I’ve been asked by a client to research the possibility of designing a website to buy/sell horses (same idea as auto trader but for horses) using FW Pro and a CMS. Can anyone think of a CMS system that would be up to the challenge? - A system geared up to allow people to sign up and advertise there own items, after registering.
Joomla! has some nice multi-author tools, as does Drupal. Neither of these are particularly Freeway-friendly, though. You might want to look at Perch, which just made a new multi-user feature one or two versions ago, and might be good for what you’re after.
I would actually urge you to look in HotScripts or similar for something that is actually designed to work with a multi-vendor sales process (it might even have a way for a potential customer to contact a vendor without exposing e-mail addresses etc.). A few minutes searching there could net you a solution that gets you closer to the real result you’re after than a simpler CMS plus a lot of cursing and swearing might do. The hard part would then be integrating your design into the canned server-side application, but that’s going to be the same level of difficulty in any of these systems.
Todd, I know you are a big fan of MODX. Just out of curiosity, have you ever integrated MODX into a FWP website or seen that done, or are you building everything from scratch?
Hmmm, I guess you missed my posts from Feb. but I put together a Freeway/MODX tutorial http://xiiro.com/musings/2013/02/05/modx-freeway/. It’s not exactly symbiotic but it does work fairly well and is less of a pain to setup than I expected.
That said, I’ve not done the MODX/FW thang for production, my MODX sites have been from scratch. Interestingly Freeway and MODX share a similar philosophy in that they both promote, provide and encourage a blank creative slate. MODX stays completely out of your creative way but does all the serious heavy-lifting.
Todd
On 28 Nov 2013, 3:25 pm, Todd wrote:
MODX
Todd, I know you are a big fan of MODX. Just out of curiosity, have you ever integrated MODX into a FWP website or seen that done, or are you building everything from scratch?
Oddly enough (given how powerful MODX is) in some respects I do find it easier than Perch. But truthfully to me they both have a vaguely similar feel which I think stems from the occasional php you’re exposed to. Not that you need to know PHP to do anything useful with it, far from it, but it can be rather hands-on in the same way Perch can be at times. That being said if you (or your dev) have PHP skills you can do some truly stunning things with MODX. It’s this level of flexibility that I find so intriguing. Plus the backend (Manager) is hugely customizable which is a boon for clients.
This is a good time to get started with MODX because it’s undergoing an enormous redesign with major gains in user-friendliness both for designers/devs and the end-user (clients). The next version (2.3) should be out very soon which is a bridge of sorts leading up to the long anticipated and completely retooled version 3.0 http://modx.com/blog/2012/05/25/clarity-focus-and-simplicity/.
Todd
I wasn’t aware of that. Nice job. Do you find MODX easier to use than Perch?
For me, when I can get Perch to work, I love it. Some things are extremely easy, other things are a bit more complex, especially with FWP.
Why ‘especially’ with FWP? Are you referring to CSS issues or something else? If it’s a styling problem then I’m not sure a MODX/Freeway combo will be much different.
Todd
I wasn’t aware of that. Nice job. Do you find MODX easier to use than Perch?
For me, when I can get Perch to work, I love it. Some things are extremely easy, other things are a bit more complex, especially with FWP.