should I use a content management system?
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 5:19 pm
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
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