So we have someone who wants to have some control over the content on their site and I've never created or implemented one before but being that we use hostgator, they have a bunch of ready to install scripts...so I'm wondering which is the best one. Have any of you guys ever used or implemented any of the following:

Drupal
Geeklog
Joomla
Mambo Open Source
PHP-Nuke
phpWCMS
phpWebSite
Post-Nuke
Siteframe
TYPO3
Xoops

6/13/2008 1:46:46 PM

it aint on the list, but http://www.wordpress.org is the best option

#2 Joomla (which is a branched off version of mambo)
#3 Drupal

I wouldnt even use any of the rest.

[Edited on June 13, 2008 at 1:55 PM. Reason : www.]

6/13/2008 1:55:24 PM

question.....I'm not exactly sure what they want...but to the best of my understanding it seems that they may want to be able to create a new page, based on a template. So do these allow for that or just for articles on a page?

Like in other words, let's say they had a page (that we laid out and created and manage) that had links to sub pages, and say they wanted to have a new page named news.php and one called maynews.php etc....do these CMS allow for that? To be honest with you, I actually think that all these CMSs have way more features than we'd need, but I assume it's the easiest way to provide our clients with ability to edit their site, without having them touch the main site/code.?

6/13/2008 2:15:35 PM

^^what he said

6/13/2008 2:48:30 PM

just curious here - what business are you in, and why are you in charge of updating your client's website if you don't know anything about CMS?

6/13/2008 2:50:35 PM

Quote :

"http://www.wordpress.org "

6/13/2008 3:01:06 PM

well I've never created or wanted to create a site for someone that would allow them to do any of the editing to anything. I do all the coding and uploading and like I said, have no desire to allow them to do it themselves for the simple fact that a) I'd have to learn to use the CMS myself before I can implement and teach someone else how to use it and b) In my experience, in the long run it ends up being more work for me because undoubtedly I end up having to clean up a mess they make

6/13/2008 3:06:36 PM

http://www.wordpress.org/

6/13/2008 3:09:20 PM

expression engine, or wordpress if you're going cheap.

6/13/2008 3:09:28 PM

Quote :

"In my experience, in the long run it ends up being more work for me because undoubtedly I end up having to clean up a mess they make"

thta's where your experience is wrong. A good CMS will virtually eliminate user mistakes and will take a lot of work off of your hands.

i also recommend Wordpress. since it apparently is not part of your host's install package, just install it yourself from wordpress.org. The installation is ridiculously simple. Then, of course, you'll probably have to convert the site's current theme or template into a WP template

6/13/2008 3:11:34 PM

^Right on the money

6/13/2008 3:22:02 PM

another vote for expression engine or wordpress.

6/13/2008 4:31:04 PM

WORDPRESS!

you can customize it however you want...two drastically different wordpress examples i've built:
http://www.moviesbythor.com
http://www.nutsandboltsofyou.com

6/13/2008 4:31:33 PM

i like the little scrolling icon you did (in the address bar) for the moviesbythor.com one

6/13/2008 4:43:05 PM

OK..so I've installed it, but I'm at a loss here....I can't figure out where to make my own theme/layout? I mean I see the code, but I don't want to override the default, I want to add a new one but I'm not seeing where to do that.

6/13/2008 6:25:11 PM

Further question: Aside from designing the template...why would a company ever want to use anything BUT a CMS to update their site?

6/13/2008 6:31:28 PM

^^

wordpress/wp-content/themes/

6/13/2008 7:00:45 PM

^^potentially security or federal regulations. Or specialty companies who want/need a more static but more visually rich interface. Or ecommerce sites.

Also, to make your "own" template, just duplicate the default one, put it in its own folder under ^ and start hacking away.

6/13/2008 8:28:30 PM

if you're brand new to WP, it will take a bit of background knowledge before you start hacking away, although certainly if you spend enough time examining the existing files you could probably figure it out.

In short, at the least, you have to edit header.php, footer.php, and sidebar.php, where the function of each should be apparent. Then you'll probably want to get into index.php (the default page if you create a Blog or News section), page.php (the default template for any new page), and single.php (the default template when viewing a single post from the blog/news section).

After you get the basic template done (or before, or during), then you will use the Wordpress dashboard to create new "Pages", which will use the page.php template (you can also create subpages or multiple page templates), which will create the actual content of the site. As the administrator, you can fill up all the pages, then later you will be able to create user accounts for your clients and allow them to edit certain or all of the pages.

there's tons of documentation on the WP wiki
http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress

here's some pages that look into the all the major files you'll need to touch to get your template working
http://jonathanwold.com/tutorials/wordpress_theme/
http://www.wpdesigner.com/2007/02/19/so-you-want-to-create-wordpress-themes-huh/

6/13/2008 10:02:26 PM

it's EXTREMELY easy to learn wordpress stuff. just live in the codex for a day and you'll have it in no time. if you want to simplify that process, pick a theme that has widgets enabled and a lot of the things that you used to have to do by hand are plug and play.

6/13/2008 10:44:41 PM

wordpress... you can have that shit up and running in a matter of minutes with no prior experience with using a computer at all!

Besides wordpress; Joomla, Mambo, Drupal and expression engine are very good alternatives with far more features. If you need a simple website, don't bother with the others.

6/15/2008 5:45:52 AM

OK...so I've gone with WP because I'd like to minimize the amount of power the 'user' (i.e. client) has and WP seems to be a good one because I just set their levels at one thing but not an admin...so far it seems like it will work.

Question...if I'm trying to upload images let's say...how do I do this? I go to import and there's no option for that...

6/16/2008 12:43:18 PM

you attach them to a "post" or page

think of it like email

6/16/2008 12:52:31 PM

Ah....OK. Found it in the add media thingy with a post....

6/16/2008 12:54:29 PM

I made some basic Wordpress tutorials for one of my clients, showing him how to manage his wordpress site. Here is one I wrote for him of how to add a picture to a post or page. The procedure should be generally the same for you, even if some of the site-specific settings are off
http://teamkendatire.com/howto/add-a-picture/

(btw, that whole site, including the how-to section and gallery, is done in Wordpress. The client controls all the content of that site with very minimal input from me. The only time I get involved is if part of the fundamental design needs to be changed, like something in the footer or sidebar)

6/16/2008 12:58:24 PM

OK. I've been fumbling through all the code and I've come to a point where I'm stuck...again. So here's how ideally I'd like things to go:

We set up a site for someone, main nav has let's say 'events' 'news' 'about' 'contact' (making it short and sweet for this example). Now when a person comes to the main page of the site (index) they will get those menu choices (events, news, about, contact) now when they click on 'about' or 'contact' they will get to a page that is the same and not one that can be edited by anyone other than me. But when they click on 'events' or 'news' they are taken to a page that IS editable by whomever has a user name. And on that page will be the whole sidebar thing where new menu items will appear when added....my question is that I'm not being able to make a page for this. I.E. I took the index file and saved it as 'events' but I can't even figure out how to get there (seeing as how those pages sit in the '/wp/wp-content/themes/template/' folder I figured that's what I'd have to link to, but apparently not. How do I do this?

6/19/2008 12:56:16 PM

if you've properly created a new page template in your WP directory, then next you need to create an actual Page. Page creation is done through the Wordpress Dashboard, so you log into Wordpress, go to Write > Page, then beneath the text area there is a bunch of options, including Page Template. That dropdown should automatically show any template files that are in your Theme directory.


all of the administration of the site, like editing pages, assigning roles and groups, etc, is done in the Wordpress Dashboard. You will log in, then from there you can create users and groups and roles.
Then in the wordpress dashboard, whenever you or someone else logs in, depending on their group permissions, they will be able to Create and/or Edit pages, using the "Write" or "Manage" tabs

6/19/2008 1:15:43 PM

Use the Wordpress Codex, there's more (and better) information there than you'll ever get here.

6/19/2008 11:47:48 PM

Quote :

"it's EXTREMELY easy to learn wordpress stuff. just live in the codex for a day and you'll have it in no time. if you want to simplify that process, pick a theme that has widgets enabled and a lot of the things that you used to have to do by hand are plug and play."

6/20/2008 12:10:04 AM