Hi,
I intend to create a handful of personal web sites and I thought I'd
use a CMS
for the purpose instead of creating the sites using Adobe GoLive, or
Dreamweaver, etc. My reasons were that I wanted to focus on content,
and not
the technology or programming.
I chose Lenya because its opensource and uses Java and XML (no
database), and
because its an Apache project.
I would like to keep my life simple and be able to do simple things
like add
Javascript, pictures, documents, simple forms, etc. to my pages. But
it seems
Lenya out of the box is too inflexible and is mired in a very strict
DTD. I
would like your advice as to whether I should continue with using
Lenya or
not. I totally believe that user acceptance is a very important piece
to make
product popular and successful. I may just be a wrong kind of user
here, but
would like to know the opinion of people who are behind Lenya. Thanks!
Implementing and using Lenya now for nearly two years, I think I can
safely say that while Lenya isn't necessarily the easiest to pick up
and understand from the administrative prospective, it does have one of
the nicest approaches to content management I've seen from the user
prospective. I think a lot of people who have never used a CMS before
and start using Lenya for the first time are a bit frustrated by the
lack of polish on the application - if that's a safe thing to say on
this mailing list.
But in all honesty, there isn't a single CMS out there that is
incredibly simple to use and yet is fully featured. It's the nature of
the beast really. CMS's are usually built by people well-versed in
database design, Java development (or pick your own language), or
website development. Very rarely do you see so much emphasis being
placed on the user's prospective, particularly from those users who
don't have a clue about website development.
And this is what makes Lenya so interesting. I haven't tested every
CMS out there, but Lenya is certainly the first I came across that made
it really easy for the user to understand how to get to a page they
want to edit and start editing it. Too many times I've installed a
CMS, logged in for the first time, and stared at the screen thinking,
"Now what?"
Yes, there are details that still make some parts of editing difficult
(like your PDF question earlier) and there are bug reports and plans
out there to attend to those issues, but as an open-source package, it
doesn't operate like a paid piece of software in that the developers
rely on the happiness of their customers to maintain their livelihood,
so naturally, these issues will take some time to resolve. But the
beauty of open-source is if you spot an issue, you have the power to
correct it and (hopefully) give it back to the community.
Some of the issues you described: inflexibility and a very strict DTD,
are, I think, merely products of not understanding the software and a
lack of good documentation for those just wanting to know where to
start with Lenya. I'm not saying it's your's or anyone's fault for not
understanding the software - no doubt that an introductory document (a
book, perhaps?) might be all that is needed to make Lenya seem more
appealing to the less-technical.
In the mean time, here's some additional help: Lenya is installed by
default with the XHTML strict doctype, but this is easily customizable.
This mailing list entry:
http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/lenya-user/200412.mbox/
[EMAIL PROTECTED] should help you in getting to change
the default doctype. And once you have that, and you have other
specific (or general!) concerns, don't hesitate to let us know. We're
here to help as best we can.
I wholeheartedly agree that user acceptance is the key to making a
software application (or any product for that matter) successful.
Based on my experience, in general, users were happy with Lenya because
they were able to update simple pieces of text when needed on their
websites. More advanced users began to grumble because they didn't
have more control. You'll have to base your decision on a CMS based on
your user's needs. If your users are relatively advanced, perhaps
Lenya isn't right for you. If your users need to update simple text
items and add new pages here and there, then Lenya might be a good
solution. If you have a lot of administrators and none of them know
Java or XML, then perhaps Lenya isn't right for you. There are lots of
variables mixed into the decision.
The point is this: once you know who your main users are and what your
goals are, come back to us and ask us if Lenya can meet your specific
goals. We'll be honest. If it doesn't, we'll say so. :) But if it
does, we'll be here to help in your implementation or further research
too.
Sorry for the long response - just wanted to be thorough. Hope this
helps somewhat.
Jon
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
