some cms's do provide import functionality, particularly for moving content from popular blogging apps like wordpress, but i guess what you are talking about is more like an abstraction layer. My guess is that this would be pretty difficult to implement given the different approaches to database structure taken by major cms's.
Having said that, if you know what you need, writing a simple api to extract data from another cms's database may not be as difficult as it sounds, or even hooking into an api. (always easy to say something like that when you have no intention of actually trying it ;) ) On 7/13/07, Chris Taylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Really interesting thoughts, Kepler. Perhaps what we need is a standard CMS framework that separates the site from the content in a cross-application manner. In other words so people can move the content and structure for their site to another CMS (from Wordpress to Joomla, Mambo to Drupal etc) with little bother depending on the functionality they need. Quite how that would work I have little idea, though. Do some CMS's provide an "import" facility? Chris -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kepler Gelotte Sent: 12 July 2007 16:37 To: cms@webstandardsgroup.org Subject: RE: [WSG CMS] Selecting CMS > 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 ************************************************************** Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************** ************************************************************** Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] **************************************************************
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