A question for CMS-ers.
jesscampbell (79 pencils) | Fri, 2008-04-04 02:28Hello again, everyone.
I've got some prospects who will be requiring small, yet self-managed websites. I am familiar with, but not fluent in, content management systems. I've installed a few of them, tried them out briefly with no real intentions, and realized it's a development realm all in its own.
If I'm not mistaken, this site is built and maintained with Drupal. (Bravo Ivan!)
My question(s) for the community is/are this:
Is there a content management system you would recommend over another? And why-so?
Is there a "site-too-small" to be considered for content management?
And finally, would it be more worth my time to find a developer to turn my web concepts into themes, or get my own hands dirty?
Lots of love and thanks.
Jesse
Commenting on this Forum topic is closed.
Which CMS?
This is a good question, and one I've been wrestling with for a few years now.
I've taken a look at most of the open source options out there for complete content management and have been mostly dissapointed. Like you said, "Its a development realm all in its own."
That said, I have built a few sites using WordPress. These were non blog sites that I tweaked to get pages in without the blog feel. The nice part is that you can find an existing template that you like, and edit it to your own theme.
As far as a full fledged cms, I'm really excited about learning Expression Engine. Its super flexible and you don't have to be a php expert to use it. There is a learning curve, as with anything, but it looks more user friendly than most open source options. The downside is that its NOT open source, and licensing runs about $250 per site.
I would personally find the licensing fee to be worth it, as overall development time will go down dramatically for me.
Too small for CMS?
I used to think so, but not any more. With WordPress and Expression Engine, I think I'll be covering most all of my bases.
Find a developer?
Depends on how many clients you have. If its more worth your time to be cranking out designs because you have clients banging down your door, then finding a developer you trust would be worth it. But if you only have a couple of clients, then it might be better to learn it yourself. When the day comes that you do need to hire a guy, you'll be better equipped to speak the language.
Good luck.
~ Bryan
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I'm looking into Expression Engine at the moment, and it looks like a great workflow; and one I won't have to learn a new language or development style for. I guess now it's between that and WordPress, which I've played around with a little bit. And if I'm not mistaken, has a very similar templating format.
Thanks Bryan.
Wordpress is VERY easy to set up and maintain. I use it on my personal site. There are tons of templates (themes) and add-ons available. Wordpress is great for BLOGGING. That is what is was made for. You can make it a full-on CMS, but it takes a lot of hacking and coding.
The biggest drawback to Wordpress is that it's absolutely horrible when dealing with a large database. The hit your server takes on the MySQL database can bring your site to its knees. When I ran the CreativeGuy blog on Wordpress, it was nowhere near as popular as CreativeBits, but even then I had the site go down on several occasions due to popular posts I made. The more images I added to posts (which was a lot), the more complicated it got.
A site like CreativeBits would really be a herculean effort to pull-off using Wordpress, but it could be done.
Drupal is MUCH more complicated to set up and get used to using. There are nowhere near as many themes and add-ons out there available for it. However, it's also not that bad once you get used to it, and is infinitely more powerful and flexible.
When I switched from Wordpress to Druapal for The Graphic Mac, I looked at a lot of options out there as a CMS. You will need to know a bit more about CSS and PHP, but it's not too bad to get a decent site up and running without a big fuss. Spending a while working with it and experimenting will make it a lot easier to use once you get over the intitial maze of techno-babble to set it up.
Which CMS or Blog platform you choose really depends on how many people will be "editing" the blog, how often, and what type of content they will be adding.
The best thing to do is set them both up on a server and try them. They all use CSS, php, etc. with a "template" system to create the site. It's just a question of which ones offers the easiest setup with the most built-in features out of the box and which offers the best set of "building blocks" for the future. Switching between them is difficult no matter which one you choose, so you should spend the time researching before you start using them full-time.
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Thanks for that, Jim. I didn't know that Wordpress was such a resource hog for big sites. Good to know.
I know it's just a matter of making the decision. I've installed Joomla, Drupal, and Wordpress on my server and am in the process of giving them a test. I guess the one thing that makes it seem so difficult is the lingo that they all use; something that, at this point, is just foreign to me.
I'm sure once I get my hands dirty(er) with some code I'll have my mind wrapped around things a bit more.
Looking at Expression Engine, it seems much easier...but something in me wants to stick with a community based solution.
Thanks again for your reply.