Hello there,

 

I am need help on deciding which CMS to go for my mates website. This is the current version www.deafjetski.co.uk. I want to design it like this:

 

Well not without forums for just now but would like to add it in the future.

 

I know some of HTML and a lot of CSS. I am sure that I can handle it at the end I want one that is easy to use and not too complicated to theme.

 

Hope you will guide me on the correct path on deciding which is best for them and myself.

modX

 

Code it in html/css.

 

Then you just need to replace sections with certain chunks and snippets etc.

 

Say you want an image at the top of every page.

 

all you need to do is add in a TV (template variable) like so

 

[[image]] << or whatever you want to call it

 

and then from the admin assign the TV 'image' to an image field.

 

And every time you create a page with that template, the content editor will now have an image upload for you to select the image.

 

You can use multiple instances of these, different types, etc. etc.

 

There's alot more to it, but it's pretty simple to get along with at first, and you can learn more functionality as you go along.

 

Very simple, Very powerful system.

I'd defo say Concrete5.

 

It is by far the easiest CMS I have used and your mate will defo love it whether he knows nothing about Code or Not.

 

I used it when I only had knowledge of CSS/XHTML and how to install scripts.

 

My Client loves it and it's super easy to integrate.

 

www.concrete5.org

 

Hope this helps

 

Doesn't have forums but, . Likely they'll bring this feature out in an add-on. Or just use a seperate forum script? Many sites do this.

I went for ModX can i just copy the html from my existing site which is above and paste it in modx?

 

EDIT ignore this just found out

I second modX - lightweight and simple.

 

But like anything it depends on what you are trying to do

ExpressionEngine with the built in forum module.

Easiest to customize and the advanced forum is integrated into the system, beats having a separate one.

 

The templates allow for easy customizations.

If i were you i should use phpwcms... www.phpwcms.de ! It's a very good cms and easy to use. There is enough documentation online to use the cms.

 

I made my own website with it 2 Webdesign Twente

 

If you want more information you can allways mail me --> info[at]surf-it.nl

I need the same information, so just taking a nosy

plus 1 for expression engine - it's just so flexible although it might not be necessary for this job. That modX looks sweet too actually, never seen it before.

Something else you might be interested in taking a look at, although it's a bit hard to template, is Liferay. It's VERY powerful, you can literally drag and drop any functionality you want into the interface, but as I said, it looks a little hard to customise - but easy to set up things like forums etc.

ExpressionEngine is great. Its a commercial product though, and even though its relatively cheap, there is a licence fee, which may or may not come into the equation for you, depending on the project you're working on.

 

From what I can tell, ModX seems to share similar principles to ExpressionEngine, and I've been meaning to give it a proper try myself, havng messed around with it briefly a couple of times in the past.