The time is fast approaching when I will be stepping back from the steering committee. I’m not expecting any of my successors to be at all interested in designing and maintaining the site, so I’m looking at ways to migrate it to a more readily edited and scalable format.
So far, the options before me are a CMS of some kind, or a blog format such as WordPress.
The CMS would be okay, in that the home page needn’t change that much, and only some internal pages would need to be edited. However, it would still rely on someone with either the right software, or at least the right know-how, to get in and make serious changes at some stage in the future.
I’ve been considering the WordPress route, but I’m not entirely sure it’s the right way forward. The idea sounds right, but the method seems, well, wrong. I like the idea the whole thing can be edited with nothing more than the passwords, a good text editor and a decent web browser.
So, I thought I’d come and ask the brains trust to see what folk think. Which route would make the site easier for non-technical, non-geeky people to maintain? Or am I looking in entirely the wrong direction?
I just posted on the “offtopic” list about a nice CMS called MODx <http://modxcms.com
. Despite its features and power non-technical clients seem very
comfortable with it right from the start. Rather amazing, actually and
it’s fairly easy to modify from a design standpoint.
I’m in the process of hacking Worpress for someone who is using it as
a CMS of sorts. I don’t recommend it. As blogging software it’s great
but if you intend to press it into service as a CMS, well, you may
want to consider an alternative. I know many people use it as such but
it was never intended to be one. MODx strikes a very nice balance,
indeed.
Todd
On Apr 7, 2009, at 10:37 AM, Heather Kavanagh wrote:
So, I thought I’d come and ask the brains trust to see what folk
think. Which route would make the site easier for non-technical, non-
geeky people to maintain? Or am I looking in entirely the wrong
direction?
I know many people use it as such but it was never intended to be
one. MODx strikes a very nice balance, indeed.
Ooh, thanks for that. I’ll check it out.
I need to bear in mind I’m relying on software that’s already supplied
as part of the hosting package. I’ll have to check whether external
stuff can be installed without annoying the provider!
I’ve found that MODx is standard on a surprising number of plans.
Todd
On Apr 7, 2009, at 11:00 AM, Heather Kavanagh wrote:
On 7 Apr 2009, at 16:51, Todd wrote:
I know many people use it as such but it was never intended to be
one. MODx strikes a very nice balance, indeed.
Ooh, thanks for that. I’ll check it out.
I need to bear in mind I’m relying on software that’s already
supplied as part of the hosting package. I’ll have to check whether
external stuff can be installed without annoying the provider!
It also has a very nice installer script that manages all of the setup
and such for you in most cases. You may need to set world-writable
permissions on a few folders, but you can always do that to get it
running, then file a help-desk ticket to get the permissions changed
to “server owns it, world can read and execute it” which most control
panels won’t let you set directly.
Walter
On Apr 7, 2009, at 12:06 PM, Todd wrote:
I’ve found that MODx is standard on a surprising number of plans.
Todd
On Apr 7, 2009, at 11:00 AM, Heather Kavanagh wrote:
On 7 Apr 2009, at 16:51, Todd wrote:
I know many people use it as such but it was never intended to be
one. MODx strikes a very nice balance, indeed.
Ooh, thanks for that. I’ll check it out.
I need to bear in mind I’m relying on software that’s already
supplied as part of the hosting package. I’ll have to check whether
external stuff can be installed without annoying the provider!
I’ve found that MODx is standard on a surprising number of plans.
It does look good, and while I investigate whether I can install it on
my host (Dave, perhaps you’ll chip in?), anyone got thoughts on
Joomla, Mambo and Drupal - two of which I have seen talked about on
these lists, so must be alright really.
Those are big powerful beasts. Extremely capable, certainly, but
you’re definitely in the deep-end of the pool with those. Plus, they
would probably be overkill for your needs.
Todd
On Apr 7, 2009, at 11:25 AM, Heather Kavanagh wrote:
On 7 Apr 2009, at 17:06, Todd wrote:
I’ve found that MODx is standard on a surprising number of plans.
It does look good, and while I investigate whether I can install it
on my host (Dave, perhaps you’ll chip in?), anyone got thoughts on
Joomla, Mambo and Drupal - two of which I have seen talked about on
these lists, so must be alright really.
Joomla and Mambo are the same thing – they forked a few years back
when Mambo changed from GPL to a commercial license. It has taken
Joomla a number of years and versions to become a different animal,
but they are both very good for making sites that have lots of newsy
content. Each would make a strong foundation for a news magazine or
newspaper site. There is an enormous community of contributed software
modules for these, and up to a point, they are compatible with one
another. (Joomla pre 1.5 is mostly the same as Mambo; I haven’t
followed Mambo at all since the split, but these large beasts take a
lot of turning room so I imagine it’s still pretty much the same.)
Drupal has a very library-science angle to it, and has a lot of
features that lend themselves to making large collaboratively-authored
“book-like-things” on the Web. Have a browse through the Drupal
documentation (made in Drupal, naturally) for an example of what I’m
talking about. Drupal users tend to throw the word “taxonomy” around a
lot (I had to look it up the first couple of times) and know what they
mean by it. Of course you can make a simple blog-with-comments out of
it as well, and the list of add-on modules stretches from here to
Mumbai.
Walter
On Apr 7, 2009, at 12:25 PM, Heather Kavanagh wrote:
On 7 Apr 2009, at 17:06, Todd wrote:
I’ve found that MODx is standard on a surprising number of plans.
It does look good, and while I investigate whether I can install it
on my host (Dave, perhaps you’ll chip in?), anyone got thoughts on
Joomla, Mambo and Drupal - two of which I have seen talked about on
these lists, so must be alright really.
Sorry its been busy day today and missed this post .
It’s an easy job to just install one one the scripts like Wordpress,
Joomla etc. that you have in the control panel and install into a test
folder/directory and have a play around with it. If you don’t like
it, delete the directory together with any MySQL file associated with
it and start over. When you are confident the script is for you, then
do a proper install where you need it. You can always keep and use the
test install as your test bed area.
I would recommend testing each script to get a better feel of what
they can do for you.
I’d say I’m quite impressed with WordPress, mainly because of the
large following and support its got, and many templates to get started
with. But it depends on what kind of site you are looking for.
David
David Owen :: Freeway Friendly Web hosting and Domains ::
I’ve found that MODx is standard on a surprising number of plans.
It does look good, and while I investigate whether I can install it
on my host (Dave, perhaps you’ll chip in?), anyone got thoughts on
Joomla, Mambo and Drupal - two of which I have seen talked about on
these lists, so must be alright really.
I would recommend testing each script to get a better feel of what
they can do for you.
I may do. Thanks, David.
What about installing “third party” software? From what Walt and Todd
have said, I’d like to have a look at MODx. Would that be something I
can do? Is it allowed on your servers?
Sorry to ask so many questions, and so late UK time, but I’m keen to
know what is possible so I can make my investigations in fairly short
order.
If it’s easier, perhaps we could take this off list?
How do you customize the look of a MODx site? Does it use full page templates with tags, or do you have bits of HTML you have to give it for headers, footers, etc. (like Wordpress)?
Looking at the MODx documentation, it looks as if the templates are just (X)HTML pages with MODx tags thrown in where you need them. Thus, it may very well be possible to create a MODx template page in Freeway, with tags and all.
However, I did not yet see where links from the page go, such as CSS, Resources, external JavaScript, etc.
At the very least, for now, it seems like a Freeway user could create the basic layout in Freeway and copy the generated code over to MODx.
At the very least, for now, it seems like a Freeway user could
create the basic layout in Freeway and copy the generated code over
to MODx.
That’s an interesting possibility.
I will be reading up on MODx over the coming weekend, and if I’m
convinced enough I shall have a go at installing and playing with it.
It’s time I got more seriously into this web design malarkey: I’ve
been out of the mainstream for too long, and I want to catch up with a
lot of this new stuff.
I’m convinced enough I shall have a go at installing and playing
with it
Well, I am convinced, but I can’t get it going. >:o[
I followed the instructions, uploaded the files, set up a MySQL
database for it, and started the install process, but it won’t connect
and let me complete the installation. I haven’t got a clue which
server, user names, passwords or directories it’s asking me for.
I’m now frustrated, out of my depth and finding no help with the MODx
forums (probably not looking in the right place or for the right
things), so I shall leave it alone again for a bit.
I’m not stupid, but once you get past the brightly coloured and
friendly bit, you’re right into the World of Geek, floundering. It
kind of gives the lie to the “easy to use” and “designer friendly”
bits, somehow.
Right, I’m off to enjoy what’s left of my Easter break.
On 13 Apr 2009, at 11:50 am, Heather Kavanagh wrote:
I followed the instructions, uploaded the files, set up a MySQL
database for it, and started the install process, but it won’t
connect and let me complete the installation. I haven’t got a clue
which server, user names, passwords or directories it’s asking me for.
David Owen ::
Freeway Friendly Web Hosting and Domains