Hi, surprised there is no flamewar here yet...
> I suspect that Joomla maybe what they go with as one client already has a > site using that and their development requirements are a little more simple > for their site redevelopment. The potential gotya is having a client that > wants something more complex. Heard lots about Drupal but despite being the > most popular also had lots of negative comments and I get the impression the > learning time could be restrictive especially considering there is only one > person doing this work in-house (me). I had a look at Modx too which I > liked the admin area a lot more than Joomla but there are so many more > templates and modules in other CMS systems. All CMS have this problem. They have been set up as a standardised offering and you can't really expect that they are solving every problem out of the box. Especially if you make the problem unique. I'm assuming though that your companies problems are unique, otherwise the company would have invented itw own CMS in the meantime because it is likely more profitable. As a further assumption I would assume that you can't really know more than 1 CMs in enough details to be proficient enough with it, i.e. able to provide solutions to *all* requests, acceptably fast in terms of both cost and turnaround time. > > I am worried about making the recommendation and then hitting a nasty that I > had no idea about because in reality you would only know it if you had been > working with each one long enough to know. Yes, but there is nothing you can do about that, because you are *before* the learning curve of any chosen CMS. So right now you have cover that lack of knowledge with confidence. > These seem to me to be important: > > · Learning curve (what if I leave and a new person has to take it > over) As before, that cannot be done away with > > · Template and module availability (yep plenty for the big players > which is a tick for them) There are about a dozen major components for Joomla that are worth it, but (once after the learning curve) most small ones can be built from scratch faster than being found. > > · Support and developers (again big players have plenty of these and > Drupal etc is well supported in NZ) My recommendation is only to choose from the big 6 (whoever that may be) > > · Difficulty installing modules and making modifications to get what > we want. As long as its open source I doubt this will be a problem, all the big ones have acceptable mechanisms > > · Upgrade impact post modifications (if someone else decides they > are going to sometime down the track) Can be overcome with subversion easily > > · Don’t want to crack a walnut with a sledge hammer but also don’t > want to limit more complex requirements (who knows when that can happen) sledge hammer is not a good metaphor, but whats wrong with cracking it with a swiss army knife or car. > > · Performance issues specific to the CMS, SEO requirements, other > really important stuff that is easy to be ignorant of None of these should be really road blocks in a major OS CMS Kind Regards, Jochen Daum Chief Automation Officer Automatem Ltd Phone: 09 630 3425 Mobile: 021 567 853 Email: [email protected] Skype: jochendaum Website: www.automatem.co.nz http://twitter.com/automatem http://nz.linkedin.com/in/automatem http://www.xing.com/go/invite/3425509.181107 http://www.aucklandbusinessnetworking.co.nz -- NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected]
