Content Management System?

[StardogChampion]

What CMS does the site use? I'm looking for a good one for my site, since it will soon become unmanageable.

I've found this one - http://www.typo3.com - and it seems pretty good, although I haven't tried it out yet.

 

[Ennui]

a custom coded one / vbulletin.

 

[Chris D]

We use an external form to make news posts which also uploads and resizes the pictures for thumbnails and then it places all this information in the forum database. A PHP file then calls on the 15 most recent threads in the News & Announcements forum and shows it on the front page. This is a custom coded one by Starmonkey

A custom article management system is used as well, only for articles. I believe this was mostly coded by Munro.

 

[Link]

Check out www.phpbbfetchall.com for a great customisable system for use with phpbb.

 

[Chris D]

There's a few available for vbulletin as well.

If you have a vBulletin licence, go to www.vbulletin.org to look around.

 

[StardogChampion]

I never thought it would be custom coded. You hl2.net website lot are smarter than you loo... err.. nevermind.

I'm more interested in the article management type system rather than the news/forum integration. I already have a pretty decent news posting system.

Thinking of it, I might actually be able to edit my news script to "publish" pages instead of news. It's mainly the pagination I need to help organise more than 1 page of sprays.

 

[Cole]

I never thought it would be custom coded. You hl2.net website lot are smarter than you loo... err.. nevermind.

It's not that hard actually.
Writing a full flexible forum isn't even that hard it's really just takes time.

I try and write my own everything in PHP, which is why I set up Apache, Mysql, and PHP on my own computer and have Dual Screens. If I ever use something that isn't mine then I have plans to replace it.

 

[StardogChampion]

I set up a server on this computer too so I can try out PHP scripts before I upload them. I know some PHP, but I don't really know where to start to actually create something useful. It's the same with C++ - know the basics but don't know where to start.

 

[Cole]

I set up a server on this computer too so I can try out PHP scripts before I upload them. I know some PHP, but I don't really know where to start to actually create something useful. It's the same with C++ - know the basics but don't know where to start.

PHP, Apache, and Mysql were a bitch to set up at first btw. Took me a few hours of finally getting it to work properly.

Heres how I started:
-I started off writing url scripts
(URL scripts basically are like this www.yoursite.com?page=rarrarar then ?page=rarrarar would go through and get the right page. I would use one layout, and then use the php "include" to include it right into the center.

I eventually expanded this and kept making it better. After that I worked on a simple Shoutbox, a tagboard. After that I started working with mysql.
With Mysql I first wrote a basic news managment system.
After that I wrote a login\logout system. The basics were:
-Used a cookie
-After 15 minutes the cookie would expire, but would be refreshed back to 15 minutes on every page load(15 minutes of inactivity = logout)
-You would need to confirm with a email(Recieved a email with a code to confirm it)
-Made sure no other person held that Email or Account Name

After that I started really getting a good layout(I'm horrible with colors though), after working on that I started working on a forum. My forum right away had several things in mind:
+Custom Layouts
+Use of Functions for Layouts
+Login\Logout System intergrated into the whole site
+Ability to set up database by inputing your mysql values, and vollia all set up(like any other).
Basically features that any big forum would have, and then going from there.

Im coding that along with a few other things.

 

[Chris D]

I know very little about coding PHP from scratch, but since I've started working at Halflife2.net and started to run my own website at SiNEpisodes.net I've really started to appreciate the sheer power of PHP and mySQL.

The tool is so flexible. Recently, despite knowing very little about PHP I've dabbled in editing our news script to make improvements (it was previously a limitation that we could only upload 3 pictures to a news post at a time I've increased it to 9) and editing my vBulletin forums at SiNEpisodes.net as well.

One day I'll take the time to learn a lot more about PHP and coding it from scratch, but in the very little I've played with it I really appreciate how powerful it is. Stick with it, it's such a handy tool.

 

[Cole]

Yeah php is amazing. Very flexible, and sometimes my own work confuses me. I've written stuff that wont work, work on something else for a week and come back to it. I have everything orginized so I know what does what. I'm looking at my code and im like "What was I trying to accomplish there?"

I've gone back and rewritten so many things from scratch because they don't work. Also when rewriting them i've noticed I find out alot better ways to do things(less time for the cpu to do stuff).

I've also done tests like outputing information directly vs putting values into an array then outputting(for a mysql database). Putting values into an array saves how much you have to write and allows you to be more flexible in the whole thing, but through tests I've found it it is generally slower to do then to output them directly. I still use Arrays though because it allows for me to do so much more and cleans up my code.

But I love php, and I suck at making websites look good, but i've relized "I can create a php script and use functions, list them out and what they need to do and in the end let a total newb that expert with designing create something I could never imagine".

From the very start I design with one thing in mind:
-Flexibility.
It isn't a question of how much, or if it's needed. It's "It has to be flexible or you need to redesign your system". I design with flexibility in mind so I can easily build on my script without having to do any major rewrites or let anyone alter my script so they can add whatever they want without any major rewrites.

 

[tim8604]

Check out E107, it's a really easy to use and flexible content manager that's free and looks great. I started to make a site using it but became too busy, you can check out their site here: http://e107.org/news.php

 

[AirenCracken]

I'm making a CMS myself (in PHP), I only started a few weeks ago and I don't think it will be finished for like a year. But as someone said above about forums, CMSs arn't that complicated, just take time.

The real trick is getting your head round it all, not actually knowing enough PHP to do it.

If anyone's interested, the web-site is at http://cici-cms.org , though I havn't gotten around to making that web-site yet. Don't expect too much, I havn't had more time to work on it yet.

As Tim said, e107 is probably a good CMS to use, it is very flexible and has a large community of people whom make free themes and free plug-ins. There are an aweful lot of plug-ins for all your needs.

 

[Chris D]

Yeah, I'm taking a look at e107 for my own site.

 

[Link]

If your talking about your sinepisodes site, I would stick with what you have. I used e107 for a site and I didn't really like it tbh. Your better off learning php etc, then decide what features you need and learn as you create them.

 

[StardogChampion]

I wasn't looking for a full-blown portal CMS like e107 or PHP-Nuke, but they look interesting anyway to those who posted.

And I've already started on learning PHP again. Whipped out my book and started re-reading it from the start. I'll start reading more tonight.