Hi Nate, Many thanks for the feedback. I will compile all the feedback at the end of next week and send it out.
I appreciate very much your comments about CMS downfalls compared to good ole html and css architecture. Right on with the comment! The truth is that we have done a pretty good job of building a well architected html site but it is starting to become more and more logic driven; so, if we don't do something soon our site will become a mash of home grown codeletts. I too have an adversion to CMSs and have putting it off as long as possible. Thanks for being a great sport about sharing experiences. The Best, David ****************** David Moody "email is for old people" - high school student 2006 Claude Moore Health Sciences Library Webmaster [EMAIL PROTECTED] , tel: 434-982-3648, mobile: 434-989-5481 UVa Health System P.O. Box 800722 Charlottesville VA 22908 > -----Original Message----- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Nate Vack > Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 5:02 PM > To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Recommendations, Drupal, Plone, Expression > engine, Joomla > > Quick answer: I'd recommend, just as soon, not switching to a CMS. > > I managed a CMS conversion and wound up switching back after a couple > of years. It turned out that when it came down to it, the technical > hurdles involved in managing HTML were minuscule compared to the > challenges of writing good web content and doing somewhat sane > information architecture. > > Doing the edits we *did* want was somewhat more clumsy (those WYSIWYG > editors are a little flakey and markdown is limiting) and making > content look the way we wanted was more trouble than it had been with > Dreamweaver. > > If you've got a really dynamic site with a bunch of logic, a CMS might > be your friend... but if you've pretty much got a static site, don't > just migrate to a CMS because they're all 2.0 and stuff. Your energy > may be better spent coming up with good, clean semantic markup and > clear stylesheet rules that your staff can use. > > Cheers, > -Nate > > On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 3:13 PM, Moody, David (dam8u) > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Quick polling question. Hoping to get response from my Code4Lib > friends. > > > > We are looking to rollout an open source CMS for our public medical > library web site and was interested in getting your individual opinion. > We do not integrate with our ILS. > > > > I will compile the results and send them to the list, so; you can > reply directly to me if you want. Here is the short list: > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > CMS |Are You Using it |Rating (1-10) > 10=best, 1=worst > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > Drupal | yes/no | | > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > Plone | yes/no | | > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > Expression Engine | yes/no | | > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > Joomla | yes/no | | > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > Other | yes/no | | > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME TOO: > > > > Many Thanks! > > David > > ****************** > > David Moody "email is for old people" - high school > student 2006 > > Claude Moore Health Sciences Library Webmaster > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] , tel: 434-982-3648, mobile: 434-989-5481 > > > > UVa Health System > > P.O. Box 800722 > > Charlottesville VA 22908 > > > > > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf > Of > >> Mark Jordan > >> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 2:57 PM > >> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU > >> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Integrating OCS and Drupal > >> > >> Hi Lisa, > >> > >> I'm cc'ing the drupal4lib list in case anyone there wants to jump > in. > >> > >> Depending on what level of integration you're after, it would pretty > >> straight forward to write a Drupal module that reads data from an > >> instance of OCS and displays it in a block, for example. A common > >> strategy in Drupal development is to connect to an external database > >> using the db_set_active() function (see http://drupal.org/node/18429 > >> for detail), populate the Drupal block, and then switch back to > >> Drupal's default database. Of course, you'd have to write SQL to get > >> the desired data out of the OCS tables but that shouldn't be very > >> difficult. > >> > >> Also, the new Drupal Views2 API should let you do this in a more > >> sophisticated way than straight SQL can (see > >> http://drupal.org/node/235062#comment-1050295 for an example), and > now > >> that the Views2 module has been officially released, this approach > >> might be worth investigating. > >> > >> If you want to do more than just read data from OCS into your Drupal > >> instance, you'd have to do more work than what I describe above. > Since > >> OCS does a lot of workflow management, I'd caution against injecting > >> data into the OCS database that could cause problems with workflows > or > >> submission status. Check the OCS/PKP support forums, and post > questions > >> if necessary, before using an external application to update the OCS > >> database. > >> > >> All that being said, can you provide more detail on what you mean by > >> 'integration'? > >> > >> Mark > >> > >> Mark Jordan > >> Head of Library Systems > >> W.A.C. Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University > >> Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada > >> Voice: 778.782.5753 / Fax: 778.782.3023 > >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> > >> ----- "Lise Brin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> > >> > Have any of you done any work integrating OCS (Open Conference > >> > Systems) > >> > with Drupal? > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > ************** > >> > > >> > Lise Brin, MLIS > >> > > >> > Emerging Services Librarian > >> > > >> > St. Francis Xavier University > >> > > >> > PO Box 5000 > >> > > >> > Antigonish NS > >> > > >> > B2G 2W5 > >> > > >> > Phone (902) 867-3669 > >