> I was looking at EE as well for the ability to control 3 sites. And from
the
> other discussion, will try MODx on small sites.
> It's just that there are so many around... oh well...
I have been watching this thread with interest. I am a programmer by
profession and have looked into a bunch of these different packages and have
come to the conclusion that there are really many different categories of
packages that are lumped into "CMS":
1) Standalone applications which started out to meet a specific need
(WordPress for blogging, ZenCart for eCommerce). These have morphed somewhat
to meet other needs using plugins or modules but they are best at doing what
the original function was. The problem here is that they want to control
your entire site. To use leave WordPress and switch to ZenCart while still
remaining in your domain would require duplicating the template (look and
menus) in whatever other application you were jumping into.
2) Comprehensive application which try to be all things to all
developers. I think Drupal and Joomla fall into this category. They were
built trying to anticipate the main functions a web application may need,
such as eCommerce, etc. They usually have a way to extend themselves through
modules and were designed from the start to be extensible. Core developers
usually write the modules so the quality is higher. The problem here is that
you have to use their eCommerce module even if it doesn't meet your needs.
If you are a programmer you have a shot of extending it yourself but usually
there is a steep learning curve for these packages.
3) Lightweight frameworks which are built with extensibility in mind
but where only the basic functionality is built in. These frameworks are for
programmers who don't want to code a ModelViewController from scratch.
CodeIgniter is an example of this type of framework. There is a large number
of plugins available contributed by other users. The quality of some of
these plugins are better than others since the contributors have different
experience levels.
None of these approaches is ideal. Being a programmer, I opted for a
lightweight framework (CodeIgniter) and have been building reusable
components for it. One of the components I built was a portal which lets me
install WordPress, ZenCart, or other standalone packages and pull them into
my application. This is not ideal either since common functionality needs to
pulled out of the individual packages like login, breadcrumbs, ... That is
what I am working on now.
I guess the bottom line is there are so many packages around because none of
them meet all the requirements a web developer may have where each web
developer has different levels of programming skills and each web site has
different functional requirements. I suspect more "CMS"s will be created
until someone figures out a better approach.
Regards,
Kepler Gelotte
www.neighborwebmaster.com
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