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Choosing a Good OpenSource CMS

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Recently I began working on a project that took me back to where I started many years ago. Content Management Selection and this time the focus isn't on Enterprise packages, its focused on Open Source technologies and this time they must use PHP. So I'm looking at PHP CMSs for a company and putting together some demos for them to view.

One thing that I found out right away, is that many of these products have demos in full form on their website. So what follows is the research I did and how I went about giving demos of the Open Source CMS systems and what my final decision turned out to be.

Before we get on to the details of each of the products, I think it's important to discuss what it is I am trying to find out. What I am trying to demo are the best of breed Open Source CMS solutions that are built up PHP. I don't want to go with just what is considered "The Best", because the best isn't always "The Best" for every situation. As we all know, in the web world, there is not silver bullet.

So I've decided to set my demos to look at the following aspects of the system:

• Front End Fuctionality
• Administration Functionality
• Template Design
• User Management
• Workflow
• Backup/Rollback
• 3rd Party Integration

For an hour demo, this is a bit of information to cover when you are demoing three or four different systems.

The Demo itself will flow as follows:

1. Give a brief history of the product being demoed
2. Demo the page that we want to create
3. Demo Administration
4. Show changes
5. List Pros / Cons of the offering

Basically I want each of the systems to be on the same playing field, which means I want to be able to create the same piece of content each and every time. The sample content is simple, as I'm trying to simulate the real world by having a Microsoft Word document open, cut and paste the content from it into the WYSIWYG form, and produce a page. Most end users will be interested in how easy it is to take copy that is already created and render it online.

Now that we have that all setup, it's time to start reviewing what systems we have available to us. I've looked through the list of Open Source PHP based CMSs and have come up with 4 or 5 that I think will fit the bill for this client. With that I've narrowed it down further to three, and have this to say about each of them.

Joomla

Demo Site: http://demo.joomla.org/
Impressions: Joomla is a CMS that is a direct result of another CMS (Mambo). Where Mambo wasn't well received, Joomla does by the Open Source community and web developers all over. The management interface is awesome, and the ease of creating pages is great for any administrator. The user management is also something other Open Source CMSs don't always do so well, but Joomla takes care of that problem for you. Another nice feature that I noticed that I don't remember being there before, is that Archive options. I also noticed while going through the demo, that file locking has been implemented so users don't step on each other while making changes.

Drupal

Demo Site: http://www.opensourcecms.com/cms/drupal/
Impressions: Drupal is one of those CMSs that been around a long time and has a huge following. Sometimes I'm not sure if the following is so large because they like it, or because there are sites out there using it and can't find an easy way to migrate away from it. One this is for sure, the user interface isn't as sexy as Joomla, but there are a lot of features there. The support by the online community is rather impressive, and the number of contributions out of the box is also a really nice feature. One problem with Drupal is that fact that things seem to get rewritten a lot, which often times means upgrading is a pain in the rear. It's not that upgrading isn't a good thing and that they don't fix broken functionality, because they do, it just ends up hurting those that have spent a great deal of time doing custom development on their site. In all it's still a pretty good system.

SilverStripe

Demo Site: http://demo.silverstripe.com
Impressions: Well it's probably no secret to anyone that's followed my site, but I'm a big fan of the MVC methodology. Yes I like being able to create my own models and having the site very template driven. It's easier to upgrade a site that I built, rather depend on a community of developers to contribute something that they feel is needed. The user administration is really nice, although it's not as full featured as some of the other Open Source ones. SilverStripe is also rather new into the Content Frameworks category, so it's got a lot of potential for the future. If your looking for a lot of control and you want to get s shopping cart setup quickly, then this CMS is for you. It doesn't take a lot of getting use to, and if you've got time on your hands to monkey with the code, your in good hands. If you need something to work right out of the box for you, keep on looking.

Summary

In all I have to say the most important part of this exercise was learning about the available options out there. As you can see, there are many options for you to choose from. I picked these three because they are popular and I think moving with the crowd is a great idea, however it's not always the answer. Your mileage may vary depending on what you choose, but keep one thing in mind as you do your selection: "There is no silver bullet".

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