May 5, 201115 yr Hey Everyone! I'm currently attacking a new project for a small environmental magazine company which is growing very rapidly. I just received a contract to setup a new CMS bases website using something like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla or something similar. I've setup a couple WordPress sites in the past but nothing to this extent. I'm not completely blind when it comes to this but it would help to have input from someone that knows more than I do. I would love to hear suggestions from you to help me meet the clients expectations for this project. Here is what they need: 1. Home page - text and graphic links to other sections - current and highlighted news/info/listings - Twitter and RSS feeds 2. Editorial section - overview of Alliance: mission, mandate et al - about us and our collaborators - editorial mission and mandate - submissions and writers guidelines - upcoming issues - magazine and newsletters - current and archived issues 3. Marketing section - advertising plan and offerings - media kit and rate card 4. Community section - curated directory listings - curated events calendar listings - curated news - curated links 5. Contact 6. Banner and text ad rotation backend 7. Analytics and SEO capability 8. Output to email newsletter with full subscriber backend A good CMS has the capability to take CSV and page layout export files and automatically populate a database backend with text, data and graphics. I'm fairly certain their are lots of plugins/widget/applications that can be implemented into certain CMS setups. This site will be fully moderated. From what I understand, they want to be able to update the main page (blog) with news & advertisements which will only be put in by the moderators. Above they have listed an Editorial Section, Marketing Section or page so advertisers can get more information, a fully functional community calendar that users can input there own events into (upon approval of a moderator), and a place for users to post there own news, etc (upon approval of a moderator or at least a forum like setup). I don't know if I explained this perfectly but you get the idea. The budget isn't huge so I don't want to spend a month or 2 setting this up. I would prefer to customize a design for something like WordPress or Joomla and add plugins or applications with some simple step by step integration. Thanks!
May 5, 201115 yr Looks very straightforward for Expressionengine, though you'd need a couple of addons, one for the Twitter feed (Twitter Timeline) and another for front end submissions (SAFECracker) . Not sure what you mean by CSV and page layout files?
May 5, 201115 yr Author Thanks BlueDreamer. So ExpressionEngine is a CMS? Don't worry about the CSV and page layout files. I'll talk to the client about that. I've never used ExpressionEngine. I'm assuming it's not free? I'm more of a graphics designer than a programmer. If I get expression engine is it fairly straight forward to install? Then I can just install the plugins? If you can give me some more information that would be great! Thanks again!
May 5, 201115 yr You could definitely do this in Wordpress but it would require a bit of hackery. Expression Engine is the way to go here.
May 6, 201115 yr Author OK great. Thanks for the info. I guess I'll just start doing some research and see if wordpress or expression engine is the way to go. If anyone else has any input, let me know. Thanks guys!
May 6, 201115 yr Thanks BlueDreamer. So ExpressionEngine is a CMS? Don't worry about the CSV and page layout files. I'll talk to the client about that. I've never used ExpressionEngine. I'm assuming it's not free? I'm more of a graphics designer than a programmer. If I get expression engine is it fairly straight forward to install? Then I can just install the plugins? If you can give me some more information that would be great! Thanks again! Yes EE is a "true" CMS, in that you can use it to manage "content" as opposed to generic "pages". That leaves you free to develop the site however you want. It's commercial open source so there is a licence fee ($299 for a commercial site, $150 for non commercial) but you often save that in time you'd spend with other systems tweaking and hacking to make them do what you want. It requires absolutely no knowledge of PHP or other programming languages, templates are built with plain old HTML/CSS plus special tags for where you want your content items to go. It's especially favoured by many leading web designers because it's uber flexible without having to be a programmer! Installation is fairly straightforward - set up a database, upload files, change a couple of file permissions and run the installer. If you do need any addons, EE "plugins" you just upload and they're ready to use, "Extensions" and "Modules" you upload but have to activate, and sometimes choose settings, in the control panel. EE actually does a lot of things out of the box that other systems require oodles of plugins for. If you're relatively new to working with CMS's then the site spec will be a quite a learning curve whatever system you end up with. Certainly with EE you literally start with a blank sheet so you'd have to plan the structure of your site, build all your content Channels, content input fields, category groups, statuses and so on, but you'd end up with a site that's infinitely flexible, easily customisable and easily extended should you need and new features in future. EE's only one choice. As others have said Wordpress may be an option. Drupal would certainly work but you'd need PHP knowledge and a lot of patience!
June 4, 201115 yr I would certainly recommend taking a look at Drupal. Yes, if you really push it you might need to get into PHP but we have built loads of sites with Drupal to a similar spec to the one you quoted and have found that it has risen to the task beautifully. As BlueDreamer says in relation to EE, you need something that deals with content rather than pages. This is where Drupal stands out against Joomla. It is very flexible. You will have to install quite a few modules and the configuration will take a good amount of time to get your head round but the advantages are clear: [*]Full free open source licence [*]Loads of community support [*]Shouldn't have to do any custom PHP I'm sure everyone has their angle but I'm definitely a Drupal fan! Hope that helps -- Andy My Drupal & Charity Web Design Blog
June 5, 201115 yr Author I would certainly recommend taking a look at Drupal. Yes, if you really push it you might need to get into PHP but we have built loads of sites with Drupal to a similar spec to the one you quoted and have found that it has risen to the task beautifully. As BlueDreamer says in relation to EE, you need something that deals with content rather than pages. This is where Drupal stands out against Joomla. It is very flexible. You will have to install quite a few modules and the configuration will take a good amount of time to get your head round but the advantages are clear: [*]Full free open source licence [*]Loads of community support [*]Shouldn't have to do any custom PHP I'm sure everyone has their angle but I'm definitely a Drupal fan! Hope that helps -- Andy My Drupal & Charity Web Design Blog Awesome! Thanks a lot for your input. I'm taking a look at them all.
June 5, 201115 yr Hi I was interested in reading your request. Unfortunately I cannot help you, but would like to ask you a question. I have been approached by someone wanting a WordPress website. Up until now I have only designed my own websites. With the WordPress websites, what is the level of difficulty in creating them? Can you give me some idea of the level of technical knowledge required in doing them (can lay people (not me) do them?). When taking on the creation of a WordPress website, what price structure should I use? Thanks for your help.
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