[ALUG] Re: Content Management Systems - or not!

[cl at isbd.net]

On Sun, Jan 28, 2007 at 05:51:41PM +0000, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
> Although it may be complete overkill and in some ways it is rather
> bloated.I don't understand what you need that Joomla doesn't provide.
> 
It's not the size/complexity that worries me, I have just as complex
tools for other things that I do.  For example I have a TWiki
installation on my home system just to use as a personal wiki because
I like TWiki and it works for me.  It ha far more facilities and
extras than I will ever use but it's the right 'shape' and works the
way I expect.


> You can do all the things you ask for by logging into the site as an
> author and going to the correct category and clicking "add article"
> 
No I can't, not easily.  What I/we want is a way to visualise the web
page as a whole as one enters the content.  Even with a WYSIWYG editor
(that we don't necessarily want) all one gets to see is the little
chunk of content currently being edited.

The whole philosophy of Joomla, Drupal, etc. is to manage (very well)
lots of 'bits' which may be text, forums, blogs, calendars, etc. but
they're no good (for me anyway) at showing in an integrated way what
the resulting web pages look like.

What the (naive?) user wants is a way to put a page together that is
integrated, it's very difficult with Joomla etc. just *because* the
structure is separated from the content.


> The only downsides I can see are that the free templates can be a little
> bit rubbish (see my site www.digimatic.co.uk for an example of a bad
> template that I haven't got around to tidying up yet) but you can just
> start with something close and modify to suit.
> 
OK, so I choose a template and a style (not sure what the pair
together are called in Joomla) and then try and create a page.  I go
into the content editor and am presented with a blank page and no way
to do anything much except enter a stream of text.  That's absolutely
fine for a blog but not very useful for a small business.


> and that site structure changes would require logging into the admin
> interface which there is a lot of in joomla so adding new categories can
> be pretty daunting for non technical users.
> 
As I keep saying, I'm not really a non-technical user, but that isn't
really the problem.   I want the result to be usable by non-technical
people but techie bits on the way ar fine.


> My own joomla installation really only exists for the purpose of playing
> with it and the various plugins. If you want a author or admin login to
> mine to play without having to install it first then mail me off list
> 
Again as I said before installation isn't an issue, I have installed
three or four CMS systems already to play with them, and these
postings are the result.

Further searching has turned up a few possibles - xdbms, voidspace and
miki.

-- 
Chris Green (chris at halon.org.uk)