Are php-nuke and related automated content administrators good?

[araenae]

Hi, some client of me wanted to use a free automated content administrator like php-nuke, he think is the best thing after sliced bread, but i read a lot of sites where says it have a lot of failures and known exploits. Could someone tell me the advantages and disadvantages of php nuke?, it is safe enough to use it in a commercial website / intranet? i've been working all this time with ASP, so i don't know much about php, and I would love to learn more about it. Any help would be appreciated

[bcolflesh]

Intranet use would be fine if they have the PHP expertise to do any necessary customizations - otherwise, you are locked in to whatever dev work the developer(s) do.

External use would have the caveat that someone would have to be constantly monitoring security updates from the developer and installing patches immediately...

Regards,
Brent

[araenae]

Thanks for the info. Judging for what you wrote it could be said that it needs a php expert to make it work smooth?, and there's a way to change it's design layout?. Thanks again.

[bcolflesh]

I don't think you would need a "PHP expert" to install or use it - but if this company is like most, they are going to want all sorts of logical (and illogical) customizations based on their business model & the whims of management - that's where someone with practical PHP scripting knowledge comes in...

Regards,
Brent

[griz_fan]

I too came from an ASP background to PHP and experimented around with the various Nuke systems and other "kitchen sink" portals.
After several months of working with these in my spare time, I eventually gave up. There is a lot to like about PHP-Nuke and its brethren, but unfortunately, there are a few critical issues that kept me from implementing them on my site.
First, there are security concerns, and keeping up to speed on product updates is not as easy at it should be. Next, there are lots of handy plug-in modules, but it is very difficult to avoid version conflicts. Documentation isn't all that great. These Nuke systems never seem to be finished and are in a constant state of revision, which leaves some modules incompatible with the latest versions. The biggest issues for me, though, is that fact that these systems are very difficult to customize beyond updating the look and feel. I found it difficult to pick and choose the features I wanted. Finally, the quality of HTML code generated by PHP-Nuke is pretty bad (strike that: it is excremental). Unless you like tons of font tags and tables nested several levels deep, avoid the Nukes.
In the end, I opted to create my site by picking and choosing specific PHP scripts that met my specific needs, then hacking things together where I needed integration. Compared to ASP, there a tons more open-source scripts available for PHP and quite a few of them are of exceptional quality. As a result, I was able to find individual scripts that met my specific needs and “stitch” them together. You may want to assess the specific needs of your client, then look for individual scripts that address those needs. Chances are, you’ll wind up with a better site (more search engine friendly, easier to maintain, more flexibility with the design and functionality).

[araenae]

Yeah and thank you all. Griz_Fan, you're totally right regarding on the "Search Engine topic", when i was googling on php-nuke, it returns me a million pages with the infamous "powered by PHP-NUKE", but not an answer at all LOL!