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CMS

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 10:01 am
by savantcreative
From a php programmers point of view does it make sense to use an open source solution like Drupal to build a CMS or is it better to build one from scratch?
Thanks

Re: CMS

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:22 pm
by Christopher
Use something like Drupal or Joomla. It would take you years to implement all of their functionality.

Re: CMS

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:26 pm
by alex.barylski
+1

Re: CMS

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 12:32 am
by alex.barylski
Define fast, secure and easy. :P

Re: CMS

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:11 am
by josh
No way to answer that. You have to figure out what features those have that you need, which features you don't need and would be bloat, what features that you need that they don't have, etc...

If you just need a CMS to edit pages, and you don't a real scope, I would start with open source. If you have a very specific scope that Joomla doesn't meet, then don't use Joomla. For instance PCSPECTRA pointed out once it doesn't allow category nesting, is category nesting something you need? if so that rules out Joomla.... Drupal does category nesting though I believe. Drupal also does TDD, and the White House just chose it for their site, so it should be around for some time to come.

Re: CMS

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 9:54 am
by matthijs
And of course there are other cms systems to consider. Drupal/Joomla are quite complicated beasts. For most small- to medium sized sites, something like wordpress/textpattern fits very well.

Re: CMS

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 12:38 pm
by alex.barylski
For instance PCSPECTRA pointed out once it doesn't allow category nesting, is category nesting something you need? if so that rules out Joomla.... Drupal does category nesting though I believe. Drupal also does TDD, and the White House just chose it for their site, so it should be around for some time to come.
I should clarify that Joomla doesn't handle arbitrary category depths by *default* -- the nice thing about Joomlas component archiecture is it's possible to replace the article manager with one that supports more than 'sections' and 'categories' but you need quite a solid understanding of the architecture before you can go replacing core components.

Compared to Drupal tho, Joomla, IMO is the clear shot winner, anything you can do in Drupal you can do in Joomla, and possibly vise versa. They have different default behaviors and target audiences, but with enough time and labour both can be bent to meet pretty much any requirement. I just think Joomla does it more elegantly than Drupal.
Drupal/Joomla are quite complicated beasts. For most small- to medium sized sites, something like wordpress/textpattern fits very well.
Thats just it, both (while highly modularized) come with to many stock features. I have tried on several occassions to remove everything but a single module or two, thus allowing a user to tweak the install from there on, making for a truly customized CMS. The problem is, this is nearly impossible for a non-core developer who doesn't have the most intimate understanding of the internals. I had a much easier time with Joomla tho, much of it's default components, modules, etc can actually be removed without repercussions. I wish modules, components, etc handled their dependencies a little more intelligently, so removing one and running another would clearly indicate what the problem is with a proposed fix maybe.

Cheers,
Alex