Unobtrusive CMS?

[jlizarraga]

Hi all.

I'm looking for a free CMS (so clients can update their content without knowing HTML), but most of the open source CMS's out there are complete website solutions. I'm looking for something minimal that can be used for updating the text on existing pages without affecting layout, but can also be used for blog-like, autogenerated pages.

After searching through other posts here asking for a CMS, this one seems like it might be what I'm looking for:

http://expressionengine.com/

But I'm not sure. Can anyone confirm that ExpressionEngine is that flexible, or recommend something else that is?

Thanks!

[thetestingsite]

Personally, I have not used it but I have heard nothing but very good things about it. I also hear that there is a free version to it, but the paid one would probably be the best option.

Hope this helps.

[Medyman]

Hi all.

I'm looking for a free CMS (so clients can update their content without knowing HTML), but most of the open source CMS's out there are complete website solutions. I'm looking for something minimal that can be used for updating the text on existing pages without affecting layout, but can also be used for blog-like, autogenerated pages.

After searching through other posts here asking for a CMS, this one seems like it might be what I'm looking for:

http://expressionengine.com/

But I'm not sure. Can anyone confirm that ExpressionEngine is that flexible, or recommend something else that is?

Thanks!

I can 100% confirm it. I use ExpressionEngine exclusively for my client work (after having gone through every other CMS out there). It's the only one that I've found that doesn't insert random markup, etc... to screw up the site's design. EE is consistent. It does EXACTLY what I tell it to, nothing more, nothing less (generally, speaking of course). More importantly, it's capable of doing everything that I want it to (if not out-of-the-box, then then through extensions).

Also, you can control your clients workflow as much as you need. So, if you don't want your client to go into the Control Panel, just create a simple front-end form and they can use that. So, it doesn't have to be very complicated at all.

It has it's negatives, of course. But there is a new version releasing in the coming months which I have high hopes for. Hopefully, a lot of those misgivings will get resolved.

[jlizarraga]

Thanks guys.

Medyman, do you use the free or paid version? If you use the paid one, what are the major benefits over the free one?

Also, what are some of the key drawbacks that the next release aims to fix?

[Medyman]

Medyman, do you use the free or paid version? If you use the paid one, what are the major benefits over the free one?

Paid. The code is the same in all versions of EE. The added benefit of the paid versions are the inclusion of the Membership module, Email module, Simple Commerce module, and Query module. There are other modules that are included in the paid that are not in the Core, but those four are what I paid for.

Also, what are some of the key drawbacks that the next release aims to fix?

Firstly, I'm unhappy with the current commerce module. It's called "simple" for a reason. It only supports basic payments through PayPal. Even so, the workflow is rather complex.

I'm currently working on a bridge between ExpressionEngine and Magneto for our internal/client projects. Once it's done, we'll probably release it to the community. The next version of EE will be based off of CodeIgniter, which opens up a lot more options as far as flexibility, extensibility and feature-adding for such an application.

My second and biggest gripe with EE is site members can only be a part of one member group. This makes permissions really complicated. It's easy enough if there is a set structure -- user type X can only access the blog, user type Y can only access the forum. Simple! Create a member group for type X and one for type Y. This assumes that there will be no users that have both, though. If you want someone to access both, you need a third member group. You can't just assign that user to both member groups. This makes giving permissions a huge pain, because you have to plan for each permutation of the organizational structure.

Another issue is the file upload support. The system now is ok, but it could be better organized. The EL developers have released a sneak peek at the file manager. I'm impressed with it thus far, so that won't be a concern much longer.

Overall though, these are minor points. It outshines Drupla, Joomla, Wordpress is everything that I use it for. The only site I wouldn't use EE for is one that requires a lot of social networking features. There are license implications there as well as lack of features. The features can be added if you know some PHP, though.

[jlizarraga]

lol, found this old post in a search, and it totally helped me once again!

Thanks Medyman.