Is anyone else feeling CMSMS is more trouble than it's worth?

[harleyquinn]

Don't get me wrong, I've been using CMSMS for over a year now and think it's one of the easiest CMS systems available, but only if you're creating a basic brochure site. What's so frustrating is all the time needed to problem solve, modify modules so that they work properly, and numerous hours searching the forums for answers only to find others having the same issues, but no solution. All this cuts too much out of my production time -- time I'd rather spend developing not problem solving.

I was developing a site recently and spent endless hours modifying the news module to publish daily articles to the point where I gave up and decided to use a different CMS for the project. Basically what was taking me weeks to figure out with CMSMS, took me just a couple of days to accomplish with another CMS.

Again I do think CMSMS is a great simple to use CMS system and will continue to use it for smaller brochure sites, but I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed that 2.0 will be much improved especially when it comes to the news and blog modules.

Any others out there feel the same?

[calguy1000]

CMS Made simple is not the be-all and end-all for content management systems.  It's not meant to solve every conceivable problem you might have.  It's not designed to be a blog, a shop, a magazine, or a bunch of other things.  There are modules that allow it to somewhat work in those capacities, but they are not perfect.... because they are addons providing limited functionaliy in cases where you need a bit of the features in an otherwise mostly static site.

Trying to shoe-horn CMS to solve every website problem ever made is kinda like expecting the smart car to fill everybody's transportation needs.

We even use wordpress for the blog, and SMF for the forum on this website.  We know that you can't expect one CMS package to be everything to everybody.

[aozuas]

Harleyquinn, I don´t agree with you. First, based on my personal experience, CMSMS is not just for brochure sites. I already include many complex functionalities in sites using CMSMS.

I tested almost every CMS out there and CMSMS proves the better option in my case. I also use Drupal for some projects that asks for strong and complex functionalities, but in most cases I use CMSMS.

With rare exceptions, almost all my doubts were answered in good time in the forum. For a Free software, CMSMS is the better options I found and each day I love more this system. The flexibility you had for personalize templates is one of the strong aspects in my opinion. To do the same in Drupal is just a nightmare.

I don´t consider myself I professional programmer, my area is more web design, but I don´t have problems to found the solutions for my doubts in the forum or trying myself to implement it. Because this, I suspect that you don´t have skills in programing area and do you hope the system is ready for use in your particular solutions. In that case I suggest you one of two options: pay a programmer to do the job and you concentrate yourself in the area you are good or pay for a system with technical support that will work for you.

Just a doubt: what other system did you use?

[Nullig]

From my own experience...

I have designed/installed about 15 web sites with CMSMS and all of my clients are very happy with the ease of updating/maintaining their sites. I have tried many other CMS products and CMSMS is by far the simplest and easiest to use. Since I started using it, I have converted almost all of the sites I've created to CMSMS and my clients are very happy with the results.

Just my 2 cents...

Nullig

[harleyquinn]

Calguy, I agree CMSMS is not the be-all and end-all for content management -- for that matter I don't think that there is any one cms that is. But why use CMSMS for maintaining content and use Wordpress for blogging? CMSMS by now should have come further along with having its own fully functioning blog module especially with blogs being such a huge part of the web today.

To aozuas, I agree for free software, CMSMS is fantastic and so easy to learn and use. I'm not a programmer by anymeans, but I can usually figure things out on my own, but like you my area is more in web design. But to answer your question, I decided to use Expression Engine and found it to be as close to the be-all and end-all when it comes to a content management system. It too, is super duper flexible when it comes to templates, and the best part is that I didn't have to pay any programmer to accomplish the complex functionalities necessary for the site I was developing.

Don't get me wrong, I have much respect for the developers of CMSMS and appreciate all the efforts of the indiviuals who put their time into developing it and helping others on the forum. I look forward to it's growth and can't wait to try out 2.0.

[Dr.CSS]

Any chance of a link to the site?...

EDIT: the one you were doing that was too much for CMSMS...

[Nullig]

I think this:

http://expressionengine.com/

is the one mentioned. It's not freeware.

Nullig

[harleyquinn]

Mark: The site is still in progress, but hope to launch sometime next week -- not enough hours in the day between a 9-5 job and freelance work -- but as soon as it's good to go, I'll post a link.

Just to clarify, the main issue I had with CMSMS while developing the site was with the News Module. Too many modifications needed inorder to get it to publish daily articles with SEO urls. Another forum member, tntstudio, was having the same issues as I was and after reading his post http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.php/topic,5012.msg53836.html#msg53836 I took a look at the site he was working on and discovered he switched to Expression Engine too, which is what got me to look into it.

As for Expression Engine, they have a free version too.

[aozuas]

harleyquinn,
unfortunately in this point I need to agree with you.
The lack of SEO urls in news is a big problem in CMSMS. I asked for this many times and never had a good solution.

[Pierre M.]

Hello,

Just to clarify, the main issue I had with CMSMS while developing the site was with the News Module. Too many modifications needed inorder to get it to publish daily articles with SEO urls.

Humm... you should have tiltled your thread "Is anyone else feeling the News module is more trouble than it's worth?" rather than "Is anyone else feeling CMSMS is more trouble than it's worth?".

If you have "spent endless hours modifying the news module" shouldn't it have pretty URLs now ?
Please take no offense, I mean an open GPL project accepts contributions. People with the same problem can collaborate to solve it rather than each being stuck at his place. The thread you are linking to is a good start to build the team that will solve this within a month, isn't it ?

Pierre M.

[harleyquinn]

Humm... you should have tiltled your thread "Is anyone else feeling the News module is more trouble than it's worth?"

Maybe I was a bit harsh in naming the thread, but unfortunately at times while working with CMSMS I often found myself frustrated and thought that there has to be an easier way to get things to work properly and I don't just mean with the news module -- in the past I also had minor issues with Breadcrumbs, FEU, Search, and Form Builder.

In answer to your question, yes, I did get news to have pretty urls, take the word news out of the url and show the title of the article in the top of the browser window all with the help from the forum -- but since my php skills are almost zero, the amount of trial and error needed to get it working was painful. What was even more frustrating, was when updates were released I had to redo all the modifications each time -- a big pain in the you know what.

[calguy1000]

This just tells me that you're probably using the modules for a bit more than they're designed to do.

if these are common frustrations, I would consider creating a new module based on the original one.  Then you're responsible for the source, and it won't change on you every time a new release comes out (though you'd have to take care of any compatiblity issues).

You could also pay a professional developer to do this for you.  Thereby saving you some time.

The modules again, can't be everything to everybody.  what 'Work Properly' means to you will probably be completely different to other people, or on other sites.  I regularly see times where stock modules work fine for one site, but need slight tweaking for another site...... Should all of these 'little tweaks for everybody' go into the product?  I'm not sure.

[tobik]

The modules are GPL'ed. Publish your derived work that anybody can make use of it as you make use of CMSMS.

[Pierre M.]

Hello again,

I did get news to have pretty urls, take the word news out of the url and show the title of the article in the top of the browser window all with the help from the forum
(...) was painful.

Thank you for your answer. There wouldn't have been pain if your "predecesor on this topic" had published his/her results. These results may even have gone mainstream to CMSms core and you wouldn't have been frustrated.
You can't code PHP, this is ok. The point is to share information so the one that can code PHP can submit a patch.

This just tells me that you're probably using the modules for a bit more than they're designed to do.
(...) I regularly see times where stock modules work fine for one site, but need slight tweaking for another site...... Should all of these 'little tweaks for everybody' go into the product?  I'm not sure.

Yes, there are patches for mainstream and there are custom tweaks. The core developers have the last word on the feature set and design implementations. They maintain quality and maintainability by refusing odd patches but they accept smart patches.

(...) Publish your derived work [so] that anybody can make use of it as you make use of CMSMS.

I agree with tobik : it doesn't cost you to publish your result, and you may get great benefit in a next release.
Have fun with CMSms.

Pierre M.

[pixelita]

Of course CMS-MS can't be all things to all people. Neither can WordPress, Drupal, Expression Engine, Joomla, etc., etc., etc.  It's up to you to decide, based on your/your client's foreseeable needs, which of the myriad applications out there (or suite of applications, or cobbled together group of applications) will best accompish what you want. 

I don't know CMS-MS's history, I just recently discovered it to my delight.  I will say that it beats the pants off CMSs such as Drupal (and if you think CMS-MS is difficult to navigate and troubleshoot, then hold on to your heart, Drupal nearly drove me mad) and PHPWebsite.  I am especially impressed with the helpfulness of the forums. I dont see the kind of bickering and backbiting that is rampant in other forums (e.g. WordPress to a large extent). 

WordPress and any other CMS running on pure PHP may be easier in the long run because it doesn't have any real proprietary code like CMS-MS or Drupal or TextPattern or the old and now defunct GreyMatter.  I think there is a lot of flexibility in CMS-MS, more than you give it credit for. Visiting the Strut Your Stuff thread will show you that this is true.

I'm still a newbie here taking baby steps, but it's much much easier to get a site up and running and functioning basically the way you want it with this CMS as opposed to some others out there which I've already named. 

I am a web designer and while my own site runs WordPress, it may not be my client's best solution, especially if they want to present different information to different users.  Before I found CMS-MS, I recommended Drupal for that job and gritted my teeth and made sure I had plenty of coffee on hand for the headaches that would eventually ensue. 

And because I've been immersed in WordPress for quite a while, it took me a bit of time to wrap my head around the way that CMS-MS does things, but once that light bulb went off in my head.. I was fine. I have NEVER gotten that kind of feeling working with Drupal.  No "lightbulb moments" there.   And hey, just look at all the helpful advice you've gotten here just by posting this thread. No one has been snarky and everyone has rushed in to provide a solution.  I guarantee you, that is hard to find! 

One thing I'd love to see is an SMF/CMS-MS bridge.  That would be sweet!

Have a good evening all!