Well I'm sure some of you do use CMS's here, whats the preference, wordpress, drupal, joomla, dnn etc, I know some of them can be a pain to set up and just configuration can take a while to adapt new skins, themes etc, anyone use these? I've been thinking about learning php more extensively with a view to creating a very simple CMS for clients that only need very limited facilities to add/delete/edit pages, is it worth it? Duno, would like to see what reaction this post gets any other solutions would be interesting to hear about too! it's good to be back
I stick to Joomla or Wordpress; a lot of issues around CMS I find, is that the new website owner cannot use an editor - so that's a learning curve in itself. I provide training to almost all my clients - usually at least two individual sessions - where I go to them or they come to the office. With a 'simple' CMS you would have a restricted editor functionality but possibly find they want the results a full editor can give.
It depends on the application really. I've used off the peg CMS' in the past and I've had mixed results. If your customer wants a blog, then something like Wordpress is ideal, if all they want to do is edit some copy on their site every now and again, then something Wordpress or Joomla could be overkill. You can integrate your own CMS, really simply by using a WYSIWYG editor like FCKEditor or TinyMCE - which I think Wordpress and some of the other off the peg CMS' use anyway. I tend to steer away from giving the customer too much control over the Font, Text Justification, Layout etc and implement templates for them to choose from - which is then formatted with clean HTML and CSS. A good design can start to look pretty naff, when the user starts colouring text, underlining every other word and using Comic Sans. Another system I've used in the past is Surreal CMS, you can wire it up to any site (via FTP) by simply adding classes to the HTML to highlight which section of the page are editable. It works really well if your clients just need to update text without creating pages. Good luck with your project.
You will find fans of all the options you list, as all, if learned well, will do the job effectively. Personally, we supply our own with our websites, but you are spoiled for choice!
Hi, i'm no techie, but I am told that Joomla is the way forward. i own a few websites, and we have a CMS built by our website builder, which is great, but i guess i am tied into them to some extent. We tried adding a wordpress blog to one of our site and it was nothing but trouble, we then tried typepad which is great, nice and simple. CMS with any professional website is essential. If i were sourcing a company to build a new site for me i would insist on Joomla CMS. I hope that helps.
I use joomla but going to be branching out into wordpress because it seems to be the right choice for a blogging site
+1 for WordPress.. especially for SME websites which this days are likely to want news sections, blogs and social media aspects too which WP is great at etc. It is however as many above have mentioned personally preference really. Personally though (and we used to have one!) I think a bespoke in-house CMS system is a really bad idea for both parties. Not only is it much more work for you to build, maintain and developer extra functionality for (as opposed to using community plugins etc if you can) but it also locks you and your clients together for no good reason. My usual advice is if possible not to use any developer using a custom in-house CMS. The are too many issues and hassles with regards to getting another developer take it over if need be.. Re WordPress vs Joomla... I find developing in WordPress much more logical and think the back-end is much more user-friendly. Also in my experience clients have less issues with it than Joomla - although to be fair the last time I supported Joomla was about 27 years ago so it's no doubt a lot better now! Why not jut try a few and see which you prefer?
I had in the past always used Joomla (and this has been the case for around 5 years), although we do have designers for customer sites I do on occasion do them myself for friends/family etc and for the last couple I have been playing with Wordpress and have been more than impressed! Wordpress also does seem to be the easiest one to teach end users on updating pages/adding content etc All CMS platforms have upsides and downsides. I would suggest you check out the "Example Sites" section on the CMS provider website and find examples of people in your industry. This is a good indicator of whether the platform will do the kind of things you expect from it
We have CMS sites, we use Joomla for them and they aren't too hard to use, we walk each client through of course just to show them how to change specific articles and pictures within their sites, if they have a problem they can just call up and ask but yeah Joomla is definetly "The way forward" as Mark Sadler nicely put it.
I really do hope no one makes actual business decisions based on these threads! Blanket statements, scarely any objective discussions of the good and bad points of a multitude of CMS systems available...very, very shallow. If you are considering a website with CMS then you should go and see a web developer (or three), and discuss your requirements with them in some detail. These requirements should include your needs from your CMS, and you should ask them to explain what they will be using in this regard. Take your time. A good developer will not mind lots of probing questions! They will be willing to deal with the 'am I locked in to you for ever' question - if they are not, you may be talking to the wrong outfit. Research, consider, check. Investigate the options.
I have been using Content Management Systems (CMS) since 2002. By far the best one on the market today is Drupal. It's extremely scalable and with the largest developer community out there. The White House, Sony Entertainment, The Economist and many more use Drupal.
Unfortunately a blanket statement like this is not very useful. Drupal, Joomla & Wordpress are all popular, they all overlap in some areas and all have their own individual strengths. In simple terms, you can more or less build any "standard" site in any CMS, however, without fully understanding the requirements it is difficult to make a reccomendation. I would suggest taking a standard install of each CMS and "have a play". Many standard functions in 1 CMS may be a plugin/module in another but most can be "made" to do what the other one does. I've developed modules / plugins for Drupal 6 & 7, Joomla 1.5 and Wordpress 3.x and have personal and customer sites running in all 3 of these, each site is different and you need to think ahead, not just use something because "a bloke on a forum" says it is the best. My personal preference is Drupal 7, but I use WP for some small "quick" sites. Joomla used to be more "friendly" than Drupal, but in my opinion Drupal 7 addresses this issue.
I've tried just about every CMS out there and I think that when choosing your system there are two main factors to consider - 1) What you can work with comfortably within your skill set and use as a commercially viable tool At the end of the day if your building websites for clients it's a commercial activity so you have to be able to use the tools that allow you to turn around work as quickly as possible while ensuring that you dont compromise on quality for speed. 2) What functionality is needed for the current project and what system will allow easy administration for the client One thing I have found is that many clients want the control a CMS brings but in reality they don't update their site that often, this means that they are not very familiar with their CMS, so in [insert random number here] months when they come to update the site they have to learn how to use the system again. The more complex thier CMS is and the more unnecessary options it presents the more likely they are to get stuck while making the updates and pick up the phone or email you and for some reason this alway seems to occour at a time when your on that tight deadline. What do we use CMS Concrete 5 - http://www.concrete5.org Wordpress - WordPress › Blog Tool and Publishing Platform Drupal - Drupal - Open Source CMS | drupal.org No doubt you've come across Wordpress and Drupal before, but you perhaps have not heard of Concrete 5 a nice CMS that allows in page editing you can build a fully functional simple site on it in minutes (literally) and also use it for more complex sites, definately worth a peek. And Joomla is just evil, steer well clear in my opinion. Hope this helps. Nathan
In my experience, every project is different and has different requirements. While I love Wordpress and never rule it out of any projects because it's open source, well documented and if you have the right knowledge can be hacked to do pretty much anything you want. However some projects the time spent hacking can be much better spent building a bespoke system to sing and dance to the right tune. The bottom line is that it is down to your needs. Look around, test drive a few and see what suits your needs best.
I use a variety of CMS from enterprise level on contracts (eg SDL Tridion) to SME builds (Wordpress). They all have their strengths for various business requirements, it's just about matching them up best you can.
Definitely Wordpress for me. Easy to set up, great theming system. You can design everything from a blog to the most complicated websites.
If your clientele likes a blog, then certain thing like Wordpress is perfect, if all they desire to manage is edit some exact duplicate on their location every now and afresh, then certain thing Wordpress or Joomla could be overkill.
People only ever talk about Joomla, Wordpress or Drupal They are free, off the shelf products with a bunch of templates which you must fit your site to. They are not especially seo friendly, but there is an seo widget which you can attach to your site. I am told that Joomla is not very easy to update, so as a newbie you would probably struggle to learn it. Apparently joomla is quite basic, and they have their own apps or widget store, where you can buy add ons, but they need to be stuck on by a programmer. My programmers use a bespoke system which they have developed in house, and can fit exactly to the design of your site, and the architecture is built to suit you, not you matching up to the best / most similar template available. Joomla and Drupal are the big names, but they are the big name template one size fits all products. And a Joomla programmer may well charge you just as much if not more than a bespoke programmer. One size fits all products can sometimes be great, but can also be overpriced. Ask your solicitor what he thinks of off the shelf legal products. I know i'll get blasted for this post, but i wanted to let people know there are other options out there. Love and peace man !
Mark, I can see why you think you'll be criticised for your post Anyone who just uses a stock template nearest to the customer requirement as possible is of course the target of your dislike, however, an off the shelf CMS correctly configured does give you a lot of flexibility and freedom that doesn't tie you to a single developer. Of course, once you start bespoke modules, then the developer lock-in does apply. I've not touched Joomla for a while, but the extensions section of the site used to contain a mixture of free and paid, however, I don't recall needing programming skills to install any of these, but I guess different plug-ins need different skill sets to implement. I've had non computer literate people update Joomla sites, so once set-up a Joomla site doesn't have to be complex. In fact this particular customer was migrated to Joomla when the bespoke system failed and the developer couldn't be contacted to fix the system! To quote my previous post There's no one system that fits everybody solution, open source doesn't mean the implementation will free and bespoke isn't always expensive.
Hi Alex, i agree with your comments re lock-in. and perhaps you don't need a programmer to work on joomla etc., but i do ! (probably my failing) I don't dislike people using free stock products, but i want them to know there are alternatives, i guess it's the programmers who push the free stuff and charge handsomely for it that i dislike. You sum it up nicely with your last sentence "There's no one system that fits everybody solution, open source doesn't mean the implementation will be free and bespoke isn't always expensive". When I speak with people they never mention bespoke, as if there is no such thing, the only options appear to be Joomla etc., I'm fortunate, i have a great team who i use, and they don't charge the earth, but i know i have been very lucky. They are just regular guys who care about what they do, and care that i'm happy with all that they do. They would be just as good if they used a wordpress solution. It boils down to that thing we all know. "Business is about people". all the best