I design small sites, many of which have image galleries as a major component. I would like to start implementing these within a CMS framework and was wondering which CMS would be the best.
I am experienced in XHTML and CSS as well as having had some knowledge of PHP and MySQL.
A second question I have (well kind of the same same but different :)) I am planning to make a links site which will need to have a user comments function, a list of the newest links and a list of the most popular links as well as allowing me to add new links easily.
Is there any one CMS which would suite both of these needs or should I be looking around for 2 different ones?. I should mention that I don’t want to use templates or themes as I prefer to design the sites myself.
Joomla has a number of great gallery components as well as having the ability to build a Digg type of link site. I know there are also plugins for Wordpress that may also do what you are looking for, but I personally tried to set up something like that in Wordpress, only Joomla.
The great thing about learning a CMS like Joomla, Wordpress or Drupal when you are a webdesigner is that you can build all kinds of websites that perform different actions simply by plugging new components into the framework. The time you spend on the learning curve of mastering the CMS is useful on many different types of sites that you can build.
The only negative is that if you plan to do your own template design you will have a slightly longer learning curve to understand how each CMS handles their own themes and templates. But then you will have a new skill set of creating themes and templates, which there is a LOT of demand for.
Have you seen http://php.opensourcecms.com/ where you can see demos and reviews of cms. It is very helpful. Sorry I can’t help with the features you want, I’ve only ever worked with wordpress, Mod X and CMS Made simple for friends, just the usual installations, no mods or addons or whatever they get called
Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, and others will all serve your needs. Wordpress is really an excellent solution for smaller sites, where Drupal is usually a better choice for larger sites as you are less likely to hit a wall as is common with Joomla.
If you want to simplify your life use wordpress. I know that wordpress offers different plugins for galleries which makes life simple. I just don’t know if it’s as robust as you want it.
Wow so many votes for Joomla… Have you guys USED Joomla?
For small-medium sites Wordpress is good. It’s small, quick and easy to setup, and you can make it do pretty much anything you want. Plus nearly total freedom with theming.
For bigger sites Drupal is without a doubt the king. Good scalability/caching/etc, infinitely extendable, and once again complete freedom with the theming/customising of the front and back-end.
Joomla is good for small simple sites but it’s too slow, bloated, and limited for any serious sites.
(all just my personal opinion!)
Asking which is the best CMS is like asking which make of car is best. All the big name ones are good, and they all pretty much do the same thing… Just got to find the one that you’re comfortable and that fits your needs and go with it.
It’s like an ice-cream. I prefer chocolate to vanilla. Someone loves strawberry flavor.
The same with CMS. I prefer Joomla to WP as WP can be customized as hell and still be a blog. If you need something more serious, go with Joomla. But again that is a matter of taste.
I never used Drupal, but my friend says it is too complicated and doesn’t worth all efforts you will apply to build a website.
I use Joomla myself and the only disadvantage is that I cannot add that damned embed video code in my articles.
