Neverside

Best CMS software?

Just wondering... what's the best CMS (Content Management System) software out there? I'm looking for easy template modifications in HTML/CSS (maybe including stylemaster where I can view the layout?) and able to add a blog and a message board with a click.

Thanks

Hey Dave, everyone will roll their eyes since I bring it up soooo much haha, but I recommend Drupal. However, it may or may not be best for your needs - the best CMS for you is the one that best suits your personal needs. Drupal is one of the most flexible CMS choices (e.g. you can build just about anything you want with it using "lego block-like" pieces) but that comes at a price of a higher learning curve. I'd say theming difficulty with it (from version 5+) is on the moderate side (not too hard, but does get tricky if you want to get super fine-grained control over every element). I recommend getting the Zen theme and modifying it to suit your needs, as it's a good starting point that includes a lot of extra variables and CSS hooks for you to latch onto and restyle. Here's a screencast on how to rapidly transform Zen into your own theme: part 1, part 2.

There are also so many modules available, it can be difficult to figure out which ones are "the best" (though I, or people on the Drupal site will generally be happy to give you a nice list of all the main modules we recommend). In regard to adding a blog and message board with just a click - yes Drupal can do that. The blog module is great and handles multiple user's blogs if you want. The forum is decent but not superb (when compared to dedicated forum apps), though there are bridges and integration modules available to add most of the popular forum software to a Drupal site.

Aside from Drupal, you might also consider the new almost-ready version 1.5 of Joomla. I previously built a few sites using Joomla 1.0.x and didn't like it overall, though I've heard good things about the new 1.5. I also checked out some video demos of Plone the other day and it looked very nice (although you'll need more specific server requirements with your hosting company to be able to run it - Python, Zope, etc). Of course a lot of people swear by Wordpress as well (which can be expanded well beyond its default blog-only state). There's also Textpattern which I've not tried much myself yet, but many people love it (uxmag.com is on Textpatten).

Anyhow, hopefully this info helps you a bit in your decision. I recommend you set up a local server environment on your computer (e.g. WAMP, Apache2Triad, MAMP, etc depending on your OS and preference) and be able to quickly install and play with as many CMSes as you like.

___________________

-- Dave
Neverside Admin

absolutecross.com

Thanks Dave... I'm gonna give it a try evaluating Drupal... My webhosting service have one-click installs that have Joomla listed. I've installed it and took a look at it. It seems to be a little bit easy but difficult to understand on how to use it in Admin area (such as modules, section, content and etc).

I'm not a fan of Dreamweaver, I usually do hand-on coding using cuteHTML. However there's Joomla plug-in for DW that I'm gonna give it a test to see if I can get what I want the way it looks on webpage. So it may helps a little bit.

Thanks again....

For evaluation of the CMSes, definitely go ahead and use the automatic installer from your host. However once you've settled on the CMS of choice for you, I strongly recommend you remove the auto-installed version and manually install the copy from drupal.org (or joomla, or whatever CMS). Unfortunately usually you'll end up with problems down the line if you use the auto-installed ones - for instance a critical security patch may come out for the CMS (e.g. something that could easily allow your site to be hacked), and you won't be able to install it manually without breaking the auto-installed version (and the auto-installer may not have the patch available for many weeks or even months), or other unforeseen glitches can come up.

I can't speak for "every" CMS of course, but most (e.g. Drupal and Joomla, etc) now have very easy to use installers built in - just upload the files to your server, set up a database with your webhost's interface (e.g. in Cpanel, Plesk, etc) and then enter the database name, user name, and password into the CMS installer when prompted, and that's all - should immediately work.

I agree, Joomla is difficult to understand in regard to setting up the content of your site... one bit of guidance I can give is that in Joomla (to my understanding from the site I made with it), nothing is a page on your site until you assign it to a menu. You also have to set up Sections and Categories within those sections, and then put your content inside of those (and link that content to a menu in order for it to be accessible on the site). I never tried out the Dreamweaver plugin for Joomla, but I agree hand coding is the way to go What I suggest is to make your full site theme first however you like, then open up a Joomla template and extract whichever dynamic variables you want, and place them in your own template... set up your template files to Joomla's requirements, and there you go

The modules aren't too hard once you get the hang of it (so long as you learn to differentiate between Components, Modules, and Mambots ... just go to the appropriate installer page by clicking it in the top menu to the far right "Installers". Where it says "Upload Package File", upload the zip/archive file you downloaded for the component/module/mambot, and it installs automatically. Then view the Component, Module, or Mambot menu, locate the newly installed module to use or configure it.

For Drupal... let me know if you have any questions and I'll be glad to help you get on track.
Here's a site I'm currently making with Drupal for a friend/client: http://av.absolutecross.com (note: still in progress, may have some bugs and definitely hasn't been tested lately in IE6/7). The most recent copy isn't "online" yet either (I'm working on it on my local server). This is more of a static site, so it doesn't (yet) show off a lot of what Drupal can do on the surface (though some interesting things are happening under the hood). For the most part, the full theme was completed for this before even deciding on using Drupal to power it - I then just plugged in the necessary Drupal PHP variables in the right places to put real data in (which I just copied out of another Drupal theme). A few more detailed tweaks were made with extra tpl.php template files for a few minor details, and a few adjustments to the CSS were needed, but overall it was very simple.

In both Drupal and Joomla (and other CMSes) you never really need to make as complex of a theme as those you download to try out. Those themes have to be super flexible and support many possible ways the theme may be used (e.g. menus or blocks appearing on both the right or left or other potential places). Since your site only has to be the way you want it for your own use, you don't have to make your theme that complicated.

Also, here's a bit of a starter article I wrote about Drupal (I plan to write a lot more sometime soon): http://www.absolutecross.com/webmaster/articles/best-drupal-sites/

Good luck

___________________

-- Dave
Neverside Admin

absolutecross.com

Last edited by AbsoluteCross, August 15th, 2007 02:39 AM (Edited 1 times)

I just made my own, programmed to manage the database and its structure, nothing more. Meaning that templating and formatting is handled by a seperate, custom coded CDS (Content Display System). So there is some raw backend coding required for every website I make with my CMS, but it's actually easier then fooling around with counter-productive templating techniques that are so common these days, and its better for my client. I find apps like Drupal and Joomla incredibly bulky. Yes, they will handle even the smallest of sites, but there's so much there that I simply don't like.

I think a CMS should be for database management; adding, editing, and organizing - nothing more. All retrieval, parsing, and visualization of such content should be handled by an entirely separate backend; which I call a CDS (Content Display System). It goes without saying that this is better for both the webmaster and the client. The client would be completely unaware of the CDS, and strange as it may seem this allows for an invisible seam between content and design. It flows perfectly. So needless to say I don't use Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, Textpattern, or even light systems like CMS Made Simple. The theory is flawed.

BTW, Dave, http://av.absolutecross.com/ is lookin' great.

For my personal ventures, I have chosen to modify Worpress accordingly. However there are a few others I would recommend looking into. The first, as was already mentioned, is Drupal. It has a lot of features and can be integrated with vBulletin forums (my personal favorite forum software). Also, you may want to look into CuteNews. More specifically, AJ-fork. You can find it here. All three are very customizable and easy to use and it really depends on what you need it for.

The most functional you will find is one you build on your own, as it is likely to suit all your needs. Good luck in your findings.

Edit: As far as ease of installation, I'd say Wordpress is the easiest. A whole two steps.

___________________

Holy ****, its Dean fucking Venture!

Last edited by SRV, October 4th, 2007 10:47 PM (Edited 1 times)

TEXT
fucking
PATTERN

http://www.textpattern.com

___________________

Neversidian, your staff is broken.