RapidWeaver + (forum / ecommerce)

[sha(on)]

Hey all,
Made the switch over to Macs a short while ago and am starting a new company and need to build a new site using my macs (1st time ever w/mac).

I like the easy of use of RapidWeaver as my skill set is still growing. I still need to add a community forum/blog and ecommerce, what are my best options to pair with RapidWeaver? Would vBulletin be a bad choice to use (used it with PC before)?


Thanks

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

My answer depends on which of those elements drives the site, i.e. will the focus be the forum, the blog or other? If other, explain.

For example, you could switch to Drupal as your CMS - use it to render all pages and serve as the main entry point for login and authentication. It has built in features for blogging, or you can check out the many open source plugins and seamlessly integration WordPress and vBulletin (one login for all, called "auth bridge").

Or, make vBulletin the focus, use it's powerful user login system, its own open source plugins to create a custom home page and integrate WordPress.

Even WordPress has plugs if you want the focus to be blogs.

Get the idea? Determine your focus, examine plugins of each, see what works best for you. I personally suggest Drupal and the first method, its by far easier than coding from scratch and with all the themes and plugins available, arguably its the most powerful. Joomla and other CMS's are also fair game, but for me Drupal is my choice.

Sorry for a long response, but my objective is to get you thinking about the possibilities, not necessarily focusing on one approach.

-jim