Let's try Mambo

I tried Xoops and I still am but I'm not too happy with it.
It doesn't seem that easy for me, nor does it look like the right sort of CMS I was looking for.

I want to try Mambo but I can't find an "ordinary" zip file, the tar one doesn't decompress as it gives me an errore reading the header.

Can anyone help please?

 

http://mamboforge.net/frs/?group_id=5

 

Mambo is good. Have you looked at Drupal?

 

Hello!

Thanks for the link, I tried it earlier but maybe the file that I downloaded got corrupt because it wasn't working. I tried again after your post Dangermouse and it was fine. Thanks!

Swordfish, no I haven't tried Drupal yet, I might after I get to know Mambo better. It looks better than Xoops, only a little more complicated, which isn't necessarily bad, it only makes learning a little slower, I hope.

Thank you!

 

Hi,

what do you want to do with the cms? I know both mambo and xoops and both have theire strength and weaknesses....

Cheers

Yodaya

 

Hi, I just want a website that's easy to build and maintain, with rss feeds, content, images and graphics, templates, image galleries, etc.

Unfortunately I can't invest too much time in learning so I'm looking for something easy but I accept it to be pretty basic.

The idea is to use the CMS for all or most of my websites as those systems are very flexible from what I heard.

Xoops though gave me a kind of 'stiff' feel, Mambo is maybe too rich, I'm off to try Drupal now and starting a new thread.

I hope others in the same situation benefit from my experiences...

 

I used Mambo for 6 months...

My goal was to get away from the "block" layout - the "frames" around the top and two sides, with various modules in each... So I found Mambo and changed at the new year.

I was never really satisfied with it... I did like the auto feature install by uploading a zip, but on the occasion that went bad (maybe 1 of 5 installs), it was hell to install manually (the system wouldn't recognize it in the admin panel, etc...) They have poor phpBB integration - the mod for it had the "possibility" of accidentally wiping everything... at least with the version at the time... So I changed to SMF (amazing integration)... Less than 2 months later, forums crash, taking the site down with it. I was finally able to recover the site, but the forums were left in the dumpster.

In June, I deleted all traces of Mambo from my server, and set up my own (hand-made) site.

 

Sometimes developing your own hand made site is the best way to go. You can do wonders with php to integrate it into your forums/database. I am using MKPortal right now for a front to phpbb and smf and so far liking it and not having any problems. It's very custimizable and works very well. If you want the link, its www.mkportal.it it is also extremely very simple to install and get running.

 

very well said.

 

I tried Xoop, Nuke and Mambo. I stick with Mambo. Developing your very own is still the best solution but it's time consuming and you'll be your own support, it can be a problem unless you're very good at PHP/MySQL.

What I like in Mambo is the core/module concept. You've a basic system and you install/remove modules and components very easily even without having to edit any file.
Big advantage is at upgrade time... a module upgrade, not problem de-install and reinstall it, if if has a database component, backup and restore it. Big upgrade like from 5.4.1 to 5.4.2, I did it in 20min including preventive backup.

Nevertheless and for any system you use. Create a sub-domain you call dev.yourdomain.com or uat.yourdomain.com (uat= user acceptance testing) or whateveryoufeel.yourdomain.com - don't forget to copy the database too.
This sub-domain is a carbon copy of your prod domain (yourdomain.com). There, you play with modifications, update, upgrade, stuff you want to try.
When it works and you feel it's a needed module/update/upgrade, you move it to your prod domain. If not, you copy back your prod environment.

First it allows you to play around without danger - it's always a pain when a neat module screws you're main DB you backed up 3 months earlier
Second you get a real feel of modifications on your site not on a kind of demo.
Third, a day, your site will bring thousands of dollar every month, do you want to take any risks playing around with modifications created by some French guy on his kitchen table?

 

I tried Mambo and I wasn't real happy with it. To be honest it worked real well, but it just didn't work real well for what I wanted to do. If you need a simple site then Mambo is great and will get you up and going very quickly.

 

I would recommend going to http://www.opensourcecms.com/ and testing out all the different CMS systems (both front and back end). When you find a few you like, see if you can find any real world examples.

I think you will find something that does 90% of what you want. You will never be able to find something that does 100% unless you write it yourself.