Site Development - Confused about CMS systems & frameworks

[cmiddlebrook]

My background is in desktop application development in C++ & C# and I am now learning PHP. I want to develop a membership site which will offer tools to the members and these tools will be custom written in PHP. But for the rest of the site I will want some fairly standard functionality such as a login system (I may use aMember for this as it ties in with PayPal), searching, a blog, perhaps a forum and so on.

 

My trouble is, I just don't know how to go about building the site. I looked into CMS' such as Drupal and Joomla but I couldn't see how to integrate your own php code easily. At the other end of the scale I'm downloaded a nice simple HTML/CSS template for a site and have started using that to develop custom code and that works fine but I really don't want to be coding things like a blogging system from scratch.

 

Then there are frameworks like CakePHP, Zend etc and I'm not sure where these fit in. I've been looking at this stuff for a couple of weeks now and I'm just going round in circles!

 

Bottom line - I want the flexibility to develop my own tools but other than that I want to re-use as much existing code as possible. My ideal situation would be a nice CMS that allows me to build a site as easily as something like WordPress but also have sections where I just write my own PHP and bypass the CMS entirely. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

Caroline

[MiCR0]

frameworks are like QT4 to C++ they can be good and speed things up however if you new to php I recommend that you build it your self and learn how to do it your self as codeing with a framework you need to learn there API anyways so best start from basic PHP.

 

as for the login system well Download db esession class this is a great class there is 1 Vulnerability but its a quick fix, this class is great to work with a will sort the whole user session system out for you and from there u can build your login and access role control and move forward fast.

[php_east]

your options.

 

1. build from scratch PHP/mySQL/JavaScript - long and painful road.

 

2. use existing CMSs - Joomla,Drupal,WordPress etc... a learning curve for each CMS, but ater that you are able to code comfortably within the framework.

 

3. Use a small CMS, with small framework but enough. build upon it. e.g. SNEWS

 

4. A combo of mixed establshed CMS and home made solutions.

use the CMS as your main engine, but stay slightly out of its framework and make your own codes for your own special functions, while using the CMS for large functions (like blogging ). You get best of both worlds, but staying out of the CMS means also you deprive yourself from intergration into its functiionalities. Still, it is not a bad idea if you consider that it would take lots of coding and testing tomake your own blog, photo gallery and all that sort of functionalities.

 

5. Use several CMS, stay well out of each system and write a separate controller program that intergrates them all. This may requires specific knowledge into each CMS, but you would really get best of all worlds. Imagine being able to use Joomla,Drupal, WordPress,Gallery2 all from your own control center. But itergration of all this is perhaps worth a PhD on its own.

 

 

i would recomend you use method (3)