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Originally Posted by hommealone
Please help me to understand and compare Content Management Systems (CMS), especially those specifically well suited for website developement. I am most familiar with PHP, and so would like to focus on PHP-based systems (open-source, free-type).
I've been starting to learn about CMS's like Drupal, Joomla!, Mambo, XOOPS, and others (ModX; SilverStripe). I've been finding most of their official websites to be less helpful than I'd like - maybe I'm visiting the wrong sites - and hoped you good folks at WPW could help me.
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You are barking up my tree here hommealone.
< grin > Love the name, I am sure most of us have felt that way at times.
Most of the official sites you list have not addressed their documentation in a way that is obvious to most of us.
It is the same with my favorite CMS, CRELoaded.
I originally found the OSCommerce CMS and did a site with it, but development time was great, as one has to manually add all the wanted modules, which can run into dozens. Once you get into adding mods to already modified code things can get sticky.
I looked at Joomla & Mambo (Both forks in the OSC path), and then found CRELOaded.
CRE has some 70+ mods added, and if you don't need them, you don't have to use them, but they are there for future expansion.
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I'd like to understand more about how these things work, how you use them, and especially how they compare to each other.
For example, I haven't been seeing as much as I'd like in terms of screen shots of what their interfaces look like - how do you interact with them (both from the developer and end-user point of view); what options do they give you; how do you choose those options.
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I agree with you and to that end, for CRELOaded, I have a full working demo available.
http://dotcom-productions.com/cms/index.php?cPath=71
This will give you the full user experience for the basic 6.2 version in the admin and as a visitor.
I also have a step by step "How to install CRELoaded" page.
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References to helpful articles, tutorials,and websites that explain them would be a good start. Even links to good meaty and general threads on this topic that have already taken place on WPW will help me. Searching through WPW, I've also found the sites: CMS Watch, OpensourceCMS, and CMS Matrix, which I will also explore - but I really want general advise as much as as I want details.
Do they all work basically the same way, or are there differences, e.g. are they driven by databases? Do they utilize style templating systems? etc., and how do the differences affect their suitability for projects?
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There are limited articles available but if you search for open source CMS reviews you will find some. I found CRELoaded in a Yahoo article that was comparing open source CMS programs with an eye to Affiliate management. (CRE came out top).
Check around, see what CRELoaded sites look like, what they do, how they are laid out and see if you can work in that structure.
Templating is usually done with a combination of tables and CSS.
Some systems offer more stock templates than do others. I have a bunch displayed on
www.regcharie.com my “test bed”.
All PHP/MySQL systems are database driven.
There are(Open Source) , CMS systems for whatever you want to do. Some like WordPress are based on content targeted sites with blogs, some are based on the Wiki structure, some are ecommerce, and some are combinations.
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In a general sense, what are the major benefits, and disadvantages, of working with CMS's compared to website developement without them?
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I have developed in DreamWeaver, FrontPage, NetObjectsFusion and a bunch of others including notepad.
I much prefer to use CRELoaded.
It gives me an excellent, modifiable structure with more benefits, (options), than most sites need.
Time from first install to completed, active store can run from just over 5 hours, to a hundred or more, depending on how much you want to develop the system.
www.love4cakes.com/catalog is under development, (not generally available to the public), and has 7.1 hours into it.
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I believe that a project that I am contemplating calls for using a CMS - I can give you more details about that as this discussion proceeds if you want - but i don't really even know what basis to use in choosing one over another.
I'd especially like to hear people's opinions about how they compare to each other. What are the particular strengths of the different CMS's, and their relative weaknesses? For example, are any particularly versatile for a designer to work with when styling and setting up the initial architecture of the sites? Are some more user-friendly than others for non-developers, not-designers to use in terms of set-up choices and daily interactions of adding and modifying content?
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I think you will find there are as many opinions as there are CMS.
Everyone has a favorite.
Features vary.
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In a small nutshell, my project involves setting up many small, fairly basic, self-manageable (content), "semi-customizable" (styles) websites, for individuals, with a common theme and set of "uses" (e.g., slideshows, etc).
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This is what I do and a CMS can be a boon.
I say “can be” as some CMS structures are much more complex than others.
I recently installed BitWeaver for a client and turned him loose on the config.
After he floundered around for a few hours he asked me to take a look.
I did not find it anywhere near intuitive.
I have done my 30th CRELoaded setup and can strongly recommend it.
If you would like to discuss this in more detail, contact me through an instant messenger chat, my details are on
http://dotcom-productions.com/cms/contact_us.php
Reg