CMS (Content Management System) solution.

[William Davis]

We are interested in a CMS (Content Management System) solution, to fulfill the following objectives for our web site:

• Publish multiple scheduled content to sites (ours and affiliates).
• Manage multiple content contributors.
• Automatically disseminate multiple published content to:
  • Our web site
  • Affiliate web sites
  • RSS subscribers
  • E-mail subscribers
• Manage E-mail subscriber lists.

Preferably all the above within one application -for simplicity reasons, ease of use, costs, etc...

I had asked this question a while back, but only got one reply -www.Xigla.com "Absolute News Manager .NET V5.0". The application meet most of our needs -with the exception of e-mails and subscriber lists. But the developer did not give me the warm of fuzzy feeling. Don't know how legitimate they are. If I can find a solution that will do it all that will be better.

[leslienord]

I wonder what the status of Celestia is? It integrated with MM so nicely.

[William Davis]

Leslie, is that what you use on your sites?

[leslienord]

I had to pull my Celestia site because there seems to be an issue with a helper application Zend Optimizer. I have used PostNuke and am trying to learn how to modify Joomla!

At this time, I'm not sure if any of these applications can do what you need.

[PicturesqueWeb]

CMS Solution Typo3

I use Typo3 for content management on MM4 sites. You can see an example at http://sweeneyridge.com. (I see an issue with the style sheet...pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...he'll repair it.) Typo3 allows the user to create shortcuts to the various categories. It's like creating categories twice, once in Miva and then in Typo3, but it works. The Typo3 site is at http://www.typo3.org. The new version is extremely easy to use compared to past. You can just take a properly created template and just drop it right in.

[William Davis]

Leslie, I had looked at Joomla (formerely Mambo) a few weeks ago -but it is way over my head. Though the user group seems to think it can accomplish my objectives. But I am not sure they understand everyhting we need.

Micheal, thanks for your post too.

[ILoveHostasaurus]

I had to pull my Celestia site because there seems to be an issue with a helper application Zend Optimizer. I have used PostNuke and am trying to learn how to modify Joomla!

At this time, I'm not sure if any of these applications can do what you need.

Celestia should work fine with Zend Optimizer 2.6.2 Leslie, and it's new enough to support most, if not all, versions of Apache. I installed a Celestia-based site on it the other day. Not sure if Celestia is actually still available or if it would be a good option though since it may not continue to be available if it is; it's not under active development as far as I know so probably not...

[leslienord]

Death of Celestia?

Thanks David - yes, it should but at this point I don't even remember my password to the admin. And you're correct it seems to be a dead product. Dwight and I talked with James about it at the Miva Conference (sure wish you would have been there) and James was talking about options and possibilites for Celestia. Nothing seems to have come about - and another good (bad) point you mentioned - I can't get the latest version anymore. :(

[Viscott]

I highly recommend Joomla and frankly the learning curve I think is easier than Celestia.

I just think going with a product that appears to be no longer in development and the brains of James Harrell who is at Miva now, you are limiting yourself right out the gate.

As with any software it just takes a little time to learn and understand how it all works.

Joomla is up to version 1.08 and has a very active community and rich feature set.

[leslienord]

I agree with you about Celestia. Still trying to wrap my brain around Joomla! - in my case Celestia was much easier to modify the look & feel (but not as easy as PostNuke) - I'll keep trudging on.

Definately need to find more hours in the day :(

Many thanks!

[netblazon]

Joomla and others

Joomla is kicking my butt right now too. I think it's overkill for the site we're trying to use it for. They just need an easy way for non-technical people to update content. Is postnuke or typo3 easier? I actually want something with less features...and something where I can turn off ALL the darn tables. I can't believe that Joomla actually hardcodes a table and cell around each module...at least, that's what it seems to be doing.

[leslienord]

PostNuke and Blogger

What I like about PostNuke is that I can work with all the tables and I understand how to insert and DELETE blocks that I don't want. It was easy for me to create the look and feel for Volsfootball.com.

On a side note that's what I like about Blogger - it's simplicity. It was very easy to create my template for it. And it's ability to publish to my site. On the downside it's all HTML pages with no database. I recommend it because of it's simplicity and it does have an RSS feed.

[William Davis]

Susan, do you think Joomla can fulfill all of our objectives as described in my first post (04-11-2006, 01:28 PM) above?

One of the biggest problems I been experiencing with this particular project is conveying all of our objectives in a succinct fashion without people loosing interest.

Perhaps if I explain our strategy, one could visualize our objectives. We believe that different types of “Frequently Updated Quality Relevant Content” (FUQRC) is an important component for a successful web site.

Fortunately we already own our content and want to give ours away for free to our affiliates to add value to their sites.

By owning, publishing and syndicating different types FUQRC to our site and affiliates, we could increase both of our traffic.

[netblazon]

Jerry,

Unfortunately I don't have much experience with this. I think it can handle multiple contributors. I don't know about scheduled content. And I don't know about disseminating content. Sorry!

--Susan

[PicturesqueWeb]

Joomla is kicking my butt right now too. I think it's overkill for the site we're trying to use it for. They just need an easy way for non-technical people to update content. Is postnuke or typo3 easier?

Anything will have a steep learning curve the first time you use it. I've selected Typo3 purely because it addresses the bulk of the needs my clients have and it's very simple to update when there is a new release. Perhaps you need someone experienced in a selected CMS to set it up for you and then let you run with the content entry.
If you need something really basic, you could try SimpleCMS. It might be too basic for your needs.