Design a Simple 1-Man CMS

My Idea of using customized windows folders (see vebwiew) as a GUI was noble, exciting but impractical.

Basically the CMS could define a customization for the /projects/ folder and all subfolders and as soon as the user browses these folders in Windows explorer the GUI changes. They can have a different look and feel, different options when they select a file, CMS-specific tools like preview, publish, edit and customized file information on the left.

While I have not yet given up it seems that the following disadvantages are evident:

1. You can’t customize a folder and all it’s subfolders
2. The effort required to program extra functions is the same as an HTA
3. It doesn’t behave the same on Win9x, 2K, ME and XP
4. Security policies block many functions

That said, they are pretty cool. They save you all the effort of:

1. Displaying folders and files
2. Modfiying, renaming, deleting and copying files and folders
3. Folder, Navigation (back, forward, up) and the automatic tree view

For these reasons alone, it may be worth it to pursue the topic later. However, it may be worth a try to access the Active-X Object used to display the folder and use this in the HTA:

<object id="FileList" classid="clsid:1820FED0-473E-11D0-A96C-00C04FD705A2" tabIndex="1"></object>

Just need to find some documentation on this object…