CMS, PHP4 or PHP5?

codeklopper

Hi there,

I need to build a CMS and i have very little expierence with php.
I know the main differences betweet php4 en 5, like better support for object oriented programing, exceptions, etc. But i wonder if i even need those things when building a cms.
Help me out please.
Thanx in advance.

CK.

Blulagoon

Before you spend weeks building your own CMS might be worth having a look at one of the open source ones available, such as:
http://ez.no/

Blu.

molat3000

Hello!

I've recently built a CMS system for intranet - well it could be easily used for internet site, as well. I used php 4.3.9 and to tell you the truth, I never missed any special feature.
I must admit: I do not know php 5 very well, but I think you'll just be fine with ver.4+...

On the other hand, if you are starting from the scratch go for one stable ver. 5 - in long term you never know: it might help you in the future to know newer tech.

But, again that is just my opinion.

Regards!

M3000

molat3000

I agree with Blu.

Blulagoon wrote:
Before you spend weeks...

for a complex and larger one - try "months" 🙂

But if you are not in a hurry it is a well paid off experience - it was for me - you can learn a lot along with writing your own system. And another one is: you know exactly "what and where".
With all the respect to good pre-made available CMS systems - they are not so easy to implement as it may seem at first look.
For some specific things it's sometimes hard to find an easy solution.

irasmith

One way of looking at things is to gather the requirements for the CMS, a listing of the needs it should meet and the features it should deliver. Compare that listing to some of the Open Source CMS packages to see if there is anything out there that will do what you need.

The second thing to consider, as someone mentioned before, is time. How much time do you have to work on this? Perhaps the best of both worlds may be to use an Open Source system for the initial CMS site, and then work steadily on your own developed solution that would be more tailored to what you are expecting or wanting from it.

I just recently acquired the book Core Web Application Development with PHP and MySQL which focuses on using PHP5. I am just starting to get into the book as it arrived only late last week, but so far I feel it is a well written book and finding it quite helpful.

Blulagoon

irasmith wrote:
I just recently acquired the book Core Web Application Development with PHP and MySQL which focuses on using PHP5. I am just starting to get into the book as it arrived only late last week, but so far I feel it is a well written book and finding it quite helpful.

Talking of books, I recently acquired XML Web Development with PHP by Thomas Myer which is published by Sitepoint.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=br_ss_hs/002-5658465-7208802?search-alias=aps&keywords=XML%20web%20development%20with%20php

Main reason for mentioning this is that the project the book is built around is building an XML Content Management System using PHP 😃

Blu

irasmith

XML is becoming quite popular in the CMS world due to its many places of use, so the book you acquired is a very good one indeed, or at least I think it is for whatever my opinion is worth.