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Thread: Content Management Systems

  1. #1
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    Content Management Systems

    I've always "rolled my own" when doing any kind of web design. My last two major projects were a trouble ticket database and a very unique school closings listing database for the radio station. The latter was pretty complex with a nice smooth, easy to use GUI so that the newsroom people can bring up and enter the data quickly as a the calls came in during a blizzard (hundreds of calls per hour, literally!). There was a lot more to it but I won't get into that.

    Anyway, I've always prided myself on doing everything from scratch, HTML/DHTML, Javascript, CSS, SQL queries, graphics, everything. Recently I've started working on another project and wonder if a Content Management System (like Joomla) would make things easier for the front end. It's always the GUI that takes me a long time to get right. Silly browsers and their quirks and not conforming to standards *cough* IE *cough*. The backend stuff is easy.

    So anyway, I checked out Joomla yesterday and it's OK. A lot of people rave about it but I think it's kinda slow and it's also not very friendly toward doing a purely custom SQL integration of forms and data display. There's plugins for it, which I tried a couple. Fabrik is cumbersome yet powerful. It also requires a lot of coding to do what I want to do. I also don't want my projects' GUI to look cookie cutter, which requires more HTML/CSS coding along with the SQL queries I'm going to have to build. So I'm kinda thinking I'd rather just build my own from scratch like I always do, which will ultimately be more efficient and I KNOW what's under the hood and can fix it easily.

    Any thoughts? Anyone else do this sort of thing? What do you recommend?

  2. #2
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    Whenever I do a web design project, I always use PmWiki as the CMS. It's lean, fast, flexible, and no need for a SQL DB. Lot's of plugins, and skinning is easy as pie.
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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by KC2UGV View Post
    Whenever I do a web design project, I always use PmWiki as the CMS. It's lean, fast, flexible, and no need for a SQL DB. Lot's of plugins, and skinning is easy as pie.
    I'll check that out. If it doesn't use SQL, then how does it store data? Flat files? Ugh. I like SQL. I know how to build queries and use it all the time. This particular project, like most of mine, will be data-intense so SQL is a must.

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    Quote Originally Posted by N2KKM View Post
    I'll check that out. If it doesn't use SQL, then how does it store data? Flat files? Ugh. I like SQL. I know how to build queries and use it all the time. This particular project, like most of mine, will be data-intense so SQL is a must.
    So, do you need a CMS or something different? Writing a Web application that is data intensive would be outside the realm of a CMS, which is to store and retrieve content, and format it for display in a web browser. More or less, they are an easier way to separate content from style.

    Yes, it uses flat files for storing content.

    The nice thing about PmWiki, is that you can build any sort of markup you need, to include calling a php script to do the data collection/display; or using any sort of mashups you could think of.

    This site is an example of PmWiki, with links to some other sites using it:

    http://coreyreichle.tk
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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by KC2UGV View Post
    So, do you need a CMS or something different? Writing a Web application that is data intensive would be outside the realm of a CMS, which is to store and retrieve content, and format it for display in a web browser. More or less, they are an easier way to separate content from style.

    Yes, it uses flat files for storing content.

    The nice thing about PmWiki, is that you can build any sort of markup you need, to include calling a php script to do the data collection/display; or using any sort of mashups you could think of.

    This site is an example of PmWiki, with links to some other sites using it:

    http://coreyreichle.tk
    It's not exactly an application. It's a site designed for a lot of people to share similar information. Kind of a directory, but I need unique fields and that's not all it will have.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by N2KKM View Post
    It's not exactly an application. It's a site designed for a lot of people to share similar information. Kind of a directory, but I need unique fields and that's not all it will have.
    That's a web app :) Sort of like this:
    http://www.opensourcescripts.com/dir...deas_4432.html
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  7. #7
    Conch Master W2NAP's Avatar
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    joomla is horrible.

    but there are other CMS. like php-fusion php-nuke (google ravennuke). and the list goes on
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  8. #8
    SK Member Feb 2017 W4GPL's Avatar
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    I'm a Drupal fan, for what it's worth.

    The mere mention of php-nuke/fusion make me want to :vomit: though.

  9. #9
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    ive used php-nuke for years. (granted if you go to phpnuke.org and download it there virgin your asking for lots of problems lol)

    been toying with fusion awhile i like it.
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  10. #10
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    I appreciate the input, however I've decided I'm going to continue to do what I've always done and simply roll my own. I have years worth of code modules to work with for pretty much anything I want to do. The only thing I really hadn't done is come up with a way of organizing my pages better and into some type of management system. After looking everything over, I've decided that trying to incorporate what I have already accomplished into any existing CMS is more headache than it's worth.

    Anyway, thanks for all the ideas and info. Some of them may be of value for future projects.

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