Content Management System

[audiopro]

I have been looking at some CMS scripts but the ones I have seen have not been very user friendly and require a considerable amount of tinme to learn.

Is this the general way of things or are there some useable ones out there?

I wrote a basic one a while ago and was wondering whether to develop that one or go with a curent commercial product.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

Generally all CMS products will have some sort of learning curve if you've not used them before.

If you're happy with yours, and it does all you need (or it's easy enough to modify to do so), then I'd say stick with it.

Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch:

http://www.codecouch.com/dan/

Code Couch Tech Snippets & Info:

http://www.codecouch.com/

 

[ChrisHunt]

I think using someone else's code is always a struggle for us programmers. There's always something that's not done the way you would have done it, and it's hard to get used to not knowing how something works down to the last line of code.

Still, it's a habit that it's worth picking up. There's so much good code out there, and it's still often quicker to learn it than it would be to write your own alternative version. Which CMSes have you tried? I've been very impressed with Wordpress.

Still, I don't always take my own advice - I'm about to write a event programme and membership system for my walking club from the ground up in perl - but I do have a lot of existing code that I can re-use for this project.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[audiopro]

I have looked at a number of CMS applications and also spoken to a number of people who use them regularly and draw the same conclusion each time - they are tricky things.

I don't really blame the authors because they do try to automate what is a very complicated process. When I think of how many variations there can be to the contents of a single div, I am met with a very large list of variables. To design a system which will cope with any type of page layout is just about impossible.

The site I am planning will be split between static content and several areas of time stamped, contributed text. I plan to write a separate interface for each section but use common components, that should keep the interface manageable and me occupied during the cold weather.


Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

To design a system which will cope with any type of page layout is just about impossible.

I think that's something that a lot of developers fall down on... CMS apps should be for managing the content, not the layout, IMHO.

I would never expect a CMS to be able to be able to switch the layout of a page without having to create templates for each layout.



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch:

http://www.codecouch.com/dan/

Code Couch Tech Snippets & Info:

http://www.codecouch.com/

 

[wiser3]

I have found Joomla to be the best CMS. Powerful and flexible with a reasonable learning curve and tons of plug-ins to do anything you could imagine.

 

[spamjim]

As one that used to craft my own CMS, I can affirm that there is no way for a single developer and their own CMS to compete with an army of developers in an open source system like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal. I wasted way too much time on my own system. I still work on a few sites with my own custom programming but it takes much more time.

Now I use Drupal and styling pages is no great effort. You can create distinct templates for different sections of your site and/or you can enable/disable blocks of content based on the current page and/or role of the user.

I would find Joomla to be 'the best CMS' if you have a small site with a minimal need for distinct user roles/access. That was a major weakness for me so I moved up to Drupal.

 

[ChrisHunt]

The site I am planning will be split between static content and several areas of time stamped, contributed text.

Sounds like a blog, even if the "time stamped, contributed text" isn't stereotypical blog posts. Try Wordpress.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[blueark]

In the past, when I'd get a new project, I'd use it as an opportunity to try out one of the major OS CMS's. After a day or two, my patience would run out, and I'd end up writing my own to suit the project at hand (admittedly, I have a lot of existing code to start from).

About two months ago, however, I decided to try out Wordpress again with no particular goal in mind. Without the pressure of a client breathing down my neck, I found it much easier to learn, and I'm pleasantly suprised by how good it is.

I think I was originally put off by many of the Wordpress blogs out there -- they were fine for what they were, but didn't really suit any site I worked on (blogs, if any, only played a minor part). Now that I've taken the time to look at more samples, and delve deeper into theme development, I see I was mistaken: WordPress is actually extremely versatile. I'm now using it to develop an actual real-life site, and it's saving me a ton of time!

That's my experience anyway, but I can't give you any comparisons with Joomla, Drupal or others (not yet anyway!)