Comments on: CMSs ~ Clients, Content & Control

By: Dusty

Dusty — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:02:51 +0000

One thing to keep in mind is how much control a client HAS with a given CMS. I think all too often CMS’s provide full access to a WYSIWYG editor, and the client is able to update the site to their heart’s content - whether or not its in keeping with the designers/developers initial wishes.

This can lead to sites that may - after time - end up cluttered and “ugly”. Making sure that your CMS can enforce the initial design goals of the site is imperative, in my opinion.

By: J Phill

J Phill — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:04:24 +0000

Good stuff here and I think it really depends on the type of project it is ot determine when and if a CMS is needed. Blue Flavor did a three part series on CMS's that definitely worth a read.

By: Andrew Faulkner

Andrew Faulkner — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:52:55 +0000

Dusty,

I agree that control is an issue here. When writing my answers to the questions I had in mind that ‘editing the content’ simply meant only editing the text on a page, not the design elements.

J Phil,

Thanks for the links. Looks useful.

By: Natalie Sutton

Natalie Sutton — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 22:19:45 +0000

Agreed, CMS’s often miss the point. I’ve really found only one CMS that really addresses client management, not just content management, and that’s Pheap. I’m telling you guys, I got my hands on version 2: http://pheap.barekoncept.com/beta/Pheap.zip , and as far as small to medium scale CMS’s go, this is it.

By: Andrew Faulkner

Andrew Faulkner — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 09:25:10 +0000

Natalie,

Thanks for the download link.

Just a quick question to the floor: What makes a good CMS in your opinion?

By: Joyrex

Joyrex — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 17:29:14 +0000

I think the hallmark of a good CMS is the ease of it’s templating system - for me personally, ExpressionEngine has the best templating system I’ve seen yet (and I’ve used many, many CMSes in my time). That, above all else, seems to be the deal maker or breaker for me when choosing a CMS for a site. Of course, all the other things to consider in choosing a CMS are important as well, but for me, the display aspects are very important, and how easy those are to implement and customize are critical for me.

Custom fields are also a big one, as 90% of the CMSes out there do not have fields that meet most of your needs on a site’s content structure.

By: Tadeusz Szewczyk

Tadeusz Szewczyk — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 10:50:27 +0000

One important aspect of web site development that many CMS solutions still plainly ignore or treat like a “nice to have” is the search engine friendly web design with clean URLs, spiderable site structure and logical content markup (e.g. headlines using h1 - h* tags).
Check it beforehand or you end up being ingored by Google, Yahoo and MSN meaning up to 80% less visiors.