Long Intro, you've been warned: .....lol

My memorial military site http://www.usasadf.net/ when fleshed out completely has about 150/180 pages with the main top menu with about 80 page links, the rest of the links being sub-menus on various individual pages. When, once again reconstructed and restored there are also about 1100 photos in numerous photo albums in the site.

A couple of years ago the site was sitting at 155 pages and about 98% completed, with the understanding that this is always a ongoing project with new material added as it becomes available. At the time the site was built with CMS Made Simple. Anyway the site was hacked and at the same time I suffered some health issues that put me out of business for a while in as far as doing anything seriously. Unfortunately for me the backups were on the host. I had and have all of the original material on my machines, but it now requires that I rebuild from original material and not backups.

Within the last nine months or so I have been able to reconstruct about 35/40 percent of the site using the CC html Editor and getting most/some pages validated by W3c. All of the main structure is up on the web--site, tho many pages are just place-holders. Don't bother telling me about SEO and google and such -- I don't care. Limited audience.

Since all of this has happened RLM has come out and I'm really considering converting the site to responsive. Now my generation of old farts are mostly PC and a few Macs but their children and grandchildren are of course also with smart phones and tablets of different sizes. I've been considering converting to at least a responsive site down to probably tablet size. I really don't see how to go down to smart phone size, or even the desirable reason to do so as I would think it would be very tedious. The present site is configured on a 1024px base size.

I am most concerned on how to handle the menus -- as you can see from the site, I like a text on background type menus, I do not favor button menus at all for this site. Colors are set and different colors will not be done, as the current colors all relate directly to the units depicted in the site.

Any and all suggestions on the feasibility and how to do it greatly appreciated.

Sorry to be so long winded, thanks for you viewing,

TomH

Depending on the content, at least some of the younger generation are going to Google something (from their phones) the old farts in their lives have told them and come across your site. Or they'll come across your site on the phone while visiting said old fart and want to show them.

And some old farts have smart phones. You'd be surprised.

You may want to make it easy for everyone.

With that many pages I wouldn’t build it in RLM. Maybe wait till RSD or whatever it’s going to be called is released. RLM is for design only. Not for building sites. Although you can redneck build a site with RLM. I personally wouldn’t attempt to build that many pages with software that can’t even provide you a common header and footer that will update every page if you make 1 minor change.

I would have to disagree there Mark.

Responsive Layout Maker creates a responsive prototype website (called a layout). You build the structure of your website in Responsive Layout Maker and then export to any code editor to add your final content. Just to note though, I can build 90%- 95% of a website in RLM (depending on what is needed for the site) and then add the final 5%-10% in an editor. So not sure how duct tape, scissors and a knife could be compared to what RLM creates.

Another thing is that once RSD is completed you will be able to import an RLM project and complete it in RSD. So getting your foot in the door with RLM will allow you to hit the ground running once RSD is released.

My game play is to always start with RLM, then once the main design and pages are completed, I can simply take the RLM project into RSD and finish it in no time.

But why should you have to export to a code editor to complete a site? I'm guessing you want have to export RSD to a code editor? Wouldn't it be so much simpler to finish your site in the program you started it in?

Because that is how RLM works.

Just like when I want to go to the store. I have to get into my car, pull out of my driveway and turn onto a street. Then I have to get onto a Highway and then to the Interstate. With the logic you are referring to I should be able to simply pull out of my driveway and into the store.

If the world were that simple we would all be like this:

http://designinquiry.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Bain_FF_Wall-ETransit.jpg

Tom, I agree with David in that many 'oldfarts' have broken the 'internet on phones' code and are surfing about. And If you do as suggested, start with RLM to build your layout, then you will have the slider to move down to phone size right in front of you, so there is no reason why you shouldn't include phones in your planning.

As to the menu, there are ways of building a responsive, collapsible menu. If you are a well versed coder, you could build one yourself with html and pure css, but if not, and particularly since you have a lot of subbmenus, I would advise you to take a look at CoffeeCup's menu builder.

The most obvious reason that comes to my mind is that RLM is a 'layout' maker. You can build several layouts to show clients or just play with and save for yourself. If you finished your project with all the content then every project you started would be from scratch. By saving a 'layout' you can then add various content elements ( in the editor ) and quickly show a client what his web site might look like. Or throw one together to use yourself!

Now, for those of us wanting to finish it all in one program, I think that program is almost here. ( what's that ...soon? )

Responsive or Not
Yes, do a responsive site. Here are a few thoughts.
1. Responsive is the way that the technology is going. Do it now and you don't have to worry about it later when technology mandates it.
2. In the future, the young guys with the smart phones and tablets may be the ones running the site.
3. If you haven't already upgraded the site to be fully standards-compliant, you need to do so. Using RLM for a responsive site will also automatically generate the standards-compliant code, so you are "killing two birds with one stone."
4. Don't let fear stop you. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it sounds like the most daunting fear is having to do so many pages over and over with all the menus. Don't let that stop you. There is any easy way. See CMS Notes

Is RLM right for the task?
1. It's easy with RLM. Yes, there is a learning curve, but once you are over the curve, it's incredibly easy.
2. RLM will export standards-compliant code so the code upgrade happens automatically.
3. I looked at the current site. You need a CMS that allows you to use your own custom template. Based on my own experience, all you need to generate is a template and RLM is perfect for that. RSD might offer some extra benefit later, but having RLM will allow you to already work through the learning curve so you are ready for RSD.

CMS Notes
You were smart to do the original site with a CMS because of its size. For your new site, you need a CMS in which you can make your own template and you can put photo galleries on pages. Create one master layout with RLM and Menu Builder and use that same layout for every page. Once that's done, all you have to do is put the content for each page into the database. Transferring your page content, especially the pictures is where your significant work is going to be. There are some ways to make the work go quicker, but it still takes time.

There is an alternative to having a full-blown CMS. If you know a little PHP and can set up a MySQL database, all you really need is to house the textual content for the pages and be able to create photo galleries and assign them to the pages.


So there's my ten cents worth of opinion.

Mark, It really depends on what you need to do. If you need an editor that will be used to maintain every page of the site, then RSD is what you want to use. If you just need a great layout, RLM is perfect.