Do you need a CMS??

[barbs75]

Hi guys,

 

Apologies in advance if i have posted this in the wrong forum, but i just decided to blonk it in here, as not sure which forum to post it in, anyway.....

 

I am relatively newish to php, been working with it for a few months now, and getting to grips with it. But there is one question i want to ask, and its regarding CMS.

 

There are a ton of CMS out there, and with not knowing EXACTLY what they are, i did a little research on what they actually do. After some reading, they basically help users monitor their website? in terms of filing audio, images, content etc.

 

So it would seem that companies would use this, allowing their web team to share files, and update the website etc.

 

I am currently creating an online estate agency allowing users to sign up and post their house online and view houses online.

 

Do i need a CMS for this type of website? i have a mysql database already storing user info etc, how will the CMS come into play?

 

I assume that the CMS will allow my client to easily update webcontent, and images etc, am i right in saying that? or is it a system that allows 'novice users' to create code automatically??

 

Just a little confused as to what a CMS ACTUALLY does??

 

If anyone could shed some light on this, hearing a programmers view or digested meaning would help greatly....

 

and what are the best CMS to use for php/mysql?? fusion? wiki? nuke?

 

cheers

 

Craig

[redbullmarky]

in its literal terms, CMS = Content Management System.

 

there are so many out there (especially written in PHP) that it's pretty tricky to pick one in particular. It basically depends on your needs.

Most of the CMS's i find are best suited towards relatively "static" sites - ie, just pages and pages of content but not much in terms of interactivity. There are CMS's that take things further, but they tend to be very overblown and overly complex.

 

if you want to play around with a few, then http://www.opensourcecms.com/ is your friend. Some of the recommended/popular would be:

 

- Drupal (tricky but very flexible - however, tonnes of mods/extensions available that might fit your needs)

- Joomla (easier to use but not very flexible without some serious work, IMO)

- CMS Made Simple (probably the pick of the bunch for something lightweight and easyish to jump straight into and customise)

- SilverStripe (i love this one, however it seems quite taxing on resources ATM)

[barbs75]

Hey redbullmarky,

 

cheers for your reply, its just SOOO hard to digest what a CMS ACTUALLY is, so thanx for that.

 

Can i ask, being a guru yourself, do you use a CMS for every site that you develop?? is it kind of a standard procedure to implement one when developing your site?

 

cheers

 

Craig

[revraz]

Well does the site contain Content that needs to be Managed?

 

Even a simple webpage that has blogs or news articles on them, or a user login system, by definition, would be considered a CMS, but wouldn't have to be like Joomla.

 

Whenever you build a site, you build it based on the idea or requirements.  If it requires Content that needs to be Managed, then you now have a CMS.

[redbullmarky]

do you use a CMS for every site that you develop?? is it kind of a standard procedure to implement one when developing your site?

 

nah not really, but many of the sites i develop are more "application" (mostly jobs boards/recruitment sites, social sites, etc) than "content", so with all the dynamic content, i tend to find CMS's quite restrictive straight out of the box. sure, i spose i could hack one up to make it do what i need, but i tend to find it easier to roll my own stuff as what i tend to do can get quite specific.

 

if i need to bash out a very simple content site, like a personal site or a portfolio or very simple business card type site for a client, i'lll probably use CMS Made Simple.

 

Having said that though, there's nothing wrong with learning by hacking up a CMS to do what you want. I learnt by pulling phpBB to bits. I took a step back from CMS's when I realised they didnt really fit my requirements, so tend to use a framework (along the lines of CakePHP or CodeIgniter) as I can put content management functionality ontop of it if i need to, but otherwise it's flexible enough for me to be able to build things quickly.

[deadonarrival]

Existing CMS's are a great way to get most basic websites up and running - they organise the pages, articles, documents, backups, images... almost everything. They simplify almost everything and usually have an intuitive admin system to get at all the functionality.

 

The question is whether you use a pre-existing or bespoke package

Pre-existing = taking something like Joomla and using it for your needs: your own design and content, but their way of working with the content, their admin functionality and their database structure (although you can often add some modules of your own)

Pros

-Quick

-Easy

-Cheap/Free

-Usually quite complete (after being in development for years)

Cons

- Less flexible

- Have to learn to use something new

- Rely on someone else to keep it secure

- Rely on somoene else making it secure in the first place...

- Often bloated - they do far more than you need, but use more storage and processing to do it all.

 

Bespoke = making something totally new: you usually end up re-inventing the wheel to create your own system which does something similar to the existing systems, but you have total control over what goes on : there are no limits to what you can do other than what PHP can do for you.

Pros

- Totally customised: it does what you want, how you want

- Can be much sleeker and faster due to bein specialised

- ...equally can be as powerful as you need

- No limitations of what someone else has thought of/coded previously

Cons

- Expensive - you have to hire someone to make one, or put in some serious man-hours yourself.

- Slow - the system has to be developed pretty much from scratch

- Sometimes insecure... you don't have the years of debugging some of the larger packages have

- Relies on the competance of the coder, and the time they can put in

 

This is hardly a complete list of pros and cons, but hopefully it helps.

 

Get a cheap php/mysql web host for a couple of months - one with fantastico installed by default - and try out some of the packages against each other. See which one fits your needs best and, if none seem to, think about writing your own (or having someone else do it)

 

NB: As an aside to your situation in general, I don't think any CMS is going to be able to interact with your data - an estate agent is very specialised and may not be much good for what you need. Your best bet is probably to write, or have written, your own modules for one of the existing systems. WordPress, in particular, seems to be quite popular for people needing custom plugins/modules - a lot of developers for it.