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We are currently building a deal aggregator site. It collect deals from deal sites and present them in categories. Each deal presented in our website contains a photo, description, location, price and the url of the deal shop. Payments is done directly to the deal website so, our site is just a deal viewer without inner pages.
We decided to build it on an existing cms engine, to have all features such as management, searching, etc.
What cms you will suggest for it? Wordpress, Joomla or what? Any other information is appreciated.
Drupal is my choice. It has been working great for my case. I use the module from commerce guys. For my case the following were the basics:
Views
View mode (different from views)
Commerce I have been used it for 3 months now with no problem. They release also an expiration cart recently so you don't have to program it, just customize it. Also they have a simple module commerce stock if you don't need something very complicated.
Take a look for display suite in case you want to use the minimum templates.
The good thing about Drupal is how easy is to customize things. I worked in Joomla also. But I feel Drupal is in some ways more flexible. One feature I love about Drupal (not sure if others has it) is that when there is a security update or any update it display the notifications in your site.
You can find more information about those modules and see how they work. Here are my favorite links:
Commerce module
demo
videos of commerce module
Views
views simple introduction
Views Mode
view mode drupalconf
display suite
display suite conf in London
Drupal. This is what it is designed for and there are more online resources devoted to this CMS than any other.
Drupal is your best open source option. Lots of support and [relatively] painless deployment. Look at something like Refinery (Ruby on Rails) if you want more customization.
Related
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I'm in the planning stages for a new project involving eLearning and content management/delivery.
I've dabbled in Symfony2 before and I quite like it's flexibility and extensibility. But I have recently discovered EZ Publish is now running on the Symfony2 stack with version 5.
My question is, what does EZ bring to the table? Will it save me time and money in realising the end product? Or will it ultimately prove to be a hindrance if it is designed to be 'easy' rather than flexible?
Thoughts and suggestions are welcome :) Thanks for your time
It depends on how much of platform you will use for your custom logic.
If you will write most of code using Symfony components than you can use your bundles interchangeably in Symfony CMF, Symfony Standard Edition or EZ Publish.
If you want working CMS and write only handful of specific features independent of CMS functions than you can go with EZ Publish. But you still should write your code separated in bundles, so your custom logic is again nicely portable.
If you want to extend existing CMS features. Than you might want to go with Symfony CMF.
I would suggest to use Symfony CMF, which is the CMS for developers. EZ Publish is not totally migrated to Symfony, so you as a developer will still have to deal with legacy code. Also starting with Symfony Standard Edition to build a CMS you will have to build a lot of tools that are already built into Symfony CMF.
eZ Publish 5 brings you all the features you need when it comes to build a CMS based website. I'd say that 90% of the most important features from eZ Publish 4 have been migrated on Symfony2. You'll also get a really good admin interface.
eZ Publish 5 uses the full stack which makes a big difference when compared to others CMS like Drupal, especially if you need to build business features aside your CMS.
Also, the code quality of eZ Publish 5 is really good and tends to respect the last standards so you'll benefit from this choice one day or another : http://blog.insight.sensiolabs.com/2014/11/04/technical-debt-relevant-projects.html
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I'm developing website for freight(cargo) forwarding/logistics company.
It will be CMS based (Joomla or Wordpress). What I need is component/plugin (can be commercial)
that has this functionality: (doesnt have to work exactly this way)
It can be simple e-commerce/virtuemart extension, whatever that is close.
Client logs in
Adds his tracking number(cargo/order number whatever)
He will see his his cargo status and current place.
Cargo status can be managed manually in CMS backend via admin.
Doesn't have to work exactly this way, but basic idea is this.
It does not matter joomla or wordpress these are the things you have to do.
Before You Start, Solidify Your Business Goals:
Do you fully understand the business outcome and goals that you’re trying to accomplish? Do you understand how you're going to measure the success of your implementation? Example: sales & marketing metrics.
Quick Qualification:
Does the extension work for your Joomla version? Is the extension in the expected category? How popular is the extension brand name? What is the extension type (Component, Module, Plugin)? Do you a long and short list of your possible extension choices? Does the extension meet your hosting requirements? Is the extension GPL? Is the extension encoded? Are some or all files encoded? What is the extension rating score on the official Joomla resource directory? What is the number of ratings? What's the extension popularity and number of downloads?
Critical Features to Meet Business Objectives:
Feature A) < Enter your specific feature requirement here > Feature B) < Enter your specific feature requirement here > Feature C) < Enter your specific feature requirement here > Feature D) < Enter your specific feature requirement here > Feature E) < Enter your specific feature requirement here >
Other Secondary Features:
Do you understand the total list of features you need (captcha type, ability to embed in articles, database storage, confirmations, styling options, …) Does it unnecessarily complicates the site installation (example: job extension and you have only 3-4 jobs)?
Security Concerns / Scam-Like Internet Practices:
Do you understand security issues and problems related to installing this extensions? Can developers/company be trusted? What's the company online reputation? Are their extensions listed in the Joomla extensions directory? How long has the extension existed? Does the extension contain or require backlinks? Are their hidden links? Ads inserted in the control panel or front end? Does the extension contain call home functions? They're only welcomed if the extension can work normally without a developer server connection, it is possible to install it without call home and it only calls home for the version check. Does the public version of the extension contain security risks? Is it listed in the vulnerable extension list?
Legal/Licensing
Does it limit use per domain/installation? Does it limit distribution of extension? Does it require a nondisclosure agreement? Does it limit usage of non GPL media files to a domain/installation? Is the extension not listed at JED? Does it limit support per domain/installation? Does it require payment to remove owner visible or hidden links?
User Experience
Does it offer professional user experience for the site visitors? What is the website administrator user experience?
SEO
Does the extension follow the best industry SEO practices? Does the extension support search engine friendly URLs?
Community
Does the extension have a solid and favorable community view?
Demo
Is there a demo or light version?
Author / Company
What's the extension website? Who is the developer or development team? What's the extension roadmap? Is the official extension easy to download? Are there FAQs, written tutorials and training available?
Test Installation
Do you have a test installation ready to evaluate an extension before trying it on your test installation?
Initial Set Up
Do you understand how to set up test installation, have time, resources, knowledge, experience, etc? Do you have to manually copy extension files for it to install?
Maintenance
Will the extension be easy to maintain? Is the extension easy to update? When was the last version released? Are security patches being promptly published? What is the stage of the extension development? Does the extension modify Joomla core files? Do you must have file/folder permissions set to 777 to install & run? After the extension is uninstalled, does the site or admin return errors? Does the extension team offer good technical support?
Cost
Is the extension free/commercial? Does the plugin require one time payment or membership subscription?
Read more on How to choose a Joomla! Extensions
If you end up using Joomla, look into extension called Fabrik - http://www.fabrikar.com , that will give you an ability to maintain a list of custom defined entries (database table) and give the end-user ability to search through it (filter by individual fields). You can restrict which records (shipments) are visible to each user based on their username, etc.
I've created a few Web sites for freight forwarders, including cargo tracking sites and one thing I can say for sure - if they already use a TMS (Transportation Management System) where they already have tracking / status information they won't like the idea of double-entering it in another system. Fabrik is easily configurable to connect to external databases if this data is available elsewhere and tracking it there in real time.
Watch their tutorials, it is really powerful. Good luck.
You could do that with any of the well rated forms components for Joomla, which you can find at http://extensions.joomla.org
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I know this has been asked a lot and I've explored the other answers, but I still have questions, so hopefully this sheds fresh insight on the debate.
A year ago I built a service scheduling web app from scratch in CodeIngniter with the following functionalities:
user management with different roles and functionalities
different backends for each user
interactive and manageable calendar for scheduling services
territory management and assignment
management for service status
reports and records
billing with authorize.net
front-end informational pages
All pretty standard stuff and codeIgniter worked great. Now, a year later, I'm revising the code. The client wants some different management features, like a CMS for the pages and to add new services and change the calculation price points, etc. I need to add new classes and code to make this work.
Over the last year I have dove very deep into Wordpress and realize that I could have built this whole app in wordpress using custom post types, taxonomies, custom fields, and expanded custom functionality though a custom plugin. In many ways, this seems like it would be better.
Pros of using Wordpress instead of php framework:
existing base with CMS, user management, familiar backend, database structure to start from, saving lots of development time
constantly updated security
stability
robustness (I know wordpress can handle this even though its intended use is for blogs)
Reasons to use a framework:
flexibility
ORM
MVC
other?
So... which is better? Do I really need ORM or MVC for this project? I feel my development efforts and client ux would be easier if I use Wordpress.
What else do I lose if I switch to wordpress?
What about combining Wordpress in a framework, or vice versa? Recommendations?
When does it make sense to use a framework instead of wordpress?
It's a fairly broad question, so here's a fairly broad answer...
Wordpress is a CMS. It's a good, flexible CMS with lots of built-in goodness, but its sweet spot is managing a site that's primarily about content, where content is very broadly defined as "words, pictures and other assets". The plug-in model lets you build/use additional functionality, and the wide user community provides lots of stability/security/scalability help.
Code Igniter is a framework that's designed for functional web apps (in practice, this usually means database-driven apps). Its sweet spot is managing complex interactions with a business domain. It is a framework for building any kind of app (including, if you were glutton for punishment, a CMS).
If your business domain is about content (and I don't think it is, based on your description), Wordpress is an obvious winner. In your case, I think you could probably build the solution using Wordpress, but it would be a real edge case - and the benefits you mention of "security, stability, robustness" would likely not apply, because you would need to build a lot of custom code. I think you'd very quickly get to the "well, it's not the way Wordpress wants me to work, but to deliver this feature, I just have to do it this way" point.
When business users say they want a CMS, they usually don't mean they want Wordpress (or Drupal, or Sitecore, or Magnolia); they want to be able to manage their site without having to go to the techies. If your site is primarily database-driven, that means screens to manage database records.
It's about structure and function in my view. Both CMS(Wordpress) and PHP Framework provide structure/functions to build your own functions. You can do the same things on CMS and Framework. They shouldn't have much difference on performance and security amongst well known Frameworks and CMSs.
However, CMS focus on Front-end (contents?), provides with ready to use CSS, Javascript (Front-end) in order to build / manage websites and web based applications easy and quick. Though, it's not very clear in structure comparing to MVC model.
Both would do the same job if you develop yourself, but in a team, framework could provide benefit.
It's only my view, I am using Wordpress a lot and a little knowledge on framework.
I use CodeIgniter and my bias is for that because you've already built the bulk of your app in it and because it seems more flexible/less pre-configured than Wordpress. I also get the feeling that CI is growing in use relative to WP with developers so CI seems possibly more future-proof, though to be fair they are both popular.
Can you make clearer you're bosses demands? The way I read what you say is that you're 80% of the way there and then are considering scraping (or at least possibly having to heavily revise) that 80% because the other 20% seem more logically done in Wordpress.
As I learn PHP more, I'm actually finding myself using even less of CI and writing more straight up PHP or actually JavaScript (for even better UX). So I guess I'm surprised to hear of someone wanting to switch from a minimal PHP/ruby/Python framework to a heavier one since most of the work is shifting to JavaScript these days.
Another key point on going towards straight-up PHP is that the number of people who know PHP dwarfs the number of people who are familiar with CI- or WP-specific syntax. So you are more likely to get help/collaborations/career advancement focusing on a solid foundation in the "mother tongue" over these minority dialects. Doing this with PHP is also having the benefit of helping me understand other languages such as JavaScript better since the level of abstraction is on the same page with php-ruby-python, whereas a framework brings in an entirely different (an in my increasing view, extraneous) vocabulary.
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Yes, I am aware one is a framework and the other a CMS.
However, I am a one man team that develops projects/websites for myself and I have a limited amount of time to get these projects off the ground, so speed is crucial.
Basically I am looking for the easiest and fastest method for creating web apps without being limited on features.
Would it be best/fastest to learn Codeigniter or to build off of Wordpress and develop my own themes/plugins? Possibly another option that would be more viable?
I deal a lot with video/photo media and high traffic websites.
Thanks!
I would suggest using CodeIgniter. The logic is simple, and it doesn't really have limitations, unlike WordPress. WordPress is designed for blogs, and if you are looking for flexibility, I would go with CodeIgniter.
CodeIgniter has one of the best documentation available as well. http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/index.html
If you are looking to learn CodeIgniter, NetTuts has some great tutorials, with different levels.
http://net.tutsplus.com/articles/news/codeigniter-from-scratch-day-1/
There are some nifty CodeIgniter libraries that can get you head start on your projects:
https://github.com/benedmunds/CodeIgniter-Ion-Auth - Ion Auth, CodeIgniter Authentication Library
http://www.kaydoo.co.uk/projects/backendpro - Backend Pro, designed to build admin side of your application.
If you are looking for CodeIgniter based blog/CMS, I would also suggest PyroCMS, one of the best I've used.
http://pyrocms.com/
CodeIgniter also has a great image manipulation library built in, so you won't have to learn too much about generic PHP image libraries.
http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/libraries/image_lib.html
If what you develop is web applications, especially for high-traffic sites, then why not to also consider Doctrine? It is a really good framework for developing webapps. Regarding WordPress - if what you need is mostly webapps with extensive user interaction and complex data structures - WP can't handle that efficiently due to lack of ORM and MVC pattern support (there are a couple of workarounds, but anyway).
And if you're open to learn new languages - also consider learning RubyOnRails and Django - both are awesome platforms, documented well and having awesome communities.
I agree with tpae. Definitely WP is not meant to be used for web apps. So forget about it.
CI is great, easy to learn, and in combo with Backbone.js and Phil's REST_Controller it's a beauty to work with :) You'll be building highly responsive web apps in no time (this sounds like a commercial :D )
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We are designing a survey application with the following features
The users will be able to select questions from a set of predefined questions.
Each question has a question type defined which dictates the type of answer (multiple choice, DB look up, free text etc)
The user can create a hierarchy of sections with multiple questions with in each section.
The responses of the survey will be stored to an SQL server database.
There is also a requirement to generate an output document from each survey response.
We are planning to implement this application using ASP.net.
I am looking for suggestions which will help us reduce the development effort. Is there any commercial/open source application which we can customize for our needs? is there any ready-made components which helps creation of dynamic ASP.net pages? I am only interested in application which i can host locally, as this has to be integrated to an existing application.
This may not be an exact fit, but worth looking at: Surveymonkey.
Unless feedback systems are your business's core competency, you'd be best off using a third-party system. Building a survey system is not as easy as it might seem, especially when it comes to reporting. Sure, you'll be able to bang out some simple reports without too much trouble, but every change wanted by a customer (or your boss) is time you'll be dumping into your survey and reporting engine when it could be spent on your actual business. Do yourself a favor and outsource that headache to a third party.
If your needs are simple, a freebie site like SurveyMonkey would be just fine. If you're looking for something more sophisticated, such as support for phone surveys, more advanced reporting, etc., you'd need to pay for a more advanced service, such as (cough) the one I work for.
http://www.codeplex.com/WebSurvey
looks like a good place to start
Try Zodiac.NET Survey Engine. It can be integrated direct in your ASP.NET website. No much work needed.
NSurvey used to exist for this, but I think they've gone solely commercial. If you can dig up the last open source release, it might be a good starting point.
Otherwise, don't build it. Subscribe to Wufoo
Another option would be to have users use InfoPath or Adobe Designer to create the survey forms that are distributed to survey takers (either by e-mail or web-site).
With InfoPath, you can have the responses call back to Web Services that you have written. Or, with both the packages, you can have the responses e-mailed back to a particular address and the XML that is sent can be parsed and processed.