Open Source CMS LAMP options

[David]

Over this summer, I'm hoping to have the time to give CADTutor a complete overhaul. The current site is now more than 3 years old and in need of modernisation.

I plan to make CADTutor more of a portal site where members can contribute articles, tips'n'tricks etc. I see my role switching from content provider to editor, although I will continue to add tutorials etc.

What I need is a content management system. It has to be Open Source and based on LAMP. My problem is not that I can't find a suitable system - there are any number out there. The problem is which one to choose. I guess I need to make a short list of about 5 systems and then install these and do a full test.

If you know of any sites that provide good advice on and/or reviews of such systems, I'd be very greatful to hear about them. I have a couple of leads but nothing very meaty so far. Any information that would help me make my short list would be great.

[David]

OK, after a preliminary trawl I have a short list that looks like this:

1. Mambo Open Source (http://www.mamboserver.com/)
2. XOOPS (http://www.xoops.org/modules/news/)
3. PostNuke (http://www.postnuke.com/index.php?module=Navigation)
4. PHP-Nuke (http://phpnuke.org/)
5. Midgard (http://www.midgard-project.org/)
6. Movable Type (http://www.movabletype.org/)
7. TYPO3 (http://typo3.com/About.1231.0.html)

These are roughly in order of leaning at the moment with Mambo having a clear lead but I need to do much more research before I can be certain of anything.

The opensourceCMS (http://www.opensourcecms.com/) site gives a good listing of available systems.

Any comments welcome although I'm just using this thread to order my thoughts right now :geek: so don't feel obliged.

[David]

It's becoming clear that there is a choice between two different types of CMS. There are the so called "portal" CMSs such as PHP-Nuke and then there are the pure publishing systems such as TYPO3.

My feeling is that the proposed CADTutor site falls uncomfortably between these two. My leaning towards Mambo remains good because its framework most closely matches my ideas for CADTutor. However, there is no doubt that as a publishing system, TYPO3 is pretty amazing.

My reservations about the portal systems are that they try to do too much and the resulting sites all tend to look the same. Either developers using these systems are visually illiterate or they are difficult to manipulate. The Mambo sites seem varied and generally well designed.

The benefits of the portal systems are that they have great support and are very popular. Also, they are a one-stop solution where the CMS also looks after the forum, gallery etc.

My feeling is that for portability, it might be good to keep these components separate. The further benefit of this approach is that I can choose whichever component solution I want rather than having to rely on a module/plug-in for any particular CMS.

On the other hand, IPB looks rather good inside Movable Type (http://www.movabletype.org/support/) :rolleyes:

[David]

I now have a test rig up-and-running based on Mambo Open Source 4.5 (http://www.mamboserver.com/). It looks pretty good and I now need to see if it will be possible to mould it to suit the planned CADTutor site.

Other contenders at the moment include:
Drupal (http://drupal.org/) and eZ Publish (http://ez.no/).

InfoGlue (http://www.infoglue.org/infoglueDeliverLive/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=33&languageId=1&contentId=-1) also looks interesting but it is written in Java and I think I'd feel happier with PHP if any hacking is required.

[Phil]

as someone who's wrestled with Java to the extent that it has actually brought tears to my eyes, i'd say sticking to PHP is probably wise.

The next version of the University's web operations are reputed to be based around

MySource (http://mysource.squiz.net/)

[David]

Just had a look at the MySource site. Looks interesting. It's obviously big in Australia - all the sample sites are .com.au and development seems to be based there.

It's difficult to get a good idea of the product without doing a full install - no test site is provided (either as user or admin).

One look at the user forum would suggest that it is moderately well used but nothing like Mambo and some of the better known OS CMSs. Also, there doesn't appear to be an active developer community for mods or add-ons. But there are some useful looking purpose-built modules such as "Online Exams" !

It's a bit strange I haven't come across MySource already. Perhaps they have a search engine problem.

Maybe I'll give it a test drive.