Hi John, I've been using SilverStripe since I found it. It's PHP5/MySQL. The greatest thing about it is that it's not only a CMS but also an MVC framework so you can easily (given rudimentary PHP5/OO knowledge) create new page types.
For example, see http://www.thebankrestaurantandwinebar.com. Each Page controller has a title and content area by default, but I've extended this to add a bgColor text field (because the background of the slideshow is different on every page), a bgImage image selector (because the header image changes for every page), and another CMS tab for adding photos to the slideshow (different on every page). One template covers every page but Directions (because they're set up differently to put maps where the images otherwise go) and the Menus (because they use tabbed panels). These pages extend (yay OO) the base Page class to add the additional fields they require. You define these fields in the class, and the Silverstripe db/build process picks those up to create new tables and fields. It handles 1-N and N-N relationships, but things get a little more difficult here. That said, you wouldn't even be thinking about it in any other CMS. It's all generally very slick, but I've found that things can be a little rougher than they should be on occasion because some lesser-used functionality is more immature and may, from version to version, not work. But then I am using the latest release builds. There's great support in #silverstripe on efnet as well as user forums. The documentation is improving but is not structured in a way I find conducive to helping me find what I need at any given moment, but I either a) remember that I saw something about whatever once upon a time and search for it, b) read the code, or c) ask in IRC. Silverstripe recently got a nice feather in the cap when the Democratic National Convention selected it to quickly get a new site together to handle millions of visitors. I've used Plone in the past, and I wasn't as smart about programming as I am now, but I do recall my biggest complaint being about the templating system. With Silverstripe, you make your XHTML/CSS template per usual and insert controller codes (<h1>$Title</h1><body>$Content</body>) as needed. Plone is far more picky, and seems to me generally more convoluted than it should be because it's built on the wisened foundation of Zope. Silverstripe is so fresh and so clean. I've been meaning to dig into Django - especially in light of the release of Google's AppEngine - but that will have to wait a bit. Best, -- Dylan Oliver Primaverity, LLC Sweeping Design LLC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
