Like you have blogs (incl. photoblogs), webmail, chat applets and bulletin boards (like this one), what other “content” software exists for websites?
My searches on the net under “Site content management software” comes up with links to companies offering professional database solutions. So, it’s a dead-end that way.
Even if someone could delineate the category nomenclature, I would be on my way.
Thanks
Anyone?
I use PostNuke with some customized, added modules. It’s open source, and most of the modules (plugins for added functionality) are open source, too. You need mySQL (I think others are supported, too) and PHP on the server. You can check out my use of it to see how well it works (or how bad, if you hate my site :)).
This is something very much along the lines of what I was looking for.
Thanks a lot, Jim.
I like your front page look (with the drop shadows and aqua-like UI)
Any time you are going to do storage and retrieval on the server-side, the possibilities are endless. What kind of software and database you use depends on many variables.
What is your server-side environment (hardware and software)?
What functionality do you need to offer to the users?
What database functionality do you need?
How much time and money do you have to devote to the development?
Do you need to accept payment (credit cards, etc.) over the web?
And so on …
I think the bottom line is, the server-side functionality “categories” are numerous, and new functionality is constantly being introduced.
The site will be non-commercial. Main purpose will be to host a small CG community. This means a login system, image galleries, a forum (like this one), some personal blogs, a good search system. Pretty customizable, as far as UI is concerned.
Resources are 333 MB, 1 MySQL db, PHP4, Perl 5, own domain
And if possible, a webmail system as well
I think what you’re looking for is considered “portal software”. Check out www.dotnetnuke.com for the ASP.NET version of what Jim posted. There’s tons of these kinds of things out there, usually in PHP, ASP and ASP.NET.
Now I do know what I’m looking for…
These are my needs
[ul]
[li] Image gallery [/li][li] Wiki system[/li][li] Community[/li][li] Forum[/li][li] Blogs (trackback ability preferred)[/li][li] Highly customizable UI (pretty important)[/li][li] Search engine[/li][li] User community active in modules/blocks development[/li][li] Webmail (preferred, not required)[/li][li] Chatting system (preferred, not required)[/li][li] Ability to utilize 1 DB and 1 installation to manage multiple unrelated subdomains eg. abc.xyz.com and pqr.xyz.com (strongly preferred)[/li][/ul]
The features don’t have to be inbuilt, can be in modules as well.
These are my resources
[ul]
[li]333 MB[/li][li]One MySQL database[/li][li]PHP4[/li][li]Perl 5[/li][li]Patience :)[/li][li]Webhosting on apache[/li][/ul]
I’ve tried opensourcecms.com as a demo site. But the biggest frustation in my selection is that most CMS websites don’t have ‘testimonials’ or ‘showcases’ from where I can evaluate how the CMS has been deployed and what the extent of UI customization is. If anyone knows of such a list, I’ll be very grateful The most important thing in UI customization is the ability to make “out-of-the-box” UIs. My impression so far is that the heavily featured and popular CMS are not that flexible…
Most of the CMS’s have exceptionally flexible UI’s, but they require you to know PHP or HTML in order to design the themes. As far that goes, you can also get pre-made themes. If you search for (for example) PostNuke themes, you get some theme sites that have many, many themes. Even so, you may need to modify them to suit your own needs. Mine, for example, is a 100% rewrite of an older PHPNuke theme adapted for PostNuke.
I like the idea of the open source CMS’s and recommend them. All of the functionality that you mention can be incorporated via modules. Take a look at hotscripts.com, for example.
Good luck!
Oh, yeah, you’ve told me my site doesn’t work right on IE6.01 on the PC – the one browser I didn’t check. There lies the danger in your own themes. I know IE has a stupid bug, and when I get some time I’ll have to come up with a workaround just for IE. THANKS, by the way.