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How To Choose An Open Source CMS
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Wed Jan 25, 2006 08:56 AM
from the focus-on-the-problem dept.
from the focus-on-the-problem dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Content management specialist Seth Gottlieb has written an easy to understand how-to on selecting an open source CMS. Gottlieb is also responsible for the whitepaper 'Content Management Problems and Open Source Solutions' which summarizes 15 open source projects and distinguishes between open source CMS and proprietary software selection."
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Hm, an OpenSource CMS? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hm, an OpenSource CMS? (Score:5, Informative)
If you know in advance you must be using PHP, and you're not sure whether you want a portal, CMS, weblog, etc, then this is a good site.
However, if you have other languages in mind, or are open to a good CMS in any language, you should check other sources. One good reference site is CMS Matrix [cmsmatrix.org]. Another good source of CMS information is CMS Watch [cmswatch.com]; even though it concentrates on the entire spectrum of CMS systems (including commercial ones) it occasionally has very good articles or pointers to articles about open source products (like this one [blogspot.com] which I just found).
Parent
Re:Hm, an OpenSource CMS? (Score:3, Informative)
There are many good F/OSS CMSes that aren't based on PHP, and probably some that don't run on MySQL.
Best CMS (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Best CMS (Score:2)
Re:Best CMS (Score:3, Funny)
Just add (setq suck nil) to your
Re:Best CMS (Score:2, Funny)
Emacs is good, but I didn't found the sufficient support of keystrokes like C-x C-e in modern browsers. That's why I didn't choose the Emacs for the front-end for my newest and brightest CMS.
But I hope that they will evolve to be at least as supportive for ten-strokes-in-one commands as the Emacs was twenty years ago...
Re:Best CMS (Score:2)
Funny or not, I used them (and Notepad on occasion) successfully for years to manage content, using pages built on SSI. Toss in a couple of Perl scripts to move content around and there you were - just load content to be posted into a special directory structure, have the script look for content in that directory structure, and move content accordingly, archiving the current content. No fuss or muss, with only t
Re:Best CMS (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Best CMS (Score:2)
http://qadcms.networkboy.net/cgi-bin/QAD_CMS.pl [networkboy.net]
It's close and easily hackable.
-nB
Killer features (Score:4, Informative)
Different CMS shares a lot of features, but some features are unique from one to another and might influence your choice...
Re:Killer features (Score:3, Funny)
You're such an asskisser. ;-)
Re:Killer features (Score:2)
Trial and Error (Score:5, Insightful)
I settled on Drupal only because it was the "hot thing" at the time and I enjoyed the fact that you could put php code into "blocks" and have it run custom code w/o much hassle. At the time I wasn't all that much interested in working on the actual code so the "blocks" allowed me to get some of my bash shell scripts onto the site w/o doing too much hacking.
Drupal for me too! (Score:4, Informative)
Druapl is also very configurable, even without having to write any code at all. It is all done with PHP, Apache, MySQL, which most GNU/Linux distributions seem to have already on the distribution media. Install your favorite distro, and Drupal fits in quite nicely.
Parent
CMSes are going the way of the dodo.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Not for everything.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:CMSes are going the way of the dodo.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:CMSes are going the way of the dodo.. (Score:2)
I highly disagree. If you're able to get by with that then you either...
1. Don't have much content to manage
2. Don't have to worry (too much) about training new editors
3. Don't have to worry about integration with other business systems
CMS solutions are not easy to implement and rarely do everything that you wan
Re:CMSes are going the way of the dodo.. (Score:2)
Etomite (Score:2, Interesting)
Good points so far:
- Simple to setup
- Easy to develop templates for, our template (http://www.intellipool.se/ [intellipool.se] took a work day to put together.
- The back end is easy to use and provides nice editing features directly in the browser.
Drawback:
- If you are looking for something that can do "everything" and be extended left and right, Etomite is not for you.
www.etomite.org
Re:Etomite (Score:2)
For that, my friends, you need to call Dolemite [amazon.com] with his all girl army of Kung-Fu killers!
Tech Support. (Score:2, Informative)
Structure (Score:5, Interesting)
There are other choices that can quickly filter CMS's, but many of the choices have alternatives or can be hacked around. Only rarely will you find a CMS that can handle both navigation structures.
Too Many (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Too Many (Score:2)
I worked for a state agency. I did some web development for them, but ultimately I wasn't the guy calling the shots on the web site. They evaluated a bunch of CMS's when it came time for a redesign, but they ended up shelling out a ton of money for Microsoft's CMS because they were worried about support. I've long since moved on, but I'm still scratching my head about it.
It's the same reason commercial software will always have a place. Those of us with confidence in our skills are happ
Drupal gets my vote (Score:2, Interesting)
www.OpenSourceCMS.com invaluable (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.opensourcecms.com/ [opensourcecms.com] works as a nice Sandbox environment that auto-refreshes every hour or so (ie: each CMS is automatically reset to a clean install, so though you lose anything you try out, you can't mess things up.)
It's a great way to get an initial feel for various CMS's in one tight place.
-Jim
http://gmailtips.com/ [gmailtips.com]
CMS is less important than people (Score:4, Insightful)
That being said, I like a comercial solution: ClearCase, (paired with ClearQuest) as it allows me to enforce a certain percentage of behavior through the tool. And when you have people who feel it's their duty to violate process because it "won't work" (they didn't write it) it's nice to have the tool lock them down.
Re:CMS is less important than people (Score:3, Informative)
ClearQuest is bug tracking (like bugzilla), ClearCase is versioning (like CVS or Subversion)
Totally wrong group of tools.
On that note, I happen to be in a RedDot training class as I write this... Their tool (while not free) is super easy to use. I am traditionally trained in Documentum.
One pet peeve is when people condsider things like Nuke or SlashCode CMS systems. They are really just blogs in my opinion. Not nearly as sophisticated as a real CMS system.
Zope-Based CMS Products (Score:4, Informative)
There's been an ongoing discussion about this same topic over at Macintouch [macintouch.com].
Personally I'm a fan of the Zope [zope.org] / CMF [zope.org] series of content management systems; the built-in CMF is quite powerful and flexible (and actually fairly efficient -- don't be fooled by the slowness of some CMSs built on top).
There are many such systems. There are some in private use (like Boston.com [boston.com] and Saugus.net [saugus.net]. There are also some commercial options (like Icoya [icoya.com]). Most though are free and open source, like Plone [plone.org], Infrae Silva [infrae.com], and Nuxeo CPS [cps-project.org]. Each has its own focus and tends to do certain things better than the others. Each has its own special plug-ins and extensions, but since they all utilize the same underlying base framework, it's usually a doable thing (although typically not trivial) to port a product from one to another.
The capabilities of Zope's built-in CMF are also good enough that it's not at all unreasonable to fashion one's own CMS on top of it if none of the existing products seem to suit one's own particular needs.
For Java Freaks (Score:4, Informative)
http://java-source.net/open-source/content-managm
CMS Made Simple (Score:2, Interesting)
PHPwcms is excellent (Score:2, Interesting)
That said what CMS you choose - open source or otherwise - is entirely predicated on the project. Got a community site? Take a look at Drupal or Mambo, maybe something smaller if it works. Need a sm
My Plug For Geeklog (Score:3, Informative)
I use is for the base of many commercial web sites, utilizing the WYSISYG (FCKeditor) page editor and the news manager. It provides an excellent frame work for developing sites on top of, especially if you need a basic website with some extras thrown in.
It also runs sites such as http://www.groklaw.net/ [groklaw.net] and http://worldmusiccentral.org/ [worldmusiccentral.org]
By changing the templates or config to eliminate links to the parts you do not need, (example, links pages, polls, etc), you can use the user login, edit, and admin parts to allow your web clients to edit their own pages, saving you the trouble and saving them money in the long run. The templates are completely separate from the code, allowing you to design graphics for the site separate from the code.
Updates are pretty easy if you keep your custom code out of the main install, a process that is pretty easy if you put your code in lib-custom.php. The code is well written and clear enough for a person with basic php knowledge to hack if they like
The software is all php/mysql and run efficiently on most linux shared hosts. There are also a wide variety of plugins.
The forum and developers are responsive to support requests.
just my two cents from a fan of geeklog,
it is also available for demo at http://opensourcecms.com/ [opensourcecms.com]
"Best" (Score:5, Insightful)
Here are some things that greatly helped me:
There is NO awesome templating system. If you have web designers and you have programmers, don't expect something to drop into place with little hassle. We have been deploying html + mod_perl applications using a simple in-house templating system. This is actually elegantly simple compared to some of the systems I looked at. It's all very relative to the staff you have. Personally a JSP taglib solution works best for us (so far)
There is no one "best" system. People claiming X or Y is clearly superior are either not deploying CMS for a group of users, lack experience as a developer/designer/user, or are just crazy. I know of a Major Company(tm) who management told to the developers use X system for some inscrutable reason after reviewing a lead dev's evaluation list. While on paper X is great, there are a few very annoying problems for the template designers, and they don't have the mandate to go modify the code, which is open.
Part of the evaluation MUST include every level of person using the product. Developers,designers,managment (reports n such), and end users (archetypal secretaries). I tried to let people know what was happening a few times a week with my evaluations, keeping a blog would be great maybe. Other people accepting your choice is super-duper-key. I got some great feedback from docs on a few occasions that helped me steer my choice.
Get a clear set of requirements and wish list items established early on. CMS systems can be minimal or very very comprehensive, it's easy to get lost in nth's implementation of webDAV or whatever.
Blog systems may have elements of CMS in them, but are not (usually) full blown CMS systems. CMSmatrix.org and other great places for data lump all the products together. In my opinion there are about a dozen open source products that are clearly way beyond the blog.
Last piece of advice which you won't hear very often: if you think you may not need a CMS solution you probably don't! If you have a single site, with some updating you need to do frequently or maybe you want to have a team of designers working on it, check out subversion first and maybe that alone will give you enough of what you want. If you just need templating check out apache's tapestry or cocoon projects.
Go Native among the Users (Score:5, Insightful)
This is so true. End user input is critical, they will make or break the project.
My dad (rest his soul) was lead programmer (maybe the only programmer, I dunno) for the Star Tribune newspaper, back in the seventies. I was a teenager at the time, he taught me about For-Next loops and so on. Along with the coding, he emphasized:
The smart programmer
(a) Listens and nods his head while Management says "We want this, We want that"
(b) Sits down with end users (secretaries, etc.) for a while, every day, staying out of their way but watching them work, and asking the occasional question;
(c) Figures out what the end users really want, need, will accept;
(d) Codes for the end user, then spins the thing so Management thinks they're getting what they (foolishly) asked for.
Dad called this "going native among the users" (he took his degree in anthropology).
-kgj
Parent
Re:Go Native among the Users (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Go Native among the Users (Score:3, Interesting)
The most critical feature for our choice of a CMS was the interface for the content editors. My customer is a small company. The content editor was basically a secretary with few technical skills. I could program anything, but the editing interface had to be simple to use. (The second critical feature was the price. Part of the reason we won the contract was the budget did not include any commercial software.)
We chose A
The only perfect CMS (Score:2, Insightful)
DotNetNuke (Score:2)
Determine Criteria Before Selecting Tool. (Score:5, Informative)
A few starter questions:
1. What content do I have or expect to have? (web pages? documents? discussion forums? image galleries?)
2. Where does this content come from? (departments? users? myself? Internet sources? databases? third-party apps?)
3. How should the system manage this content? (workflows? editors? fine-grained access control?)
4. How should this content be displayed? (xhtml/css? pdf? print/paper? cell phones? xml? rss?)
5. How much separation of content and design do you require?
6. How extensible should the CMS be? (in-house development? modular? out-sourced development? completely opensource?)
7. What are the administrative requirements? (*nix? mysql/postgresql? apache? php? python?)
8. What is the anticipated load and can the CMS manage that? (quite different from a 5,000 hits/day site vs 20,000,000 hits/day)
9. What is the estimated lifetime of the website? What changes to the site are forseeable and should be considered?
Assuming your doing something more than a personal blog site, most likely pre-existing workflow processes and organizational resources already exist and those should be analyzed when making a CMS choice.
Don't get overly focused on initial setup times. The cost of administration, development and resources will far outweigh the initial setup costs on all but the smallest of sites.
chucking the lot (Score:4, Informative)
Here's the logic:
1. A very basic site (read: a blog) with a very basic CMS is generally not hard to set up.
2. The technical issue: as sites get more complicated, the level of sophistication required by the user to install and maintain them increases. (In the extreme case, I submit Xaraya [xaraya.org], a CMS so complicated that trying to create a site as simple as "I just want a page with our contact information on it!" becomes an exercise capable of inducing intra-cranial hemmorage). Additionally, any templating system required grows more and more arcane, until it is essentially indistingushable from the actual programming language in which it's written.For example: the easiest way of getting a Drupal [drupal.org] site laid out and usable quickly is to use the PHPTemplate plugin - in other words, to just write PHP code. David Heinemeier Hansson, no stranger to controversy, went a step further than this and labeled general-purpose CMSes "pipe dreams," [loudthinking.com] and said "I believe the time has come to mark a date in the not too distant future for celebrating the death of the general-purpose content management system." (Not like he doesn't have his own thing to push [rubyonrails.com], but that's as may be. See also Jeff Veen's frustration with open source CMSes [veen.com]
3. The social issue: as the content management system grows more and more complicated, they become more and more intractable for the average end user. Responsibility for day to day site updates is pushed to the IT department, which is absolutely not where it belongs. (Once again, I give you the one, the only, Jeffrey Veen [adaptivepath.com].)
Re:Dokuwiki ! (Score:4, Insightful)
How to install SomeProject - This article is a stub, but you can help by writing it!
No thanks.
Parent
Re:Avoid PHP for Web-accessible CMS installations. (Score:3, Insightful)
Security is a function of the developer, not the language. To be sure, some languages have inherent security features that can help, but if you honestly think it's that much more difficult to muck up a Perl program than a PHP program, I've got some land near Baghdad you might be interested in purchasing.
Re:Avoid PHP for Web-accessible CMS installations. (Score:5, Insightful)
So basically, you have some well-intentioned but not experienced person with a good idea, and they sit down and hack together an application while learning PHP at the same time. Do they even know the definition of "SQL Injection Vulnerability" - probably not.
And a lot of the issues that I see on places like bugtraq are application specific, and I usually haven't even heard of the app. "The PHP app, Lyrus Extreme version 3.2 has a remote exploit." In your head, you subconsciously tally that up as "one more PHP problem" and if someone is gathering statistics on PHP problems by searching bugtraq for the string PHP, this one will be counted. But really, it's not a PHP problem, it's just an amateur programmer.
Parent
OpenSourceCMS.com covers only few systems (Score:3, Informative)
Unfortunately OpenSourceCMS.com only showcases the lightweight CMSs, usually categorized under the low-end collaborative portals label.
Paul Everitt from Zope has a very good blog post about Open Source CMS positioning [weblogs.com]
Re:cms (Score:2)
Re:Non open-source CMS no good ? (Score:2, Informative)
I understand what you are saying, but there are other options instead of setting up your own server running Linux, Apache, MySQL, Php, etc. There are many ISP's and webhosting companies that will do almost all of the work for you. I worked with a friend to setup a website for our chruch and our ISP uses a web based admin interface that installed Joomla, configured MySQL for us. All we did was click "install joomla". Additionally, checking that interface periodically give us the opportunity to install up
Re:Good multilingual support? (Score:3, Interesting)
Not only does it have multilingual support, the workplace is pretty well localized (english, german, japanese, etc)
It is a java application, so if you want all this in php, you'll need to look elsewhere.