You might want to look at Xindi. It is lightweight and uses Twitter bootstrap (bonus!). https://github.com/simonbingham/xindi
And Drupal for PHP. Drupal has a pretty steep learning curve but some of my friends swear by it (and make a rather tidy income with it). https://drupal.org/ HTH G! On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Rick Faircloth <r...@whitestonemedia.com>wrote: > > Thanks, Jon and everyone for your feedback. > > I've look at the various "pre-rolled" CMS offerings > and have found them to be serious overkill for all my clients. > > I've always created my own CMS for each website I created > to insure that clients were comfortable with them. Mostly, > I just provide a regular form (never even used CKEditor) > and take care of the styling in advance to keep them from > destroying the look of their site. They just update verbiage > and images. > > The reason I asked about "full-blown" CMS options, is that I've > got one more sophisticated client who wants, basically, to be > able to "change everything." Well, she might as well become > a website designer to be able to manage everything on the site, > including header graphics, etc. > > I've been tinkering with CKEditor and think that will be a good > option for the "global site manager" or custom CMS I'm building > for my clients currently. I can control the options on the toolbar > to keep clients from getting "too creative", but make it easy > for them to add links, etc., with knowing how to code them. > > I can keep the CKEditor instances distinct for every form field > to accommodate database interaction so I can re-purpose content > for email newsletters, etc., and avoid having all content titles, > bylines, details, and images all contained within a single database field. > > I'll have to discuss just exactly what this new client means > by "control everything" on the site. Turning over complete layout > and design control to a novice to change the design of a corporate > site with my name associated with it is not an option I want to pursue. > If she wants that much control, then I'll just "consult" with them > and she can buy a copy of Dreamweaver and use it as a WYSIWYG editor. > > She wants to be able to add pages to the site, as well, so I may have > to develop that functionality, along with on-the-fly menu adaptation > for the new pages. Maybe I can just convince her to let me create a new > page when she needs one and then turn her loose on the content. It starts > to be annoying and a lot of trouble (for which the client doesn't want to > pay, typically) when they want to start wanting to get into the kitchen > of the website design & development restaurant, rather than just placing > their order and allowing the chef to do his work. > > Any other thoughts and/or feedback is still appreciated! > > Rick > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jon Clausen [mailto:jon_clau...@silowebworks.com] > Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 11:25 AM > To: cf-talk > Subject: Re: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example > > > I've spent about 70% of my time over the last 5 years developing in PHP, > including developing a customized > installation of Joomla for a radio station client that included live > streaming and audio archives. I've also > rolled a customized CMS through the PHP framework Kohana. I, for one am > happy to let go of the content > updates and the radio station example allowed the program hosts to manage > their own program content, archives, > blogs and links to externals. > > IMHO, as some have mentioned, Joomla is a bloated beast to customize. It > does what it does well, though and > has a solid role/permission setup and tons of plugin functionality. For a > simple 10 page site, though, it's > probably too much. For CFML CMS options, I find FarCry to be similarly > troublesome to customize (I haven't > worked with the newest versions, though) I've played around under the > hood with Mura and I find it to be very > promising as a CMS platform to build a site around. It's fast and > straightforward in the way it approaches > what it does. > > As far as design goes, I've never been able to take a Joomla site with a > template and deploy it > out-of-the-box. They all need customization, based on the way the client > wants to use them. The newest > version of Joomla is better for customizing. > > A customized CMS, whichever you choose, makes clients feel pleased and > empowered. You'll still have plenty of > work to do fixing the odd mistakes, adding functionality, and helping them > through the learning curves. I've > found that the more a client interacts with their site, the more valuable > it becomes as a business tool and > the more requests I get to add functionality and features to help then. > > Best of luck, > Jon > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:r...@whitestonemedia.com] > > Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2013 4:26 PM > > To: cf-talk > > Subject: SOT: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for > example > > > > > > Hi, guys... > > > > Just need some recommendations from some of you who have been down this > road before. > > > > I have a client that is asking for what amounts to absolute control over > their site through a CMS. Among a > few others they metioned, Joomla was brought up. > > > > I'm checking them out myself, but wanted to cut to the chase based on > experience from those who have used > CMS's that provide control such as Joomla. > > > > What have you tried? What turned out to work well? What bombed? > > I've always "rolled my own", and never used a ready-made CMS, so I have > zero experience with them. > > > > (Joomla seems like it replaces me as a designer/developer, at first > glance. > > If a client has a CMS that allows them to do everything that I do for > them now, including selecting themes > for pages they add to the site themselves (designer), manage data through > Joomla functionality (developer), I > wonder if I would end up as a "Joomla Installer & Maintenance" person for > the client. ???) > > > > Thoughts? Suggestions? > > > > Thanks for any feedback! > > > > Rick > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:356305 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
