To CMS or Not: Are commercial CMS's the Way?

SportinStyle

I've been able to craft my own CMS scripts myself until now, but they are severely sub-par compared to what is out there, as I have found.

It seems Commercial Application's are taking over, and seem to be the way to go.

For example, ExpressionEngine is a commerical CMS capable of using custom templates and giving the user direct input without any knowledge of php, and although I love coding php (really, I think it's pretty fun), it seems like I'm picking a club over a gun by doing it myself.

So my question is, how many of you often use Commerical CMS's over just doing it yourself? And if I take that path, is it truly as much of a sin as it feels?

I just feel like if I start using them, that I won't have any way of applying my PHP knowledge, and it will just dwindle and fall from my conciousness.

Any replys would be great. Commiseration, even better. 🙂

Kudose

I'd say it depends on the project and how much effort you want to put into it / how much you are getting out of it.

I'd much rather program a site from scratch or my own code than use something else, but I am not opposed to it.

sig

This is off the topic but I was curious about what sources/books did you use to learn enough
CMS to actually create an application?

Sig

NogDog

When to re-use and when to "roll your own" is a perpetual question you need to answer for each individual project. You need to balance the time and effort than can be saved by using existing code versus the advantages of writing custom code tailored to the specific needs of a given project, along with the fact that you will then have intimate knowledge of how the application works.

There's really no "right" answer that always applies, as each situation is different. But if you find yourself doing the same sort of application a number of times, and if there is a ready-made app out there (e.g. a CMS) that fits well with that type of job, then why not use it? It may not make a big difference on the first job as you go through the learning curve of finding out how to set it up and how to make the tweaks you need for your particular purpose, but the time savings over multiple similar jobs could well off-set that.

For instance, if someone wanted me to set up a blog site for them, now that I know something about WordPress and how to tweak themes, I can't imagine even thinking about writing one from scratch unless the client's needs were really unique and unusual.

SportinStyle

Very good answers. I was just wondering what the "pros" use out there.

Is it suitable to give a client a commercial CMS by current web-design standards or does that just vary?

And Sig, was that a literal question or mocking? 🙂

ALSO, is using a templating engine like SMARTY the routine way to go about applying your code, or is that again, just optional. (and of course everything is optional, I simply mean is it a web standard these days)

Kudose

SportinStyle;10883809 wrote:
And Sig, was that a literal question or mocking? 🙂

Probably just thinks everyone's primary language is English.

Smarty is a good template engine, but it really all depends on the project. If you don't need templates, there is no need to add that extra layer. There are alternative of course, such as PHPTal.

reli4nt

I frequently find myself developing site that fall into on of two categories. For one I use Drupal (though I am not against any other CMS) for the other I use a system I ended up developing over the years.

Drupal is more powerful, frequently updated and leans on thousands of great minds as it is tested across even more servers, sites and situations. My humble cms is much lighter, completely OOP and quick for me to rebuild into nearly anything a customer requires. It serves almost like a framework for me.

If you have written your own consider finding one or two large powerful ones to learn and add to your tool box. From there your options will increase as well as your opportunities.

sig

Being a newbie, I'm allowed naive if not dumb questions.
Sig

Kudose

sig;10883943 wrote:
Being a newbie, I'm allowed naive if not dumb questions.
Sig

I would agree up to the point of being blatantly offensive. Asking someone where they read a book on English to build a CMS not only makes no sense, it is obviously offensive to the poster.

Weedpacket

Um, Kudose, you're the one who mentioned English. I thought sig was the one with the broken English, and was merely asking advice about which books had helped SportinStyle develop these CMSs.

Kudose

edit

Nevermind.