I need cms suggestions

[ralphie]

Ive been working on developing a website. To make things easier to keep everything updated, I wanted to use a cms system. I have already designed the layout and although it is probably not the best in the world, I coded it with css. As far as I can tell, everything is working. But on one of the pages I was going to include a blog. It would be a real pain to always update a blog through the bare code so I am looking for a good quality, secure, and easy to use cms system. I could probably find a blog script out there somewhere but I think it is better if I just have the entire site using a cms. I need something that is easy to learn. I do have some basic knowledge of css/html, but not enough that I can just write webpages in minutes. Does anyone have any suggestions? For one, I was thinking about using mambo. Is this good or are others better? And if I did go with mambo or something like it, how easy is it to convert basic code into a template?

 

[chippy]

hi mate,

try the following site that gives demos of just about everything CMS available

personally i use cmsimple.dk as the system is so easy to implements templates into, but use some demos on this site and you are sure to find something that will fit your needs

OpensourceCMS

cheers

 

[ralphie]

Thats a nice looking site. I will go through some of those and see if I can get anywhere. I am still looking for recommendations as I am new to the cms thing, and Im not exactly sure what I am looking for. The main thing I need is probably the ability to put in my own template easily.
when I was looking at mambo before, I noticed that most of the templates were 3 column layouts. My site is not 3 columns. It basically has a header (includes navigation), footer, and a 1 column content section. I dont know if this helps at all but its a little extra info.

 

[srijit]

I need something that is incredibly difficult to learn.

:td: if that is not a typo ( sic ) then take a look at typo3 ( http://www.typo3.com/ ) it has a very steep learning curve and i suppose takes weeks to master.

For one, I was thinking about using mambo. Is this good or are others better? And if I did go with mambo or something like it, how easy is it to convert basic code into a template?

joomla is easy to learn and use. in order to have no right columns, simply hide them from the backend :p
converting a html template to mambo / joomla is somewhat easy.
steps in brief:

• create your design in html/css
• create an index.php with some joomla code ( tutorials available )
• add some joomla code for desired effect ( header, footer, body, user1, user2 etc )
• convert the img tags to work with any live joomla site ( refer tutorial )
• create an xml file containing file descriptions ( refer tutorial )
• zip them all up and install via admin panel

search for tutorials on making joomla templates. or get a custom template from konze.de or joomplates.com or joolart.com

 

[weblord]

you may want to use this:
CMS Feature Comparator
http://www.cmsreview.com/Features/Compare.html

 

[erreon]

My Suggestion

I've recently been smitten by ModX at www.modxcms.net it is a very very flexible CMS. Goodluck in your search!
You'll run across there demo at www.opensourcecms.com