On Monday 06 September 2004 17:32, Jarrod Major wrote: > > Question 1: What do we want/need? Features, specs, etc... > > -basic cms > > - polls? > > This about covers it for me. What do YOU all want on the website? Keep in > mind the longer the wish-list the more complicated it will be to maintain > it.
I don't see a need for a true CMS here. (for this message, I'm defining a true CMS as one that allows online WYSIWYG creation of web pages, as well as storage and presentation of these documents from a database.) I see a need for the polls, news items (i.e. meeting announcements), and the book reviews. There are other elements of the site as well, but these are mostly just a link to an external resource (such as the mailing lists). So, having a system where you can edit a web page doesn't really make sense, though it could be useful. For now though, I want to focus on the CURRENT needs. The future needs will only add complexity that we may not need. So, a page for adding new polls, new items, and book reviews - this can be done via simple text boxes, or made a little more friendly to a non-web developer. Either way, a pretty simple job. On the other hand, if we want to approach this from a true CMS viewpoint, then EVERYTHING can be thought of as content - the headers, footers, menus, book reviews, news items, etc. Somewhere I have a data model for a CMS of this nature - it's my own work, so I can freely pass it on to the group if they want to go down this route. And it had security built into it from day one (it was originally intended to be used commercially by me, so security and proper user access was needed). Or, I have a simpler CMS (in Cold Fusion) already built (see www.avromuseum.ca and www.actionhobby.ca) that might be suitable. If so, then it'd be very easy to migrate this to PHP. > > Question 2: Build or buy or outsource (or in the case of free - as in <snip/> > I think we should build this ourselves. There is certainly enough talent > within our group to be able to come up with something. Yes, there could be > ample opportunity to use this as a skill building exercise. The temporary > solution is in place, developmental space could be made available and the > project could go forward. I think building our own is probably the best choice long term. However, with the volunteer base we have, it could potentially take a long term to get in place. > > Question 3: So if, we're acquiring software (at least for the short <snip/> > At this point I am unfairly lumping all currently available CMS systems > together. I think we should build this from the ground up with security as > the primary concern. I pitched this to the PROGSIG guys months back that we > could task them with building custom modules for our Nuke. Well this would > still be an opportunity, we may not be using the Nuke but there is still > room for custom modules. The poll is of immediate concern to me. I think > the polls have been useful and I would hate to see that go away. How an we > make it better? I can think of a number of ways. A meeting for Open Source Content Management Systems was held in the past week or so. It might be worth looking up the information on this and see if they have anything useful for us... > > Question 4: "Project" resourcing and leadership? <snip/> > This is an excellent question. I think we could make the time. Szemir, > Jason and I are all web developers and we are all comfortable with PHP and > database connectivity. Volunteers would be helpful and desirable. Yes, a > new mailing list may be necessary, I guess it will depend on how many > people are interested. Meetings would certainly get this off to the right > start, we can table this topic for a portion of the next meeting but that > is about 4 weeks away. You can count me in on the design phase of this, at the very minimum. I may suddenly have a whole lot of time on my hands after Wednesday, so could possibly help with the development as well. Jason and I have worked together in the past, and I think it went pretty well. I don't agree with a separate mailing list at all. The issues to be discussed and hashed out are exactly what the PROGSIG list is for (in my opinion). If nothing else, a large number of the members of PROGSIG are very interested in learning about the development process - this project could be educational for them. Also, if the project were to move to a separate list, I believe we'd have much less input coming in. That said, I want it to be known on the general CLUG list that we are discussing this project on PROGSIG, and trying to gauge how many volunteers we may have to help out. Thus far we do have a couple of positive responses. > > Question 5: Integrated or "best of breed" approach? <snip/> > These are some interesting thoughts and depend heavily on what we believe > we need. Coming up with needs and wants lists would be a good first step. > Determining these things would probably answer question 5. > > > Anyway, just some thoughts from someone who has done quite a few of > > these kinds of software projects. > > You input is valuable as always Niels, thank-you. I second Jarrod's comments here. Niels, you have prompted the discussion on to the right track of a proper needs analysis and design discussion. Thanks. Having recently managed a team for building a large scale CMS (www.calgaryairport.com - the public site is only a third of the actual application), I believe I have some knowledge that may be of use. So I'll officially drop my name in the hat to help out where I can... Shawn _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca
