content management

Goodshape

I'm looking for a good (+free) PHP / mySQL content management system.

I've had a look around the net, and there seems to be an awful lot of these things... rather than me trawling through them all, does anyone care to recomend one?

I'd prefer functionality over ease of use / set-up... I'm not an expert, but I can hold my own in the world of html and PHP.

mneylon

Typo3 is excellent, though only a limited number of hosts support it.

There are a number of them listed here

The problem with a lot of the Nuke type ones is that 99% of the sites end up looking 'nuked', while the more advanced ones (such as typo) give you a lot more freedom.

corkie

**********************************************************
A coversation about Bread.

Speaker One: What should I put on my bread?
Speaker Two: Peanut Butter
Speaker One: I have an allergy to Peanuts
Speaker Two: Choclate Spread.
Speaker One: I don't like they way it melts on my toast.
Speaker Two: Can you give me more info on your bread, is white/brown or rye bread.
Do you intend to dunk your bread in soup or tea/coffee.
once you give me all revelant info may be then I can give you a recommendation.

**************************************************************

Choosing a CMS is like the bread above.

Another site that has user comment's on this very question is
Which CMS?
also have a look here:

http://www.cmswatch.com
The Portal about Open Source Content : http://www.portalzine.de/


Each of the available 'GPL' or Open source CMS have different functionality included as standard.
Some need extra compatible modules ( Forums / Guest Books / Galleries etc.)
Some are xhtml compatible, others will not be until a few months or more.

Visit http://www.opensourcecms.com/ that 'blacknight' suggested and try them out online.
Once you found one / two that seem to meet your needs, visit the forums on the revelant site for
that CMS. And see what level of activity is on the forums.
Download and test one or two in your home PC (you will need apache/php/mysql installed)
You can find combined packaged installers over on sourceforge.net for your OS.
( I have used 'Uniform Server' which is good but it may not have full fuctionality enabled)

Once you have decided on CMS, get to know it inside out, (hack/alter code to meet your needs.)
Try to avoid hacking or modifing core files as this will make the upgrade process more difficult.
Once you have got use to a CMS, and know how to use it effectively, you will be more relucatant to
switch to a different system in the future. So make the right choice now.

Don't waste time switching and changing between CMS once you have made up your mind on one. Get to know that system very well and you should be able to use it (and hack it) to produce almost any kind of site you want.

I now find myself, in that situation. About 2 years ago I picked 'PostNuke' after testing out different
CMS and Template systems. Last night I downloaded 'Xaraya' (A *nuke off shout) to test it out,
and decided that time it would take to learn how to use this version would not be productive for me
at this time. (I'll have another look it at when version 1. comes out and if there is more documentation available)

Next step when you have your CMS is to choose/develop a theme for your site.
You may be lucky and find a theme that you like developed by someone else.
But more than likely you will waste alot time looking, your better off taking one of the
core provided themes and editing it to your needs and taste to match your site content.

Black Night: hit some buttons and this was the result:
The problem with a lot of the Nuke type ones is that 99% of the sites end up looking 'nuked',
while the more advanced ones (such as typo) give you a lot more freedom.

Corkie read's between the lines and comes to this determination from the above:
Black Night dosn't like *nuke, and may not have used it or learned how to.
He has used and learned how to use 'typo' and it meets his requirements.

The above statement is pretty accurate because alot of webmaster use the core
theme's that come with *nuke (or free versions) and haven't taken the time to
develop there own. There is theme addons available (nuclei blocks, xanthia, autotheme)
that bring alot more freedom to postnuke.

Examples I tested out the Xanthia theme control here
and I have used 'nuclei blocks' in a theme I'm currently developing myself. (only available on my home setup at
the moment.)

A good point about that *nuke sites if your vistors are visting site that use it, they
will know how to get around your site. See these sites which discuss "HomePage Usability"
http://webtalkguys.com/article-mtahir.shtml
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/

Take Usability in to consideration when choosing the CMS. If the core distro is not that user friendly how much hacking of the code is required to make it more so. Can the changes be made in the theme or will it require editing core files.


Postnuke (developed from PHPNuke) Current Release (Phoenix 0.7.2.6) last in the .7 line
next will be .8 (expect around end of year or early next year.) It will have the 'xanthia theme control'
and be xhtml compatible.

Some Sites using Postnuke:
http://filmwatcher.com/
*http://www.spin.com/
* Nothing to do with spin.ie as far as I known (Sorry to hear about it closing down by the way)

I mentioned above that I had a look at Xaraya.
Follow this link to an interview with 'John Cox' he was the Founder and Project Manager for the PostNuke Project.




If you choose postnuke and get stuck (PM me and I will help you out if I can.).

Disclaimer and Notes:
I am just an end user of 'postnuke' and have no connection with any sites listed above except for 0fsex.info. My user name on forums.postnuke.com is 'corkiejp'.

I have been known to apply the following http://www.freespeling.com/ to my posts.

dahamsta

The above statement is pretty accurate because alot of webmaster use the core
theme's that come with *nuke (or free versions) and haven't taken the time to
develop there own.

I don't think so. PHP/PostNuke sites stick out like a sore thumb whether or which. Theme's very rarely have anything to do with it. (Although it has to be said that sites like Linux Journal get on my wick.)

A good point about that *nuke sites if your vistors are visting site that use it, they
will know how to get around your site.

Sorry, but I disagree again. I find PHP/PostNuke sites have horrendous usability issues, not least something as simple as having article titles linked. Yoda would go mental if you sent him to half of these sites.

I'd add that I think Typo3 sucks too. Using images for navigation elements - /all/ navigation elements - by default is just.... silly.

adam

mneylon

Adam

You've made a couple of valid points, but as they were all negative, do you have any positive suggestions????

M

dahamsta

Nope, the start of corkie's post pretty much sums it up for me. Asking someone to recommend a CMS is like trying to nail jelly to the ceiling. Goodshape will need to post a pretty specific list of requirements before I can help.

The best CMS is, sadly, the one you write yourself. It's invariably the only one that will meet all of your requirements...

adam

corkie

Originally posted by dahamsta
I don't think so. PHP/PostNuke sites stick out like a sore thumb whether or which. Theme's very rarely have anything to do with it. (Although it has to be said that sites like Linux Journal get on my wick.)

Sorry, but I disagree again. I find PHP/PostNuke sites have horrendous usability issues, not least something as simple as having article titles linked.

Thanks Dahamsta for point out some of PN weakness, that i may have overlooked at present or put off to latter.

Corkie Makes note to self:
<i>
In the theme your developing, Unlink the Articale Titles.
</i>

PN sites are very much 'theme' based and to make changes to what the CMS spits out as html to browser is edited or changed in the theme directory of the system.

I am NOT saying PN is the best CMS available, I talked about PN because it is one i have used.

With usability, may be using PN as example above was a mistake on my part. I was hoping to be more general here.
The point I was trying to get accross is.

You know how to post message here and if you visit another site using vB, you will know how to post there too.

Goodshape

Thanks for the help guys.

The website I'm building has already been themed, what I want from a CMS is something I can put into the HTML code I already have... I don't want any of these rectangular menu box's and I don't want something that will build me a site from scratch.

Anyway, I'll sit down and have a look through those websites later on... no doupt I'll find what I'm looking for.

tomED

I don't agree ath a good CMS is one that you write yourself.

I have used many that meet different requirements for different sites. A content management system is that a content management system.

A lot companies are developing sites now that are more workflow process systems that dont really come under the CMS umbrella, so therefore you should build something yourself.

If content is what you want to manage - I suggest Typo3. Extremely difficult to learn, but once you get to grips with it - you can exapnd it as much as you like. You can even create your own moducles if you are any good with PHP and if you don't want to create a module - you can include your developed PHP scripts as part of the system.

Typo3 for me has been the most robust CMS. It will work on small sites and larger corporate sites - to learn it though..... bloody hell.....

Terminator

The thing that worries me about Typo3 is how on earth would you explain how it works to your client?

I think most clients would just give up and expect you to update the site for them periodically - no bad thing I suppose if you're charging them enough but I wouldn't be confident selling it as a tool for the client - unless they are pretty tech savvy.

tomED

Once you learn how to use typo3 properly (from a developers point of view) you can easily remove some of the complexity involved in managing your website.

A properly configured user (as opposed to admin) can edit the website from the FRONT-end rather than having to go into the complex back-end.