Advice on CMS for upcoming project... Topic is solved

[blotter]

Hi folks,

I'm completely new to CMS. I'm a CSS, HTML, javascript guy and my partner does flash design, web design, etc.  We've been invited to bid on an upcoming project for a doctor-run weight loss service. The web site is not very large; perhaps twenty pages. The client wants to be able to A) add/replace images,text, and links and B) have a "message center" where they can log in to communicate with the participating doctors, who should also be able to log in to the same area.  Basically, I'm trying to find out if CMS Simple is a good choice to accomplish this, and also to get some feedback on the learning curve...my partner and I are pretty smart, but we'd have to have enough figured out in a few weeks to allow that functionality. 

Of course, hiring a back-end person is also an option.  Any ideas? Any feedback at all is greatly appreciated.

-Jon

[styson]

Welcome.

CMSms will do what you want.  Use the Front End User and CustomContent modules to handle user and secured content management and you can use Forum made simple for the message center.  The forum doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles but it's a basic message board that is tied to the Front End User Module for security. 

You should not need any backend developer at all.  Install and start working on your template. 

[blotter]

Thanks, styson.  Maybe a silly question...I'm assuming the templates can be mofidified to support any original design, correct?

[blotter]

Another silly one perhaps...can we integrate flash movies into the templates?

[nivekiam]

Maybe a silly question...I'm assuming the templates can be mofidified to support any original design, correct?

Yes.

About the flash movies, I think so, I haven't used this module yet so I don't know if it would meet all requirements:
http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/projects/flvplayer/

[blotter]

hmm. After reading the install notes, it seems one would need an understanding of MySQL and PHP in order to set this up, neither of which I have...

it's about what I really need to know in order to even use this...if I am short on skills I will hire a backend person...

[styson]

I have flash on a site without doing anything special but it's just a slideshow that  runs constantly, not movies and such so that module might be needed. 

The installation is very easy.  I do not think you need a backend person at all.  Just depends on hosting and such.

[hexdj]

You don't need major PHP and MySQL knowledge to be able to use CMSms, if you get past the installation process you (basically) won't have to worry about those two anymore.

And regarding the original design... that's one of the best features of CMSMS that your templates/layout are completely flexible and independent from your content.

[nivekiam]

You don't need that much knowledge.  Most hosts offer databases.  Each host is a littler different, but basically you'd log into your admin interface (cPanel, pledesk, host's custom admin, etc) and somewhere in there click on Create or Add Database.  You may need to fill in some other info, but in the end you'll have all the info you need.

hostname
database name
username
password

You don't need to know ANY PHP to use CMSms, it can be helpful, but you don't need that knowledge.

What you would need to learn is some of the Smarty template markup.  But it's not hard to pickup if you already know HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Setting up CMSms is no different than most other PHP based apps, WordPress, Drupal, Gallery2, etc.  I, along with probably most people here who have already installed CMSms could have a basic, out-of-the-box install up and running in 5 minutes (depending on the host and the options they have available).

What you will want to check out is to see if your host meets the requirements:
http://wiki.cmsmadesimple.org/index.php ... quirements

Make sure there is at least 16MB of memory available to PHP, no safe_mode and I'd probably also make sure PHP is not running in CGI  mode and that the server is not using FastCGI.  Those last two are mostly just personal preference as I've seen plenty of CMSms installs (and many other web apps) have issues in those configurations.

I know people have setup CMSms successfully on Dreamhost, Pair and Hostway