Greets, Corbin!
Corbin Harris wrote:
> Midgard users,
> I found out about midgard while searching for information on developing a
> web publishing system for http://www.tacomacitypaper.com
> Right now I am exploring commercial options with either Dispatch -
> http://www.dispatch.net which is geared toward small, independent papers &
> E-grail from http://www.guiworks.com which is based on open-source
> standards, but provides the software as a hosted-application.
> Currently the tacomacitypaper.com site is being hosed on UnixBSD running
> Apache & has PHP/MySQL enabled. So this server would be capable of running
> Midgard. I do have a few questions, mostly newbie questions, so if you like
> you can respond off-list to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
> Questions,
> Given that I have no programming skills & intermediate HTML skills, how
> complicated would it be to install Midgard & get things working in a short
> time?
>
Your HTML skills are not really an issue with setting up Midgard. If you type
your pages into an HTML editor at work, then its just as easy to type them into
Midgard.
As for the programming skills. While it doesn't really take much to set up
Midgard, the site design could cause a little bit of a stumbling block. This
is not "necessarily" true as you can set up your site "statically" as well, but
without learning a little PHP (the scripting language used in Midgard) you
would lose a lot of the functionality that is present. Luckily, PHP is easily
learned, and although the initial learning curve is a little steep, the final
results are well worth the time invested.
>
> Are there any media or other organizations in the US using this system?
>
I have the system up and running and in current development on my computer and
would be happy to answer questions. E-mail me and we'll talk.
>
> How difficult would it be to transfer my current site (built using
> Dreamweaver on Macintosh) to Midgard?
>
Should be a matter of "cut and paste".
>
> What kind support is available from the Midgard community?
>
You've hit upon the best part of Midgard (as far as I'm concerned). The
Midgard community seems to be really tight knit. The developers monitor this
mailing list constantly, and answers are quickly forthcoming.
>
> Once up and running how difficult is it for editorial staff to update
> content?
>
If they have a browser on their computer and access to the administrative web
site, they can actually write their stories right into Midgard. With a little
bit of scripting, you can allow your editors to make corrections, etc before
allowing the stories to be displayed. I'd say Midgard excels at this type of
environment.
>
> How does Midgard compare to commercial products? (such as those I mentioned)
>
Can't answer this one, sorry. I installed Midgard and fell in love with it.
(and you can't beat the price!)
>
> What other alternatives are available?
>
Well, besides those you mentioned, ColdFusion just released a (beta) version
for the *nix family. You could continue on your present course. There are
several other opensource application servers out there. Your main stumbling
block with almost all of them is that you are going to have to learn some type
of scripting to take advantage of the features offered by the application
server.
>
> I may have future questions. I'm tasked to give my managers options for our
> website so the site can be more dynamic, but the fact I'm on almost zero
> budget limits my options, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Ahhh.. the bane of any IT manager.. Money.. (or lack thereof) *grin*
Jamie Tomlinson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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