Complex sites usually run a CMS -
Content Management Systems, which automates many mundane tasks required.
The question #1: Who are the vendors? or Which one to pick?
Here are the few tutorials listing few commercial sites
http://www.techtutorials.info/contentm.html
Commenter gave you truly excellent source of Open Source (OS) info:
http://www.opensourcecms.com/
To review OS CMSs, do this:
Open the section " Portals (CMS)" on the lef bar and you will see about 20
systems.
Testdrive few. You can be an administartor without buying or installing anything.
The OS systems do not have vendors but communities.
If you look at the forums of the systems above,
you will get a feel for each community.
If you do not have prior experience with CMS, then that
" trying to administer few" is a first "mandatory step".
There is a steep learning curve with each and there are subtle
differences which are best understood by experience.
Different CMS's offer almost same gamut of modules (forums, blogs, polls ...),
being an open software, they do borrow from each other.
Comprehensive list of CMSs, OS and non-OS, is here
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Internet/Site_Management/Content_Management/
I will now narrow the search, to the 'best two', rather then cast a wide net.
I do no see much advantage in a commercial system in CMS case:
Running one requires experience and software skills (like php).
While commercial site provides handholding, you or your staff will
have to develop those skills anyway.
So, first decission, to use Open Software CMS, is usually the right one;
Hard question is which one
==========================
Here are few typical experiences:
There are no simple criteria as I will show on comparison of the
'prize winning mambo' and
'popular drupal'.
Both support rich sites, sites which look good:
Drupal
http://www.mathiastechnology.com/node/view/36
Mambo
http://www.mamble.com/
Joomla is renamed Mambo or a fork of Mambo. Mambo team splitdue to
internal strife:
http://www.mamboportal.com/content/view/2029/2/
If you strongly prefer OS, you will go with Joomla; if you want
comercial support, you may stick with original Mambo company.
http://www.mambovista.com/index.php?cat=1
Here you see that people who tried bboth differ in their preference:
"I'm now setting up Drupal the enviroment that I should have chosen in the first
place. ... In my experience drupal can do a lot that Joomla and Mambo cant.
http://drupal.org/node/29581
http://www.geeklog.net/article.php/20021206075046330
What do u prefer??? -
"Dropal is quite clean compared to the first two, but it's built in forum module
... I prefer Mambo Open Source. It's the best CMS I've tried; the layout is ...
http://www.buildtolearn.com/classroom-general/ 15229-what-do-u-prefer-2.html
"Is Mambo better than Drupal, TYPO3, WebGUI, and Xaraya? - Mambo ...
You're associated with CMS Wiki, CM Pros, and skyBuilders. ... In this
"comparison" I look Mambo, Drupal, Typo3 and no else...
http://forum.mamboserver.com/showthread.php?t=48420
"Mambo's loss has been Drupal's gain with users now considering Drupal instead
A provider of Mambo components has already moved to Drupal and has posted ...
http://drupal.org/node/30678 - 9k - Cached - Similar pages
"I think I would prefer to try Drupal/CivicSpace as a full
CMS system and see if it has a wiki component. Compared to Mambo ...
http://lists.evolt.org/archive/ Week-of-Mon-20051114/177774.html
"From Mambo to a Drupal-powered school site in three steps | DrupalED
Syamsul wrote up a three part series on how he discovered Drupal after having
used Mambo, and ended up using it to power his department's site at a school ...
http://www.drupaled.org/node/57
Enough - lot of that is subjective personal preference and rest
depends on what you will do with your site.
Some reasons for preferences are subtle:
If you will do your own modifications or original PHP programming,
you will find that Mambo design present constraints. It is less
general, less logical.
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/15/1212241&tid=169&tid=8
So, in conclusion, this is my recommendation:
1) pick a modern hosting provider,
one who offers automatic installation od PHP scripts
e.g.
http://www.colorteck.com
2) install drupal
3) start implementing your site
try diffrent modules you may need (forum RSS blog newsflash ..)
4) If you get to a need which is not met, look at the competitors,
Joomla first. You may borow and adapt some module, or you may switch.
After some time, expect few months, you will have an opinion
(like we all who tried that, now have).
If you do not do you php modifications yourself
then Mambolance can be a good
compromise between OS and commercial product:
"We've designed nearly 40 Mambo websites, visit www.jh-design.com We've also
integrated phpBB to work with the mambo user DB instead of just using a warpper.
www.mambolance.com/projects/1112778131.shtml
There are several consultant/freelance firms which could make start more smooth
-... with a Content Management Solution from any of the following:
Drupal, Geeklog, Mambo,
http://216.92.122.128/projects/1807.html
Good luck
Hedgie |
