RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
Hmmm... just finished setting up CKEditor in a site manager for specials... just title, description, and image. Successfully uploaded all content, processed 5 different image sizes from original, and entered all into database. When I went to view the new Special on the development site, I realized the special title, that was entered in a separate instance of CKEditor on the page, was un-styled. Of course, in the database, the actual text was surrounded by p/p and didn't have the style from the stylesheet that normally styles the Special Titles. Is this always the case with editors that provide style control? Since the editor enters its own tags and styles inline (boo), would this mean that all styling has to come from within the CKEditor and its styles would override my stylesheets? Rick -Original Message- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:r...@whitestonemedia.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 7:42 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example Thanks, David... Yes, the live content editors are very attractive. Several of the CSM's that I reviewed offer that option. It's very appealing. And it certainly is a balancing-act, trying to provide desired functionality so they don't look elsewhere, but not giving them so much control that they end up making a mess of a site. Rick -Original Message- From: David Phelan [mailto:dphe...@emerginghealthit.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 3:44 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example Rick, Most full-blown CMS solutions allow the clients to add pages to a site whenever desired, they simply select the underlying template (that you develop and provide) for that particular page and go to town creating the content and adding web parts into the areas that you have defined in the template. A WYSIWYG editor is a key ingredient and there are several open source ones out there. I use TinyMCE which is rather simple to configure and provides a good number of options and plugins to choose from and the new version allows for inline editing of the content, though it doesn't sync with the applied CSS to allow users to see the formats they are applying. The ability to upload graphics and documents is also important. Another important thing is allowing the client to preview the updated content within the context of the site before they publish it. This way they can verify that the changes they have made fit the sites theme and layout and correct anything that falls outside the acceptable limits. Inline editors are good for this but there are other approaches as well. You want to give them the freedom to alter the content to the greatest possible extent so that you can focus on developing new functionality/web parts for them to incorporate into their content, especially now that there is an ever increasing number of sites that will allow companies to create their own sites for relatively low cost. You certainly don't want to constrain your client to the point that they move on to another option. David Phelan Web Developer IT Security Web Technologies Emerging Health Montefiore Information Technology 3 Odell Plaza, Yonkers, NY 10701 914-457-6465 Office 862-234-9109 Cell dphe...@emerginghealthit.com www.emerginghealthit.com www.montefiore.org -Original Message- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:r...@whitestonemedia.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 1:42 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example 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
Re: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
For a 'title' you may not want them to be able to format that within a rich text editor. It would be more consistent to have all the titles be the same style. On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 12:08 PM, Rick Faircloth r...@whitestonemedia.comwrote: Hmmm... just finished setting up CKEditor in a site manager for specials... just title, description, and image. Successfully uploaded all content, processed 5 different image sizes from original, and entered all into database. When I went to view the new Special on the development site, I realized the special title, that was entered in a separate instance of CKEditor on the page, was un-styled. Of course, in the database, the actual text was surrounded by p/p and didn't have the style from the stylesheet that normally styles the Special Titles. Is this always the case with editors that provide style control? Since the editor enters its own tags and styles inline (boo), would this mean that all styling has to come from within the CKEditor and its styles would override my stylesheets? Rick -Original Message- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:r...@whitestonemedia.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 7:42 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example Thanks, David... Yes, the live content editors are very attractive. Several of the CSM's that I reviewed offer that option. It's very appealing. And it certainly is a balancing-act, trying to provide desired functionality so they don't look elsewhere, but not giving them so much control that they end up making a mess of a site. Rick -Original Message- From: David Phelan [mailto:dphe...@emerginghealthit.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 3:44 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example Rick, Most full-blown CMS solutions allow the clients to add pages to a site whenever desired, they simply select the underlying template (that you develop and provide) for that particular page and go to town creating the content and adding web parts into the areas that you have defined in the template. A WYSIWYG editor is a key ingredient and there are several open source ones out there. I use TinyMCE which is rather simple to configure and provides a good number of options and plugins to choose from and the new version allows for inline editing of the content, though it doesn't sync with the applied CSS to allow users to see the formats they are applying. The ability to upload graphics and documents is also important. Another important thing is allowing the client to preview the updated content within the context of the site before they publish it. This way they can verify that the changes they have made fit the sites theme and layout and correct anything that falls outside the acceptable limits. Inline editors are good for this but there are other approaches as well. You want to give them the freedom to alter the content to the greatest possible extent so that you can focus on developing new functionality/web parts for them to incorporate into their content, especially now that there is an ever increasing number of sites that will allow companies to create their own sites for relatively low cost. You certainly don't want to constrain your client to the point that they move on to another option. David Phelan Web Developer IT Security Web Technologies Emerging Health Montefiore Information Technology 3 Odell Plaza, Yonkers, NY 10701 914-457-6465 Office 862-234-9109 Cell dphe...@emerginghealthit.com www.emerginghealthit.com www.montefiore.org -Original Message- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:r...@whitestonemedia.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 1:42 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example 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
RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
Yes, that's true, Scott. -Original Message- From: Scott Stroz [mailto:boyz...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2013 12:51 PM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example For a 'title' you may not want them to be able to format that within a rich text editor. It would be more consistent to have all the titles be the same style. On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 12:08 PM, Rick Faircloth r...@whitestonemedia.comwrote: Hmmm... just finished setting up CKEditor in a site manager for specials... just title, description, and image. Successfully uploaded all content, processed 5 different image sizes from original, and entered all into database. When I went to view the new Special on the development site, I realized the special title, that was entered in a separate instance of CKEditor on the page, was un-styled. Of course, in the database, the actual text was surrounded by p/p and didn't have the style from the stylesheet that normally styles the Special Titles. Is this always the case with editors that provide style control? Since the editor enters its own tags and styles inline (boo), would this mean that all styling has to come from within the CKEditor and its styles would override my stylesheets? Rick -Original Message- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:r...@whitestonemedia.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 7:42 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example Thanks, David... Yes, the live content editors are very attractive. Several of the CSM's that I reviewed offer that option. It's very appealing. And it certainly is a balancing-act, trying to provide desired functionality so they don't look elsewhere, but not giving them so much control that they end up making a mess of a site. Rick -Original Message- From: David Phelan [mailto:dphe...@emerginghealthit.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 3:44 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example Rick, Most full-blown CMS solutions allow the clients to add pages to a site whenever desired, they simply select the underlying template (that you develop and provide) for that particular page and go to town creating the content and adding web parts into the areas that you have defined in the template. A WYSIWYG editor is a key ingredient and there are several open source ones out there. I use TinyMCE which is rather simple to configure and provides a good number of options and plugins to choose from and the new version allows for inline editing of the content, though it doesn't sync with the applied CSS to allow users to see the formats they are applying. The ability to upload graphics and documents is also important. Another important thing is allowing the client to preview the updated content within the context of the site before they publish it. This way they can verify that the changes they have made fit the sites theme and layout and correct anything that falls outside the acceptable limits. Inline editors are good for this but there are other approaches as well. You want to give them the freedom to alter the content to the greatest possible extent so that you can focus on developing new functionality/web parts for them to incorporate into their content, especially now that there is an ever increasing number of sites that will allow companies to create their own sites for relatively low cost. You certainly don't want to constrain your client to the point that they move on to another option. David Phelan Web Developer IT Security Web Technologies Emerging Health Montefiore Information Technology 3 Odell Plaza, Yonkers, NY 10701 914-457-6465 Office 862-234-9109 Cell dphe...@emerginghealthit.com www.emerginghealthit.com www.montefiore.org -Original Message- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:r...@whitestonemedia.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 1:42 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example 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
Re: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
Is this always the case with editors that provide style control? Since the editor enters its own tags and styles inline (boo), would this mean that all styling has to come from within the CKEditor and its styles would override my stylesheets? You can customize the style list shown to the user, so that it uses classes you've defined within your CSS stylesheet. Google custom ckeditor styles for more information. This is also covered in the Advanced CF course available from Adobe training partners. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ http://training.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Software is a Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB) on GSA Schedule, and provides the highest caliber vendor-authorized instruction at our training centers, online, or onsite. ~| 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:356314 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
Thanks, Dave. -Original Message- From: Dave Watts [mailto:dwa...@figleaf.com] Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2013 1:09 PM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example Is this always the case with editors that provide style control? Since the editor enters its own tags and styles inline (boo), would this mean that all styling has to come from within the CKEditor and its styles would override my stylesheets? You can customize the style list shown to the user, so that it uses classes you've defined within your CSS stylesheet. Google custom ckeditor styles for more information. This is also covered in the Advanced CF course available from Adobe training partners. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ http://training.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Software is a Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB) on GSA Schedule, and provides the highest caliber vendor-authorized instruction at our training centers, online, or onsite. ~| 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:356315 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
Rick, As a developer who has recently become involved with CMS environments, let me assure you that the introduction of a CMS by no means indicates that a developer is no longer required. I actually work full time supporting a number of web sites that all run from a CF based CMS and recently started supporting one that runs in WordPress. Even with our licensed CF CMS specifically developed for the healthcare industry, the functionality OOTB does not always meet the requirements of the end users and I find myself quite busy reworking, rewriting or introducing functionality so as to meet the requirements of the users and content managers. The point of a CMS is to get the tedious job of content updates out of the hands of developers and into the hands of those who know what they want to change. I am quite happy developing or enhancing functionality for the site rather than making the endless, often minor, content changes that the client wants. David Phelan Web Developer IT Security Web Technologies Emerging Health Montefiore Information Technology 3 Odell Plaza, Yonkers, NY 10701 914-457-6465 Office 862-234-9109 Cell dphe...@emerginghealthit.com www.emerginghealthit.com www.montefiore.org -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:356300 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
Rick, Allow me to second this excellent comment. CMS is just the next level for an active content based or content critical website. Both expense and development tend to go up rather than down or level off. -Mark Mark Kruger - CFG CF Webtools www.cfwebtools.com www.coldfusionmuse.com O: 402.932.3318 E: mkru...@cfwebtools.com Skype: markakruger -Original Message- From: David Phelan [mailto:dphe...@emerginghealthit.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 9:36 AM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example Rick, As a developer who has recently become involved with CMS environments, let me assure you that the introduction of a CMS by no means indicates that a developer is no longer required. I actually work full time supporting a number of web sites that all run from a CF based CMS and recently started supporting one that runs in WordPress. Even with our licensed CF CMS specifically developed for the healthcare industry, the functionality OOTB does not always meet the requirements of the end users and I find myself quite busy reworking, rewriting or introducing functionality so as to meet the requirements of the users and content managers. The point of a CMS is to get the tedious job of content updates out of the hands of developers and into the hands of those who know what they want to change. I am quite happy developing or enhancing functionality for the site rather than making the endless, often minor, content changes that the client wants. David Phelan Web Developer IT Security Web Technologies Emerging Health Montefiore Information Technology 3 Odell Plaza, Yonkers, NY 10701 914-457-6465 Office 862-234-9109 Cell dphe...@emerginghealthit.com www.emerginghealthit.com www.montefiore.org -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:356301 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
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:356302 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
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
Re: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
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.comwrote: 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
RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
Rick, Most full-blown CMS solutions allow the clients to add pages to a site whenever desired, they simply select the underlying template (that you develop and provide) for that particular page and go to town creating the content and adding web parts into the areas that you have defined in the template. A WYSIWYG editor is a key ingredient and there are several open source ones out there. I use TinyMCE which is rather simple to configure and provides a good number of options and plugins to choose from and the new version allows for inline editing of the content, though it doesn't sync with the applied CSS to allow users to see the formats they are applying. The ability to upload graphics and documents is also important. Another important thing is allowing the client to preview the updated content within the context of the site before they publish it. This way they can verify that the changes they have made fit the sites theme and layout and correct anything that falls outside the acceptable limits. Inline editors are good for this but there are other approaches as well. You want to give them the freedom to alter the content to the greatest possible extent so that you can focus on developing new functionality/web parts for them to incorporate into their content, especially now that there is an ever increasing number of sites that will allow companies to create their own sites for relatively low cost. You certainly don't want to constrain your client to the point that they move on to another option. David Phelan Web Developer IT Security Web Technologies Emerging Health Montefiore Information Technology 3 Odell Plaza, Yonkers, NY 10701 914-457-6465 Office 862-234-9109 Cell dphe...@emerginghealthit.com www.emerginghealthit.com www.montefiore.org -Original Message- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:r...@whitestonemedia.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 1:42 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example 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
Re: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
if you just want simple then try Wordpress as I mentioned before, anyone should be able to use that. the CF equivalent would be mangoblog. Both these apps are not just for blogs, they allow you to create pages and have a basic CMS and use plugins. Most full blown CMS systems you can turn off all the features you do not need. On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 6:41 PM, Rick Faircloth r...@whitestonemedia.comwrote: 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
RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
Thanks, David... Yes, the live content editors are very attractive. Several of the CSM's that I reviewed offer that option. It's very appealing. And it certainly is a balancing-act, trying to provide desired functionality so they don't look elsewhere, but not giving them so much control that they end up making a mess of a site. Rick -Original Message- From: David Phelan [mailto:dphe...@emerginghealthit.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 3:44 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example Rick, Most full-blown CMS solutions allow the clients to add pages to a site whenever desired, they simply select the underlying template (that you develop and provide) for that particular page and go to town creating the content and adding web parts into the areas that you have defined in the template. A WYSIWYG editor is a key ingredient and there are several open source ones out there. I use TinyMCE which is rather simple to configure and provides a good number of options and plugins to choose from and the new version allows for inline editing of the content, though it doesn't sync with the applied CSS to allow users to see the formats they are applying. The ability to upload graphics and documents is also important. Another important thing is allowing the client to preview the updated content within the context of the site before they publish it. This way they can verify that the changes they have made fit the sites theme and layout and correct anything that falls outside the acceptable limits. Inline editors are good for this but there are other approaches as well. You want to give them the freedom to alter the content to the greatest possible extent so that you can focus on developing new functionality/web parts for them to incorporate into their content, especially now that there is an ever increasing number of sites that will allow companies to create their own sites for relatively low cost. You certainly don't want to constrain your client to the point that they move on to another option. David Phelan Web Developer IT Security Web Technologies Emerging Health Montefiore Information Technology 3 Odell Plaza, Yonkers, NY 10701 914-457-6465 Office 862-234-9109 Cell dphe...@emerginghealthit.com www.emerginghealthit.com www.montefiore.org -Original Message- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:r...@whitestonemedia.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 1:42 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example 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
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:356294 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: SOT: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
As content management systems go, Joomla is a good one, but it doesn't replace a programmer for anything other than changing the content on the site, which is something I usually want to give to the users anyhow. Joomla requires installation and security updates, and some degree of training, I don't know of anyone who can use it effectively out of the box. The user manager in Joomla can be problematic if you require validation, as some sites, notably Yahoo, have the default validation messages blocked as spam. You may need to get the domain white listed to avoid this, or at bare minimum, do a custom validation messages. If extensive user management, or a community type site is needed, the JomSocial plugin works well, but it's not free. On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 1:25 PM, Rick Faircloth r...@whitestonemedia.com wrote: 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:356295 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: SOT: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
CFML-based CMS's are also readily available: Mura: http://www.getmura.com/ ContentBox: http://www.gocontentbox.org/ Xindi: http://www.getxindi.com/ All free and open-source. They certainly do not replace a developer - instead they compliment you. They allow you to avoid needing to develop a custom CMS each time and focus on developing the uniqueness of your client's services. If you're doing e-commerce, check out Slatwall as well: http://www.getslatwall.com/ I have not personally used Joomla in a couple years but their upgrade policies were terrible at the time. Their security isn't bad, but being an open-source PHP app they are regularly targeted so patching is mandatory. You and your clients will need to stay on top of that if you choose to run with Joomla. I'd whole-heartedly recommend something CFML-based instead. Warm Regards, Jordan Michaels On 07/23/2013 01:25 PM, Rick Faircloth wrote: 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:356296 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: SOT: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
another (free) open source CFML CMS for your consideration Farcry CMS http://www.farcrycore.org/ CMSs do not replace a programmer - they are for managing content. Most will have a WYSIWYG editor so they can do formatting via a tool bar. If customisation is required, you will most likely want someone with programming skills. If this is going to be you, you will probably want to system built with a language you know, or at least want to learn. Even it it is a minor change, you will need to be able to find the bit of code to edit and be confident it wont break anything else. I found WordPress (PHP) very complex to work out how things work. And I am sure a competent WordPress/PHP person would say the same about Farcry CMS (in fact, a CFML developer would say the same thing!) On 24 July 2013 04:55, Jordan Michaels jor...@viviotech.net wrote: CFML-based CMS's are also readily available: Mura: http://www.getmura.com/ ContentBox: http://www.gocontentbox.org/ Xindi: http://www.getxindi.com/ All free and open-source. They certainly do not replace a developer - instead they compliment you. They allow you to avoid needing to develop a custom CMS each time and focus on developing the uniqueness of your client's services. If you're doing e-commerce, check out Slatwall as well: http://www.getslatwall.com/ I have not personally used Joomla in a couple years but their upgrade policies were terrible at the time. Their security isn't bad, but being an open-source PHP app they are regularly targeted so patching is mandatory. You and your clients will need to stay on top of that if you choose to run with Joomla. I'd whole-heartedly recommend something CFML-based instead. Warm Regards, Jordan Michaels On 07/23/2013 01:25 PM, Rick Faircloth wrote: 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:356298 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
Re: SOT: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example
while the CF CMS solutions are good, esp Mura, they lack the plugins and themes and support that exists for the likes of Joomla. Mura seems to be the most popular CMS in CF land these days, but if you get stuck the chance of getting any help on the mura forums is almost non existent in my experience. Joomla is a bit of an unweildy beast, not very intuitive and complex to use, most functionality seems like it was bolted on as an afterthought, while it is the most popular CMS that doesn;t mean it is good, I think it is quite horrible to use..But it has a plugin for everything you could imagine, thousands of themes to choose from, and plenty of communities to get support. If you want a powerful CMS with gazillions of themes and plugins that do everything you could ever want then Joomla or Drupal is hard to beat. If you are more concerned about simplicity and ease of use rather than powerful CMS features then Wordpress is the boss, it is not really a CMS, but has a basic WYSIWYG page editor and more plugins and themes than you could wave a stick at. If you want a powerful CMS that is easy to use and extend but doesn't have a lot of 3rd party plugins or themes, then the CF options Jordan mentioned are all good, or on the PHP front take a look at Concrete5 and there are plenty of other lesser known CMS's which are much better than the most popular ones. The other big advantage with using a popular CMS is updates. Because they are so widely used, any hacks or vulnerabilities are discovered and patched pretty quick, plus you get new features etc with updates. A roll your own CMS is only going to get any love if the client asks for it, they invariably end up becoming legacy code that has not been updated for years and any security holes go unnoticed. every so often we get a customer who tells us their site has been hacked, or they are being spammed via the contact page, and it always turns out to be ancient legacy code that has not been updated in years and is full of holes. Usually they do not have the money to get all the problems fixed and it ends up being much quicker and cheaper to just redo the site in Wordpress. On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 11:30 PM, AJ Mercer ajmer...@gmail.com wrote: another (free) open source CFML CMS for your consideration Farcry CMS http://www.farcrycore.org/ CMSs do not replace a programmer - they are for managing content. Most will have a WYSIWYG editor so they can do formatting via a tool bar. If customisation is required, you will most likely want someone with programming skills. If this is going to be you, you will probably want to system built with a language you know, or at least want to learn. Even it it is a minor change, you will need to be able to find the bit of code to edit and be confident it wont break anything else. I found WordPress (PHP) very complex to work out how things work. And I am sure a competent WordPress/PHP person would say the same about Farcry CMS (in fact, a CFML developer would say the same thing!) On 24 July 2013 04:55, Jordan Michaels jor...@viviotech.net wrote: CFML-based CMS's are also readily available: Mura: http://www.getmura.com/ ContentBox: http://www.gocontentbox.org/ Xindi: http://www.getxindi.com/ All free and open-source. They certainly do not replace a developer - instead they compliment you. They allow you to avoid needing to develop a custom CMS each time and focus on developing the uniqueness of your client's services. If you're doing e-commerce, check out Slatwall as well: http://www.getslatwall.com/ I have not personally used Joomla in a couple years but their upgrade policies were terrible at the time. Their security isn't bad, but being an open-source PHP app they are regularly targeted so patching is mandatory. You and your clients will need to stay on top of that if you choose to run with Joomla. I'd whole-heartedly recommend something CFML-based instead. Warm Regards, Jordan Michaels On 07/23/2013 01:25 PM, Rick Faircloth wrote: 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
