Re: Formatting question (CMS's)

Unfortunately, the host in question doesn't support PERL. Neither does the
host I currently use for my own site (my ISP). Basically, we're talking bare
bones, here.

Dusty


----- Original Message -----
From: "Al Sessions" <al(at)oldforgefd.org>
To: <hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org>
Sent: Friday, August 16, 2002 2:35 PM
Subject: Re: Formatting question (CMS's)


> At 08:35 AM 8/16/2002 -0700, you wrote:
> >As for setting up a dynamic site, there are a number of good alternatives
> >that you  can use that don't require much in the way of programming
> >knowledge. Movable Type was mentioned but requires a good host with
specific
> >perl modules installed.
>
> This isn't as big a deal as it seems, the required modules can usually be
> installed freestanding. The docs explain this pretty well and, if
anything,
> they make it seem more complex than it is. Another nice thing about MT is
> the community and personal attention the Trotts put into the product. The
> initial install may be slightly more complex than similar products but the
> feature set, IMO, justifies the additional time.
>
> I've helped develop a few plugins and the flexibility of MT continues to
> amaze me. For someone in Dustys position it may be perfect, it can be
> installed with the bare bones and when/if the site is moved to a more
fully
> featured host the conversion to MySQL, export of the existing site and
> installation of additional modes is cake.
>
> >If you have that, great, it's cool software. Another
> >option, is Radio Userland. It's an inexpensive desktop application that
you
> >can use for formatting and that will upload your pages for you. Radio
> >doesn't need any kind of dynamic capabilities on the server.
>
> What Radio does require is maintaining the files locally, this can lead to
> difficulties when your working off site. More importantly, IMHO, the cost
> doesn't justify the features, especially considering the free alternatives
> and that it is a recurring fee. The docs aren't all they could be and are
> scattered all over the place... throw in the Winer factor and I'd be hard
> pressed to recommend Radio.
>
> >I'm working on a non-profit site right now and chose P-machine, a
php-mysql
> >program. All of these options use templates and don't require the user to
> >know any programming. You can customize them with just the knowledge you
> >describe. Another solution, I've used in the past is Post Nuke. It is a
> >slight bit less flexible but offers lots of extras like discussion
boards,
> >calendars and extra modules.
> >http://movabletype.org/
> >http://www.userland.com/
> >http://www.pmachine.com/
> >http://www.postnuke.com/
>
> PHP and MySQL, from what I understand, are not available on the server.
> That pretty much rules out Nuke variants and PMachine.
>
> BTW, this is not a criticism of either... I'm a huge fan of both and have
> used them extensively. I would, however, be hesitant to say that
> programming knowledge isn't needed, especially in the case of PostNuke. If
> you want *anything* that doesn't have the cookie cutter look of nuke
sites,
> your gonna be hacking into the scripting. PMachine is a little better but
> the template system can be confusing and again, to avoid that generic two
> column look your into the code.
>
>  From what I've read I think that in terms of a CMS she is likely to be
> restricted to the flat file/Berkeley DB varieties.
>
> John Hiler has a nice overview of these, and other, products at
> http://microcontentnews.com/articles/blogware.htm
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Al Sessions
> al(at)oldforgefd.org
> http://www.fultonchaindesign.com/mt (personal weblog)
>

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