Overview

Spud's Amazing Website Machine is a form-driven web site template created especially for musicians.

In particular, it is designed for those of you who want to put your music on line, and you want to do it on your own site, with your own domain, but either don't have the time or don't know how.

Several musicians participated in the development of of my system by requesting features that they needed, and I expect that I will continue to add features as the number of users grow, and I find that new people have some common needs that I haven't thought of.

The basic template provides you with a fully functional web site that you customize through a number of web forms. No knowledge of html is required. However, you do have to have a domain and a web-hosting service, so that you have a place to install the system.

Much of the look and feel of the site is controlled through these forms, including the fonts, colors, background, images, menu names, and various other items.

The content, such as you are reading now, is entered through more web forms. For example, forms are provided for uploading songs, grouping them into albums, and adding art and lyrics. Additional forms let you create links, a bio, news items, etc.

To get an idea of the flexibility of Spud's Amazing Website Machine, check out some of the sites that are already using it in our USERS section.

SPUD

Server Requirements

Spud's Amazing Website Machine takes up about 100K of space, and needs to be installed on a web server that supports php. It has come to my attention that Comcast's Residential accounts do not support php, so the machine isn't going to work on those servers.

You also need a method for uploading the files to your server. This is often done through ftp, but it is sometimes done through an interface provided by your service provider.

Customizable Design Features

Many of the visual attributes of your website's design are controlled through the "Manage Design" control panel. These include the following:

Background Image
Foreground (Sidebar) Image
Menu Style (currently three choices)
Menu Color, Font, and Text and Rollover Colors
Headline Font and Color
Subhead Font and Color
Body Text Font and Color
Link Text and Rollover Text Color
Divider/Accent Line Color and Thickness
The Name of the Content on both the Menu and the Pages

News Features

The News editor is based on a number of "articles" that can be created and re-arranged on the page.

Blogger integration is also available for those who prefer to run a more traditional blog.

Music Management Features

As a system built for musicians, the music management features are one of the strengths of Spud's Amazing Website Machine. They include:

Create an Album
- Title
- Artwork
- Description

Upload a Song
- Title
- Artwork
- mp3 file
- Lyrics
- Description

Albums may be displayed in list form with mini-players for each song, or the entire song entry with art and description may be shown.

Songs and Albums may be re-organized and/or edited.

Bio and Misc Features

These are free-form pages where you can just enter text or type or paste in html to create whatever type of page you need.

Links Editor

The links page may be organized in catagories, and links may be edited and moved around the page as required.

Version History

Click here for version history