a php content management system 1

[pushyr]

just a little advise needed...

from now on, when i develop sites for others i will no longer plug their sites into my own cms. to reduce headache i want to provide clients with total ownership by using an open source cms installed on their own server.

can anyone give advice on what is the most popular open source php cms? one that incorporates modern practices like SEO and so forth.

i also think it makes sense to get familiar with a popular off-the-shelf open source cms that is being used by most companies.

are drupal or typo3 good choices?

 

[jpadie]

i use wordpress

 

[pushyr]

hey jpadie, having looked at the wordpress site it's described as blogging software. is wordpress flexible enough and cover the same broader features as true content management systems?

 

[jpadie]

absolutely.

yes WP was primarily designed as a blogging system but is evolving more and more into a full fledged CMS. it is not a drupal/joomla yet (and does not seek to be), but for easy management of a client site, WP is excellent.

 

[darrellblackhawk]

Drupal, Joomla, WP, TextPattern, Zend Framework, the list goes on.

I particularly like Drupal for its' clean design and exuberant community. My coding has gotten better just delving into its depths.

I like Joomla for its total; and complex , object-oriented approach.

I like Zend for its rigor.
I think Drupal drew a lot from Zend, but I'm unsure.

I like WP, but it's too simple for most of the stuff I do.

I like TextPattern because, I just like it.

There's also Smarty that can make your presentation easier once it's setup.

Then of course there's Python and Django, but this is a PHP forum!

 

[pushyr]

cheers guys, i think i'll go for drupla and probably wise for the long term. although, WP does sound enticing being easy to use/ configure

 

[jpadie]

one last plug for WP ... don't dismiss it too quickly. if you have 30 mins to spare download the latest version and have a play. there is very little that cannot be done in WP that you can achieve in another CMS. and in WP the essence is that everything is done simply. i spent days looking at all of the frameworks and eventually decided on WP. i couple this with html_quickform and now tend to make good use of jQuery and sometimes mooTools. the plugin i'm developing at the moment is probably several times the size and complexity of the WP Core itself, but the presence of WP is cutting by development time for the presentation and core admin layer very significantly.

not to mention that we have a dedicated forum for WP issues in tek-tips...

 

[spamjim]

The choice of CMS really depends on the number of content creators/editors.

The one place where Drupal excels is in user management/permissions and workflow. If you have a dozen authors that only need access to their own unique areas of the site and/or you need to set up a content submission/review/publishing workflow, Drupal is ideal. If you are only working with a small set of authors and you don't need to worry about them walking over each other, Joomla and Wordpress are good entries to CMS.

 

[Sleidia]

A question to pushyr : why do you want to stop using your own CMS with you clients? I mean, wouldn't it be easier for you to change things in your own code/logic instead of having to change things in some code/logic you'd have to learn from the start?

Sorry, I'm just being curious

 

[spamjim]

When I read...

i want to provide clients with total ownership by using an open source cms

... I imagine that freedom is needed by the developer to tell the client 'I am sick of updating your silly web site based on my own code. Take this open source system so that if I kill myself from the insanity of working on your site, another developer can take it over.'

ooops... Did I just reveal too much about myself and one of my clients?

Seriously, I have left my own CMS for open source systems because there is no way for a single person to effectively maintain a decent CMS on their own. And pushyr makes an excellent observation about working with code that others are familiar with at other companies. A company is more likely to invest in an established CMS than one coded from scratch by a single developer. You can still market yourself as a good PHP developer and an expert at a CMS. That's always a winning combo.

 

[Sleidia]

Yeah but what if the client needs something that isn't already available in the open source CMS?

In that case, either he would have to wait until some developer needs it too, or he would have to learn the CMS code in order to do it himself.

That's the reason why I prefer to use my own CMS.

Another reason is that I totally suck at OOP

And at times I wonder : isn't it easier to hack a website which you can know the whole source code? I remember those nasty worms that ruined some PHPBB forums in the past. Of course you're supposed to upgrade ASAP but what if you get hit before the threat is acknowledged?

 

[pushyr]

spamjim hit the nail on the head. i prefer produce a website then say to the client here you go, and move onto my next project.

since most of my clients are small and start-up businesses they can be the most annoying. if however, i were to produce a site for a medium to large sized company then i'd do as much as i can to tie myself to them. because everytime you'd need to make an update or write code then it's billing hours. start-ups and small business don't really understand this. and since they bring me most of my work by word of mouth i'd prefer not to penalize them

these days i don't think cms's are a big deal, and most companies realize that off-the-shelf cms's are the way to go. plus, being knowledgeable at off-the-shelf's would make me more marketable.

within my own cms i have some good marketing tools and software. like seo tools, emailing broadcasting, pay per click analysis, etc. these are the sort of things i'd prefer to focus on and sell into clients rather than the cms aspect of it

 

[spamjim]

what if the client needs something that isn't already available in the open source CMS?

One of the things that attracted me to Drupal is the ease of dropping my own PHP in a node (aka: database entry). There is certainly a learning curve in writing a new module/extension for an open source CMS but if the CMS allows you to drop in your own PHP wherever you want, there's no real need to learn how to craft a specific module/extension for the CMS. Just stick to what you know and place that code in a node.

With that said, I rarely have a client that requests something that isn't already available as an optional module. The challenge is often choosing the best module from several good options.

 

[spamjim]

And at times I wonder : isn't it easier to hack a website which you can know the whole source code?

This is a frequent thought brought up when questioning security in open source. To answer it, compare Linux and Windows. Which is open source? Which has fewer security issues?

I suspect phpBB had issues early on as it was not originally designed by the most competent individuals and they were not concerned so much about security. I think lessons have been learned and things have improved (I still have not touched phpBB in years to know for sure though). Drupal is being used for government sites like recovery.org so it seems that security is not a major worry with open source apps.

 

[Sleidia]

Thanks for your replies