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CMS or Development Software Suggestions Needed

M

MacAndMic

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 4, 2009
441
1,857
I have a business website that I have been running on Mambo/Joomla for roughly 10 years and I would like to give the site a facelift.

My needs for the site are very basic and it is literally 6 static pages. The site is just an advertising site for the drafting services I provide, some samples and and a contact page. My needs for this site will not change, my business has evolved into other aspects but I handle them under different sites.

So with the above being said, a CMS is most likely overkill. What program would you suggest for me to develop a nice site with a little more graphic control than what a CMS offers or am I over-thinking this and should just stick with a CMS?

I am familiar with HTML, CSS, PHP and ROR. I am not a pro on any of them but am not afraid to have fun developing.

Thank you for any and all suggestions.
 
If there are just 6 static pages, you would be best off hand-coding the entire template, and just use PHP includes for the header/footer on each of the 6 pages.

If you are looking to enhance it beyond that, I would recommend a simple framework to handle everything, such as the FatFree Framework (F3). A true CMS would add a lot of overhead to your site and would take a long time to learn. Even if you know just basic PHP, I believe that F3 is easy enough to manage. The only requirement is PHP5.3, which you would need to check if your host offers (still seems to be widely non-supported on shared hosting).
 
I would echo the "roll your own code" approach. You might also have a look at WordPress, if it's a simple enough site and you can find a WordPress theme that you like, it wouldn't be difficult to put together and there is ample room to grow.
 
snebes said:
If there are just 6 static pages, you would be best off hand-coding the entire template, and just use PHP includes for the header/footer on each of the 6 pages.

If you are looking to enhance it beyond that, I would recommend a simple framework to handle everything, such as the FatFree Framework (F3). A true CMS would add a lot of overhead to your site and would take a long time to learn. Even if you know just basic PHP, I believe that F3 is easy enough to manage. The only requirement is PHP5.3, which you would need to check if your host offers (still seems to be widely non-supported on shared hosting).
Click to expand...

I would avoid that framework due to is licensing. Zend Framework, Ruby on Rails, and countless others will supply more features and operate just as quickly but without the big gotcha of that licence.
 
Cabbit said:
I would avoid that framework due to is licensing. Zend Framework, Ruby on Rails, and countless others will supply more features and operate just as quickly but without the big gotcha of that licence.
Click to expand...

Licensing it out of the scope of his question. Since this is a small site, I assume he has no intent to distribute or change the licensed code. In this case, GPLv3 is acceptable.

I do agree, the first option I offered and what you said, would be the best option for the OP.
 
Licensing is not an issue, I don't need any behind the scenes customization. It is just a simple site, I just want to give it a facelift and have better control of the layout than what I am limited with my current Joomla solution.

Not that the site is slow, but a CMS adds some overhead so hand coding is probably the best method. Anyone have a program preference or suggestion? I can obviously just use Textedit but it feels so old school! BBedit looks nice but not a nice price for basically a one time use.

Thanks,

troutspinner
 
troutspinner said:
Licensing is not an issue, I don't need any behind the scenes customization. It is just a simple site, I just want to give it a facelift and have better control of the layout than what I am limited with my current Joomla solution.

Not that the site is slow, but a CMS adds some overhead so hand coding is probably the best method. Anyone have a program preference or suggestion? I can obviously just use Textedit but it feels so old school! BBedit looks nice but not a nice price for basically a one time use.

Thanks,

troutspinner
Click to expand...

Try textwrangler, its free and even on the app store if i mind right. Has a reasonably comparable feature set to BBedit, though if you have the cash i would splash out on Coda.
 
Textwrangler is a good free option, if you were to spend some cash my vote is with coda.
 
Last edited:
Maybe I am missing the point, but if you simply want to give the site a "facelift" and you are currently running on Joomla, it sounds like you need a more flexible and configurable template, not a new CMS...
 
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