[Dusteh]

This has been bugging me for a while now, and it's one of the main reasons I'm not keen on giving people a 'pre-made' CMS system as a web designer. By that I mean the usual off-the-shelf opensource solutions. CMSmadesimple, Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress etc.

How do you deal with the long term maintenance of the site's code? Do you encourage the client to pay you some kind of fee to keep their site up to date in the future, thus creating a potential steady stream of income - or do you attempt to leave it as their responsibility.

The way I'm currently thinking of explaining it is that it's best to think of the software their website is running on as similiar to anti-virus on their own computer. You can leave it to run in its original state, but without updates it increasingly becomes vulnerable to exploitation. This does sound harsh - but it at least gets the point across.

The flaws with getting them to do it is that if you have used 3rd party plugins, things could go horribly wrong when they patch their website up to a newer version and an obsolete plugin goes haywire. Not only that but you would have to have a pretty tech-savvy individual on the client side to handle major wordpress updates.

So really you need to convince them its best to come back every six months or so for maintenance? Or sod the whole update thing and put in the small print somewhere that they are being given an opensource solution in its current state and that any future problems with the software are not the responsibility of the designer.

Currently this worries me so much that I'm thinking of jacking in the service of opensource-run CMS sites, sticking to just the front end coding - and working out bespoke build on a client-by-client basis with a developer.

The only downside to this is that this is a pricey option, and would put off a fairly large number of small-to-middle weight clients who don't have that much cash to hand.

Thoughts?

Or failing thoughts... any good PHP CMS developers want to PM me for possible work options in the near future?

[RaelRode]

I am trying to combat this. I am developing a CMS with multiple modules to place on top of the core. Modules would be things such as a blog or a forum, so different clients would have different modules...I would PM you but I know there are PHP Developers on here much better than I am.

[freelancr]

This is why I try to build everything bespoke nowadays.

[Stickman]

Originally Posted by Dusteh

So really you need to convince them its best to come back every six months or so for maintenance? Or sod the whole update thing and put in the small print somewhere that they are being given an opensource solution in its current state and that any future problems with the software are not the responsibility of the designer.

If you're using a pre-made system, I think that's it.

Assuming you want the job, do option 2 as minimum (state they pay for the site as it is at launch). If you want to do the updates as well, then do option 1 as well (organise schedules/prices/etc for updates).

Or you can do CMS 'training'. That always seems to work out well...

[VoiceHero]

Hi,
I think that is actually no question of IF Content Management System or not, its a question of which CMS fits your clients needs best. Most clients will come back anyway - these days there is no way a client can succeed by having a website prepared once and then just left with him, they will expand the features and they will have to integrate it into their marketing efforts as well.

so its part of the responsibility of the service provider to educate and consult the client in that matter. Whether its Drupal or any other CMS is a different story [I prefer Drupal, though]. But you simply can´t serve the clients needs on a sustainable level if you just use some sort of static content, except for some very very small clients who just wanna biz card online basically.

Developing a CMS oneself - well, that is in my opinion a complete misallocation of resources - there are tons of service providers you can use and Drupal for example is not that steep of a learning curve that you would invent the wheel again. the other thing with proprietary CMS - how will you ever be able to provide service level agreements to larger clients - they require that, but you simply won´t be able to serve them. Unless you have quite a lot of equity in your hands to build up a structure which can do that - but i guess at that point you wouldn´t really think anymore of whether or not CMS, but which one.

[d*d]

I have always gone down the bespoke build route on a client by client basis, I'm looking for a decent CMS but can't seem to find one that's right, difficult to find a balance for giving the client just enough freedom to alter content without them ruining their site.

[Dusteh]

I think that is actually no question of IF Content Management System or not, its a question of which CMS fits your clients needs best.

You seem to have missed my point, regardless of which 'off-the-shelf' CMS you use, they ALL suffer the same flaw; which is that they will need to be updated to avoid security flaws. In fact the more popular the CMS is (Wordpress, Drupal) the more likely it is that people will go looking for exploits. Even if it fits the clients needs perfectly, it doesn't help with this fundamental problem.

My question is how do you provide that as a service to the client. Do you leave them with a system that goes out of date, potentially dropping so far behind the current build it becomes irrepairable (not to mention vulnerable), or do you get them to pay you to keep it up to date?

I also can't see how using a prebuilt system like Drupal allows you to offer a more water tight service level agreement, unless I've misunderstood you? If the site fails on a grand scale, how does using someone elses code mean you can offer to support it? Unless you happen to know the Drupal code inside out and feel comfortable making repairs yourself, this seems impossible? (Not only that, but fixing flaws in someone elses code means you have just created a fork from the main build, yet more potential problems come upgrade time!)

Lets make it clear here I'm not talking about a small blog and a few static content pages... I need systems that can handle large numbers of users logging in and being served content in the form of audio and video on top of static content, calenders, forums and multiple blogs. Or as I like to call it 'the moon on a stick'.

[ThomasFjordside]

I have them decide if they want to update. I explain that I can do it for them every 6 months of so for a small fee or they can do it themselves at their own risk.