CMS from scratch / Joomla / Drupal or ???

[gemini77]

The day has finally come when one of my clients wants to be able to manage his site, ok as you can tell I haven't been designer for long! But CMS is something which I need to look into. As all the sites which I have done in the pass have all been 100% static and trouble free!

Q. This client owns a toy shop and wants to be able to upload around 100 new images per month to his site and change the description of each.

What would be the best way to go about this??

(I have good knowledge of dreamweaver, flash, actionscript and basic programing and I'm always keen to learn more!)

 

[miles01110]

How about a photo service like SmugMug?

 

[gemini77]

looks interesting, but can I incorporate this into a site that I design??

I'll have a read..

 

[miles01110]

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.

 

[gemini77]

any other ideas ???? this is the guys competition: www.aloyshop.com

hows this site set up ?? I'm real wet behind the ears in this department!

 

[pelsar]

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)

 

[gemini77]

cushycms looks great and extremely easy to use! wow, thanks for that.. I saw some of your previous threads and I agree with you regarding the Designer & Programmers... say no more.

Problem I find is that there is just so much out there to learn and just not enough hours in the day!

 

[lucidmedia]

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.

 

[design-is]

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.

 

[jakeOSX]

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.

 

[Cabbit]

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

 

[cube]

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

 

[cube]

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

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

 

[Cabbit]

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

Nah reinventing the wheel is more fun.

 

[lucidmedia]

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.

 

[lucasgladding]

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

 

[pelsar]

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)

 

[gemini77]

Hi Pelsar,

Just a quick link to Lynda.com not sure if you know this site, if you don't then you should as it's always my first point of call. If you've got a couple of hours to spare then this will be a great help, I've just done the course on Dynamic Development in Dreamweaver.. And its pretty amazing what dreamweaver can do without having to know about programing or php etc

Dreamweaver just keeps on getting better.

http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=705

 

[demarcopbl]

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.

 

[pelsar]

****....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.)

Hi Pelsar,

Just a quick link to Lynda.com not sure if you know this site, if you don't then you should as it's always my first point of call. If you've got a couple of hours to spare then this will be a great help, I've just done the course on Dynamic Development in Dreamweaver.. And its pretty amazing what dreamweaver can do without having to know about programing or php etc

Dreamweaver just keeps on getting better.

http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=705

 

[gemini77]

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

well Lynda is the right place to do it, as I'm sure you're finding out. and for 25$ a month I think it's well worth it.. only trouble is that it becomes like a bit of a Drug!