Which CMS?

Discussion in 'Web Development & Web Hosting' started by nugget, Oct 25, 2010.

  1. nugget
    Honorary Member

    nugget Junior toady

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    Hi guys, I'm looking to set up a website for my wife where she can post her pictures of the stuff she makes and so on. It will also contain updated information as to where she will be to sell her stuff too. I have a site set up for her now but the problem is that it is time intensive for me to maintain as it's all done by hand so the idea is that she could do it (so it needs to be relatively straightforward to use). I can set up a CMS for her using one of the following provided by the website provider

    Typo3 - CMS
    Joomla - CMS
    DotNetNuke - CMS
    osCommerce - Shop

    The question is which one should I choose? I have no experience with any of them or with any CMS system at all (just html and css).

    Thanks
     
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  2. billyr

    billyr Kilobyte Poster

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    Joomla has a good rep, but I think it takes a bit of learning. I'm a bit of a cms biff myself so I stick to wordpress which is very simple to use.
     
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  3. LukeP

    LukeP Gigabyte Poster

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    For what you need I would recommend WordPress.

    Joomla is bloated and feature rich and you don't need half (or more) features it provides.
    What platform do you use as I can see DotNetNuke (ASP.NET) and Joomla (PHP) apps there on the list?

    Basically you don't want to run PHP CMS on IIS. It will work but performance will be poor from my experience.

    Problem is that for ASP.NET there isn't anything good and free out there. DotNetNuke is the only option and it's not great for customisation (mix of C# and VB - literally).

    Personally I would go for PHP host and WordPress. Loads of plugins and add-ons there (Calendar for where she is going to be etc.)

    Drop me a PM if you need help with any of the above.

    Edit: Just for the reference, best PHP CMS = ExpressionEngine (not for what you want though)
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2010
    WIP: Uhmm... not sure
  4. BosonJosh

    BosonJosh Gigabyte Poster

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    I would agree with the Wordpress recommendation. It's the easiest CMS I've found. I strongly advise against using DotNetNuke. I've tried to use it a number of times in the past and have always ended up extremely frustrated.
     
  5. nugget
    Honorary Member

    nugget Junior toady

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    Thanks for the info guys. The problem is that I don't have too much of a choice as the website has this "click and go" hosted applications package. This is the full list of applications available, I left off the ones that I thought that wouldn't be suitable according to their descriptions.

    Typo3 - CMS
    Joomla - CMS
    DotNetNuke - CMS
    osCommerce - Shop
    Wordpress - Blog
    phpBB - Forum
    ColdFusion Application Server

    As you see, Wordpress is on the list but listed as a blogging tool. Unfortunately the only websites I have seen using Wordpress are blogging sites and seem to all look the same like they all come from the same template. I have just done a bit of further investigation of "normal" websites that use Wordpress (examples to follow from the wordpress site) and some of them are very impressive.

    I'm going to get in touch with the host and ask them if it is set up just to blog or can I make a "proper" website using it.
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2010
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  6. BosonJosh

    BosonJosh Gigabyte Poster

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    Wordpress is pretty flexible. It's main usage is for blogging, but there is a "pages" feature that you can use to build out an actual website. I don't know what templates come installed by default, but there are literally thousands of free templates available, and it's pretty easy to customize.
     
  7. LukeP

    LukeP Gigabyte Poster

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    On top of that I what BJ said I would like to add that even premium templates go for affordable $79-$150.

    I have no experience with "click and go" types but if it's only the installation that's like that and you still get ftp access then it makes no difference.

    Going back to CMS itself, I'm sure that WordPress is going to be the best choice.
     
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  8. nugget
    Honorary Member

    nugget Junior toady

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    The click and go is just their way of saying automated install. :biggrin
     
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  9. LukeP

    LukeP Gigabyte Poster

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    That's no different then. It's not like when installing manually you could do some amazing tweaks to the install.
    All you're missing is literally database connection info and nothing else ("Famous 5 minutes installation").
     
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  10. nugget
    Honorary Member

    nugget Junior toady

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    Well, I just heard back from the support guys.

    I guess this is what I'll do then.
     
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  11. nugget
    Honorary Member

    nugget Junior toady

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    Thanks for the help guys. I've set it up on my site to play around with but it's slow going as the base install is in German and sometimes the translations are not very clear.
     
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  12. Ahmad

    Ahmad New Member

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    Wordpress seems the best suited, easy to use, setup and highly configurable.

    Failing that I'm a fan of Drupal. but it is slightly more complex, but much more powerful out of the box.
     
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  13. nugget
    Honorary Member

    nugget Junior toady

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    Okay, so now I have this thing up and running. For the first time using a CMS type of system it's not bad. Was quite confusing at first but I'm sorting it out. :biggrin

    I've installed a simple theme, I'm just testing it out on my site first so I can do the wife's better.:twisted:
     
    Certifications: A+ | Network+ | Security+ | MCP (270,271,272,290,620) | MCDST | MCTS:Vista
    WIP: MCSA, 70-622,680,685

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