[weldo]

i know you didn't like the look of modX - but that works with hierarchical nav - i only had a few days with it, but apart from the backend looking poor - it all seemed to work ok ... might be worth another quick look ??

[pgo]

Yeah, I'll give it another look.

EDIT: It has the same problem that CMSMS does that I'm trying to avoid in regards to user management: two functionally-separate user databases (one for back-end, one for front-end) that requires people to have two logins. Of course, CMSMS has told me they going to change this.

[stickmus]

Originally Posted by pgo

Only wish I could get the word "category" out of my URLs - it's just taking up precious SEO space. Yes, I know I can change it.

Don't need category in url for pages module.

[Dusteh]

One thing that alot of clients want as far as I'm concerned are good systems for image galleries and/or file downloads (its often one of the reasons they want an updatable site in the first place). I have yet to find a CMS system that has this as a good quality, solid feature built in, and that can be reskinned properly. Has anyone found something that can accomodate this?

[chazthetic]

I'm also researching this. I need to build a site for a theater company where the client can update a schedule of shows and events and stuff, and I suppose add pictures and stuff.
Not sure if wordpress can do this or not, but i'm leaning more towards them right now.

[pgo]

Wordpress is a blog system and, I feel, really only appropriate for publishing-type sites.

Check out CMS Made Simple. There's an "events" module that would be perfect for you, I think.

[chazthetic]

thanks pgo, this seems perfect. now i just gotta figure out how to get it to work.

I'm on 1and1 and I have no idea if it will function properly. It's also saying that you need to support PHP sessions. I'm not a programmer, so I don't know if I 1and1 can support that or how to even code that, so any help is appreciated. I'm learning this shit too.

[rmagnuson]

Two recommendations:

Seditio, by Neocrome - Neocrome - Website engines

or

e107 : e107.org: News

Both are highly extensible and will do what you are asking.

Sed has a lot going for it as its written both to be standards compliant and very flexible with the plugins that can be built for it. The community is responsive though it is not an 'open source' project as such, there is a license for the CMS - that said, it only costs around 50 bucks last I checked.

e107 is a point and click CMS that pretty much any monkey could operate. It also has thousands of plugins and a huge base of users that contribute to the project and are very good at answering newb questions.

I know several people have suggested Wordpress here but I have to warn you that it is well known that Wordpress does not stand up to high traffic as well as other CMS systems (Drupal is solid in that dept but I noticed you didn't like it.). I'll probably get flamed for that but if you've ever visited a news source from Digg or Slashdot that pointed to a url that uses Wordpress you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, my 2c.

Good luck in your endeavor.

[pgo]

Originally Posted by chazthetic

I'm on 1and1 and I have no idea if it will function properly. It's also saying that you need to support PHP sessions. I'm not a programmer, so I don't know if I 1and1 can support that or how to even code that, so any help is appreciated. I'm learning this shit too.

1and1 should support it, I believe.

I've used them in the past and it was a pain in the ass to get a database set up.

This is from the CMSMS forums on 1and1:

In brief, ok for static sites, but anything you care about using LAMP is problematic for various reasons including:
+ uptime has been ok, but not great. When it does go down, it can be a while (includes > 12 hrs one time)
+ support is hard to get hold of and sometimes slow to respond if its a hard question (anything technical)
+ they routinely upgrade things (like PHP version) and stuff breaks - and support has no idea - and there's never any advance warning

The last is what finally drove me elsewhere for my CMS sites. Everything would be running fine and then all of a sudden something breaks without warning or reason. The last couple of times I didn't even bother working out what broke - I just moved the whole shebang elsewhere.

I've had bad experiences with 1and1. Of course, I signed up for their "3 years free" promotion a few years ago, so things may have changed. I'd consider moving if you can.

[T-Bag]

Originally Posted by pgo

@Dusteh - I looked at Drupal once and said "no".

@PGO: Was just wondering why? I'm currently looking into CMS's too, never used one before...

[pgo]

Originally Posted by T-Bag

@PGO: Was just wondering why? I'm currently looking into CMS's too, never used one before...

Mostly because it wasn't even close to intuitive. I don't like when there isn't a clear deliniation between the front and back end of the site. The admin area should be a separate entity, really.

Plus...it just didn't make any sense to me after 30 minutes, so I ditched it.

[Dusteh]

Its worth a closer look, I've got a link to a tutorial on how to seperate the admin from the front end, so that it functions like wordpress.

In terms of flexibility for large scale, compex sites it seems to be one of the better options. Its taxonomy feature for menus is confusing at first, but powerful.

[digilee]

You'll hear me say this a lot here, so I'll start in the right place ... NucleusCMS works wonders for me nucleuscms.org

[ira42]

Hey all, I came across this forum as I'm having a problem wrapping my head around the Static Pages module for EE.

Stickmus, would you by any chance be able to shed some light on something (you seem to have an excellent grasp on the module!)?

The part I'm really having a problem with, is the 'make dynamic' option. I have a weblog named 'Products', and it has several categories associated to it. I also have my static pages weblog called 'sections', which has a category group with my entire site structure setup in hierarchical groups.

So, one of my static pages is called 'Products', which is great as I can now create a products 'splash' page (like a general overview page) and my clients can edit that page if they need to. Same goes for the static sub-categories under products. Problem is, it's not really tied into the separate 'Products' weblog at all, and if I change the static 'Products' category using the 'make dynamic' button (and adjust the weblog/template settings as well), there's no way to edit the static 'Products' splash page anymore....

Ugh, I'm so completely sure that what I wrote makes little sense, but I've been banging my head with EE for over a week now, and still can't set up my sections and categories.

If you have any pointers, I would really, really appreciate it.

Tx in advance!

Ira

[pgo]

Have you spent some time at the EE forums? Might be a better place.

Personally, I decided against EE. I spent hours and hours with it and made virtually no progress.

[ira42]

Hey there, thanks for the reply. Spent many hours on the EE forum, and most of the comments about this module are contained in one thread...which is about 340 posts long....and I've read them all...TWICE.

There's some basic wiki docs, which clarified things a bit, and 2 how-to articles by the module's author, but they all leave out some basic functionality explanations about the features... It's a real shame, as the module fixes some major weaknesses in EE, and I'm pretty sure it can do what I need. In fact, the author of this module has written about 10 other extensions, which are all equally as brilliant in extending EE, just no docs available on usage.

Be interested to hear from Stickmus on this.

Cheers,

Ira

[stickmus]

All the 'make dynamic' does is adjust the pages interface so you can add multiple pages. It's quite difficult to explain how to get dynamic content playing along without knowing you're level of understanding of EE, but you basically you set up dynamic content as if you weren't using the pages module - with it's own template set. It does need a Category to show up in menus and stuff though.

[Dusteh]

so what did you go with in the end PGO? Or is it still all up in the air?

[pgo]

CMS Made Simple and a PHP object oriented programming book (still not ordered) so I can build my own modules and such.

[Jayx]

I see very little mention of Joomla though. I have been avoiding saddling up the dreaded horse myself, but now I have been thrown in the deep end and it's swimming for dummies for me. Not all that horrible really and it does have the most plug-ins/components of any of the other CMS's out there - by the looks of it. Any thoughts on why not Joomla anyone?