Content Management Systems

[Lou]

Am looking for something for our work intranet. I want something that integrates both a CMS and Document Management. I've played around with Mambo, but, so far the two bits don't seem to be that well integrated. For instance, I'd like the search to look through all the HTML, plus all the uploaded documents. Oh, and a Wiki would be handy too.

Is anyone else here looking at this sort of thing & can we compare notes?

[Dreadful Scathe]

I use Oracle Portal - great for this... but expensive

[Lou]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

I use Oracle Portal - great for this... but expensive

Ahhh... That's the other gotcha. We're cheery cheapskates here, so Open Source, please!

[plankton]

Xoops .... though you might have to build extra bits for the searching bit

document management is a bit iffy I haven't played with the latest module (.99)

several wiki modules

LAMP based opensource what more could you want

[frodo]

Originally Posted by Lou

Am looking for something for our work intranet. I want something that integrates both a CMS and Document Management. I've played around with Mambo, but, so far the two bits don't seem to be that well integrated. For instance, I'd like the search to look through all the HTML, plus all the uploaded documents. Oh, and a Wiki would be handy too.

Is anyone else here looking at this sort of thing & can we compare notes?

I always really liked the look of Zope based systems, such as Plone.

Just a pity it's written in Python.

[Lou]

Originally Posted by frodo

I always really liked the look of Zope based systems, such as Plone.

Just a pity it's written in Python.

Funny you should mention Plone. I installed it yesterday to play with. I like it. But, yeah, Python.

Will have a peek at Xoops later, too.
Cheers, chaps.

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by Lou

Funny you should mention Plone. I installed it yesterday to play with. I like it. But, yeah, Python.

My feelings too.

Here's a list of CMS systems I have told myself I need to look at...

WebGUI
eZ Publish
FreeWPS
ATutor (probably more of a VLE than a CMS?)

I've no idea how much these systems would meet your needs, but IIRC, they had the best feature set and were all free.

Also, Drupal seems to be increasingly popular...

Have you seen The CMS Matrix?

Cheers!

[killingtime]

Well since I use Cocoon as a framework engine (though it can be used as a CMS it isn't really an out the box CMS) which relies on Servlets then I use JSPWiki as a Wiki just becuase it took a few minutes to set up and does the job well enough.

I haven't used Apache Lenya but I've heard it's quite good.

[David Bailey]

Amazingly, I've been asked to do the same thing (i.e look at CMSs for our intranet).

God only knows why they ask me to do this stuff...

Anyway, having just implemented a Mediawiki system for our docs system, I'm not keen on using it as a CMS, the "Management" side of it being basically a joke.

So at the moment, my shortlist is:
- Joomla
- errr...
- ...that's it

I looked at Plone, but the learning curve / language thing also put me off - and I dunno about Drupal, it's editor looks horrible from what I can tell (a decent WYSIWYG editor is a must-have).

"Free" is also pretty important - and PHP rather than some weird language no sane person has heard of.

I've tried CMS matrix, but it scares me, some recommendations would be useful

Any other suggestions? Failing that, any horror stories?

EDIT: I'm really tempted by this one:
Welcome! | TangoCMS - Open Source PHP CMS

[Keefy]

Have a look at Home - OpenSourceCMS

[Paul F]

Damn. I saw the title and got a little glimmer of excitement as this is what I consult on day in and day out.

Unfortuantely, although I use Joomla for my website, I can't really advise on any other open source software.


Now, if your companies decide they want to spend lots of lovely cash on some Enterprise CMS then Im your man*



*note: I dont get out of bed for less than 3 million

[Lou]

Re: the original post - I ended up using Mambo, both for work, and for Sherif's website which I was hosting at the time. The company folded not long after, and Sherif found the Mambo interface too complicated. Hey ho.

[Paul F]

Originally Posted by Lou

Re: the original post - I ended up using Mambo, both for work, and for Sherif's website which I was hosting at the time. The company folded not long after, and Sherif found the Mambo interface too complicated. Hey ho.

Mambo is a great tool. I used that happily for many years. I liked the interface. The only issue I had was with the statistical capabilities but Google Analytics sorted that out

Now I am on Joomla, which is pretty much identical. Very good CMS utility though.

[Dreadful Scathe]

Joomla is what the leroc scotland website is built on too - it looks nice. I was considering drupal for a while but the host i was using wouldnt allow a needed php change, I would build my own but its finding the time to do it

[David Bailey]

Joomla's still looking the best - I've had a look at Confluence, but price (i.e. it has one) and technology (it's Java, blech) seem to be a problem.

I've rejected about a dozen others, I'm looking at EZ Publish now...

[Dreadful Scathe]

hmm quite like the look of ez publish

[Keefy]

Originally Posted by David Bailey

Joomla's still looking the best...

The thing I don't like about Joomla is that Joomla sites all look alike - when you try to modify the templates you'll know why I did an evaluation a few years back, a few I actually used on intranets. e107 was one I liked, it has one of the best set of admin facilities going IMHO. Similar is PHP-Fusion although I never actually used that one in anger.

What ones have you rejected?

[Paul F]

Originally Posted by Keefy

The thing I don't like about Joomla is that Joomla sites all look alike

A lot of the templates are very similar. It took me a while but I found a couple for my sites that looked at least a bit different.

It's only when I got into modifying them with PHP and HTML that I actually made a real difference. Still didnt spend enough time to actually finish one though so still using the, not quite so samey, templates.

[David Bailey]

Originally Posted by Keefy

The thing I don't like about Joomla is that Joomla sites all look alike - when you try to modify the templates you'll know why

Meh, I'm not worried (well, not too much) about that, it's an intranet not a website. Anything'd be better than the rubbish we've got now, believe me.

Originally Posted by Keefy

I did an evaluation a few years back, a few I actually used on intranets. e107 was one I liked, it has one of the best set of admin facilities going IMHO. Similar is PHP-Fusion although I never actually used that one in anger.

What ones have you rejected?

So far, in alphabetical order, I've looked at and rejected:

• Clearspace - not open-source and wrong technology for us.
• Confluence - again, wrong (for us) technology, and costs money (although I'm wavering on this at the moment)
• DaisyCMS - Java and looks horrible
• Drupal - rubbish editing and also looks horrible
• Google Sites - hosted solution only
• Knowledge Tree - too expensive ($15 / user / month)
• Plone - Python & learning curve
• Sharepoint - overkill

I'll probably also reject Mediawiki, it's just not worth the hassle of installing and maintaining the 10-20 extensions we'd need, just to get it to look sort-of like a CMS...

So far I like EZ Publish and Joomla, with Mediawiki and Confluence being barely-possibles-if-we-really-have no alternative.

I'll have a look at the two you mentioned also, thanks.