A Distributed CMS which users can user on their local machine

[toasti]

I am pitching for a job publishing journals in Africa. A big selling point which i want to offer is the ability for people to download a client program (written in either Java or even a Flash application), then do inputting locally (internet is very slow in Africa!).

The way i am thinking of doing it is to provide them with the inputting interface similar to what would be on the web, which will create SQL batch files which they would then upload to the web, syncronizing their local work with the live version on the web.

There are obviosly a number of complications. the 1st and most important would be security. obviously one would have to be very careful letting people run batch scripts. so i was thinking of letting them email it to me/the web administrator and then i would do the actual merging, but this might become a bit labour intensive! i suppose i could automate it on my side...

The above issue is my primary concern. does anyone have any good ideas about how one could deal with this? or any other things i should think about before trying to implement this system?

[stereofrog]

You actually need two programs: offline client, which saves data in some easy 'parseable' format (xml seems to be a best choice) and server-side application, which can interpret this data and update the database. The client can periodically connect server side via http and transfer data in a usual way. Of course, you shouldn't give them ability to access database directly (like sql batch files etc) and your server script should be password protected.

[toasti]

XML would be a much better way of handling it! Thanks