To use or not to use ... a CMS
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A friend of mine and I were chatting and hit upon this topic ... CMS ... when to use them and when not to use. Like for instance he has a consulting company and wants a 5 to 10 page website with basic text in most of them. I spent a day and came up with the site. The site's content can be modified by a non-programmer (like he wanted) since I used a datagrid on the admin side with editable fields. Now I don't know if the application I built can be called a CMS (it does allow you to manage content ofcourse but still... ) He likes my work and everything but is hell bent upon having it done on a free open source CMS ... like DotNetNuke. I know that DotNetNuke has some fantastic features but I think it is an overkill for such a basic level website unless he plans to extend it. I just thought I'd post it in here to see what your opinions are on when to use and when not to use a CMS. -- modified at 19:13 Sunday 1st January, 2006
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A friend of mine and I were chatting and hit upon this topic ... CMS ... when to use them and when not to use. Like for instance he has a consulting company and wants a 5 to 10 page website with basic text in most of them. I spent a day and came up with the site. The site's content can be modified by a non-programmer (like he wanted) since I used a datagrid on the admin side with editable fields. Now I don't know if the application I built can be called a CMS (it does allow you to manage content ofcourse but still... ) He likes my work and everything but is hell bent upon having it done on a free open source CMS ... like DotNetNuke. I know that DotNetNuke has some fantastic features but I think it is an overkill for such a basic level website unless he plans to extend it. I just thought I'd post it in here to see what your opinions are on when to use and when not to use a CMS. -- modified at 19:13 Sunday 1st January, 2006
My opinion s that I should play with DotNetNuke oneday :laugh: But I'm not really a web programmer and I hadn't the time so far...
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A friend of mine and I were chatting and hit upon this topic ... CMS ... when to use them and when not to use. Like for instance he has a consulting company and wants a 5 to 10 page website with basic text in most of them. I spent a day and came up with the site. The site's content can be modified by a non-programmer (like he wanted) since I used a datagrid on the admin side with editable fields. Now I don't know if the application I built can be called a CMS (it does allow you to manage content ofcourse but still... ) He likes my work and everything but is hell bent upon having it done on a free open source CMS ... like DotNetNuke. I know that DotNetNuke has some fantastic features but I think it is an overkill for such a basic level website unless he plans to extend it. I just thought I'd post it in here to see what your opinions are on when to use and when not to use a CMS. -- modified at 19:13 Sunday 1st January, 2006
We have done a lot of DotNetNuke work here, and find it is a good starting point. Your right it is very much overkill for starters - however it can easily be extended when required, and the customer can do the silly things themselves (like changing a spelling of a word, jeez I hate that phone call at 1 AM). But most importantly, the customer asked for DotNetNuke - so you give them DotNetNuke. I always give a customer the best advice I can, but at the end of the day, they own my arse and if I want to get $$$ then I give them what they want. If it is something I truly object too, or think will blow up in there face, I recommend another developer to do the work, apologise and say good-bye. My 2 cents.
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We have done a lot of DotNetNuke work here, and find it is a good starting point. Your right it is very much overkill for starters - however it can easily be extended when required, and the customer can do the silly things themselves (like changing a spelling of a word, jeez I hate that phone call at 1 AM). But most importantly, the customer asked for DotNetNuke - so you give them DotNetNuke. I always give a customer the best advice I can, but at the end of the day, they own my arse and if I want to get $$$ then I give them what they want. If it is something I truly object too, or think will blow up in there face, I recommend another developer to do the work, apologise and say good-bye. My 2 cents.
about that phone call ... I totally understand since I've gone thru that many times. Ok ... I'll give the customer what they want ... I'll get into DotNetNuke :) Since u've been involved in lots of DNN development I was wondering if you could point me to some sites/books that I could use. I am an experienced web programmer but a novice on DNN. Thanks!
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about that phone call ... I totally understand since I've gone thru that many times. Ok ... I'll give the customer what they want ... I'll get into DotNetNuke :) Since u've been involved in lots of DNN development I was wondering if you could point me to some sites/books that I could use. I am an experienced web programmer but a novice on DNN. Thanks!
http://www.dotnetnuke.com[^] obviously, but it has a great module respository that will give you an idea of what "features" you can give the client. http://www.dnn.com.au/[^] is a good one (garn the Aussies) and they sell for $30 the DNNGuide which you will probably find most useful. My best advice though would be to look through the modules and skins and see what you like. When you get to a module/skin authors website look around and see what is what. Sorry I can't be more specific, but DNN is best understood by "seeing" it in action - especially the skins reading the outputted HTML, and looking through the source for the product. The modules are easily implemented (you just upload them via the browser) and we have never found the need to pay for one - we take the free offerings and either tweek it or get sexy with style sheets and javascript to mould them. Of course customers end up paying for the modules anyway but we like to keep the price to a minimum. You will find plenty of tutorials on building custom modules (though I doubt you will need it to complete this job) and it really isn't that difficult once you get your skull around the architecture. Have fun and enjoy I will be out until tommorrow, but leave anymore messages if you get stuck and I will make sure I check first thing. Have fun it is a good model/system and I have found even the most IT illiterate customers have been able to control there online presence (and they love that). Best of luck and be in touch if you have any other problems
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A friend of mine and I were chatting and hit upon this topic ... CMS ... when to use them and when not to use. Like for instance he has a consulting company and wants a 5 to 10 page website with basic text in most of them. I spent a day and came up with the site. The site's content can be modified by a non-programmer (like he wanted) since I used a datagrid on the admin side with editable fields. Now I don't know if the application I built can be called a CMS (it does allow you to manage content ofcourse but still... ) He likes my work and everything but is hell bent upon having it done on a free open source CMS ... like DotNetNuke. I know that DotNetNuke has some fantastic features but I think it is an overkill for such a basic level website unless he plans to extend it. I just thought I'd post it in here to see what your opinions are on when to use and when not to use a CMS. -- modified at 19:13 Sunday 1st January, 2006
Go for some thing simple. Try http://www.e107.org/[^]. By far the best I have see, and easy to customise. I am using it for a site im 'revamping' currently. Just from a maintainance POV OSS CMS is the way to go. :) xacc.ide-0.1.1 released! :) Download and screenshots
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Go for some thing simple. Try http://www.e107.org/[^]. By far the best I have see, and easy to customise. I am using it for a site im 'revamping' currently. Just from a maintainance POV OSS CMS is the way to go. :) xacc.ide-0.1.1 released! :) Download and screenshots
Leppie, Thanks for providing the link to e107.org. How does it compare to phpNuke? I am going to check it out :) Paul
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Leppie, Thanks for providing the link to e107.org. How does it compare to phpNuke? I am going to check it out :) Paul
I havent really played with phpNuke. xacc.ide-0.1.1 released! :) Download and screenshots
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A friend of mine and I were chatting and hit upon this topic ... CMS ... when to use them and when not to use. Like for instance he has a consulting company and wants a 5 to 10 page website with basic text in most of them. I spent a day and came up with the site. The site's content can be modified by a non-programmer (like he wanted) since I used a datagrid on the admin side with editable fields. Now I don't know if the application I built can be called a CMS (it does allow you to manage content ofcourse but still... ) He likes my work and everything but is hell bent upon having it done on a free open source CMS ... like DotNetNuke. I know that DotNetNuke has some fantastic features but I think it is an overkill for such a basic level website unless he plans to extend it. I just thought I'd post it in here to see what your opinions are on when to use and when not to use a CMS. -- modified at 19:13 Sunday 1st January, 2006
Forgot to mention earlier. You can test drive all of them :) http://www.opensourcecms.com[^] xacc.ide-0.1.1 released! :) Download and screenshots
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A friend of mine and I were chatting and hit upon this topic ... CMS ... when to use them and when not to use. Like for instance he has a consulting company and wants a 5 to 10 page website with basic text in most of them. I spent a day and came up with the site. The site's content can be modified by a non-programmer (like he wanted) since I used a datagrid on the admin side with editable fields. Now I don't know if the application I built can be called a CMS (it does allow you to manage content ofcourse but still... ) He likes my work and everything but is hell bent upon having it done on a free open source CMS ... like DotNetNuke. I know that DotNetNuke has some fantastic features but I think it is an overkill for such a basic level website unless he plans to extend it. I just thought I'd post it in here to see what your opinions are on when to use and when not to use a CMS. -- modified at 19:13 Sunday 1st January, 2006
Pete- I dont know about DNN - but we learnt something about Mambo/Joomla the hard way. Our site is designed to be updated with new content contributed by multiple folks, so a CMS is a must. We installed Mambo and were merrily adding content, it was so easy and fun. We kind of forget one key thing - google does not like Mambo out of the box. I mean googlebot hates the "id=?Item=?" tags in URLs. Then we hunted around and installed the SEF component (404SEF) and asked our web provider to enable mod_rewrite. Now it turns out that googlebot does not like multiple links to the same content. So we have to be very careful while placing the "Most Popular" , "Latest articles" types of links. Some of these issues are also applicable to hand-coded websites - but in those cases we are dealing with static content and is easy to fix. Even so, we cannot imagine our website without a CMS. IMHO, one of the key considerations while selecting a CMS must be "how easy is it to make google like it" ?
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A friend of mine and I were chatting and hit upon this topic ... CMS ... when to use them and when not to use. Like for instance he has a consulting company and wants a 5 to 10 page website with basic text in most of them. I spent a day and came up with the site. The site's content can be modified by a non-programmer (like he wanted) since I used a datagrid on the admin side with editable fields. Now I don't know if the application I built can be called a CMS (it does allow you to manage content ofcourse but still... ) He likes my work and everything but is hell bent upon having it done on a free open source CMS ... like DotNetNuke. I know that DotNetNuke has some fantastic features but I think it is an overkill for such a basic level website unless he plans to extend it. I just thought I'd post it in here to see what your opinions are on when to use and when not to use a CMS. -- modified at 19:13 Sunday 1st January, 2006
IMO apps like DNN are overkill for small sites. Plus I don't like the fact that they seem to structure the page like a portal - i.e. made up of boxes. I haven't tried DNN yet, but I've looked at other open source CMS, and the admin interface is generally complicated - so that may mean you have to provide training and/or support to your customer. just my 2 cents.
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Pete- I dont know about DNN - but we learnt something about Mambo/Joomla the hard way. Our site is designed to be updated with new content contributed by multiple folks, so a CMS is a must. We installed Mambo and were merrily adding content, it was so easy and fun. We kind of forget one key thing - google does not like Mambo out of the box. I mean googlebot hates the "id=?Item=?" tags in URLs. Then we hunted around and installed the SEF component (404SEF) and asked our web provider to enable mod_rewrite. Now it turns out that googlebot does not like multiple links to the same content. So we have to be very careful while placing the "Most Popular" , "Latest articles" types of links. Some of these issues are also applicable to hand-coded websites - but in those cases we are dealing with static content and is easy to fix. Even so, we cannot imagine our website without a CMS. IMHO, one of the key considerations while selecting a CMS must be "how easy is it to make google like it" ?
This is a nice thing about DNN. In the past version (the one I am using, they just updated to ASP.NET 2.0 recently which I have not had to to dig into), they have friendly names so that all those parameters are buried in the url, no longer parameters which helps. The only problem I had, was a simple adjustment (which I do not remember off the top of my head :-O ) that will make the menu navigation options visable to Google. Rocky <>< Latest Post: SQL2005 Server Managemnet Studio timeouts! Blog: www.RockyMoore.com/TheCoder/[^]
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A friend of mine and I were chatting and hit upon this topic ... CMS ... when to use them and when not to use. Like for instance he has a consulting company and wants a 5 to 10 page website with basic text in most of them. I spent a day and came up with the site. The site's content can be modified by a non-programmer (like he wanted) since I used a datagrid on the admin side with editable fields. Now I don't know if the application I built can be called a CMS (it does allow you to manage content ofcourse but still... ) He likes my work and everything but is hell bent upon having it done on a free open source CMS ... like DotNetNuke. I know that DotNetNuke has some fantastic features but I think it is an overkill for such a basic level website unless he plans to extend it. I just thought I'd post it in here to see what your opinions are on when to use and when not to use a CMS. -- modified at 19:13 Sunday 1st January, 2006
I use and like DNN, even for small sites typically. It is easy to host hundreds of simple sites on a single instance of DNN which means a smaller foot print for the sites (if needed). The main draw for my to DNN is how simple it is to build sites rapidly and the client can modifiy them if they desire without futher work on my part. I can build a typical small business website consisting of one of my standard skin templates that I have available already, along with buidling out 5-10 pages of html/pics (assuming I have to type in the content and make some choices of exactly how I want it to look), all within an hour or two, including making the site live. Clients also like freedom that if anything happens to your business, they can still modify their site themselves. It adds a nice touch of ownership to a site that they usually do not get if you right a custom site that they cannot modify themselves. Also, they vast array of modules that are available (some good and not so good) allows cleints flexibility with small or no extra cost. If just down the road a week or two, they hear that businesses should have a blog, boom, you drop in the blog modules and in less than 20 minutes, they have their blog live. Support forums come to mind a little down the road, no problem, drop in one of the many forums modules and boom, you have forums all running on the site with little effort. On top of this, there is limited RSS built in along with a site search. Yep, sold on DNN! Performance could be better, but I am sure it will get there. Still very good and stable (at least the version I use), allowing you to knock out simple sites and have all the power there to expanding them when needed without having to rewrite anything. Rocky <>< Latest Post: SQL2005 Server Managemnet Studio timeouts! Blog: www.RockyMoore.com/TheCoder/[^]