Boagworld - Content Management Systems (CMS)

Content Management Systems (CMS)

dannykey — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 13:18:57 -0800

Trying to sort out the forum as there are many duplicate posts about the use and recomendation of CMS.

Post your comments, reviews and recomendations here.

Thanks,

Danny

Content Management Systems (CMS)

dieter — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 13:48:38 -0800

Let's see -- if you need something powerful, if a bit complicated, Drupal is a really excellent system. If your needs are more modest, and/or you want to be able to set up a site and then step away and let non-technical folks run things, the CMS I developed, Tiny, might be a good option, as long as you've got Ruby on Rails.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Colourpool — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 22:21:25 -0800

Anyone used or heard of text pattern? Its free and i've seen a few sites use it.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

gjhead — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 16:35:41 -0800

I just ran across the open source cms PROPS and it looks like it *could* be a good solution to creating a website for a small newspaper or publication.

However, it seems that it's been quite some time since this project has been updated.

Does anyone have any information on the status of this project or possibly know if it has been continued under a different name?

Also, and comments on experience using it would be greatly appreciated too.

Thanks!

Content Management Systems (CMS)

gjhead — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 16:38:09 -0800

Colourpool: I have my eye on Textpattern as well. It seems to be more based on being a CMS than a blog, which is a plus when looking at a CMS solution. It does look to have a bit of a learning curve though, and you may need to do your homework before implimenting this into a client's site.

It does seem to have a very active userbase, and the developers are very passionate about it. I'll be doing some more research on it as it seems like a very good option as an open-source cms.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

tyros8000 — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:41:40 -0800

i vote for drupal. it is a powerful, yet user friendly system and you can customise anything on it.

well worth checking out. i use it for all my sites.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

LondonStone — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 13:04:32 -0800

I just installed and tested Drupal. It's remarkable easy to setup and implement.

But it still outputs everything as table based markup.
I'd love a CMS that just made nice clean valid HTML and CSS. WYM editor looks best, but isn't easy to install.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

richquick — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:05:44 -0800

Expanse CMS is pretty good if you've got a small site, and produces css based code.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

iBaz — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 22:32:08 -0800

I would also recommend drupal.

@ LondonStone - Whether drupal outputs as tables or as valid xhtml and css depends on which theme you use. Properly implemented in can generate valid markup that also meets accessibility guidelines.

I've played around with a few open source CMS's and drupal seems to do the best job of properly separating the content, structure and display. It does have a more of a learning curve than a lot of other CMS's, but I think the effort is worth it. It also has an active and helpful forum (you do get the occasional RTFM response, but I've never asked for help and not got it.)

Content Management Systems (CMS)

LondonStone — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 09:49:04 -0800

Thanks iBaz, I guess I never noticed that from my cursory glance.

I'll give it another go and try with some other themes. Can you suggest a simple one that outputs without table based code?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

iBaz — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:18:40 -0800

Drupal has literally today gone from v4.7 to v5.0 so currently most of the themes haven't been ported over, but a couple to try are:

SpreadFirefox

Contented7

One caveat is that if you add a third party module into drupal and it has it's own *.tpl files it may not produce valid xhtml.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

LondonStone — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:25:48 -0800

Thanks I'll give that a whirl. Good timing for the new release for me I guess.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

michael — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:20:21 -0800

Hi,
I need help! as i am a newbie that has built a web site for a friend.
I am attempting to understand CMS and if it will allow me to solve a problem.
The problem i would like to solve is that i have created a CSS compliant uploaded hosted site - now, i would like to have my friend to be able to edit their own content across the multiple pages of their site without the need to code and ftp.
Will a CMS solution allow this? Is it a simple case of plugging-in a CMS onto the web site?
I have looked at drupel, wordpress, blog CMSs. However my understanding is that these do not plug into a site but only create their own sites or only a single page of a site and do not allow editing of already establish content on a site. Am I wrong?
I have looked at other devices like Textpattern but these require more setting up/configuring with asp or php sql and defeat the purpose of a simple solution.
Any links that can help me to understand what choices or how tos or better yet something that explains what CMS is and how it all works.

At the end of the day all I really am after is a simple plug-in for the site where my friend can open up their web site from a browser and some how click to edit their content. Am i dreaming?

Regards
Confused about CMS person.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

richquick — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 00:06:52 -0800

At the end of the day all I really am after is a simple plug-in for the site where my friend can open up their web site from a browser and some how click to edit their content. Am i dreaming?

You could try Macromedia/Adobe Contribute

Content Management Systems (CMS)

michael — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 11:46:51 -0800

Hi richquick,

Thanks for the reply.

Any opensource out there?

Regards
Need enlightment.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

iBaz — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 14:01:04 -0800

You could try CMS Made Simple, it's about as simple as a CMS gets, but it'll still take a little work to set up.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Sam England — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:39:44 -0800

phpBB makes a great CMS or even wordpress I choose these as they have a great community behind them, and dont have too many features you usually end up having to take out; I love taking time to taylor the software and put features in.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Mairhair — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 05:30:06 -0800

http://phpcms.de/

Okay, so this is kind of obscure and isn't insane to set up, but i haven't quite blasted through using it yet. BUT!

I host using IX Web Hosting and for some stupid reason, i told my clients to sign up for the cheapest plan not realizing that those servers don't support databases like MYSQL. DUH huh? Well, when i signed up for hosting i made sure i had those options but their host is a linux server. It can run PHP however, which brings me to WHY the hell i'm posting this.

Need a CMS that wont shit all over your web server, but that doesn't use a database? Try this one.

i'm DEFINATELY open to suggestions for an easier (adobe contribute style) CMS that doesn't need to utilize a database for two reasons; i feel like a boob telling my client they need to pay to upgrade their hosting package, and i have no idea how mysql works (i know i know... i'll learn eventually.)

so anyway, hope this post doesn't waste everyone's time.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Andy383 — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 03:00:24 -0800

I'd suggest trying out e107, mainly because many people who have came across it think its one of the easiest to use. But also because i'm on the support team.

There is a slight shortage of plugins compared to other CMS's but alot more are appearing lately... It has a easy self install script... all you do is enter mysql info and make sure permissions are set... and enter your username, password etc... click install... and its done...

A fully interactive site, with chatbox, forum, polls all included in the install... (Can be installed using plugin manager in admin area).

Content Management Systems (CMS)

hadders — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 12:45:24 -0800

Hi
I run the IT side of a University department, and for the last 6 months have been looking at different CMS's, mainly as a move away from a shared folders type intranet, and also as we teach Web Journalism and ALL online news organisations have moved to CMS - to give the students a real world online platform.

I'm lucky/unlucky enough (whichever way you look at it!) to run my own servers, so for the intranet side I opted for Plone which you basically install on a computer (win/OSX/Linux) and it works out of the box! This is great, even for storing large files such as wav audio files and QuarkXpress files - using WebDav. I'm more interested in the function of it, so have only gone as far as changing the banner image for design, but it doesn't look too bad in the backend for customising.

For websites, I went for Joomla! I tried out various others, Wordpress, phpwcms, campware, but couldn't figure out the backend (or install for that matter!) Joomla! seemed the most user friendly, and I've a couple of sites running it. One is this one the others are behind a firewall!

Content Management Systems (CMS)

sam P — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 11:52:05 -0800

I have had a great experience with drupal

Content Management Systems (CMS)

michael — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 09:31:42 -0800

Hi hadders,

Thanks for the Plone suggestion. I have joined, downloaded and installed.

Question, and it is probably because I do not know what to search for in the help docs.
Can I use Plone to upload content onto an existing web site? Is it a simple method of adding a link line into the relevant page on the existing site and it grabs the content from Plone to display?

If so what is the correct term/s of this method so I can search the help docs in Plone to further understand 'how to'?

Thanks

Content Management Systems (CMS)

hadders — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:46:36 -0800

In my experience, when you call a page in plone, it brings the furniture along with it (the navigatin, header, footer etc) - i suppose you could modify the template to make it appear as it were a content item..
Is that what you meant?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

michael — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:11:59 -0800

Hi hadders,
I have a static web site hosted. I was after a simple user interface to generate content that will add to the relevant pages in the web site. This is to allow the owners to self manage. Not that i have looked at Abobe Contribute but something is this manner.

Plone has an extension call CMFdeployment, someone suggested looking into this?

Any help appreciated
Regards

Content Management Systems (CMS)

...... — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 04:56:43 -0800

For a rundown of what's out there and what it can do, look at CMS Matrix
I, too, have been looking into this. From my understanding, for a client to have editing capabilities via the web, the CMS would have to be installed on the host server. True or False? Personally, I liked WebGUI.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

hadders — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 09:31:39 -0800

Hi Michael

Plone has an extension call CMFdeployment, someone suggested looking into this?

Just had a read on the CMFdeployment page, it seems it may do the job (ish). But if you're site is static, I don't see how you could (if your client is to manage the site) easily join your current navigation to the content generated by a CMS! - In my experience it's an easy job to wrap static content in a CMS site, but not really the other way round!

However, think about the WebDav capability of a Plone server - i.e. even though the pages and images are in a relational Database, through webDav they can be treated as files - giving you the ability to edit externally (in any html editor, wysiwyg or not) and drag and drop to the server - Using Netdrive or Enfold Desktop for windows, and mounting on the desktop in OSX. -I use this in my department for people to drag and drop audio and DTP files to and from servers..

Content Management Systems (CMS)

addicted — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:29:22 -0800

This is very expensive, but is also very good (atleast it looks that way)
http://www.ellingtoncms.com/

Content Management Systems (CMS)

ryanbehrman — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 18:51:06 -0800

I still build my CMS's from scratch, re-using bits of code. I can't really say I've tried any third party CMS's, and I guess I should, but I know I won't have as much flexibility and will probably end up spending more time changing the CMS than if I'd used my own tools. But then I have worked with server side languages and databases for quite some years. If I hadn't, I'd probably look at something open source like Mambo which seems to have quite a following.

I have a wordpress blog and am looking into using it as a complete CMS system. Ed Eliot from yahoo has referred to an article in his blog, which seems to achieve this: http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2006/04/20/from-weblog-to-cms.html

Content Management Systems (CMS)

LondonStone — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 08:01:33 -0800

Personally, I liked WebGUI.

That looks very simple to use, I'd love to install it and give it a go, but it looks like it wont work on a shared server. Time for me to upgrade to a vps then ! haha

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Stephsmarti — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 10:58:27 -0800

I would take a look at joomla -which is a split off Mambo. Lots of extensions/modules are available for the non developer. I installed both drupal and joomla as a test. I think they are both very strong and the best solutions for a quick install in a shared hosting environment. Joomla seemed just a bit more intuitive to me and might be easier if you plan to turn the CMS over to a client to run. I also think wordpress blog would work well for a CMS but not as sure about the flexibility of permission/access levels.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Rob — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:37:03 -0800

I've been looking around for a decent cms solution for a while now as I'm getting tired of rebuilding and adding functionality to mine. I'm looking for something solid that I can reuse. I have setup a store using oscommerce and that is doing a good job so far. Setup and installation is pretty straight forward but changing the look is a bit more work. Some of the contributions were a bit tricky to get working and I don't think the changes I have made will be compatible with future versions of oscommerce. This could be a bit of a problem when we come to upgrade. I'm currently looking into Joomla too, it looks great. I think this may be the one for me, I just need to spend some time on it, there is also an ecommerce extension available. I've had a play around with wordpress too, that's really good and could be suited to certain projects.

Hello btw.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

rakke — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 10:54:09 -0800

If you want to read a pretty good start-up tutorial on Drupal you can go to IBM Developerworks

Content Management Systems (CMS)

LondonStone — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:15:52 -0800

That is an excellent introduction to Drupal. Thanks for posting the link Rakke.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

doughnut — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 18:17:13 -0800

has anyone got experience of Joomla and Drupal to give a balanced view? Joomla has a lot good points and I am sure Drupal has too. Is there a tick chart comparison anywhere ? I looked on the CMS sites mentioned in the podcast and they aren't granular enough.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

herozup — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 23:20:51 -0800

www.modxcms.com

Wonderful and based on XHTML and CSS with a sprinkle of AJAX. Yippee!

Content Management Systems (CMS)

ilaskey — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:52:43 -0700

I use and like Joomla but I'd really like a decent book on it as I don't have time to sift through the online somewhat incomplete docs.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Minnie Mouse — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 23:27:59 -0700

i would also like to hear a more detailed comparison of joomla vs drupal. i am deciding between the two for a couple of large projects. each seems to be very good. it looks like drupal has more components, but it is hard to tell for sure. the main thing i am interested in is the ease of creating new themes and components/modules. the main thing is i dont want to really spend a lot of time on one and discover it's a beast. does anyone know what Paul uses? i think he mentioned something older that is commercial but i cant remember...

thanks for any thoughts!

Content Management Systems (CMS)

ryanbehrman — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 23:41:18 -0700

does anyone know what Paul uses?

I think Paul might use an in-house CMS that Headscape created - he mentioned once that it is able to create forms on the fly. But I'm not sure if that's what he uses personally - ?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

richquick — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 08:22:23 -0700

Yeah, Headscape do use their own, bespoke, CMS.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

dannykey — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 08:58:29 -0700

For boagworld he used MovableType.

Danny

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Dobbo — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 11:46:36 -0700

I used to have a Drupal site and it was fairly easy to set up and administer, but that was a few years back and it's probably changed a bit since then, I think the new TWIT website is done in Drupal.

I now use Joomla and find it very easy to use and set up is a breeze, there are loads of modules to add on for appearance, functionality and admininistration. The only thing to bear in mind now is that a new version is nearly ready for full release and it whether to stick with the older version for a bit or move up, I'm not sure how many modules there are yet for the new release and I think it's a lot different the way it operates form the current version so the older modules may not work.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Minnie Mouse — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 17:29:42 -0700

Thanks! I think I will go with joomla. I guess the version will get resolved by when the projects get underway.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

scotthoff — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:23:04 -0700

If you do a site with Moveable type, does the whole site have to be within Moveable type? I'm not even sure if I am asking this the right way. Are all of the good one's php? I chose to use Coldfusion simply b/c I liked it and it was the smoothest transition from what I used before. Does anyone have any ideas about what a coldfusion developer should do?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Dobbo — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:42:22 -0700

I've just been playing about with moveable type on a spare site I have and it's pretty easy to instal and find your way around, the thing is you get so used to twiddling about with the CMS that you use all the time (Joomla) it's hard to get motivated to persist with a new CMS, however I like what I've seen of the Movabletype. Its taken about 2 1/2 hours and I've got it up and running loaded loads of new styles, added a WYSIWYG editor and played about with adding some content.

It's always good to keep your eye on other systems and have more than one string to your bow :-)

Content Management Systems (CMS)

dannykey — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:58:08 -0700

Expanse CMS is pretty good if you've got a small site, and produces css based code.

As these guys are not taking new orders, can anyone recommend on of similar quality and features.

Thanks,

Danny

Content Management Systems (CMS)

richquick — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:59:48 -0700

I've got 1 installation of Expanse which I paid for but didn't end up using on the client's site.

If you don't mind paying for the web hosting with me, you can have the CMS for free.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

dannykey — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:08:02 -0700

Hey Rich,

Thanks for the offer. We have our own hosting box for sites, but its something we need to sort out for our smaller clients moving forward.

Danny

Content Management Systems (CMS)

carlos — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:45:34 -0700

Does anyone have any ideas about what a coldfusion developer should do?

Scott, I'm new to coldfusion myself but I'm in the same boat you're in. I'm currently building two sites and plan on experiemting with php for one and coldufusion for the other. I've heard nothing but good things about wordpress as a CMS. And as far as the coldfusion goes, I'm thinking of using one of the following two:

http://www.farcrycms.org/ free
http://www.besavvy.com/ expensive (doubt I'll go with this)

Let me know if you come across other options.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

carlos — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:30:38 -0700

Does anyone have any experience with ExpressionEngine? It's not free, but aside from the paypal-only shopping cart, it looks like it's very good in everything else (a better e-commerce module is coming soon). I'm wondering if anyone has tried it?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

stephendew — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:16:36 -0700

Another recomendation for drupal here as well. You know Leo Leporte uses it for the twit.tv site

Content Management Systems (CMS)

iBaz — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:19:20 -0700

Another recomendation for drupal here as well. You know Leo Leporte uses it for the twit.tv site

So does Tim Berners-Lee. I think he knows a bit about the web :-)

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Sam England — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:42:45 -0700

Drupal is nice though if you want a very well laid out, easy to use system, that you can modify really well, I use Wordpress,. Icreated a Video CMS and forum from it by intergrating Vanilla myself. Sometimes it is better and quicker to add the features you want to create a besboke CMS rather than take the ones you don't want away.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

PaulH — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 02:57:35 -0700

Drupal 5 is improved, http://dojotoolkit.org/ are using it. http://www.mtv2.co.uk/ also use Druapl, although as I write this their site is showing a Drupal error page due to their MySQL database being down.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

iSky — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:05:40 -0700

Would using Drupal or Tiny be appropriate if I'm simply running a sort of blog where others can upload their own articles?

Thanks,
Sky

Content Management Systems (CMS)

iBaz — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 20:01:27 -0700

I'm a big fan of Drupal, but it may be overkill for what you want to do. Have you had a look at whether Wordpress would do what you need?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

PaulH — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:54:05 -0700

If you want other people to submit articles then Drupal has a good user system so you can limit the actions people can take based on the priviledges you give them. Standard Wordpress does not have this, but you may want to look at Multi-user Wordpress as it may do what you want.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

MrBond — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:46:27 -0700

I'm about to start building what hopefully will be a very large website. It needs some similar functionality to that of YouTube. I.e. A log in system that will allow you to vote, post comments on videos, and upload videos too.

I fear this might be slightly beyond my skills, and wondered if anyone knew of any system that that does all this?

It needn't be free, but if it is - bonus!

Content Management Systems (CMS)

DaveH — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 15:30:14 -0700

I am amazed nobody mentioned Expression Engine!

Yes carlos, it is great and I have been using it for awhile now on a few projects.

I looked at the others, including Drupal. Drupal is indeed powerful but I found it a real pain to skin and customise.

Then somebody suggesed Expression Engine. Never looked back and the Forums and Support are second to none. Full standards, some great and well known Designers writing Mods for it, easy to skin and there is hopefully a new eCommerce module being introduced into it. Very powerful and getting much more so.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

olivertreend — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 16:35:02 -0700

I have just (within the last 5 minutes) found what looks like a brilliant Content Management System!
It's called Skeletonz. It is not written in PHP, but in Python. :-(
The whole administration area uses AJAX, and you actually edit the pages on your main site (not in some control panel!)
I'm not sure how easy it is to integrate a design into it because I haven't had a chance to download it and try it out...
I think it also has a built in spell-checker (GoogieSpell) which is also AJAX based.
Well, I suggest you check it out... I'll definitely be keeping my eye on it!
http://orangoo.com/skeletonz/

Content Management Systems (CMS)

the smu — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 23:46:45 -0700

i've used wordpress for this several times now and it's been ideal. i tend to work for clients with fairly small scale sites so i'm not sure how this would transfer to larger projects but for me it's been the perfect solution - easy as all heck to install, no learning curve (unless you really want to get under the hood), easily adaptable and most importantly super-easy for no-tech clients to understand.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Connor_is_great — Fri, 04 May 2007 08:13:57 -0700

I now use one called expression engine, it's fairly basic in terms of adding new content and the documentation is a bit hit and miss, but with a little help from the code library by the same company (code igniter, their both by Ellis Lab, www.ellislab.com) it can be made rather good. Also, you can do almost anything with the template system as all it has it a few {variable} tags that are replaced with content and most of them are really logical. But for big stuff, I wouldn't recomend it unless you can garentee that anyone using it will be able to produce clean code.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

nexxus — Wed, 16 May 2007 21:19:48 -0700

If you're up for a challenge, try Plone, it's a massive mother of a CMS that comes with most of what you'll need straight out of the box, with lots of plugins available.

The challenge bit comes in if you can't find exactly what you need, and need to customise code, there's quite a steep learning curve. However, if you're after power, you can't go far wrong with it.

It's python based, so is much easier to read than PHP, if you're a techie, you'll love the built-in Object based db. It's also incredibly scalable over multiple servers. The only drawback is if you start to veer away from things Content based, it becomes a little unwieldy.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Dan — Sun, 27 May 2007 10:32:28 -0700

I've just discovered Xoops and I'm finding it relatively easy to get to grips with. It only comes with the core system itself and then you have to add modules for forums, polls, announcements systems and all that which means it's less uncluttered than other systems.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Gradualist — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:06:59 -0700

@carlos and dave H - i have used Expression Engine and loved it. I am a front-end developer and found it very easy to use and felt thoroughly empowered. However, I couldn't get it to do everything I wanted it to do. Now, Drupal I have also tried, and I know it can do everything, I just canNOT get my head around how to do it. I feel it is much more the realm of proper developers.

It is brilliant to see all these recommendations here, but totally overwhelming too! Which way to go? And what about bespoke systems like Ryan makes? Why are people not using them? Is it because non-developers are wanting the control, and/or are developers using them too because it saves them time/hassel?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

DaveH — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:09:37 -0700

HI Emily

I looked at Drupal as an alternative to EE but I felt the same as. Huge learning curve and very hard to customise etc. It seems like it is aimed more at developers and not designers. But I might have another go at it again. EE does everything I need and the community is excellent and I think this is the strong point.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Mark Fresh — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:50:39 -0700

Hi

ibaz mentioned it before but I would recommend CMS made simple - open source and I found it easy to set up. It has an easy to use backend and although I'm still getting used to it I find it intuitive. Styles can be easily set up and it's themes, although limited, do give you basic frameworks to start on.
I also found etomite simple to use although the image uploader didn't work on a mac but that may be different now. The supprt forum is good.
Joomla! I can't get my head round (how do I get the advert off the default template's front page?).
eZ publish was ok but I can't remember why I gave up using it.
RedDot costs Â£Â£ and I'd say stay away from it unless you're a front end user, the backend's a pig to set up.
Am going to try Drupal for a while in my search for the best CMS for different scenarios but at the moment my all round favourite is CMS made simple.

A great resource is Open Source CMS which lists all the CMSs mentioned on here with reviews as well. There's also CMS Matrix which allows you to do a feature search for CMSs have a look and it's amazing to see how many different systems are out there.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

simonw — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 22:11:43 -0700

I have recently discoverd Joomla and was wondering how other users find it?
Also, does anyone have experience of http://www.rockettheme.com/ and http://www.joomlashack.com/ templates? Any recommendations for a good setup guide to Joomla CMS?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

richquick — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 23:01:34 -0700

I've used Joomla on a few occasions and it does have a good feature set. However, the HTML code it produces by default is rubbish, and so you need to write a parser, which rewrites the HTML code - not an easy sthing to do and far from an ideal solution in my books.

Also, I find the back end a bit counter-intutive at times - buttons aren't where I expect them to be. Once it's learnt it's not too bad - but it's a bit awkward at first.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Austen — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 23:50:38 -0700

@ richquick

Have you used Joomlah 1.5 yet?

Drupal fan

Content Management Systems (CMS)

richquick — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 23:59:56 -0700

Not yet, no.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Austen — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:04:32 -0700

Neither have I but as 1.5 is a considerable advance on the previous version maybe it addresses the code problem you have raised.

I agree with the back end criticism which is one of the reasons that I decided to go for Drupal.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

JamieStanton — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:17:46 -0700

What's everyone's thought on Typo3? Learning for a new job and have been warned it has a steep learning curve. I hear it supports XHTML Transitional, although not sure about how that works with the WYSIWYG editor it has.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

covenofone — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:07:10 -0700

I really like Joomla! But I plan on giving Drupal a try soon. And Expression Engine...and why are there so many? Don't people ever get tired of reinventing the same thing over and over?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

JamieStanton — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:19:55 -0700

I've also been looking at Modx, which is XHTML Strict compliant, has Ajaz Whizbang and is built with SEO optimization in mind.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

iSky — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 10:21:52 -0700

Hey guys.

I'm looking to set up two separate blogs under two domain names that I will host.

What CMS would be the best--and easiest--for a novice to install and style on my servers?

I'm currently looking at MovableType, WordPress, and TypePad.

I'd like for my CMS to be standards compliant, easy to install, and easy to maintain while making design a snap as well.

I look forward to hearing your responses.

Thanks,
Sky

Content Management Systems (CMS)

richquick — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 10:49:20 -0700

I've used WordPRess and Moveable Type and both would do the job.

Personally, I find wordpress a bit easier to customize, bit that might just be me.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

iSky — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:36:16 -0700

Thank you.

And would I, were I to begin my blog using WordPress's free-hosting, be able to add Google Ads?

Thanks,
Sky

Content Management Systems (CMS)

JamesW — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:45:29 -0700

I downloaded the wordpress package the other day and I was stunned at how small the codebase was...

I would recommend this cms to everyone who wants to get started with some php work... anybody who could care less about coding and just wants to get their content up fast and edit easily should ask me about mine...

Content Management Systems (CMS)

bluedreamer — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:50:34 -0700

I'm currently dabbling with Expression Engine and loving it! On the surface it seems quite tame but once you actually start digging around it's only then that you realise how powerful and flexible it actually is. Unlike many CMS's it's templates are very easy to keep standards compliant and validated, and are adpatable to any sort of layout design you can come up with. It is more of a developers CMS than a casual blogging system which is why it's well worth taking time to learn it's logic. I'm now waiting for a project to come along where I can use it with vengance!

Content Management Systems (CMS)

nexxus — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:22:26 -0700

Someone mentioned Ellington earlier, which is built on Django, a great Python based web-framework. If you're looking to custom build your CMS, you wouldn't go too far wrong by using Django as a base. Support on IRC is great.

On the python side, there's also TurboGears, whose SQL abstraction is apparently a bit more powerful than Django's (especially when you use SQLAlchemy).

Although unless you're learning, or building a complex site, custom building your CMS might be a bit of overkill.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

ed89 — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 18:55:39 -0700

Thumbs up here for Sitellite.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Baglan — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:13:00 -0700

Radiant CMS is an interesting one - not exactly the easiest to use, but once you grasp the way it works, it allows you to be very flexible.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

warrenbuckley — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:30:15 -0700

I would highly recommend Umbraco CMS as its a highly extensible opensource .NET CMS, great friendly community who will help you out.

Umbraco allows you to use .NET custom usercontrols to extend your CMS easily and quickly, along with using XSLT to create common functionality such as navi's, galleries, news pages etc.....

I would be interested to see what the people of Boagworld thought of Umbraco please.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

frankharrison — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:15:53 -0800

I'm trying to decide which way to go: I mainly do small sites, so my clients will mostly be updating existing pages, occasionally adding a new one. There would only ever need to be one admin account. I'm not very up on server side stuff, but want something that generates good standards compliant code, which I can easily style.

Are Textpattern / Wordpress / MovableType good for this or is it overkill? What's the best way to go when you want something very basic but standards compliant?

Thanks!

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Mouse — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:43:13 -0800

Well i am loving Drupal at the moment. i just brough After the Mouse.com over to Drupal and have had an easy ride. it is not 100% perfect but if you know a little CSS, HTML and PHP you can make it work well... plus there is a great support community and a shed load of great modules.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

DMC — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:59:38 -0800

Any one ever use DotNetNuke??? The company that I work for is talking to a design house that wants to use that CMS system. I would just prefer to design it out in dreamwever.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

richquick — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:11:24 -0800

We've been using Expression Engine lately and I'm very impressed.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Martin Bean — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:54:51 -0800

I've been developing my own content management system over the past couple of months at FUSEBOXDESIGN in Newcastle upon Tyne. It's really easy to use and produces good standards-compliant XHTML that can be styled with a CSS style sheet.

I began developing it as I do a lot of freelance work for professional wrestling promotions and when I went full-time as a web developer my time was dramatically reduced. So I then set out to develop a wrestling sites-specific content management system (as there wasn't any out there that did what I wanted) and it has grown steadily since then.

I'm hoping to maybe release it to the public this summer. But since it's something one-of-a-kind with no competitors out there, I may get away with charging a little for it. And there is by no means a shortage of wrestling promotions in the world; not everything wrestling is WWE! ;-)

Content Management Systems (CMS)

nidulus — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:07:33 -0700

If this question has already been addressed then please accept my apologies.

I am fairly new to the web design world and have obtained a real estate client who wants something I hadn't thought of. She wants to be able to take pictures on her cell phone and then upload them to her website. Is this possible and if so are there any takers to point me in the direction of where I would learn about such technology or how to implement this?

Thank you all

Content Management Systems (CMS)

richquick — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:40:20 -0700

Yes, this is possible.

I'd suggest you add this as a separate thread, though, as you'll get more takers.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

nidulus — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:38:41 -0700

Thanks richquick...I'll do that.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

xicano — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:32:14 -0700

Has anyone heard of CMS from Scratch? It looks pretty interesting on the demo, but I wasn't sure which product to use. I created a site with XHTML & CSS for a non-profit organization, but I want to be able to hand over the design so that they can update it instead of me having to respond to a bunch of "emergency" e-mails to update the information on the site. (It's amazing how all the members of the board seem to e-mail me for updates at the same time. I guess they decide to e-mail me after their big meetings!)

By the way, these are all really great recommendations and reviews. I just wish I could look at and use all of these then make a decision! :)

Content Management Systems (CMS)

skirkpatrick — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:18:34 -0700

DMC wrote: Any one ever use DotNetNuke???

Yes, and my recommendation is a short one. Don't.

I have had several attempts at using DNN, each time I've come with a sense of hope that it will be better than it was the last time. It never is. It's got some really good points e.g. the database abstraction and support for multiple portals, but I feel it misses so many tricks of the .NET 2.0. It's also clunky and restrictive and difficult to customise in terms of design.

And don't even get me started on developing custom modules.

Apologies if that sounds like a rant - it probably is. And I've no doubt there are some out there who've had positive experiences with DNN. But I'm not amongst them, and neither are any of the past and present colleagues who've worked with it, too.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Boag_fan — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:23:46 -0700

Help!!

I am using contribute and I am having a huuuge problem connecting to my site
I use geocities and I have connected to it before - had to redo my computer as i messed up the hard drive.

Now I believe the ftp name for that site is ftp.uk.geocities.com
Nope I cant get it to work. I entered in everything else correctly and the message is :

your FTP username or password is incorrect. Please check your connecton information or contact your administrator.

Any help please?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Boag_fan — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:54:12 -0700

Boag_fan wrote: your FTP username or password is incorrect. Please check your connecton information or contact your administrator.

It is also telling me that :

Contribute could not connect because the server is down or not accepting connectoins. Please contact your administrator.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Boag_fan — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:55:51 -0700

Sorry looks to be working - Seems I cant use secure on geocities

Or the server wasn't up to it?

***EDIT***: No it gave up on me!

Content Management Systems (CMS)

somefool — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:47:02 -0700

Of course Wordpress isnt technically a CMS, its blog software but it can be pretty much leveraged as a CMS and all the commenting guff removed.

Probably a bit early in its life but Habari is looking promising

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Dan — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:24:02 -0700

I'd recommend MODx - it's a great CMS to work with, and very easy to learn.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

snapey — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:25:23 -0700

Hi Folks
I've used a few different CMS in the past so I'm pretty familiar with the principles. What I have now though is a client that wants to setup an extranet for key customers. Things like product manuals etc will be published to the customer through the Extranet.

There may be a dozen or more key customers. Each would require their own area since documents that pertain just to them will be published for their eyes only. The problem comes in that there will be a lot of content that is common to each customer.

What I'd ideally like to find is a CMS solution where a page or a document can be uploaded and then the editor decides which accounts should be able to see the document, and in which area of the site.

Given the wide and varied expertise here I wondered if anyone knew of a CMS that might lend itself to this type of deployment?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

hekimboard — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:23:06 -0700

discephe
thanks a lot friends..

Content Management Systems (CMS)

andykinsey — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:09:06 -0700

drupal, joomla, jadu, eibs, are all good systems, personally i prefer to build cms myself for smaller sites its not much work and usually offers the best results for a small company/indiviuals site (in my experience).

one thing i do dislike about the formentioned (branded not your own) cms systems is that you have to host and install themyourself on your own server/ftp account, you must have dv access etc, if you build your own or you use a centralised area you dont.

i found a neat and free way to get a cms as a blog, mark it as private and read the most recent rss to a page on your site, job done! no extra fee's or anything of the kind.
this said its only ever worked for one site i tried it on!

But at work we are developing something far bigger and better, its currently on one site and is in alpha still, we hope to be in beta within a few weeks and then sort any final glitches from there, but so far so good (will keep you posted if you want)

Content Management Systems (CMS)

livelimmitless — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:08:35 -0700

yes please do I would like to learn more about Content Management Systems

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Dan.F — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:10:16 -0700

What do you guys think of light/water/skyCMS?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

lizwillner — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:14:59 -0700

Hi all, (i changed my user name from minnie mouse) i wrote a year and a half ago trying to decide what cms to go for. i thought i would give you an update.
I started using joomla and kept going. I have now built about 10-12 sites on it and am so happy with it. there is definitely a learning curve to making templates and custom components and modules, however, its well worth the investment in time. the new version of joomla produces very nice standards based code if you set it up to do that. it has an override system so you can change the code output. it comes preinstalled with mootools, but there are plugins to remove it and add jquery if you want that.
the forum is very active and helpful.
i love joomla!

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Veronikan — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:14:27 -0700

Any thoughts on the best CMS for a custom art gallery site? The design can't be hindered by a rigid template system, it will be image heavy of course, and I would like to use some jquery effects.

I have experience with Wordpress and Joomla. I don't like the admin. interface for Joomla. I was even hired by one client to take over his joomla site updates because his staff couldn't figure it out, (defeats the purpose.)

I think I need a more flexible cms that I can plug into the bones of a site. Does such a thing exist, or must I hire a developer?

I greatly appreciate any input.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

sanchothefat — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:01:16 -0700

Veronikan wrote: Any thoughts on the best CMS for a custom art gallery site?

I need something similar but I think I may have to code it myself because every cms I've used doesn't have sensible hooks/functions for creating and caching thumbnails of any size.

I'll start building it when my 'holiday' starts and post back here to get some beta testers/suggestions/ideas etc...

Content Management Systems (CMS)

jimpannell — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:42:59 -0700

For flexibility there really is only one answer in my opinion - Expression Engine. Check it out. It's the tool that I so wish I'd found years ago. It would have saved me a whole lot of time and money.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Nathan Roberts — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:41:42 -0800

I had a look at Expression Engine, a brief look, and I couldn't see how to generate page menus without harcoding them into the template other than that it looks like a really good system.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

DaveH — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:59:02 -0800

Hi Nathan

Do yo mean a navigation system? You can just use 1 include of the nav for all pages and use weblog tags to bring in specific page headings.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

cleverleap — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:06:03 -0700

Hello,

I have just published demo of fully rewritten Typevista content management system. It is build on top of Code Igniter framework. I would like to know what you think about it. It's main benefit is that it treats content as different content objects filled with content. So you can combine articles, pictures, products etc... as opposed to CMSes which will allow you to edit just one type of content.

It is also very easy to use...

Give it a try at www.demo.typevista.com .

It will be available as free download as soon as I will finish documentation. Anybody eager to help?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

greendesigned — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:39:31 -0700

I really like expressionengine, you can use a free core version to try it out.

For a freelance designer, expressionengine has given me the tools to take on bigger jobs, as it's code made sense and fitted snuggly with my sites css/XHTML

I highly recommend it, oh, great community support too.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Martin Bean — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:05:25 -0700

@cleverleap Are you just here to advertise your CMS?

Content Management Systems (CMS)

olivertreend — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:20:20 -0700

My recommendations of Content Management Systems are:

1. Wildflower: Built upon PHP with help from the CakePHP framework, this should work on most web hosting packages. It requires a MySQL database, but that's pretty much it. It's not overly complicated to use, and gets the job done. My only concern is that the main navigation menu isn't dynamic, but statically links to the dynamic pages.

2. concrete5: Also built upon PHP and MySQL, it is reliable and flexible. It doesn't offer an 'administration area' as such, but instead allows you to click on items on your web page and edit them from within your web page - a bit like in-line editing. I guess the best way to understand it is to check out a demo. To be honest, this seems quite slow, and I don't like how it offers expert/complicated options to the average user, including the ability to change the theme of the website! Surely we don't want our clients changing the design of their website - because where would that leave us as web designers!? ;-)

3. CushyCMS: Probably the most innovative of the three. It doesn't require anything to be installed on your web server - no PHP, no MySQL. It basically is a really simple system which will allow your client to edit static HTML files via this service. CushyCMS then uploads the changes back to the web server via FTP. This is probably only suitable for very small websites - but it is the most simple to use out of the three.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

vats-thakur — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:00:43 -0700

Hey,
Why dont you use worpress, its really easy and lots of free plugins are available..

Best wishes, :)
Vats Thakur

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Denifia — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:27:32 -0700

I'm building something like Cushy but its a hosted solution. You would need to add it to your website. But from a quick glance through the forumns it looks like most of you wouldn't need this one as it will be built on Dot Net and most posts here mention PHP or Ruby.

It will be a cutdown CMS that, at the moment, will only allow text based updates (images will come in V2). There will be no admin interface. Just go to something like yoursite.com/edit and you will see your normal home page. Click on the text you want to change and just start typing.

I will probably be having a closed beta in about a month if anyone is interested.

Oh... and it wont require a database :)

Content Management Systems (CMS)

sabridino — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 02:20:16 -0800

spam

Content Management Systems (CMS)

ThaClown — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 01:30:45 -0700

I use 3:

If I need a blog I use:
Wordpress

Very very basic and easy?
CushyCMS

My favorite by far, very flexible, good support and really good for SEO:
MODx