Content Management Systems

Site Specs: Should I use one?

[madcat]

Hi:

On my new site, I have two sections that need to be dynamic, but I don't know how to go about creating them.

One, the first page, is a blogger-like journal that can be updated daily, weekly or monthly- whenever. The other is an articles page that will be updated daily, weekly, monthly or whenever. I'd also like to archive all of the journal entries and articles.

Pretty standard stuff I know. But from reading other posts it seems that the code used to build Php-Nuke or PostNuke is too bloated. Also, is it true that you can't have your site look exactly the way you want it to look? Would it be difficult to set this functionality up from scratch (for someone new to PHP)? Is there quality software (Blogger for the journal entries maybe?) out there that will allow such functionality?

Basically, should I attempt to write this myself (help sites please), or look into using a software package. The site's layout will need to look exactly how I layed it out (CSS), no cookie-cutter templates or layouts. PHP ¦ MySQL ¦ Apache - software of choice.

Any help is MUCH appreciated, thanks in advance.

M

[Knowles]

I prefer to code things myself, however I often use other packages to try and help me alone when needed. Its often easier to figure out your answer by looking at a few other things that do the same thing. From what you describe I would say the packages are a little bloated. But you could try to find one thats a little less bloated if you go that route but for help doing it your self try googling php mysql tutorial [google.com]