Content management

[az]

What would your choice be for a simple CMS.

I am looking for something with a small learning curve that can handle simple database functions (conference registrations, address changes...)

So far, I am looking at Drupal. It's appeal is that it is free software and that there seem to be the modules that I would need. I will try to install it to see how hard it is to configure.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I am curious why this forum runs on non-free software (vBulletin) when free alternatives exist. I am not complaining; it's just an observation. What are the advantages in this case?

[dataw0lf]

It depends on what language/database you're looking for. Perl? Python? PHP? MySQL? PostgreSQL? I've never used an out of the box CMS, to be honest. However, www.hotscripts.com has thousands of CMS scripts.
dataw0lf

[az]

I am not much of a programmer myself and I would not be maintaining this site for long. I am looking for a set-and-forget application.

I guess you can say that I will sacrifice powerful options for ease of use. Those who would be maintaining the site in the future would have next to zero computer experience.

Web-based configuration is appealing here.

[burlap]

Look at http://cmsmatrix.org - there you can compare different cms to find one with all the features you need.

I am a complete newbie in terms of site building, however I have managed to make something of TikiWiki (CVS version has multilingual features, crucial for the site I am designing), but it seems to be quite difficult at first sight, so you have to be, well, brave to use it (if people who will later maintain your site use linux everyday - they can manage).

But my experiences are in general quite negative - mambo was really disappointing, typo3 had too many unclear options. Haven't tried drupal though. I have an impression that all the cms even if they seem easy, they are difficult to set up properly (especially when you start adding some real content) and they will be quite difficult to maintain. Just like Linux distro (notwithstanding Ubuntu - I thought it was relatively painless (for me it was) until my brother has started installing it, it's day 5 now).

[jdodson]

Originally Posted by azz What would your choice be for a simple CMS. I am looking for something with a small learning curve that can handle simple database functions (conference registrations, address changes...)

i have used mambo before, and it is progressing very nicely. www.mamboserver.com

you could also checkout phpnuke, one of the original free CMS : http://phpnuke.org/

Originally Posted by azz So far, I am looking at Drupal. It's appeal is that it is free software and that there seem to be the modules that I would need. I will try to install it to see how hard it is to configure.

this one looks GREAT! i think i am going to give it a try.

Originally Posted by azz I am curious why this forum runs on non-free software (vBulletin) when free alternatives exist. I am not complaining; it's just an observation. What are the advantages in this case?

i talked to ubuntu-geek about this personally and i was told that it was changed over because vBullitin had features that phpBB did not. so the system was switched because this one was better in the long run i guess. i really like vbulliten, it is pretty slick, the only cavat is that you have to pay for it though.....

[eric_andresen]

I would stringly recommend phpNuke.

http://www.phpnuke.org/

There is a huge community around it, and lots of support available.

Heck, if I can get it running anyone can do it!

[az]

Thanks for the suggestion but phpnuke is not GLPed and it does not seem as friendly to non-computer people.

Drupal seems nice but I am having a few issues. I can't seem to access it properly from a remote machine (on my lan) When I access it from localhost it runs well (on a pentium one - SSllooww) From the other machine, I get the text from the main page, but no icons, nor do any links work. I get "connection refused from localhost."

I think this must be a problem with the mysql user and database - I probably have it named wrong...

On another note, how does plone stack up? What about just plain zope?
They seem to have lot of the features that I need... Does anyone have any experience with either of them?

[az]

Burlap - Thanks for the cmsmatrix link. Top notch! What version of mambo did you use that was dissapointing?


To answer my own question regarding Plone/Zope, I found this comparison with Drupal:
-quote-
I think I am qualified to answer this.
achilles - December 1, 2004 - 14:10
I'm one of the core developers on Plone, and also a user of Drupal. I don't find my loyalties divided, as I find both systems suitable for very different purposes.

I'm going to assume most people reading this site are familiar with Drupal already, so I won't cover the feature set or intended audience, except to say that Drupal works pretty well for smallish community sites that require minimal expenditure of effort in setup, and a defined set of core features.

Plone, on the other hand, whilst being reasonably suited to that task, is a bit of a different beast. Its development has arisen out of the Zope application server (in itself a gargantuan project), and the Zope Content Management Framework, neither of which actually really gives you a website.

Plone is the user layer on top of Zope and the CMF that offers an incredible amount of functionality out-of-the-box that you just won't find anywhere else. Features like: end-to-end i18n; localisation; placeless content; pluggable, configurable workflow; messaging; granular security (in way more depth than Drupal); and so on.

Now, there are 2 main differences that you're going to look at when choosing Drupal or Plone. The first is the scale of the undertaking. Zope/Plone is fantastic for large-scale projects, as you can do amazing things with it in a very short period of time. I regularly take on very large scale projects and use Plone for them. Drupal doesn't meet my needs in that space, yet. Zope and Plone as a combination provide an almost unparalleled development platform, and, even traditionally as a PHP programmer myself, I will happily assert that Python is the more appropriate choice of programming language to meet these goals.

The second thing that you're going to need to look at is usability. Now, I'm a hardcore developer. I tend to think through problems in terms of code issues. However, when it comes to actually *using* Plone on a daily basis for my own personal website, it drives me nuts. I find Drupal's configuration, layout, content editing, and style to be far more comfortable than Plone's. I'm really not a fan of Plone's default skin, but that's as a matter of personal preference. Technically, and from an accessibility viewpoint, Plone and Drupal are on a pretty even footing.

Just as a quick guideline, I reimplemented my personal website last night in Drupal as part of a familiarisation exercise for another project that I'm getting involved in. Now, bearing in mind I've been building websites commercially for about 9 years, this took me about 2 hours, from no prior knowledge of Drupal, but Ihaven't done any there reworking yet. The last time I did it in Plone took me about 8 hours, including a full skin rework, but I'm confident I could build a full Plone site for my personal needs in about 3 - 4 hours now.
-quote-

[geek404]

I would suggest Mambo. Especially if you are going to turn it over to end users. I run a personal Mambo site and have about 10 co-workers who now run it after my suggestion to use it for their websites. We have even selected mambo to use for our new training site for our customers since we can turn over content creation to our trainers without them needing to learn HTML. Overall I have been extremly happy with Mambo after trying out serveral different CMS's.

[HiddenWolf]

Damn. I'll be trying some of these things.

I'm now coding my first database-driven website in php, and I do it for sport, but this is good stuff.
I'll go and look to see what idea's I can steal.