CMS recommendation.

benjad · Last edited by benjad on Wed Mar 28, 2007 12:51 am; edited 1 time in total

Ok folks, went to open source CMS, browsed around, and got overwhelmed. Need some advice.

Looking to make a website for a local 'neighborhood congress'. Primary function is contact database management (customizable name/address/email phone/ 'best way to contact me' form). Should be self service (you change your own information). frontend for a good looking site would be nice. small simple groupware functions would be nice.

Then comes the big caveat... the front line users are not the most web saavy folks, so it should be a rather simple to use thing.

Any suggestions as to where to start?

(for a better analogy, think like a group that has an executive board, and a larger interested group. Trying to simplify communications between them all.)

eznet

I would have to cast a vote for Drupal or Wordpress - depending on types of updates and frequency of said of updates. Drupal provides a lot in the ways of customization so that you can make the frontend as simple or complex as you wish. Also, via Civicspace, a Drupal derived CMS, there are modules and additions specifically for the types of things that you have mentioned (the branch of drupal was actually, large in part, established on behalf of the Dean campaign for the very activities that you have mentioned) - though, I must warn you that last time I checked the account allotment of php memory with FriHost was not enough to push Civicspace CMS.

Despite not being able to run CivicSpace here, Drupal can be customized to do the same things with less bloat manually. The community support from the Druapal CMS is likely one of the best out there right now so you will always have helping hands ready within the community for any project - to see evidence simply compare the response rate for specific individual questions in the Drupal forums compared to other CMS forums.

Despite my praise of Drupal, do not overlook wordpress. Wordpress is one of the simplest and to the point CMS that I have used. There are many add ons and the themes and layouts can be customized to pretty much how every (and for whatever) you want them to be. I cannot stress the simplicity and usability of this CMS enough.

benjad

Wow... thanks...

DRUPAL is by far the best at collecting user information seamlessly. (So that people aren't filling out two forms). I haven't been able to play with civicspace... seems to be some issues with it currently.

Still toying around with building it from scratch using php and flatfile databases (haven't figured out mysql yet).

But it looks like drupal is by far the most configurable, and most fluid looking CMS for this purpose.

many thanx!

{name here}

benjad

grrr... researching more, it looks like i need to expand my consideration to...

flat file vs. xml vs. mysql.

I think this is dying for a new thread...

xsharez

I recommended...to use SMF [Simple Machine Forum].Had a more function bbcode...and more nice skin...

benjad

eznet

Yea, I do not think that SFM will cover visitor DB management very efficiently nor adequately for the use that you have laid out for your proposed CMS usage.

I stand by Drupal. I would also have to recommend MySQL for your DB (unless you plan on a very high traffic load - though from your description I doubt it will exceed MySQLs capabilities). Although SQL seems a bit intimidating at first, the learning curve is actually quite low. Once you familiarized yourself with the commands, you will find the db design structure relatively intuitive.

Check W3Schools for some great info on SQL. Also, for 'playing' in the DB I would recommend phpMyAdmin (if you are using FriHost, which I assume you will be Smile

, this is already available to you!