CalOHI Content Management System Review

Transcription

1 CalOHI Contnt Systm Rviw

2 Tabl of Contnts Documnt Ovrviw... 3 DotNtNuk... 4 Ovrviw... 4 Installation / Maintnanc... 4 Documntation... 5 Usability... 5 Dvlopmnt... 5 Ovrall... 6 CMS Mad Simpl... 6 Ovrviw... 6 Installation / Maintnanc... 6 Documntation... 7 Usability... 7 Dvlopmnt... 7 Ovrall... 7 Joomla , Bta Ovrviw... 8 Installation / Maintnanc... 8 Documntation... 8 Usability... 8 Dvlopmnt... 9 Ovrall... 9 Drupal... 9 Ovrviw... 9 Installation / Maintnanc... 9 Documntation Usability Dvlopmnt Ovrall Plon Ovrviw Installation / Maintnanc Documntation Usability Dvlopmnt Ovrall Othr CMS Solutions Typ MODx Product Matrix... 13

3 Documnt Ovrviw Th purpos of this documnt is to dscrib th diffrncs btwn potntial Contnt Systms (CMS) for th CalOHI s public wb sit. Thr ar hundrds 1 of CMS solutions availabl. This documnt dscribs a subst of availabl solutions for CalOHI to considr. Each CMS will b valuatd on th following topics: Installation/Maintnanc How asy th CMS is to install, configur and maintain. Documntation How wll documntd th CMS is. Usability Ovrall usability for th CMS. This includs th administrativ functions. Th usability will b discussd from th ditor's and publishrs prspctiv. Dvlopmnt Th potntial to xpand th CMS to fit futur nds. Aftr ths topics thr will b an ovrall summary of th CMS bing rviwd. At th nd of th documnt is a comparativ analysis of th products followd by our rcommndation. Thr ar som things that ar common to most if not all contnt managmnt systms and will not b covrd in this documnt; you can assum that th following systms all support ths faturs. Prsntation Tmplats Th sparation of prsntation from th data/contnt Compatibility with th Srvics 2 tmplats. Usr Account managmnt Accss control to vital CMS faturs Rich Txt Editors / WISYWIG 3 Eliminating th nd to know XHTML markup languag or programming languags Sit Lvl Administration- Th ability to configur th sit without accssing th srvr configuration aftr initial stup. 1 Comparabl list of popular systms 2 CA Srvics 3 WYSIWYG (What you s is what you gt)

4 DotNtNuk Ovrviw DotNtNuk was originally built in 2002 on th ASP.NET (VB.NET) Platform. Its currnt rlas numbr is and it ss updats to th cod at a minimum of onc a yar. Thr ar hundrds of add on moduls that ar availabl ithr for fr or for a f. DotNtNuk is rgardd as on of th top contnt managmnt systms availabl for th.net platform, and has bn around sinc shortly aftr.net was rlasd. DotNtNuk is dvlopd around thr ky componnts. Thr is th portal, which is ssntially just th sit or a group of sits. This is valuabl if you ar planning on maintaining mor than on sit with on contnt managmnt systm, such as a public (Intrnt) and privat (Intrant) sit. Th nxt componnt is a pag. Pags ar just lik thy sound xcpt with on distinct diffrnc ovr othr contnt managmnt systms; DotNtNuk allows you to copy sttings from othr pags lik it allowing for th asy propagation of pags that hav similar proprtis. Th third componnt is a modul. Each pag has moduls insid of it; ths moduls ar th containrs for diffrnt typs of contnt. This is important bcaus ach pic of contnt is ssntially containd in a modul allowing for th ability to chang moduls on a global basis. An xampl of this would b if you had larg txt blocks on multipl pags and it was dcidd that ach pag should hav th contnt arrangd in tabs. You could chang just th modul so that it took ach paragraph for xampl and put it in its own tab. DotNtNuk utilizs an in-lin diting systm to modify pags. This typ of systm allows for an ditor to brows to th pag that thy want to dit using th sits normal navigation and thn if loggd in with th propr prmissions th usr can modify th contnt on th pag. This provids grat functionality for th gnral ditor but also rmovs som functionality from th sit administration. In othr contnt managmnt systms a administrator can gt a fl for th sit structur as a whol and thn mov pags around within that contxt. Howvr with a in lin typ diting systm you ar looking at th pag as is and can not mov whol sctions or groups of pags, lik you could normally in a back nd administrd systm. For mor information on DotNtNuk: Installation / Maintnanc DotNtNuk coms packagd in ithr a compild solution or sourc distribution making it asy to ithr just install it or modify th cod and thn install it. Thr is som minimal configuration that nds to tak plac in ordr to mak DotNtNuk talk to th SQL srvr databas and som sit configuration but thr is no major drawbacks to th stup in gnral.

5 Documntation This is whr DotNtNuk rally shins for an opn sourc solution. Du to its popularity and it's opn sourc natur, DotNtNuk is wll supportd by th community. It has many commrcially availabl books and othr matrial for us in training and dvlopmnt in DotNtNuk. It has a comprhnsiv usr guid that would b a good start to any customizd usr guid for CalOHI's nds. If thr is on ara it is lacking it is on installation of th cor DotNtNuk systm. Howvr this could b du to th as of stup in gnral and not du to lack of attntion. Usability Although not th traditional styl of administring contnt, DotNtNuk provids a usr frindly intrfac for diting contnt on pags. As mntiond arlir in this documnt DotNtNuk adopts a in-lin diting styl that allows a usr to brows to a pag and dit it without th nd for logging in on th back nd and diting contnt out of contxt lik most contnt managmnt systms. If thr ar a lot of contnt ditors who may not b concrnd with th ovrall architctur of th sit and just car about contnt bing currnt, this mthod is vry usr frindly. Th mthod is a drawback howvr if you hav a fw systm administrators who fundamntally viw a sit in its ntirty and not on a pag by pag basis. Th spcific scnario of th CalOHI, howvr, lans mor towards th many contnt ditors and fw administrators thrfor this typ of diting bst suits th nds of th dpartmnt. DotNtNuk also has many othr faturs that mak it stand out from othr systms. Along with having th standard Rich Txt Editor that most CMS hav, it allows for th dragging and dropping of containrs and moduls so that th pag can b asily ditd in a way that is familiar to most usrs. Containrs and moduls can b addd or rmovd for us on sits, giving or limiting th ability to provid diffrnt tools for ditors to us. Th ditor also allows for cutting and pasting from othr ditors such as Word and th basic formatting will b kpt. Dvlopmnt DotNtNuk is an opn sourc systm. This maks dvlopmnt of add on moduls and customizd functionality a lot asir than othr compild or propitiatory systms. This transparncy also brings mor scurity concrns than othr systms, howvr this is not a larg issu on a nclosd intrant. DotNtNuk provids xtnsiv documntation for building custom moduls and containrs within th systm. Using th Srvics tmplats alrady lays th groundwork for th tmplats to b asily cratd for us with DotNtNuk but it also allows for containrs to strip som of th widgts out of th tmplats such as th many diffrnt tab intrfacs and dvlop thm as containrs or moduls in DotNtNuk thus allowing th contnt ditor to us that functionality without having to know a markup languag.

6 Thr is a downsid to a non commrcially dvlopd systm, that is that in gnral th cod for opn sourc projcts ar not as wll commntd or documntd. DotNtNuk sms to do this bttr than most, but it is still lacking whn it coms to dvlopr documntation. Ovrall DotNtNuk would b a good option to implmnt for th CalOHI. concrn is that DotNtNuk is a larg systm, though thr is an adquat amount of documntation with DotNtNuk it is rlativly complx. A substantial gain in using this solution is that DTS is partial to IIS basd nvironmnt and ar thrfor fully quippd to allow CalOHI to us an instanc of thir srvrs. Stanfild Systms is also dvloping DotNtNuk solutions for othr dpartmnts. If and whn dvlopd, moduls can b asy shard in btwn ach of ths. Ovrall dvlopmnt cost would dcras and srvic will b simplifid. For mor information: CMS Mad Simpl Ovrviw As th vry nam stats, CMS Mad Simpl is on of th asist nvironmnts to navigat and dploy. Whil fully compliant XHTML/CSS compliant, this particular contnt managmnt systm originally wnt in to bta in 2005 and has continud to b maintaind by th opn sourc community for th last two yars. Th currnt production 1.1 vrsion is maintaind by 6+ cor dvloprs that hav kpt up with usr dmand by adding a modular nvironmnt with flxibl tmplat slction. Bing that it is not a larg production nvironmnt, workflow is not on of th ky faturs. Publishing changs to th sit can b don quickly in an atmosphr that allows multipl modifications to a pag to b don simultanously bfor publishing. Administration of th sit can b prformd by a numbr of rgistrd usrs, ach with usr group sttings which would allow/dny accss to spcific sctions of th sit. CMS Mad Simpl is by far on of th simplst sit managmnt tools availabl. Installation / Maintnanc Installation of th product is rlativly simpl. A PHP nvironmnt with a mysql srvr is ncssary. Th installation packag is dployd in th propr dirctory and at first accss, th product installs itslf. Th propr FTP and mysql administrator accss is ncssary for this installation to b succssful. Maintnanc packags ar dployd just as asily.

7 Documntation Sufficint documntation can b found on thir wbsit. Moduls ar build by individuals and rsponsibility for thos itms is thir rsponsibility. Sadly, no major publications hav writtn any tutorial basd books about this but this could also b du to its simplicity. Usability Th simplst form of contnt managmnt is prformd by accssing a Pags panl which dtails a hiratical list of all contnt pags faturing a parnt-to-child rlationship through xpandabl tr-lik panl. Unlik th Tamsit nvironmnt, ths pags do not contain any quivalncy to DCRs. Editing a pag will post th ntir pag s contnt into a dynamic rich WISYWIG txt ditor which can b usd by usrs that ar ithr unwilling to us cor HTML or hav littl knowldg of it. Each pag can b styld diffrntly through th slction of ithr prviously packagd or customizd tmplats. Th ditor s panl allows th usr to prviw th pag bfor it is publishd whil othr visibl options allow th slction of contnt typ, titl, mnu txt and parnt pag. itional moduls can b installd quickly; ach of ths can provid a considrabl amount of flxibility to th sit that rang from sit managmnt to blogging capabilitis. Dvlopmnt Littl dvlopmnt nds to tak plac du to th modular nvironmnt and th considrabl coopration of th dvlopmnt community. Customizd moduls can b cratd if ncssary whil th primary dvloprs ar availabl for assistanc. itional contractor fs may apply dpnding on complxity of th product. This ffort, howvr, may b unncssary as thr ar many stand alon products that can b asily addd to th flow of th gnral CMS aftr skinning. Ovrall CMS Mad Simpl would b an xcllnt choic du to th straight forward dsign th original dvloprs hav continud to nforc. Th growth ovr tim and th dvlopmnt community s intrst hav incrasd its capabilitis in to a modular systm that can scal asily without much complxity. vic usrs can b brought up to spd on rgular us in minuts rathr than days. Installation availabl for tsting: Usrnam: admin Password: 7XaImb3q

8 Joomla , Bta 1.5 Ovrviw Joomla! is a community favorit that has bn around for quit som tim. As a spin off from Mambo, an oldr product, this Gnral Public Licnsd CMS has had many contributions by th opn sourc community with hundrds of plug-ins and additions to its cor dploymnt. Ky pr-installd faturs commonly usd ar RSS fds, a polling systm, mbddd sarch ngin, Nws sction and dfault layout. Whil th HTML basd Joomla has bn availabl sinc 2005, th 1.5 XHTML vrsion continus to b in bta as of now and rmains unstabl. Installation availabl for tsting: Usrnam: admin Password: 7XaImb3q Installation / Maintnanc Bing that it is a PHP/mySQL product, it is rlativly simpl to dploy. Th main distribution is availabl through a zip fil that is xtractd in th location which will b usd for gnral hosting. Updats ar prformd quickly with minimal downtim. Documntation A numbr of articls, tutorials and forums ar frly availabl on-lin. Th usr bas has gown so much that major publications hav startd to compt by publishing th most up to dat information on usability and product dvlopmnt. This is a dfinit advantag as thr would b littl nd to writ a manual of our own. Usability Th gnral flow of th tool rmains rlativly simpl whil managing th rgular contnt of th sit. Changs can b mad by authorizd prsonal dirctly from th pags or via an administrativ panl. Furthr administration of th contnt may rquir som training. Th bta product has rcivd som improvmnts in navigation and administration that may mak th ovrall maintnanc staff suffr lss through th incrasingly complicatd UI. Moduls and xtnsions can b xtrmly hlpful and dpnding on how thy ar dvlopd, ths could rdirct contnt diting to thir built-in componnts. Shopping carts, managmnt tools, ditors and vido publishing can b asily addd to th ntir sit through any on of ths. Du to constant updat and submission of ths, th possibilitis ar almost limitlss.

9 Whil th HTML vrsion can b skinnd to th propr look and fl, som of th contnt that is gnratd through th WISYWIG ditor may continu to b tabl basd and without th propr tagging systm. Fortunatly thr ar svral amndmnts that hlp format th contnt proprly. Th full XMHTML vrsion continus to b without a rlas dat. By dfault, th primary pag is structurd in a multi column nws format but this can b changd quickly through propr configuration. Dvlopmnt Thr would b littl ncssity to customiz any dvlopmnt for any tools. Som nrgy, howvr, will hav to b spnt on th skinning procss to gt ths to working corrctly with th rst of th CMS nvironmnt. Ovrall Joomla is an xcllnt tool to us as it is dployd xtrmly quickly. Fin tuning this spcific CMS will tak som work as it is not spcifically intuitiv to th bginnr. Publishd books can b usd as our cor documntation whil vidos and spcific dirctions can b providd for gnral us. A rlas dat for th XHTML compatibl vrsion of this product is not availabl yt. For mor information: Drupal Ovrviw An intnsly wll known opn sourc product with ovr 400 dvloprs, Drupal first bgan its journy as a blogging tool and has sinc bcom on of th most stabl and xpandabl CMSs availabl. Svral wll know, highly visitd sits hav bn working with th Drupal cor for svral yars now. Also containing a modular and pluggabl nvironmnt, Drupal cor maintains stability throughout th dployabl systm by providing a numbr of hooks and call backs to nsur data prsistnc. This product is typically usd to build usr community sits but is fully xpandabl as a dvlopmnt nvironmnt is xposd dirctly through th CMS. Th only common concrn is th lvl of training rquird to start using this product. Installation / Maintnanc As with most othr CMS, this PHP/mySQL CMS is asily dployabl. First accss to th unzippd dirctory in th PHP ngin gnrats all ncssary tabls, usr data and startup nvironmnts. Th Drupal cor contains fw ditors or functionality that can b usd for a production sit. This, howvr, is not a problm du to th full availability to all th moduls through th sit. Downloading and intgrating ths ar rlativly simpl. Updats ar prformd just as quickly.

10 Documntation Drupal has no troubl with documntation. Having such a larg usr bas has workd towards vryon s advantag. This howvr, dosn t man that w won t hav to writ maintnanc documntation sinc it is fully customizabl. Usability As prviously notd, Drupal may not b as intuitiv to th common usr as othr CMSs might from th start. It is fully capabl of using svral tmplats and a vast amount of contnt can b managd asily aftr th propr moduls hav bn installd. Usability dpnds fully on how it is built from th ground up. Dvlopmnt Drupal is known as an xtrmly powrful and robust dvlopmnt nvironmnt. Thos dvloprs that hav takn th tim to immrs thmslvs in this tool swar by its flxibility and functionality. Ovrall It would b xciting to work with this particular CMS du to th yild that it promiss with provn stability. Th xpandability that it offrs would b somthing idal for any organization. For mor information: Plon Ovrviw Plon is a uniqu CMS that targts out of th box as of us. With intgratd moduls that includ fil managmnt and imag procssing, th ovrall solution bcoms an idal nvironmnt for any corporation. Workflow and usr policis hav rcntly bn dvlopd to mak this product a robust solution. Installation / Maintnanc of th drawbacks about Plon is that it is dployabl only on a Python srvr with a Zun ngin. Th ovrall install is mad simpl through pr-compild xcutabls for svral diffrnt platforms but Unix platform is likly to nd a dvlopmnt nvironmnt to compil and install crtain pacs. Moduls ar asily installd whil difficultis with updats may vary dpnding on th platform in which it is hostd. Documntation Th Plon hom pag provids sufficint documntation and svral dfinit guids ar availabl on th markt that may assist in any ncssary application dvlopmnt.

11 Usability word dscribs th usability: simpl. Plon is rlativly intuitiv thr is vry littl lft to b dsird. Dvlopmnt Th fact that Plon is CSS/XHTML compliant out of th box is a big plus. Major dvlopmnt tasks may rquir som ffort du to th us of th Zun rul ngin on th python bas. Ths can b avoidd by using pr-xisting moduls that nhanc th product s capabilitis. Thr ar howvr no guarants that such dvlopmnt pacs won t rquir som work. Ovrall Plon is an xcllnt CMS and a plasur to work with. of th major drawbacks is th basic rquirmnts. Whil DTS and othr srvic providrs ar starting to bcom mor opn to allow PHP/mySQL nvironmnts, having to convinc thm that a Python/Zun is ncssary may b xtrmly difficult. Som of th major drawbacks may includ possibl problms with th dploymnt on platforms that don t alrady hav a compild installation xcutabl and rgular maintnanc du to our lack of cor knowldg of th undrlying componnts. Tim would hav to b ddicatd and a dvlopr would hav to b traind to mak sur th systm rmains in oprimal conditions. anothr not, Plon appars xtrmly robust and it also has a larg community bas. Th product is availabl fr of charg undr th GNU Gnral Public Licns. For mor information: Othr CMS Solutions Typ 3 Th actual nam to this is Typo 3. It was valuatd bcaus DTS mmbrs wr talking about offring this as a CMS solution in th nar futur. Unfortunatly it was found to b flat and unimprssiv. of th possibl strngths is its ability to host many portals undr th sam bas dploymnt. A sourc control basd history has also bn implmntd to th cor. Evn so, th implmntation lavs a strong imprssion that it functions similar to Tamsit. This CMS is also PHP/mySQL and distributd undr Gnral Public Licnsing. It also has strong community collaboration. For mor information: MODx Considrd a Contnt Framwork, MODx is on of th strongst AJAX systms out thr. It supports XHTML/CSS out of th box but it is currntly in bta. Dvlopmnt sms to b slowr as it is rlativly nw to th Markt.

12 For mor information: This CMS was a larg disappointmnt. Th intrfac was not as intuitiv as th rst of th CMSs w rviwd and for that sam rason, it is bing ruld out. Installation availabl: Usrnam: admin Password: 7XaImb3q

13 Product Matrix Systm Rquirmnt s Application Srvr Approximat Cost Databas Licns Oprating Systm Programming Languag CMS Mad Simpl PHP DotNtNuk IIS Drupal 107 Joomla! MODx Plon TYPO3 PHP Apach rcommnd d, IIS Apach rcommnd d, any srvr that supports PHP and MySQL Apach rcommnd d, any srvr that supports PHP and MySQL Zop PHP MySQL, Postgrs GNU GPL + optional Commrci al licns MSSQL 2005/2000, MSSQL Exprss 2005, MSDE BSD (Modifid) MySQL, Postgr s GNU GPL MySQL MySQL Any Windows Any Any Any PHP ASP.NET 2.0, VB.NET PHP MySQL or latr GNU GPL GNU GPL GNU GPL PHP, Javascript, XML, XHTML 1.1 PHP UNIX, Linux, BSD, OS X, Windows PHP4 or PHP 5 Zop GNU GPL Any MySQL, PostGrSQ L, Oracl, MSSQL GNU GPL Any Python PHP Root Accss Shll Accss Wb Srvr Scurity Any php nabld srvr CMS Mad Simpl IIS 5.0 & IIS 6.0 DotNtNuk Apach, IIS Apach, IIS Apach Apach Apach, IIS, Zop Apach, IIS Drupal 107 Joomla! MODx Plon TYPO3 Audit Trail Limitd Captcha Contnt Approval Vrification Granular Privilgs Krbros Authntication Limitd LDAP Authntication Login History

14 NIS Authntication NTLM Authntication Pluggabl Authntication Problm tification Sandbox Limitd Sssion SMB Authntication SSL Compatibl SSL Logins SSL Pags Vrsioning Limitd Support Crtification Program Cod Skltons Commrcial Manuals Commrcial Support Commrcial Training Dvlopr Community CMS Mad Simpl DotNtNuk Drupal 107 Joomla! MODx Plon TYPO3 lin Hlp Limitd Pluggabl API Profssional Hosting Profssional Srvics Public Forum Public Mailing List Tst Framwork Third-Party

15 Dvloprs Usrs Confrnc Eas of Us Drag-N-Drop Contnt To Discussion CMS Mad Simpl DotNtNuk Drupal 107 Joomla! MODx Plon TYPO3 Frindly URLs Imag Rsizing Macro Languag Mass Upload Prototyping Srvr Pag Languag Spll Chckr Styl Wizard Subscriptions Tmplat Languag Limitd UI Lvls Undo Limitd Limitd WYSIWYG Editor Zip Archivs Prformanc Advancd Caching Databas Rplication Load Balancing CMS Mad Simpl DotNtNuk Drupal 107 Joomla! MODx Plon TYPO3 Pag Caching Static Contnt Export

16 Advrtising Asst CMS Mad Simpl DotNtNuk Drupal 107 Joomla! MODx Plon TYPO3 Clipboard Limitd Contnt Schduling Contnt Staging Inlin Administration lin Administration Packag Dploymnt Sub-sits / Roots Thms / Skins Trash Wb Statistics Wb-basd Styl/Tmplat Wb-basd Translation Workflow Engin Introprabili ty Contnt Syndication (RSS) Limitd CMS Mad Simpl DotNtNuk Limitd Limitd Drupal 107 Joomla! MODx Plon TYPO3 FTP Support Limitd UTF-8 Support WAI Compliant WbDAV Support Limitd Limitd Limitd Limitd XHTML

17 Compliant Flxibility CGI-mod Support Contnt Rus Extnsibl Usr Profils Intrfac Localization CMS Mad Simpl DotNtNuk Drupal 107 Joomla! MODx Plon TYPO3 Limitd Mtadata Limitd Multi-lingual Contnt Multi-lingual Contnt Intgration Multi-Sit Dploymnt URL Rwriting Wiki Awar Built-in Applications CMS Mad Simpl DotNtNuk Drupal 107 Joomla! MODx Plon TYPO3 Blog Limitd Chat Classifids Contact Data Entry Databas Rports Discussion / Forum Documnt Evnts Calndar Evnts Expns Rports Limitd Limitd Limitd

18 FAQ Fil Distribution Graphs and Charts Groupwar Gust Book Hlp Dsk / Bug Rporting HTTP Proxy In/Out Board Job Postings Link Mail Form Matrix My Pag / Dashboard Nwslttr Photo Gallry Polls Product Projct Tracking Sarch Engin Limitd Sit Map Stock Quots

19 Survys Syndicatd Contnt (RSS) Tsts / Quizzs Tim Tracking Usr Contributions Wathr Wb Srvics Front End Commrc Affiliat Tracking Invntory Pluggabl Paymnts Pluggabl Shipping CMS Mad Simpl Pluggabl Tax Point of Sal Shopping Cart DotNtNuk Subscriptions Wish Lists Drupal 107 Joomla! MODx Plon TYPO3

20 Rcommndation a final not, thr is no asy way rcommnd a singl CMS but th following sm xtrmly apparnt. W would rcommnd DotNtNuk bcaus othr dpartmnts, for which w ar dvloping, ar using it for both thir intrants and gnral sits. Portals can b asily spun off from a singl installation and documntation for dvlopmnt is alrady commrcially availabl. Communal moduls can b dvlopd and shard btwn all dpartmnt that w ar convrting (Fish and Gam, DCSS and othrs). This will obviously nhanc CalOHI s ability to xpand with littl ffort. Possibl drawbacks ar th complxity and siz of th product but manuals can b usd to handl this. Th ovrall implmntation is.net. In cas w don t want to try a.net nvironmnt: For th simplst and last procss intnsiv, I d rcommnd CMS Mad Simpl. Th drawbacks may includ lack of xpandability. If w hav lots of tim to gt acquaintd with our nvironmnt and want to crat a robust sit ovr tim, Drupal would b th choic. If w want risk trying to gt a python srvr running on a forign nvironmnt, Plon would b a grat solution.