Fantastico CMS

which among is the best

[digic]

I am beginning to learn in creating a website using CMS, my option is opensources offered by fantastico. Which among them is the best and user friendly and most of all easy to customized.

I think Mambo and Joomla are almost same, are these two the best?

[dyrer]

Joomla/Mambo is great and easy for starters.
Good choice

[mack]

You can look beyond fantastico, there are many other opensource cms's you can install without using fantastico. I belive fantastico is an automated script installer with a list of predefined scripts.

You might want to have a look through opensourcecms.com

Mack.

[harbs]

I'd be careful using Fantastico, especially when updating to a newer version of the CMS or installing patches. If you don't keep up with the update schedule or somehow miss a version upgrade, Fantastico can screw-up your whole CMS installation.

I would seriously look into learning how to install and update your CMS manually.

[bill]

I do have one host that has Fantastico, but I've never used it. I was under the impression that you could use the Fantastico system to install a CMS
(or other script) and then it would be up to the people maintaining Fanstacico to keep up with the respective updates and things. Is this not the case?

[harbs]

Bill, Fantastico does keep up with all the changes but it is still up to the webmaster to initiate the install/update process. If someone hasn't accessed cpanel for a few months and then just goes into Fantastico to do an update, especially after they've missed a few version changes, IMHO thats very dangerous. Fantastico does however warn the webmaster about such instances and when they have to do a manual update.

[bill]

Well, then that's a reasonable amount of responsibility for a webmaster to take on. (Just set yourself an e-mail reminder once a week or so.) I might try using a few of their scripts just so I don't have to go through the update hassle of some of the scripts I use. I can certainly install them myself, but the time-saving aspect that this presents sounds like it would be worth it.

[mack]

Not sure if I like the idea of fantastico or not.

I have it with a few of my cpanel accounts but for the sake of making it a little easier you increase the chances of an exploid.

It's bad enoguh having to make sure scripts are as tight as possible, but fantastico may one day also be a target.

I have never heard of any real fantastico exploits but it's something that can't be overlooked.

Mack.

[harbs]

...another thing, if you've made some hacks to your CMS, you really should manually update.

Personally, I wouldn't want an automated script messing around with the mySQL databases.

[bill]

If your cPanel were compromised wouldn't that be a host security issue?

I can see where this wouldn't be something that would be used on heavily hacked or customized scripts, but for your average New to the Web webmaster wouldn't this be a helpful tool to keep scripts installed and updated? The update procedures on some of those scripts is not always that easy or well documented. Maybe the newer webmaster wouldn't take the time to do a full script update, but using a system like this all they'd have to do is confirm with a few mouse clicks.

I'm playing devil's advocate here. There are obviously issues that need to be carefully considered when using a system like this. It would be pretty easy to argue that a system like this has a lot of benefits for the less-experienced webmaster in terms of security.

[harbs]

You know how less experienced webmasters get into trouble? They read forums to improve their CMS & add better capabilities. They use modified code supplied by well intentioned forumers. Unknowingly to them, they are hacking some of the core files. They update to the new version using fantastico and...boom! Next thing you know, they are calling tech support to retrieve backups ;)

[bill]

True, but they're going to get into trouble anyway. ;)
Wouldn't the benefits of having timely updates for the majority be better for us all though? I kind of look at this like the Windows Update technology (which isn't perfect either). It gets people to update. The people who hack things up will always be an issue for tech support.

[Warren Contreras]

To get back to the original question, I found Xoops to be easy to use and open to customization.

I also use a TUFaT script called EasySite that is just that. Not a lot of skins or other enhancements, but for a simple to use system it's hard to beat.

[Timotheos]

I've never heard of Fantastico but I have looked at a lot of the CMSs on their list. Out of all of them I choose Drupal.