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CMS HELP!. Which one to use.

janitorC7

janitorC7

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 10, 2006
640
20
California
hey guys.

I need some of your guys help finding a god and easy to use, design wise, Content Managment system. I need to turn this design of mine http://www.kidneysocal.org/redesign into a functioning site running on the backbone of a good CMS.

any sugestions. I'm a designer first, and the coding aspect outside of CSS, HTML, XHTML, and some flash, I dont know much code, JAVA ect.

So I need somthing that it is easy to incorportate my designs into

I'm also looking at a situation with another client where they need a Online store, this would be the primary purpose of the website, so I need to be able to build it into the site with a good CMS and look good

any suggestions on either of these issues would be greatly appreciated, thanks

Cooper
 
There are dozens of these available as open source. I will direct your attention to http://www.opensourcecms.com that lists just about all of them. There is a feature where you can play with them on a limited basis. There are also opinions, but take those with a grain of salt - it seems that everyone has one. The best part is that you can download these in their entirety and play with them on a local system until you find one that you like. There is also a section where you can compare the capabilities and major features of each one - at least I think this is the site that does this. A google search on "open source cms" should provide hours, if not days, of reading and decision making - :)
 
A bit off topic, but if you want a really great tool for adjusting CSS on dynamic database driven site, the you might want to look at the CSS override feature of CSS Edit.
 
elppa said:
A bit off topic, but if you want a really great tool for adjusting CSS on dynamic database driven site, the you might want to look at the CSS override feature of CSS Edit.
Click to expand...

yea, I've used that.... I Love CSS edit, I use it
 
Drupal and Joomla are both very simple to theme. There are plenty of guides out there that detail how to do it... This probably isn't the best place to ask.

Also consider textpattern.. my personal favorite out of the PHP/mysql selection.
 
You could consider WordPress as well.

Typically thought of as a blog, it is, but it can also be deployed to manage an entire website.

It's simple to theme, has very good documentation in their codex, and uses php tags to insert most functions. The side benefit of it is that you can have the choice of how to customize it. You can use their pages, or use posts as pages with custom permalinks.

It's something that can be as simple or as complex as you need. If you start out simple, you can grow more complex as time passes without having to revamp the entire site.

It may or may not be right for you, but it is an option to at least consider.
 
MediaTemple offer good Rails hosting. If you feel like a challenge, you could learn the basics of Rails and design your own CMS. I'm in the process of doing this for myself... I feel like I'm spending less time writing it to suit my own needs than I would be fully customizing a pre-built one. Plus, it's a rewarding experience.
 
janitorC7 said:
So I need somthing that it is easy to incorportate my designs into

I'm also looking at a situation with another client where they need a Online store
Click to expand...
you're pretty light on the functional requirements. it might help to list some functionality you need.

i've done sites in mambo, joomla and wordpress and they're all fine tools. i gave drupal a shot (i eventually did the site in joomla) but found the learning curve too steep for the kind of rapid development i needed. plus, i thought the user forums were tedious to use and i had trouble getting good help. i've found the mambo and joomla support forums quite good, as is the wordpress documentation.

next time i need to do a site using a CMS, i'll be giving plone a try.
 
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