Best way to code web site? CMS? Outsourcing?

[alantan]

I have done SharePoint implementations, but they require a license, and usually an investment in Visual Studio to do some custom web part coding.

If you don't have an aversion to .NET and SQL server, but don't really want to invest in Visual Studio and SharePoint, I would suggest going the DotNetNuke (DNN) way:
- It has been around for years (I think 6 or 7 years)
- It has a solid community and a wide user base
- Is now on major version 5
- Has many modules in the box
- Has a skinning framework
- Much of the same approach that SharePoint has

Once you get around the initial installation hiccups, it allows you to do a lot for a lot less effort than coding.

If you do go that way, then you can install an open source module called OpenWebStudio (used to be a proprietary product called ListX), and although it has a fair learning curve, it allows you to do a hell of a lot with DNN, making use only of scripts and commands instead of proper coding.

To be clear, I have no stake in any of the communities and companies behind these products, I merely use them myself for various projects.

[NickFitz]

I suppose these guys get so much hassle from people asking how to install PHP they just get pissed off and give it up.

Particularly as the people asking never seem to be satisfied with an answer like

$~/php ./configure --with-apxs2=/usr/sbin/apxs --with-mysql=/usr/bin/mysql_config --with-mysqli=/usr/bin/mysql_config --with-gd --with-xsl --with-zlib --with-curl --with-imap --enable-bcmath --with-bz2 --enable-inline-optimization --enable-mbstring --enable-mbregex --enable-sockets --enable-ftp --enable-exif --with-kerberos --with-imap-ssl --with-jpeg-dir=/usr/bin/
$~/php make
$~/php make install

[minestrone]

Admittedly, the long term support for some of these open source CMS's must be in doubt once the small number of enthusiasts typically behind them loses interest. A look around many of the PHP Nuke "support" websites reveals many of the forums with few posts in the last few weeks/months/years and a closer look often reveals any number of unanswered bug reports and requests for help a lot of the time. I think unless you're prepared to roll your sleeves up and really learn the guts of the PHP behind these open source CMS's then there could be nasty surprises someway down the track with them. I'd not count on any support to speak of worth its name for the free CMS's out there.

I would agree with that, I used to use a PHP CMS package about 5 years ago called e107, it could have fought it out and had a decent market share but it just seemed to die and I think it is still on the same version.

I suppose these guys get so much hassle from people asking how to install PHP they just get pissed off and give it up.

[Fred Bloggs]

Admittedly, the long term support for some of these open source CMS's must be in doubt once the small number of enthusiasts typically behind them loses interest. A look around many of the PHP Nuke "support" websites reveals many of the forums with few posts in the last few weeks/months/years and a closer look often reveals any number of unanswered bug reports and requests for help a lot of the time. I think unless you're prepared to roll your sleeves up and really learn the guts of the PHP behind these open source CMS's then there could be nasty surprises someway down the track with them. I'd not count on any support to speak of worth its name for the free CMS's out there.

[minestrone]

Although joomla is a pretty good package once you start using it's major flaw the last time I looked was that it never had a forum built in, you had to go and get one as a module.

I did a bit of digging and found one with all the features that I wanted with the right look and feel but they were no longer handing the thing out as a plug in for joomla.

Supposedly the free software foundation threatened them with the lawyers as one was GNU and one was Apache commons.

Some of these open source types are probably still get breastfed from their mothers.

[Fred Bloggs]

PHP Nuke has what's called a "Journal" module that is (I think) a Blog module. Latest distro is 8.1. A port of PHP Nuke called "Raven Nuke" has a good reputation amongst Nuke users for security.

[juststarting]

I am doing something similar ( well not really ) but using Sharepoint , which has blogging. Thing is , in my experience , sharepoint sucks with high loads. But then I dont know anything open-sourced.

[DieScum]

Looks like a good guess - http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/blog . Just what I need.

Thanks!

[d000hg]

Drupal perhaps? That's only a guess though.

[DieScum]

Turns out Joomla doesnt have an off the shelf user blogging component (allows logged in users to create their own blogs). Anyone know of one that does?

[DieScum]

Thanks Mini.

Just installed joomla on a test domain so I'll have a wee play about. It all sounds fairly out of the box though doesn't it?

[minestrone]

I would use Joomla then you get your forum and user management as standard and if you cannot find a module that does what you want I would rentacoder it.

There must be a module very close though that can be tweaked.

Would think bob shawadiwadi could knock up what you want in a week at least.

[DieScum]

I want to set up a website that will be a community based round projects.

So a project might be (not a real example) "Steps to cook a nice cake". The project will act as a sort of war story, best practice template.

Users can then create their own sub-project based on this describing how they got on cooking a cake following the steps, their own improvements, etc. The sub-project will be viewable to all users.

So their would be a main page with a directory listing of all projects divided by category and then a listing of all user generated sub projects associated with the project.

A user should be able to log in and see a customized page with all their current sub-projects. They can also start their own sub-project on any topic they wish.

A project/sub-project is just a kind of blog page which can contain text, embedded video, graphics and which can be updated on different days with a date stamp. So a blog but for a very specific topic and easily visible to other interested members in the community.

There should also be a forum.

Now I imagine this could be done pretty easily with an off the shelf CMS system (joomla, etc ... ). It would need a customizable blogging component but I imagine that is standard.

So anyone got any thoughts on best way to attack this? Code from scratch? If so which language? Or a CMS system? Could this loose set of requirements be outsourced on rentacoder?