What is the best Content Management System?

[duxtra]

Greetings,

Recently I've been pondering the idea of implementing a Content Management System for one of my Web sites. I was curious as to what other people's experiences were with running and maintaining Content Management Systems? Is there a particular program you would recommend? How easy/difficult are they to install and maintain? What criteria should one meet for using a Content Management System? This CMS would be running on a UNIX/Linux based OS.

[randem]

It's not terribly difficult to just write your own. And then, you can make it as easy to work with as you want it to be.

If you're open to creating your own (rather than downloading and installing something) let me know, and I can give you some insight into how I made mine.

[IsaacV]

If someone says PHPNuke, I'll kill 'em! That seems to be the most popular choice for CMS. Yes, the best idea is to design one yourself. On the other hand, has anyone considered the possibility that not everyone is patient enough to sit down and learn the language and are willing to pay someone else to do it for them? I mean, not to do it for them but charge for a really, really good one?
Like for vBull for example. What if (and they are probably going to do this and fail but) they decide to go from Forums to CMS's. Wouldn't they dominate that market also and make even more money? What if a team of developers were to sit down and combine their brains together to produce one that is as good as vBulletin and featuresque like PHPNuke but is top-of-the-line secure and uses very low server overhead?
Hmm? Just something to think about...speculation..

[Rikki]

Originally posted by randem
It's not terribly difficult to just write your own. And then, you can make it as easy to work with as you want it to be.

If you're open to creating your own (rather than downloading and installing something) let me know, and I can give you some insight into how I made mine.

I'm quite interested, Im putting together a simple CMS for a web site Im creating (so they can add their own news etc) but any guidance would be appreciated.

[galt]

Feel free to come by phppp and visit. I will answer specific questions about my coding or design approaches there, but much of it seems off-topic for this board. I don't want to pontificate in public

[ChilliBoy]

It's not terribly difficult to just write your own. And then, you can make it as easy to work with as you want it to be.

True if you are looking for a very basic system, but a huge task if you are looking for the functionality of some systems available - eg mysource, ezpublish etc etc.

Like for vBull for example. What if (and they are probably going to do this and fail but) they decide to go from Forums to CMS's. Wouldn't they dominate that market also and make even more money? What if a team of developers were to sit down and combine their brains together to produce one that is as good as vBulletin and featuresque like PHPNuke but is top-of-the-line secure and uses very low server overhead?

The Vb developers are bringing out a CMS with V3 of VB.

I have been investigating CMS's for a solid month and have would give the following advise:

1/. Avoid the likes of PHPNuke etc unless you are developing a 'hobby' site, and are not to bothered about a totally custom design.

2/. Look for a system that is developing at an extreamly fast rate. Its ok to say build one yourself, but if someone/some company is developing the system for you for free/little cost(probably with far more resources and programming knowledge), then why go down the route of doing it yourself.

3/. Be prepared to pay something - by paying a minimum amount you get proper documentation and support - which cn save you endless hours of time (Some open source systems can provide this).

In conclusion I would recommend you look at look at the following systems:

EzPublish - For a robust system with stack loads of functionality, and very few bugs (Its also free). Possibly a bit bloated if you don't need all the built in stuff.

iPage - Excellent German system - be prepared to pay if you want anything other than the small business system (should be fine for most). This is the system for you if you don't want to spend much time doing key customisation, and like the module system.

WebEdition - My choice for a system - take a look at this if you want a powerful system and are prepared to learn a bit and do a bit of customisation. Very cheap $149 - true templating, links into dreamweaver or other editors, various modules, extreamly slick and fast and backed by one of the largest agencies in the Germany (English version available). If you think the proof is in the pudding then there a numerous high end websites been built using it - eg http://www.f1-plus.com . If you can find a similar professonal website which has been built using phpnuke other other similar system then I will eat my words!


Some of the Functions available in Webedition include:

Database-grounded

Working with templates

Creating, revising and changing of webpages without HTML-knowledge

The editor can navigate the entire site by using three buttons ( "+"-Button, "edit"-Button and "waste basket"-Button )

Already existing pages can be taken over easily

WYSIWYG-Editor ( starting with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 )

Mask-oriented feed in of texts and pictures

Completely controlable via Browser

Dynamic steerable navigation over ASTARTE webEdition ( also DHTML )

Link lists and survey pages can be produced without programming knowledge

Repeatable blocks by mouseclick

Picture- and data-upload via browser, no FTP neccessary

Backup-function

Detailed help system, handbook and Service&Support on our homepage

Dynamic or static generation of pages

Editors can feed in news and articles without being bothered by linking procedures, Linking is done automatically

Runs on every server with PHP4 and MySQL databank

Separation of Content and Layout

Separate storing and publishing

Extendable through webEdition-modules

Tag-based ( similar syntax as HTML )

[seanf]

Moved to a more appropriate forum

Sean

[duxtra]

Thank you for all of the replies I have received so far. I am looking in to the suggestions and am researching them further. Any idea what type of Content Management System Site Point uses?

[ChilliBoy]

I believe it is a custom system they have developed themselves (there was talk a while ago that they where going to release it as a commercial product - although I think it was to have a four figure price tag.)

Let me know what you think of the systems I talked about - ipage, ezpublish & webedition.

PS - all have online demo's if you can't be bothered to download.

Webedition looks rather different from most other systems in the way it handles element such as articles etc. Although it has won several awards for its approach, it will seem slightly alien to anyone who has used the nuke clone systems etc.

[Jeremy W.]

I may just purchase Web Edition for an upcoming project, though I'll need to have a look at what it will run on (any idea?)

[steamengine]

I think that Interactive Tools have some good tools.

I've used the Page Publisher on client sites and the clients love 'em.

My next project will use Article Manager. It ain't free ($299), but there's a News Manager for $99 that might do the trick. If you just want your client to edit text, not add pages, use Page Publisher.

Their site: www.interactivetools.com

I know they've advertised here on SitePoint as well, though I found out about them from a friend.

[ChilliBoy]

I may just purchase Web Edition for an upcoming project, though I'll need to have a look at what it will run on (any idea?)

It runs on php/mySQL - there is a fully interactive demo on the website - Online Demo. One of the most impressive features in my opinion is the Template editor with the inbuild "we" tag generator - I haven't seen anything comparable in other software. The WYSWYG editor is also the best I've seen, with support for style sheets and a rtf import amongst other things.

I've used the Page Publisher on client sites and the clients love 'em.

Its a shame that all their script use Perl and not PHP - can you get php versions anywhere ?

[orfeo]

Hey ...

Why is it a shame that they code in Perl. I think you forget that PHP has started as an easier-forweb and more handy Perl. I know that know it is faster than Perl but Perl has been around for ages and you can do amazing stuff with it.PHP scripts maybe easy to install and run but ussually they are more insecure. At least that is what my experience says, maybe I was unlucky.

[duxtra]

Hi,

Thank you to all for the replies. I apologize for taking this long to get back to the topic at hand. I received many useful options for products relating to content management systems. I'm still not sure which one I'll go with. I'm not a hard core web programmer so I'm looking for something that easy to set up and administer yet is feature rich and has lots of options.

If anybody familiar with the Site Works pro content management system? Let me know what your opinion is.

Their site: http://www.siteworkspro.com

[caser85]

Originally posted by galt
Feel free to come by phppp and visit. I will answer specific questions about my coding or design approaches there, but much of it seems off-topic for this board. I don't want to pontificate in public

Hi galt. I've been wanting to check out your CMS but the site gives me an error. Can you check it out?

- Casey

[Arkham]

Originally posted by ChilliBoy

The Vb developers are bringing out a CMS with V3 of VB.

<...>

WebEdition - My choice for a system - take a look at this if you want a powerful system and are prepared to learn a bit and do a bit of customisation.

I spent some time drooling over WebEdition earlier this year... I think what would hold me back is the lack of vB integration. I suppose it could be managed, but I really want to see what the vB CMS is like.

I went through a CMS kick a while ago too... After looking at everything that's out there, all things considered, WebEdition would probably be my choice.

[ChilliBoy]

Web Edition are planning on bringing out their own forum module. I doubt it will be as feature rich as vBulletin, but then again I very much doubt the vB CMS will be anywhere near webedition. So I guess it depends what is more important to you.

There is no reason why you could not have Webedition with vB though - they are both php and you can add vB php code snippets straight into webedition templates (for recent posts, polls etc).

[HarryF]

Back the origional post for a moment;

I was curious as to what other people's experiences were with running and maintaining Content Management Systems?

Overall, content managment systems are frequently one of the biggest wastes of time when it comes to putting up your site, in my opinion. For a small site, you end up installing at least 10 different ones, none of which do what you were hoping for and finally give up and write something yourself.

As mentioned above, PHPNuke, the most popular solution, is a disaster in my opinion. Ask yourself "when was the last time I found what I was looking for on a PHPNuke site" and you'll have your answer. It's a prime example of "mystery meat" navigation.

Only for big projects are content management systems worth it, in my opinion. And at this level, you need one that's more an application framework, that has the potential to deliver anything, rather than a specific solution. The downside here is that means a steep learning curve.

Having said that, what Vbulletin have with their portal makes a great combination for community sites. If you're looking for something free, the phpBB group are working on a CMS as well. My opnion is only in this area you'll find worthwhile "off the shelf" solutions.

Is there a particular program you would recommend?

For anything big, definately ezPublish. For small projects, Mambo or write your own. Mambo is worth a look, because it's still simply enough to customise to your own needs.

How easy/difficult are they to install and maintain?

They should be easy to install and maintain. The "maintain" part is most important. ezPublish is hard to install but once you've got it up, maintenance is a breeze - very powerful admin tools.

In general, if we call "installing", not only getting the system fired up, but also customised to your needs, the question is really whether you want the decisions about your site made for you. A system like PHPNuke forces you into one way of doing things, but is easy to install (hence the popularity). EzPublish will do almost anything for you but there's a learning curve and alot of installation work before you have the end result.

What criteria should one meet for using a Content Management System?

Probably some questions you should ask yourself;

- Will the site be updated frequently?
- Am I lazy (once the site is up, I want updates to require minumum effort)?
- Is the alot of content to display, that must be easily navigable?
- Does the site care about traffic? Is it important to bring visitors back for more or will they be coming to your door anyway, so times new roman is fine (see http://www.apache.org !).
- Are you the sort of person who will think "I feel like improving the layout/design" six months down the line?

If the answer is yes to many of those, think about a CMS.

[Ruchir]

well, Harry, u do have some important points. but well - its not just about lazineess for updates and stuff. it also matters about time you have or the amount of content.

Or even when if u have a big amount of sites youi want to look after, content management systems really help. rather then script everytime, A Cms can get ur work easy. i know some CMS's are really bad, but having ur own or a uniqueone made by someone isnt a bad idea..


BTW - Congrats Harry !

[HarryF]

Many thanks Still getting used to the idea...

I guess I was summarising a whole load of points in this line;

- Am I lazy (once the site is up, I want updates to require minumum effort)?

Kevin Yank examines it loads better here

The problem is that, more often than not, the people who provide the content for a site are not the same people who handle its design. Oftentimes, the content provider doesn't even know HTML. How, then, is the content to get from the provider onto the Web site? Not every company can afford to staff a full-time Webmaster, and most Webmasters have better things to do than copying Word files into HTML templates anyway.

Maintenance of a content-driven site can be a real pain, too. Many sites (perhaps yours?) feel locked into a dry, outdated design because rewriting those hundreds of HTML files to reflect a new design would take forever. Server-side includes (SSI's) can help alleviate the burden a little, but you still end up with hundreds of files that need to be maintained should you wish to make a fundamental change to your site.

The solution to these headaches is database-driven site design. By achieving complete separation between your site's design and the content you want to present, you can work with each without disturbing the other. Instead of writing an HTML file for every page of your site, you only need to write a page for each kind of information you want to be able to present. Instead of endlessly pasting new content into your tired page layouts, create a simple content management system that allows the writers to post new content themselves without a lick of HTML!

[tarr]

IMHO a fundamental question is "is the CMS of my choiche reliable, or is it going to crash?"
Every now and then a forum system or a cms can crash due to bugs or excessive amunt of traffic, and this is really bad!!


By the way, for those of you who need a small DBM based CMS in Perl, for little sites, I suggest to have a look to www.web-app.org

[duxtra]

Thank you for all of the input, opinions, and recommendations! They have been very valuable. Are any of you currently running content management systems? Are any of you experienced installing these types of systems? I'd really like to see some up and running sites using various CMS. It would help give an idea of each programs capabilities.

[Hacker]

Originally posted by steamengine
I think that Interactive Tools have some good tools.

My next project will use Article Manager. It ain't free ($299), but there's a News Manager for $99 that might do the trick. If you just want your client to edit text, not add pages, use Page Publisher.

Their site: www.interactivetools.com

I've looked at it before and I liked it. What held me back was the lack of a database.

[mjames]

Originally posted by Hacker


I've looked at it before and I liked it. What held me back was the lack of a database.

Sorry to bump a very old thread...

But I am very much considering Article Manager -- it looks EXACTLY what I'm looking for. But what language does it use then if it doesn't use a database? Anyone have any experience with it? Thanks.

[Arkham]

Initially a blogger, pMachine may also be worth a look. Be sure to look at www.inthesetimes.com for an idea of how flexible that thing is...

Check out this thread for some more info.

I was also looking at Article Manager at one point before I got sidetracked. Now I've gone back and loaded up the online demo in another window. Thanks for reminding me!