should I use a content management system?

[dustin999]

So I have a shopping/deals site that is database driven, written entirely in PHP (the URL is in my profile). I'm completely overhauling the design, and as part of that effort, I'm wanting to add in some fancy web 2.0 functionality for the products I feature like commenting, voting, wish lists, and submission to social media like digg.

Tying all that together with user authentication and profiles, and the need for a common login for wordpress, forums, commenting, bookmarking, wish lists, etc., I find myself being pushed more and more towards a CMS type of model like Joomla or Drupal. However, I have a lot of reservations about adopting this type of approach.

The biggest problem (that I can't seem to quite grasp) is how to take a site like mine with dynamically-generated content driven through a mysql database, and adapt it to more of a static content model that CMS uses. From what I can tell, with CMS, you typically add content pages, and then attach functionality like voting or commenting to that content page.

In my case, I don't want to have to build a content page for every product I feature on my site. I want it to remain truly dynamic. Instead of attaching a voting module or commenting system or social media submission module to a content page, I'd prefer to attach it to something else like a product id in my mysql deal table.

Anyway, I don't know if anyone else has gone through this decision, but I'd really appreciate any advice anyone has.

I'm not sold on CMS, I've actually been somewhat anti-CMS, but the advantages of being able to leverage pre-written modules, utilize a common login across all aspects of my site (blog, forum, social networking, etc.), and so forth make CMS at least something I need to consider.

I'd be open to other suggestions however, such as a solution that allows me to maintain my current code base and strap on these modules and unified user login, without having to jump head first into the CMS pool.

Thanks,
Dustin

[lammert]

CMS systems are mostly written as central hub software, where additional plug-ins like voting modules, forums etc can be added as extras.

Your current website is more or less its own hub where you want to attach plug-ins. There is no real place for the CMS as that would replace your current core software, something you probably do not want.

Therefore I think it will be difficult to integrate a full-featured CMS into your site. What you could do is implement only the add-ins like a forum, voting module etc and let it integrate with your own current site. There are add-ins around that can be integrated without too many effort with existing software.

[henry0]

One important action will be to only use ONE login system
so you need to use the cart registration section and let it register member with or witout a purchase