CMS system: mac and pc

[pelsar]

since we do live in a world dominated by the pc/windows....is there a cms system that i can use that will allow me to develop the website using my mac..and when i upload it and i can set up my client with the cms system that will work on their systems under windows.

Adobes Contribute is one option...but I'm looking for a CMS system that uses a simple database (though not essential)

 

[tersono]

It's not database-based, but WebYep is a very useful little tool.

Edit: Almost forgot - there's a very useful site called Open Source CMS that has examples of just about every open-source CMS system available. Maybe one of them will suit you.

 

[angelwatt]

I don't see any reason why you couldn't choose any of them, it doesn't matter if you're using Mac or Windows. The web works for all. The only thing you might want to watch is what line ending style you use when saving, but most editors on Mac and Windows can handle each others line endings fine, except for Notepad (Win). I haven't come across a CMS that only allows certain OSes to access the CMS components.

 

[Photomax]

What Angelwatt said.

Even if there was some Microsoft/IE centric CMS system I would never support it. No one should. The web should be open to all users and systems. There is a reason that we have Web Standards.

Who wants to see sites with a "this site must be viewed with browser X running on system Y" warning? I also cringe when when I hear news that Microsoft wants to create a new technology for photo or video web delivery because you know the motivation is creating a Microsoft only standard.

We dodged this bullet in the browser wars of the 90's...

 

[pelsar]

What Angelwatt said.

Even if there was some Microsoft/IE centric CMS system I would never support it. No one should. The web should be open to all users and systems. There is a reason that we have Web Standards......

We dodged this bullet in the browser wars of the 90's...

you guys miss the point...its not the "viewer/user" that i am concerned with, its my client having the ability to make changes on their site with a windows system. They're are plenty of window CMS systems.....but i do my development on a mac and dont plan on moving, hence i need a system where i can do the development and when finished, my clients can modify the site to fit their needs via a CMS system.

 

[MoreBS]

CMS tool

you guys miss the point...its not the "viewer/user" that i am concerned with, its my client having the ability to make changes on their site with a windows system. They're are plenty of window CMS systems.....but i do my development on a mac and dont plan on moving, hence i need a system where i can do the development and when finished, my clients can modify the site to fit their needs via a CMS system.

Check out Expression Engine:
http://expressionengine.com/

or look at drupal or wordpress

 

[InLikeALion]

you guys miss the point...its not the "viewer/user" that i am concerned with, its my client having the ability to make changes on their site with a windows system. They're are plenty of window CMS systems.....but i do my development on a mac and dont plan on moving, hence i need a system where i can do the development and when finished, my clients can modify the site to fit their needs via a CMS system.

I don't think we're confused. All the CMS's I've looked into over the past 6 months are mysql/server based. All visual editing on these type systems is done via css files, jpg/png/gif files, and php tweaks. All that is platform agnostic. Can you even give an example of a CMS that is bound to one platform or another (it's a challenge, but I'm also genuinely curious because I hadn't heard of this)?

I would suggest the same that MoreBS just did.

 

[pelsar]

the problem remains...

I don't think we're confused. All the CMS's I've looked into over the past 6 months are mysql/server based. All visual editing on these type systems is done via css files, jpg/png/gif files, and php tweaks. All that is platform agnostic. Can you even give an example of a CMS that is bound to one platform or another (it's a challenge, but I'm also genuinely curious because I hadn't heard of this)?

I would suggest the same that MoreBS just did.

the ideal situation is:

i do ALL the work, design and development on my mac, using a GUI of some sort (I'm a designer not a programmer)...zap it over to the server, check it on line, send the cms software to my client (who is working on a pc)...and i'm done.

so far the closest one i've found is webyep thanks to tersono (above)

which the development is based on dreamweaver (mac or pc), with the changes on line via the browser...havent tested it yet though

 

[ChicoWeb]

you guys miss the point...its not the "viewer/user" that i am concerned with, its my client having the ability to make changes on their site with a windows system. They're are plenty of window CMS systems.....but i do my development on a mac and dont plan on moving, hence i need a system where i can do the development and when finished, my clients can modify the site to fit their needs via a CMS system.

A web browser is a web browser, no matter what operating system you use it on. The Operating system is completely independent of an Online CMS. In the past, and I mean like mid 90's past, people have developed CMS that are stand along applications that need to be installed on person a's and person b's computers, but anything online will bypass this issue.

However, you can run into operating system server platform issues with the CMS software itself depending on the language it was built on. For example, ASP CMS is going to use IIS framework, as PHP will use Apache Framework (speaking very generally here). With THAT said, we developed a remote system which uses XML to pass the content from the database to the clients server, that can be on any server platform, Unix, Windoze, whatever really and that's one of the beauties of XML.

http://myadmin.chicowebdesign.com/login.html
Account Host: demo.mavieo.com
User: demo
Pass: demo

 

[timmillwood]

I use Drupal its great
http://www.drupal.org

 

[angelwatt]

you guys miss the point...its not the "viewer/user" that i am concerned with, its my client having the ability to make changes on their site with a windows system. They're are plenty of window CMS systems.....but i do my development on a mac and dont plan on moving, hence i need a system where i can do the development and when finished, my clients can modify the site to fit their needs via a CMS system.

No, I got that, and still stand by what I said. The customers should be able to use use and update the CMS no matter what OS they are using. I've never seen anything that stops an OS.

 

[InLikeALion]

(I'm a designer not a programmer)

I think that's obvious, as it seems you're getting quite a few CMS concepts mixed up. I'm just learning them myself, so don't take it personally.

...zap it over to the server, check it on line, send the cms software to my client (who is working on a pc)...

I don't think you're listening to what we're saying. A CMS operates from a server. There is no client-side software to be installed. They go to something like http://theirdomain.com/admin (depending on what system you go with, and where you install it) and log in. From their they are presented with an (online) interface allowing them to add/update content, etc...

There isn't a cms on their "windows pc" - it's on the web and accessible to all standard browsers.

 

[Photomax]

the ideal situation is:

i do ALL the work, design and development on my mac, using a GUI of some sort (I'm a designer not a programmer)...zap it over to the server, check it on line, send the cms software to my client (who is working on a pc)...and i'm done.

If you are developing a site with an "off the shelf" CMS system then you should be able to create the site with any platform. There is no software to send to a client. If you get the site running on the host server then it is running. Of course if you are testing the site beforehand then you need to test it dynamically by creating a local server testing ground that will run PHP and MySQL.

The main OS or browser concerns are usually with the oft guilty subject: namely Internet Explorer. For that you need to make sure your code and CSS renders correctly in IE as well as the better behaved browsers.

CMS systems can incorporate extensive CSS and it can be become complicated, especially if you are really creating a design and not using a downloaded "theme." There are a zillion CSM systems out there. The basic premise is that they run on the server and the back-end manager is through a web browser. The better CSM systems are bug free and will operate smoothly on any platform or modern browser. The client may have one computer system now, but that could change: he could suddenly switch to a MacBook for instance. Or he could have staff do the site management with an unknown system. Thats the beauty of the better CMS systems or Modern Web Standards Design for that matter: the experience should not be determined by the operating system or the browser in use.

Of course the fly in the ointment is that some browsers stay at the party way too long, like IE6...

 

[pelsar]

thanks guys...

If you are developing a site with an "off the shelf" CMS system then you should be able to create the site with any platform. There is not software to send to a client. If you get the site running on the host server then it is running. Of course if you are testing the site beforehand then you need to test it dynamically by creating a local server testing ground that will run PHP and MySQL.

i've going to take the info here...and start doing some research....demos etc.

i may come back with some questions, but in the meantime, i've got some work to do.....
_______
btw i also noticed that the posts about Brilliant's Admyne, were abit "canned" and guessed the poster was linked somehow to the company

 

[Photomax]

Good luck and keep us posted.

Just about any CMS system will require time: there will be a learning curve. The more you want the design to be you own the more time you will need. Each CMS has its own vocabulary as well.

Obviously you will be checking out the CMS systems themselves. Some are tight, some are massive, some have few add-on modules some have a million, some are easy to install, some are a pain...

One size does not fit all in this arena. One thing to pay attention to is the support forums for each system. How well set up are they? Do they get a lot of traffic? How good is the search function? Any most importantly how well does the community respond to newbies?

PS: I see the moderator removed the exchange with the Admyne fellow. This is probably a good thing...