FTP login credentials onto a 3rd party service either.

rvschuilenburg
But technically with this solution your content will be hosted on the Liberate server too. So when that server goes down or gets slow, so does your entire website. PageLime would be the best option in that case. Allowing remote javascript on your site can be just as bad as giving FTP credentials. Besides, you can just create an FTP account for the CMS.
freshlog
rvschuilenburg, that's true, it's a convenience tradeoff.

On my end, I intend to grow this service at a slower, manageable pace, which which makes it easier to focus on availability for a smaller, more valued user base.