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Anyhow, I am looking for a CMS that has the following list of qualities. Please suggest what you think would suit my needs, as after reading a lot of threads here, at the moment Joomla is going to be my next CMS to look at, but I’m open to ANYTHING that will get the job done and not require me to reinvent the internet.
This website is to be an online newspaper with monthly articles. When a new article comes out each month, it will go on the “business” (for example) page, and the content from the previous month’s article will need to be moved into an archives section. Each section will have a sidebar menu linking to other articles for that month.
CMS Requirements:
PHP / MySQL based
Somewhat intuitive set up with clear documentation
LOGICAL method of handling navigation
Ability for me to EASILY manipulate outputted code
Ability to take a navigation menu with images and assign each image to a content page. Even if that content page were to be “moved”, the link should still work.
Ability to move content from one page to another easily. (Archiving older articles)
Ability to show one page of an article to non-subscribers, with a prompt to “log in / subscribe now to see the rest of the article”
Ability to send html email to all subscribers with current month’s “front page”
Need to be able to “nest” menus so that certain sub-pages can have unique menus.
Each month’s articles needs to be a menu that can be plugged into all pages of the current month.
Multi-page articles automatically set up with "click for next page" links.
Ability to send e-mail blasts to externally imported txt lists
Ability to import users / subscribers via a text file
Non-tech person to be able to add/organize/edit content on a monthly basis
WSYWG editor with ability to insert multiple photos in any position desired (right now, I see typo3 as very limited in photo placement)
“Roll your own” isn’t an option at this time, so I need to find something that is well rounded out of the box.
Thanks,
Cameron
Joomla is more functional "out of the box", but isn't as flexible as Drupal. Really, the main "out of the box" issue stems from the fact that Drupal doesn't come with a pre-loaded example site. If you can struggle through the initial set-up, though, I think you will like it more than Joomla.
As with most CMSs, there are a number of modules you should install before it is really that useful. I think content/CCK is essential for Drupal.
IBM has a whitepaper series on Drupal that is useful, though it is a bit dated. (It pre-dates CCK.) It walks you through the creation of a site that requires customization, including custom modules.
BTW, I feel your TYPO3 pain. Couldn't make head or tails of it. You REALLY have to partake of the Kool Aid to love it.
I have a site that will require quite a bit of customization, and I've decided to stick my neck out and use Ruby on Rails. But I intend to use Drupal for some other, simpler projects.
I don't want to get into writing my own modules, though, because, frankly, I have better things to do with my time than learning an ugly language like PHP... I've been a software engineer for 30 years, and am very comfortable in anything from assembler to C++ to Perl. I've programmed in languages as bizarre as Snobol, Forth, and TRAC. A close look at PHP, and I just had to hold my nose. ;)
PHP certainly is King of the Hill right now. But much better things are coming, and I'd rather hitch my wagon to a star than to a toad.
Anyway, Drupal has enough built-in functionality, plus a HUGE base of modules (though perhaps not as much as Joomla). So, it shouldn't require a lot of PHP for most sites.
[edited by: Demaestro at 10:00 pm (utc) on Nov. 10, 2006]
I'm going to give Drupal a test spin. I searched some threads on it here, and saw that the onion uses Drupal, and their site is as close to what I want to do functionality wise as anything else I've seen.
Jtara: Do you know if Drupal can set content so that articles span automtically across multiple pages and that only the first page is viewable until a person logs in? That's a very key thing we need on this site.
Demaestro: I would give that a shot, but the current server for this project is a "managed" 1and1 server, and I'm not allowed to install any system software like python. I'm not overly attached to php, but it's all this server can offer.
Thanks,
Cameron
The english forum is the lamest I have ever seen - no response to topics - but tons of questions, that go unanswered.
No wonder, typo3 does not catch on with english speaking territories.
It's a CMS - no good to ANYONE, that looks for open source cms - because, you need thousands of dollars to get that horror thing going, not to mention if you want a better looking website, than what the german typo3 designers offer for buko bucks.
Good riddens.
I already start enjoying the prospect of switching to another cms.
if you know Python then Zope is really the best out there IMO.
Zope is not a CMS, though. It's a web application framework. (They call it an "application server").
Plone is a CMS written on top of Zope. Dunno what others there are. Plone uses a proprietary object database to store it's data.
I installed Plone on my local test machine - a 2000mHz Athlon X2 (dual core) with 1GB RAM. With no load on the machine, i t j u s t d r a g s!
As I understand it, successful Plone sites run multiple dedicated machines. It's a given that you will run the database server on AT LEAST one seperate machine. (It's an elegant design that allows you to distribute the database onto multiple machines.)
End of of flirtation with Plone.
I haven't had a chance to dig too much into it, but templating looks pretty easy. I downloaded a theme, uploaded it to the server, unpacked it, selected it as the default template in the admin, then edited page.tpl with a few changes, and there it was. Simple, easy, straight forward. Everything typo3 ISN'T.
What remains to be seen is if I can get it to do exactly what I want since I'm not a php programmer. I'll update this thread in a few days as I make more progress.
Zope is not a CMS, though. It's a web application framework. (They call it an "application server").Plone is a CMS written on top of Zope
That is true about Zope, however it has a CMS product that is very easy to install to use. I should have been more specific when I said Zope, I should have said the Zope CMS product.
Plone is based on the Zope CMS and is just a customized version. I wouldn't recommend Plone though, it is more of a community portal then a CMS, although it deos act as one. At any Rate I have been unimpressed with Plone and find it bulky.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with Drupal. Templating is a BREEZE, and most of it's functions are relatively logical. It's url aliasing is very well implemented. Any URL that gets an alias is automatically updated in any dynamic liniks, for example. Smooth.
My only gripes are that the online documentation can be a bit murky at times, and that it can be hard to get an answer in their forum.
My only big hassle so far was finding a way to make the teaser block of an article viewable to anybody, but restrict the full article to logged in users only. The content control modules were all or nothing in showing / hiding content. In this instance, though, somebody in their forum gave me a very simple bit of code that I just put into the page display template to get the job done.
So far, based on just getting it set up, I give Drupal a 7.5 out of 10. Typo3, I would give a 1 out of 10, as I am SIGNIFICANTLY farther in Drupal in MUCH less time than I was with typo3 constantly hitting walls.
Cameron
