CMS from scratch / Joomla / Drupal or ???

How about a photo service like SmugMug?

 

I only have a basic membership, but I think their higher service levels allow for a much greater degree of customization. If they end up going with it, I have a referral code that I think gets them $5 or $10 off.

 

Your options as i know them....

since i'm in the same situation:

for a cms program.....look into wordpress, the CMS wars are pretty intense, with each side screaming at the other, the odd guy out is wordpress which appears to have quite a few advantages....

or on the really really simple side that requires virtually no change on the programming of an existing site, but allows for text and image changing:

cushycms

(dreamweaver CS4 also has a version of this built in)

 

well, your competitive example is a flash site with a backend CMS. This is fairly easy to set up (assuming you know actionscript) using an open-source CMS like Drupal and Adobe's "services" model.

In my opinion hacking systems like wordpress can work for personal/small sites, but its really not a professional solution. You are putting your client into a situation where future growth is more difficult.

Look into CMS systems like Drupal and Joomla that have a large user base (and support system) to see if they fit your needs. If you find those systems too limiting, build your own with a CMS application framework like CodeIgniter.

 

CMS from Scratch, as you mention in your title (on purpose, or saying you might build one from scratch?) is a great option if you don't need the functionality of larger platforms.

 

are these static pages? or is this to sell them online?

why not use a pre-existing shopping cart / web store type of set up. It is already configured for what you are asking.

 

I would recommend building this from scratch it is far more fun and the solution is tailor made.

 

Look at Apache Lenya, which has all the power of Cocoon.

 

It is terrible to reinvent the wheel when better thought-out things already exist.

 

Nah reinventing the wheel is more fun.

 

for a personal site perhaps... but are you willing to take responsibility for the security when commerce is involved? Web application frameworks allow you to still tailor your own while benefitting from a large community.

 

Drupal is one of my favourites. Once you add CCK, Views, FCKeditor, etc you have an extremely flexible platform. CCK is what sets Drupal apart from WordPress IMHO. Drupal is one of the more popular platforms around, so there is plenty of community support in the way of modules, etc. That said, I have never used Drupal for a commerce site, so you may have to look around for information in that regard.

Best of luck

Luke

 

why NOT from scratch....

my clients and i agree with them, do not want a CMS from scratch..that means they are essentially "married" to the programmer and every change must go through that one person...

from your point of view, if you get overloaded you cant send it out to a subcontactor for help

(besides the amount of work involved and learning required)

 

use joomla with the virtumart module. Once everything is set up, its very easy for you/your client to upload images and change text. If the standard settings and options work for you, you could conceivably implement the shopping cart without knowing any PHP.

 

****....it never ends.....(this learning thing...)

looks like my saturday just "got shot".....thanks, its probably about time i learned about mysql etc.....

(i never came across this site before.)