CMS Made Simple as a content management system question

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cpansewicz
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CMS Made Simple as a content management system question

Post by cpansewicz »

Hi,

We currently have our site set-up in CMS Made Simple. It works great. We are in the process of a site-redesign to a responsive site using bootstrap, and the people I am working with are trying to convince me to convert from CMSMadeSimple to ExpressionEngine.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this? Would it just be a lot of unnecessary extra work? (This would be a lot of work on my end since we have a large site.)

Thank you for any input.
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Dr.CSS
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Re: CMS Made Simple as a content management system question

Post by Dr.CSS »

Unless they have already bought into the system it seems quite expensive and it seems they charge for Help/support...

https://store.ellislab.com/#ee-core
10010110
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Re: CMS Made Simple as a content management system question

Post by 10010110 »

I had to work with ExpressionEngine in the past and I found it not to be very intuitive. They seem to have the right approach as to thinking in content items that can appear anywhere on the site rather than thinking strictly in “pages” with content in them but since websites basically are consisting of pages the system isn’t very intuitive when it comes to actually creating and linking pages, let alone creating a site structure automatically out of the box.

But nothing of this has anything to do with a site being responsive. Responsiveness only happens in the client, not on the server (exceptions apply), and a responsive site isn’t any easier to create in any CMS. You always have to set up templates etc.
If you’ve done your job right in the past then you have applied separation of content, style, and behavior, so redesigning this website should be a no-brainer, or at least not a huge project. You just change a few stylesheets, scripts, and templates. Converting to a completely new CMS is a big waste of resources, though, because you can’t easily move the content stored in the database of one system to the other one, this would have to be done manually (or an intricate conversion script has to be written).

Now, that said: Bootcrap is another subject I could rant about all day. My opinion is that Bootstrap should only be used if you absolutely know it will increase your productivity and you are fully aware that the gains you get outweigh the (unnecessary) bloat it adds to your site. I think it is totally overused by people who don’t know enough to realize they don’t need it at all.

All it needs for a site to become responsive is a few CSS media queries.
janvl
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Re: CMS Made Simple as a content management system question

Post by janvl »

I agree with translator that bootstrap is a load of bloatware. I had a bootstrap-theme tested on CMSMS, it is the best way to demolish a good functioning system.

Also, changing CMS is a load of work, I did it several times for sites up to about 100 to 200 pages, it costs loads of time and therefore money. One only changes when there are severe problems in continuity.

Kind regards,
Jan
cpansewicz
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Re: CMS Made Simple as a content management system question

Post by cpansewicz »

Thank you very much for your detailed opinions! They are just what I wanted to hear :))

I have the same thoughts, but wanted to hear from some other people as well. I really like the way CMS Made Simple works. I am having some pressure to convert to Expression Engine. My instinct says to keep the site where it is at. It works great where it is. My news/calendar items are templated out throughout the site is many different ways, and this would be a huge pain to recreate.

Thanks also for the opinion on Bootstrap, unfortunately, I don't have a choice with this one!
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Re: CMS Made Simple as a content management system question

Post by 10010110 »

The experience I have made is that CMSs are as different as people and what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another. I’ve looked into Joomla and Drupal and I found CMS Made Simple much more intuitive (at least the out-of-the-box installation), which is why I stuck with it. Other people have a different way of thinking and a different kind of workflow, though, and might be more familiar with how these other CMSs work.

So, that’s the problem. And that’s what makes Wordpress so successful, too, because they have understood how to make things as intuitive as possible (at the cost of adding bloat, again). So, I can understand why they might want to switch to a different system. Find out what their motivations are and try to refute them, for example by giving them what they want with what CMSMS has to offer (e. g. if they want a specific workflow try to enable this with modules or whatever).
cpansewicz
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Re: CMS Made Simple as a content management system question

Post by cpansewicz »

Yes, fortunately I will be the primary user of the platform, and I do have more of a choice in this. Those are good suggestions.
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sugna
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Re: CMS Made Simple as a content management system question

Post by sugna »

Here are two sites I built using Bootstrap as a framework. CMSMS is the best system I've ever used. Easy and Quick.

http://rodbelldrums.com/

http://eclecticpr.com/

it's easy to implement.

Example template for the home page

Code: Select all

{process_pagedata}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<__html lang="en">
  <head>

{metadata}

<title>{sitename} - {title}</title>


<link href="{root_url}/site-files/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="{root_url}/site-files/css/bootstrap-theme.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="//maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.2.0/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
 {cms_stylesheet}

       <!-- HTML5 shim and Respond.js IE8 support of HTML5 elements and media queries -->
    <!--[if lt IE 9]>
      <__script__ src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/html5shiv/3.7.2/html5shiv.min.js"></__script>
      <__script__ src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/respond/1.4.2/respond.min.js"></__script>
    <![endif]-->
{literal}
<__script__ src="//use.typekit.net/hve2diz.js"></__script>
<__script__>try{Typekit.load();}catch(e){}</__script>
{/literal}
  </head>

  </__body>

<div class="container-fluid">
<div class="row-centered">
<div class="logo">
<a href="/"><img src="http://rodbelldrums.com/uploads/images/Official-RodbellDrums-Logo.png" title="Larry Rodbell Drummer and Percussionist" class="img-responsive" alt="Larry Rodbell Drummer and Percussionist" width="649px" height="114px" /></a></div>
</div>
</div>

<div class="navbar navbar-default navbar-static-top" role="navigation">
        <div class="navbar-header">
          <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".navbar-collapse">
            <span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span>
            <span class="icon-bar"></span>
            <span class="icon-bar"></span>
            <span class="icon-bar"></span>
          </button>
         </div>
        <div class="collapse navbar-collapse">
        {menu template="TBS:TBS Navigation"}
        </div><!--/.nav-collapse -->
      </div>


<div class="jumbotron">
<div class="jumbotron-home-inner">{content}</div>
</div>


<div class="container-fluid">

<div class="row grey">
<div class="col col-md-6 temppadding">
{ListIt2events pagelimit="1"}
</div>


<div class="col col-md-6 temppadding"><div class="box-inner-lesson black">

<div class="lesson-title"><a href="/programs/">Programs</a></div>
<p class="white-text ex-padding">Larry's programs will help any drummer take their skills to the next level.</p>
<p><a href="/programs/"><button type="button" class="btn btn-primary">Start Learning</button></a></p>
</div></div>

<!-- /<div class="col col-sm-6 col-md-4">
<div class="box-inner-product black">
<button type="button" class="btn btn-primary">Buy</button>
</div></div>/ -->

</div>
</div>


<div class="container-fluid">

<div class="box-inner-endorsement black">
<h2>Proudly Plays and Endorses</h2>
<div class="row">
<ul>
<li class="elogo"><a href="http://www.vicfirth.com/"><img src="/uploads/images/vicfirth.png"></a></li>
<li class="elogo"><a href="http://www.remo.com/"><img src="/uploads/images/remo.png"></a></li>
<li class="elogo"><a href="http://www.humesandberg.com/"><img src="/uploads/images/humesberg.png"></a></li>
<li class="elogo"><a href="http://kickport.com/"><img src="/uploads/images/kickport.png"></a></li>
<li class="elogo"><a href="http://www.drumtacs.com/"><img src="/uploads/images/drumtacs.jpg"></a></li>
<li class="elogo"><a href="http://www.ludwig-drums.com/"><img src="/uploads/images/ludwig.jpg"></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>

</div><!--/container-fluid/-->

<div class="container-fluid">
<div class="row grey">

<div class="box-inner-footer black">
  <div class="col-md-8">
<p>Rodbell Drums ©{custom_copyright}</p>
</div>

 <div class="col-md-4"><a href="http://www.pas.org/"><img src="/uploads/images/pas-logo.png" width="30px";></a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/larry.rodbell"><i class="fa fa-facebook"></i> Facebook</a> | <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLt3HYVOEH5DjxAV27VLXHw"><i class="fa fa-youtube"></i> Watch Videos</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

    <!-- Bootstrap core JavaScript
    ================================================== -->
    <!-- Placed at the end of the document so the pages load faster -->
{global_content name='google'}
    <__script__ src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></__script>
    <__script__ src="{root_url}/site-files/js/bootstrap.min.js"></__script>
    <!-- IE10 viewport hack for Surface/desktop Windows 8 bug -->
    <__script__ src="{root_url}/site-files/js/ie10-viewport-bug-workaround.js"></__script>

  <__body>
</__html>
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