Forum Moderators: open
I teach web development at a community college. Next term I'm teaching a course on open source CMSs.
I usually teach wordpress, textpattern, xoops and coopermine, but I'd like to get some opinions of which content management systems would be most useful to students to learn.
I'm questioning whether coppermine is too specific (photo gallery), and if I should teach Drupal instead of Xoops. Maybe I'm even missing a really good one out there that would be useful for future developers to know of.
Things I'm looking for include ease of use, security, adherence to web standards, feature set.
If you had to teach 3 or 4 cmss which ones would you choose and why?
Thanks!
Wordpress really isn't a CMS, but it's an essential tool that probably belongs in the class.
I do like the idea of including Textpattern, because it shows that sometimes simple makes sense.
Why NOT include Coppermine? I think it's useful to show that there are a range of solutions, and you should try to match the solution to the problem. Use Coppermine as an example of a single-purpose site that really does not need a CMS.
If you have the time, show how to integrate either Wordpress or Coppermine with Drupal. Sometimes a CMS just doesn't have strong-enough features in a particular area, and it makes sense to integrate with a single-purpose product in one area where you have a particular need.
That would be more far more beneficial in my opinion than learning how several different CMSs work...
This may prove a little expensive in the start up but some tie in with a company may be possible.
Alternatively I would recommend using 'contribute' this not only gives you a much better idea of web design but introduces students to Dreamweaver and the possibilities that offers.. there are also cheaper pricing options for schools ...
[edited by: Lobo at 11:21 am (utc) on Dec. 17, 2006]
It's probably not the place to teach how to write your own CMS (which presupposes programming background), nor is it a good idea to teach solutions that might only be used in certain types of companies (e.g. large Fortune-500 corporations.)
Location probably matters, If it isn't taught in a city that has a lot of corporate headquarters, then I'd avoid expensive commercial CMSs.
Open source CMSs certainly ARE used in even the largest corporations, though. (IBM is a big advocate.)
By limiting to open-source, you also open the possibility of and can encourage further individual learning when the class is over. Students can obtain and install an open-source CMS on their own PC. Not something they can generally do with a commercial CMS.
1) Wordpress for personal blogging sites
2) Joomla / Mambo for publishing
3) If you have the time, take a look at PHPBB or phpNuke type software as that can also be creatively used an an open source CMS.
I like all three, as the code is easy to read, the plugin architecture works well for the first two and there are tons of (free -- beer and speech) add ons and templates available which will allow students to experiment ...
What do you mean by Wordpress for personal blogging?
What's the limitation of Wordpress for publishing?
I am considering to change the CMS of my large site to Wordpress, are you saing that it has limitation for publishing a serious large site?
thanks
I would suggest to let the look at opensourcecms.com to try some, their moto is "try before you install".
You might find some beauty's you did not know about...
And you can see the standard install and login to the admin panels!
My choices would be:
Joomla (lots of functions en third party extensions)
WordPress (Nothing better for SEO)
PHP-Fusion (Simple and easy, with a lot of functions integrated)
and for the heavy ones Typo3.. (real rewards in learning, easy to template once you learn how to work it)
But he, that is my list, others find.
P.s. I think your Blog looks great, also the one for digital learning is nice.:-)
It's probably not the place to teach how to write your own CMS (which presupposes programming background)
Huh?
Why *wouldn't* a web developer learn to do some programming? Programming is not some mysterious alchemy handed down from on high to "web developers" when they have achieved sufficent age. ;)
A very basic CMS (ie news article system) can be written by a newbie developer (with some general guidance) in a day or two.
1. HTML form to enter article.
2. Admin script to save form data. (flat-file or db)
3. Admin script to list articles.
4. Edit/Delete articles.
5. Script to publish article data.
6. Article template.
7. Article list template.
That's a basic CMS.
>> day or two.
>> That's a basic CMS.
Without a fundamental overview of sofware design, scalablity issues, security and solid knowledge of the capabilities of a language, this would be a waste of time.
Personally, I'd rather have a clear distiction between web designers and programmers - "web developers" seems like a cross between the two and in my opinion leads to many disasterous projects when newbies who have done a couple of weeks worth of PHP programming, take on from scratch projects.
(I'm sure I've offended a few people with this.. but then I have suffered through way too many conversations at the pub with mates who've picked up a PHP book and figure they can rewrite Joomla.)
Why *wouldn't* a web developer learn to do some programming? Programming is not some mysterious alchemy handed down from on high to "web developers" when they have achieved sufficent age. ;)
The question here isn't whether or not a web developer should ever learn to do some programming [as much fun as that might be to debate ;) ]. It's whether the students in the specific class the OP will be teaching at a community college on the use of open source CMSs should be expected to come in with programming background. I'd vote "no" - I assume that if they want to learn programming there are other courses for that.
