CMS Newbie. Help Required!!

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the site so firstly I'd like to say Hello and well done for a great site.

I'm just looking for a few pointers when it comes to CMS.

I have a good understanding of html, css, flash and a bit of php and mysql, and have recently produced a small website for a client. Now they have stated that they would like to update certain parts themselves. I thought CMS would be the solution, so they could log in, add pictures, change text, delete stuff, upload stuff, add new sections etc, but the more I seem to try and find out about CMS the more of a circle I seem to go in!

My initial understanding of CMS was that it was an interface which webmasters could supply clients with so they could update parts of the site themselves without any coding knowledge, but after recently coming across opensource clients such as Joomla, Wordpress etc etc, I've now seen people use CMS for actually building sites. I have always coded sites myself so I'm not sure I like the idea of using the CMS to build the site.

Would I be right in thinking that people only use cms if the site is more content based rather than design orientated? And for large sites that require updating daily?

In the instance where I have my site and would like to supply a cms that the client can log into and update sections, would I:

1. Be better off improving my php and mysql knowledge and learn to build my own CMS, or

2. Be better off learning how to use a client such as Joomla and then adapt it to my sites updating requirements?

Sorry for the long winded post and apologise if this is a stupid newbie question, but I feel I'm getting nowhere fast and need some direction! Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

I think You should used free cms and modify templates for Yours clients. You are good in css and html but only a bit in sql and serverside (good cms without sql injection and xss is hard to implementation for newbe). The best option is used CMS but only configuration for client and change unique template for Your clients.

 

No need to apologise, it's good that you ask pertinent questions rather than the old chestnut "what's the best CMS" only to end up with an equally lengthy set of answers. (BTW, have a look through some of those threads/posts - you may find some relevant threads there)

The choice of CMS is all dependent on your level of skills, how much effort you want to put in, how you get on with that CMS and scalability.

I'm a big fan of both Joomla! and Wordpress but for different reasons - Wordpress allows me to blog in ways far superior than I used to with Blogger. Joomla! lets me run complete and complicated sites. Saying that I know people who use Joomla! just for blogging and others that hate it and went to Drupal and vice versa.

Whichever direction you choose you'll have a learning curve and you'll simply have to port any current sites across to the new CMS. They may work the way you want, they may not. Wordpress is much more simple and Joomla! can be complicated because there is so much more to it - but you'll find that out for yourself.

If you find any CMS lacking in specific functions off the shelf then Joomla! & WP have a raft of extensions & plugins, so learning the best add-ons for which jobs is also going to take time.

You could build your own CMS but then you'd have to weigh up the time to build vs the time to master an existing one.

Hope that helps

 

Building your own CMS consumes lots of time, Go with Joomla (CMS) or Wordpress.

 

Hey, there are loads of free CMS systems out there. Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal. There are literally thousands more. I could go on forever. They are also highly customisable so there will always be something to suit your clients.

 

Also developing a CMS and maintaining it would be extremely hard and time consuming work.

 

Hey,

Thankyou all or your replies! I think I understand the concept behind CMS now, I think the way forward for me now would be to explore CMS clients that are out there and see what results I can get from them and try find a template I can modify for my site requirements.

I'll also get to work on improving my php & mysql knowledge so that I may be able to develop that to one day be able to create my own personalised CMS!

Again thankyou all for your replies, at least now I know what to look for!

No doubt I'll be stuck in the near future, but at least I know where I can get some advice!

Thanks!

 

For a short therm, you can learn about Joomla or Wordpress, but still you have to improve your skill in php and mysql. I myself, long time ago i used to use like joomla or wordpress, but now i have my own CMS system.