Hi,

 

I am in the design process of working on a site and was wandering (as updates are constatly required) if it would be best to build a custom CMS? I don't have the most experience in using CMS so editing is going to be a minimum. How would I go about building a CMS? Is there one that would suit my needs best? The only thing that would need to be uploaded is photos, a calander style widgety thing, and maybe minimal blog posting. The rest of the site will remain as is apart from the occational chop and change.

 

Am I best using an original CMS or would building a custom one be worth the effort?

 

Thanks in advance...

Building a custom one is almost never worth the effort. Compared to any of the big open source players (or even smaller ones) you're spending way more effort for much less functionality.

 

Take WP for example - it's possible to design and develop a WP site in about 40 hours, whereas to get all the functionality that comes with WP you'd have to spend thousands of hours.

yeah I agree. Really why re-invent the wheel, if all you are looking for is...a wheel?

 

Now, if the client is paying for a custom cms, then thats different.

The site isn't being paid for (girlfriend) she hasnt asked for anything other than a standard coded site, but to make life easier I was thinking of using CMS so she doesnt bug me when she wants photos uploaded.

 

I don't suppose you know of any good tutorials for Wordpress customization do you? I have played with it alittle but not to the extent that I may require.

You could go with a simple CMS for this. Here is a good recent review on some http://www.cmscritic.com/top-10-simple-cms/

If you need something more powerful or flexible, go with processwire.

I have desided to go with wordpress as from a base install it offers the most security. From there god knows what as I have never made any drastic changes to a wordpress site before so maybe its time I learnt...

I have desided to go with wordpress as from a base install it offers the most security

 

This kind of statements always surprises me...

Edited September 28, 201213 yr by ocorreiododiogo

base install as in a one click installer from the hosting company?

Not it is on my own server so download the tar.gz unzipp and install through browser

 

I work for a hosting company so I get certain perks (like my own pizza box)

Not it is on my own server so download the tar.gz unzipp and install through browser

 

Good man. One click installs are always a no no where security is concerned.

 

This kind of statements always surprises me...

 

How so? Out of the box WP is awesome, yeah it's always best to require those extra tweaks but if you keep the install up to date you're unlikely to have that many problems 'out of the box'.

Saying that one application offers THE most security is a very bold statement. But maybe I was being picky...

 

Still, even if it is the most well designed in terms of security, the simple fact that it is the most used CMS in the world already makes it less secure because it's also the most targeted and studied by hackers. So, out of the box is a no go, you should at least change the admin address and the DB prefix.

No website is hack proof no matter what security measures you take. The plain fact is that if it is online it is hackable, from a base install wordpress is as secure as you can hope for. As soon as you start adding widgets, calanders, plug ins, this is where you create your loopholes for an attack to come in. The more complex you make it the more holes appear, as soon as one is found the others are quite obvious to see.

 

Lets be honest if you dont take the correct security measures when you set up a wordpress site, you deserve to be hacked. Internet security is a big issue. It is also one that wont go away. Facebook has been hacked a number of times, and are they not simply a CMS? It goes to show no matter how much money is spent and how popular or unpopular it is it will be targeted by someone with the latest version of Backtrack and just enough knowledge to be dangerous.

Hm... the sentence of yours that I criticized is going up in the thread and now it seems than I'm saying that WP is not secure. So I will bring it back

 

I have desided to go with wordpress as from a base install it offers the most security

 

There can be many reasons to choose WP over other CMSs, as there are many reasons to do the opposite. But you seem to have chosen WP for being most secure than all the others. I won't criticize your decision on the CMS, but when you state publicly something like this, and when it seems to take general acceptance in the forum, less informed people will think it is the only truth. WordpressPress is great, but lets not make a dogma of it...

Edited October 1, 201213 yr by ocorreiododiogo

I'm inclined to agree with the "base install it offers the most security" statement going by the speed and frequency at which security updates are discovered and pushed out. The massive community is a great boon for this.

I'm using personal and client experience for this however so if any one has some good hard figures for this i'd be interested in seeing them.

 

Of course one click installs destroy any sense of security right off the bat.

With WordPress there's some things you should do to improve security.

 

Don't use "admin" and don't use the "wp" table prefix.