Some of the afore mentioned features are a must, but there is one
thing that so many CMS' do wrong it's disgusting, make search engine
friendly URLs, or at least provide the option, most website owners
don't want there about page to be something like example.com/
index.php?module=content§ion=general&page=about, and having
example.com/index.php/content/general/about or example.com/content/
general/about aren't much better, avoid it all and allow users to
choose the URL or something like that. This is one of the main
reasons that I don't use a Content Management System for my sites
anymore, cause with everything that is already out there, it's easier
for me and my clients if it's done by hand, as tedious as it is, it's
necessary because there is nothing that is remotely good, I've tried
everything under the sun, and yet nothing is good enough.
Also allow users to completely control what the output looks like,
offer them a selection of a few doc-types that they want to validate
against, not everyone uses XHTML strict, and then see if it's
possible to fix small validation errors (turning <br> into <br /> for
XHTML, etc..) and for larger ones or more complicated ones (such as
adding the alt tag in an image for XHTML) notify the user about the
error and recommend that they correct it and then offer a few
examples. I know it gets real complicated to do that (I've tried),
but I'm sure it's possible. Also make it accessible.
One other thing you might want is to show a big error when someone
uses more than two tables on their site, and then provide links to
articles on using Divs and CSS instead of tables. Ok, don't do that,
but you should show a small notice if someone uses alot of tables on
their site and provide those links, just to try to push more people
to CSS-based sites.
The biggest point is to give the user control over their CMS and make
them feel confident to do something, as many interfaces are
intimidating (I'm looking at you Mambo) and others are so different
that's it's almost hilarious (not naming names on this one, *cough*
Drupal *cough*).
--
Ryan
On Nov 1, 2005, at 2:10 PM, Serhan D. KIYMAZ wrote:
Hi All,
I'm developer of DCP-Portal which is a well-known open source project.
Since I've quit developing DCP-Portal after 4 years and over
200,000 downloads, I've started to thinking to start a new project.
New project will be a content management system. This means the
base package won't have portal system features like member login,
forum etc like many others. But it will be possible to add these
features with extra modules (which most of them will be free and
open source).
I'm now planning this new project and I want to learn what users,
site owners need. Why do I have to develop a new system? Can you
please help me?
- Why do you need a new system (or do you need a new system :))
- Which feature(s) is a must for a CMS?
- Which extra modules do you need?
- Which points/features are missed by the current projects?
New project will require PHP5 and a database (MySQL, PostgreSQL,
Oracle, MSSQL etc).
Project name is BaBu Portal (www.babuportal.com will be the domain).
Any ideas will be appreciated.
Thanks very much.
Regards
Serhan D. KIYMAZ
Web & Mobile Application Developer
www.serotizm.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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