Looking for a CMS

I’m looking for a CMS to run website:

REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be php/mysql based

• For a site driven by the content I will add (as opposed to user diven with the ability to add content)

• Standard users do not need to have the ability to add new content.

• Left side main menu (tree style) site menue with unlimited “levels” and “sub-levels,” Must be able to customize this and add MY CONTENT to them as opposed to adding my content to a subsection such as new or reviews) Ideally I could specify my own sections and subsections.

• Customizable templates (minimum must be able to specify colors and add/edit header/footer)

• Main page with updates section (possibly but does not need to be 'blog style).

• Free (prefer GPL or similar)

SHOULD HAVE:

• Ingegration with phpbb (and copermine)

• The users should be able to rate/add comments to content.

• Should be able to link to external content in main menue

WOULD LIKE:

• Quiz, poll,
• guestbook, petition, faq
• fanfic, downloads modules
• “newest content” for general content and/or forum a plus

Please throw out any and all suggestions that meet or come close to meeting thsee requirements.

I’ve looked at a number of them and typo3 is the closest to what I want but I have been unable to get it running. The intricacies of Typoscript seem to be beyod me, and even if I get it working I am worried that I will accidently break something.

I’m also playing with storyteller.

Thanks

I’d say roll you’re own. Mine is available at http://lightphpcms.sourceforge.net. IT doesn’t have those features, but if you wind up doing heavy modding of something, you might as well use it as a jumpstart to developing your own. I have it authenticating against phpBB as well, but nothing official untill the next release or two.

Sadly I am not tech savvy enough to make my own yet, nor likely to be able to mod an existing one yet but I will take a look.

Thanks,

Tim

I’m the drupal pimp so I guess I’ll give my 10 cents.

Drupal won’t do all of that out of the box. But it will handle most of that with a few tweaks.

Here’s a bunch of related articles some idiot wrote.
http://lineman.net/drupal_uses_part_1.php
http://lineman.net/drupal_uses_part_2.php
http://lineman.net/drupal_uses_part_3.php
http://lineman.net/drupal_uses_part_4.php

If that’s the case, and Drupal doesn’t work for you (I’d reccomend Drupal, too) then you should probably go with PhpNuke, as horrible as it is. Just know that if you use phpBB and/or Php Nuke you are going to have quite a bit of maintianance issues.

That does have most of the desired features. I just wasn’t going to bring it up. Never expected CMI to do it instead.

I really hate reccomending it but even though its a horrible piece of software, its still the best suited for certian tasks. Its like if you asked “How should I punish my child for talking back?”, me anwsering “Should I punsh my child for talking back?”, while relevant, isn’t what was asked. Besides, if someone wants me to tell them if its a good idea or not, they can pay me

I’ve tried PHPNuke and PostNuke in the past and don’t like them for one simplke reason: all of my articles are burried under a menu instead of on the main menu. I don’t want that. I want a trree style meft menu interface.

Perhaps it would make things easier if I showed you the site O am referring to

As you can see I have it sort of scattered but have redone the menu in a tree style interface.

Currently this was designed and maintained with DraamWeaver (and some FrontPage for text intensive pages) templates. But that is akward and I keep finding broken links to the buttons and such and have to create a new one in firewiorx every time I need one. I would like to automate much of that and integrate it into a common interface. I have a small group of acticve forum members in the attatched phpBB installation and would like to be able to give them the ability to respond to artickes I have written and use any other modules (e.g a survey, guestbook, whatever) without havint to re-register.

Users do not need to be able to write content at all, nor does it NEED a 'blog… Ideally I would have three classes of user

standard user (can respond to artciles but can’t create)
authors (can write articles but must be approved by admin/editor)
Admin/Editor/Superuser (can configure the site, generatte, edit, and approve content).

Understand now? Also, Nuke is so disorganized (PN slightly less so but still not quite what I’mk lookinng for.

WordPress would work for me except it lacks a lot of features (phpBB integration chiefly among them) and is HTML based as opposed to php/mysql based.

Thanks for all of the input.

Tim

Okay I misspoke here let me clairify.

Yes it uses a database but it is still based upon html templates generated when I add content (or so it appears, I’m installing it for a test now) but it’s not the same as typo3 and some of the others which the whole thing is stored in a database.

Tim

You’re best bet then would still be Drupal or a Nuke. Either way you would have to customize, but PhpNuke is closest to what you want. It would be slightly harder to customize Drupal to integrate with phpBB, but better end result.

Sorry, but I just don’t think you’re going to get away without some form of customization. Even then, you’re probably looking at $400 worth of work you’d need done.

What features can you make consessions on? (I’d say do a test install of Drupal and see how you like it for comparasin at this point).

By the way, I get a 403 when trying that URL.

None of those allow me to do the one thing that is an absoulyte MUST and that’s to put my content onthe main menue not on a submeue. I do not want my articles on a submenue called Articles or whatever

here’s an outline of the revised site outline. take a look

http://www.awalktorememberonline.org/new-layout.htm

I just tested it and it views viewable.

Sorry, but I just don’t think you’re going to get away without some form of customization. Even then, you’re probably looking at $400 worth of work you’d need done.

What features can you make consessions on? (I’d say do a test install of Drupal and see how you like it for comparasin at this point).

Not worried about some modding down the road to add some of the extra features but the core must meet my needs.

Take a look at my first post:

MYST HAVE – these are a must

SHOULD HAVE – really want but may be negotiable (e.g. copermine)

WOULD LIKE - optional (fanfic module petition module, etc.)

I will probably take a closer look at durpal (I’ve been playing with storyline and mombo as well as a couple others) but unless I see something in the backend that lets me completely redo the main menu then it won’t work for me.

By the way, I get a 403 when trying that URL.

I accidently deleted some files from the old site (I have local copies so no biggie.

Tim

I don’t understand what you mean. What menu are you talking about?

Actually Drupal allows you to post 2 types of content - pages and stories. I’m a relatively new Drupal user, so somebody can correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I understand, pages can be posted as direct menu links, while stories are posted under categories or under pages.

You might not be able to get the menu you want automatically generated, but with both Nuke and Drupal you can stick up a menu block that is pure HTML. You’d just have to do the menu part by hand.

The beuty of Drupal is that you can just add a ‘block’ w/ static html, making the menu for you.

Drupal is really the only CMS I use anymore.

If what he wants is a dynamic content menu at the top (I’m still lost), that could easily be accomplished in drupal with a little theme editing. Editing the theme’s .xhtml file, you could put all the “right” or “left” blocks at the top. Then, you create a block either aggregating your own syndication feed or using something like the articles block (to get it sorted by category).

editing the .xhtml can be a little daunting to someone not ‘confortable’ w/ it. making a new block is fairly simple though, and will usually suffice until someone is ready to edit a .xhtml file.

If I wanted to edit a html/xml file every time I added a page I wouldn’t be looking for a CMS to do it for me. I’ve run unto a number of CMS’s that let me edit the menu by hand or create your own but I don’t want that

Thanks for the input anyway (FYI this thread is going on three forums so don’t feel like you are my only source of advice for this).

I think LM’s suggestion would work best here. If you put content into different categories based on the menu item you want them to appear under, and create feeds for each that update every few minutes, you’ll be able to create the tree-like menus. The only problem with this is things get really complicated if you want more than 2 levels, and you’d have to set things up for each top-level should you ever create more.

The other thing to do is to mix CMS, which is partialy what my CMS was designed for… You can get most of what you want from Drupal, then you can use my CMS’s templating to access Drupal’s tables and create menus from it. You might have more control over the order as compared to the self-syndactaion method, but I can’t say for sure as I’m not as familar with Drupal as others are.

If I wanted to edit a html/xml file every time I added a page I wouldn’t be looking for a CMS to do it for me. I’ve run unto a number of CMS’s that let me edit the menu by hand or create your own but I don’t want that

Ah, think my lack of wording may have given the wrong impression. You can make dynamic menus in blocks. I use the simple menu (taxonomy_menu), but there are other modules to let you and pick and choose / customize more.