I have been asked so re-make a website for small start-up company. I have some previous experience with php/mysql but that was quite a while ago. The main features they are looking for currently are a company blog, product information pages and an e-commerce section with only a few products in the begginning. Something that is easy to set up in the short term but able to evolve over time as as my knowledge and skills progress is really what I’m looking for. I was told not to over complicate it right now they just want something that is better than what they have currently.
I was in a similar situation once a few years ago. I used Drupal for everything else other than ecommerce (it had nothing worthwhile free or paid). Even now it’s not much of an ecommerce friendly tool. I used Zencart which was visiually integrated to Drupal, very easy.
But I had constraints. My boss did not pay want to pay for any of it (he just dint like to pay for software). So I could not choose anything commercial.
Something flexible in design and expandable is good, you never know what they ask of you next. Support is good if the support is good. However as minimal and noobie friendly to operate as possible (so you dont have to spend more time on support). Just few things to remember.
EDIT: oh btw, Have you checked out Google Apps? Sign Up for free edition for a spin. It has everything Start ups need. And if you’re an all american enterprise then Google Checkout is a quick and easy way to go. Or take a look at few of their YT videos on topics that interest you. I usually start my sites there like BingeSite.com. How could I forget >.< I just did it today.
I actually started a social net site using elgg. You might be looking for a more strict CMS system, but “out-of-the-box” it offers a lot of tools and is really easy to admin with plug-ins. Although it is a bit like one poster mentioned about WordPress, that is, without heavy customizing, you can easily spot a site based on elgg. You can see what I have done with it at http://www.viewcaster.net/view/
MODx is incredibly customizable. I can easily look at most Wordpress sites and tell you within two seconds, “That’s a Wordpress site” - same thing with Joomla, Drupal, etc. Not so with MODx! There’s no special art of making MODx templates; if you can code HTML and CSS, you’re 95% there. It’s also very, very easy to extend MODx with your own PHP code, so much so the devs like to call it a “content management framework” rather than a “content management system”.
The price you pay for this level of control is that setting up certain things, like blogs, takes some figuring out at first. IMHO, it’s well worth any learning curve as compared to WP etc.
MODx documentation exists but it’s scattered far and wide; I’ve Googled my fingers off on some issues but always found the answer eventually - sometimes by posting to the active MODx forum.
This could either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it, but there are hundreds of options available to you. After asking this sort of question a lot, I’ve come up with my own solution (which is one of the popular choices). I use ExpressionEngine for websites like this (very nice to use and very expandable, but also costs around $300 US). For the cart I’d use a 3rd party provider like FoxyCart, as that removes the stress of having to deal with security etc.
Lots of people also swear by WordPress (wordpress.org) and the various plugins available. There are nice shopping cart plugins for WordPress. WordPress is free, but it isn’t as easy to customize as ExpressionEngine (or similar free products like MODx).
Thank you for your help. I’m going to look into expression engine. I looked into modx and while it seems very flexible I don’t think it meets the need for a rapid development :/. It would definitely be something to look into for future use though.
However as minimal and noobie friendly to operate as possible (so you dont have to spend more time on support). Just few things to remember.