Is CMSMS the right choice for me?

[J2R]

I'm working on a project for which a CMS is needed, and as I'm a CMS newbie I've been doing a lot of research around the web as to what to go for. My first idea was Joomla, but a lot of things I've read suggest that, though powerful, it's cumbersome to work with and has a steep learning curve. So I've been trying to find out about alternatives and have, I think, narrowed the list down to Silverstripe, Typolight, ModX and CMS Made Simple. Whatever I settle on, I want it to be useful for lots of sites, not just the immediate one in question (I've spent too much time in recent years learning things on a one-off basis, which isn't very cost-effective).

Now, the site I'm currently working on seems a fairly straightforward CMS-style proposition - not a huge number of pages but consistency required throughout, news items, etc., and a separate area which only certain members can see. I'm assuming this is all easily handled by CMSMS? There are a couple of other areas which aren't (or don't seem to me to be) so obviously CMS-oriented, and I'd like to know how CMSMS might handle them. Firstly, the site needs to have an associated set of forums. Now, I believe that CMSMS has a forum module (unlike, for example, ModX), and this may be the way to go. It seems, though, that various other CMSes choose instead to integrate with separate forum applications, such as SMF, phpBB, etc. I'd be interested to hear from anyone using CMSMS who has provided forums as part of their CMSMS-based site, by whatever means, preferably with some examples I can look at. Secondly, users need to be able to register to a couple of conferences via the site. Is there some kind of module for this, or is this something which would have to be developed by me? I'm not keen on getting too deep into PHP to begin with, as it's unfamiliar to me (although I've been developing Java web applications for a number of years so I'm no stranger to programming or the machinery of the web).

Although it's not required for this project, one coming up shortly will require blogging capability, so I'd like to know about adding blogging to a site. Is this something I'd use a blogging module for, or would I instead integrate something like Wordpress, in which case I'd be interested to hear what this would involve?

Any pointers would be most welcome, thanks!

[replytomk3]

I would suggest integration for the forum and blogging. Just look at the CMSMS website itself - they use MediaWiki and SMF. Those modules are not very hard (harder than CMSMS) to maintain, and more importantly, not limited like modules will be.

With CMSMS handling the main site, it takes care of important features like pretty URLs, and SEO that what you integrate (SMF, blogging, wiki, etc) do not have.

[J2R]

Thanks for that. Any pointers to how to do this kind of integration (articles, etc)? I've spent a LOT of time on Google searching for this and that, but it's a whole new area to me and any more directed pointers would be most welcome.

[Jeff]

What do you need in a blog? What do you need in a Forum? If you just need the basics I would check out the modules within CMSMS.

If you have people used to Wordpress(or other blog) and if it isn't Wordpress forget it -- then you will have to integrate.
ForumMS is a barebones forum if you need a full blown system then you will need to integrate phpBB or SMF, but if you are using FrontEndUser and want a single login, you have some work to do.

As for conference registration, what do you need? There are modules that handle a simple form submitting an email to full reservation modules.

[J2R]

I'm hoping Forum Made Simple would handle the forum requirements - I actually need to find out a little more myself first as to precisely what is required. As regards conference registration, I'll take a look at the reservation modules. I'm presuming that I can create forms easily enough, and the logic to process the forms submission at the server end. While this would necessarily be in PHP, a language I'm not yet that familiar with, I don't imagine this would be especially tricky - I do this kind of thing all the time with Java. Actually, thinking about it, I could actually use Java for this kind of back end logic, as not everything needs to be handled by the PHP application. Possibly a bit messy as an approach, though.

[Pierre M.]

Hello,

I agree with replytomk3 : CMSms itself is neither forum nor blogging software and I feel better with integration of proven software (CMSms, SMF/BB, WordPress/DotClear, MediaWiki, etc). CMSms' forum/blogging modules may be good but SMF/BB/WP/DC/MW are good.
I may be biased as being unix minded : each software makes one thing well. And CMSms is a somewhat nice glue and a great "webpages" component.

Pierre M.