Q&A: Content Management Systems

Posted At : September 8, 2006 3:14 PM | Posted By : Greg Nilsen
Related Categories: questions,tools

Checking in today, I find myself with more questions than I do knowledge to share. Therefore, I have decided to post a set of open questions to you all:

  • Do you have any experience using Content Management Systems (CMS, like PHPNuke or Joomla) or Church Management Systems (ChMS, like the Web Empowered Church)? If so, which one(s)?
  • Do you have any experience installing and/or maintaining a CMS or ChMS? If so, which one(s)?
  • What are your overall opinions of CMS and ChMS setups? What are the advantages and disadvantages of them?

I've just been thinking a lot about these types of systems recently. I have experience with both PHPNuke and PostNuke in the past on other projects, but I've never been fully satisfied with the results. Being a developer myself, that's why I wrote the blog software for this site. I wanted more control over things than any CMS could give me.

I have yet to try any of the ChMS systems currently out there because I figure I'll run into the same kind of situation.

I look forward to hearing from all of you about your experiences.

EDIT: Wednesday, Ruben over at BlogMinistry added his thoughts on Drupal and Joomla.

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micah's Gravatar In the summer of 2005, I spent a lot of time checking out different CMS systems to use for a portal system at work. I fell in love with http://drupal.org/" title="Drupal">Drupal, but at the time it couldn't support our established authentication scheme. (That has since changed, much to my delight.) I selected Drupal for http://thegreenbag.com/" title="The Green Bag">a family website, a makeover for http://www.skinnykidracecars.com/" title="Skinny Kid Race Cars">a friend's business site, and we're also using it to develop a portal for various ministries within our church. Each of these sites has different needs, and the modularity of Drupal suits them all quite well. The family site favors blogging tools, while the church portal uses http://drupal.org/project/og" target="_blank">http://drupal.org/project/og" title="Drupal: Organic Groups">Organic Groups so that each participating ministry can have its own area. Drupal is really a content management framework, and many users have hacked the code or written custom modules to suit their own needs. It's very quick and easy to prototype a site right out of the box (try http://www.ratatosk.net/software/onastick/" title="Run Drupal on a USB memory stick">drupal-on-a-stick) yet provides a good foundation for developers who want more control without starting a system from scratch.
# Posted By micah | 9/11/06 10:08 AM
Greg Nilsen's Gravatar I have to admit that I'm even less familiar with Drupal.  Last time I looked at it, it was just a fledgeling endeavour, so I didn't give it too much consideration.  Looks like they've come a long ways though!
# Posted By Greg Nilsen | 9/11/06 3:46 PM
Steve's Gravatar
Our www.easter.org" target="_blank">http://www.easter.org" target="_blank" title="Easter Lutheran Church">church has elected to use http://www.xoops.org" title="Xoops">Xoops, and I have also selected it for our www.kienowfamily.org" target="_blank" title="Kienow Family">family site, and I am in the process of converting our business site to it. I looked at WEC, but it came on the scene after we had already built a lot of the structure and functionality of the church site. With some thought, you can turn almost any CMS into a ChMS. I had also looked at PHPNuke and PostNuke, but found them a bit cumbersome to work with and administer. Xoops was working (and still does) to maintain secure and stable code, but with any open source project, you will have ups and downs.
Another of the big challenges, no matter which system you choose, is developing the culture within your organization for maintaining the site. Most of us that select a CMS as their web platform expect others to adopt and contribute to the site. That isn't always the case. Much of the commumity is still steeped in the idea that posting web content is for web developers. You need to have enough content to seed the site and keep it interactive as the culture learns how to transition to the 'new' ways to communicate.
To test run many of the CMS systems out there, go to opensourceCMS - they have just about evergthing there, but many, like micah will note, only have the basic modules here for trial. There are hundreds of other plug-ins and modules for most platforms, along with different themes or skins.
Blessings!
Steve Kenow
Web Steward @ www.easter.org" target="_blank">http://www.easter.org/">www.easter.org
Web Master @ www.kienowfamily.org/" target="_blank">http://www.kienowfamily.org/">www.kienowfamily.org
# Posted By Steve | 9/11/06 10:03 PM
micah's Gravatar

Yes, I'll echo Steve's recommendation to visit opensourceCMS and play with the demos. That's where I started my research. Yes, there are a limited number of modules available, but you do get a quick first impression on the management interfaces and default layouts of each CMS. I recall looking at Xoops, but I don't think it could handle LDAP needs associated with the day-job-related project that started me down this road. (From a quick look at their site, it looks like they've also augmented their LDAP offerings since last year, as have several others.)

I have no experience with ChMS. (I'm just the sound guy, and while I provide some Internet security support for my church, I don't directly support the computer network there. I started looking at a portal for the music ministry, and have teamed up with the webmaster to expand it to other areas, getting him hooked on Drupal for his family site in the process.) I guess if I was looking at adding ChMS to Drupal, I'd start by looking at the CiviCRM module and expanding from there.

# Posted By micah | 9/12/06 8:36 AM
LivingOS's Gravatar

I spent some time trying out Drupal and all the others before settling on WordPress. I think its interface is far simpler for the average user and lowers the Geek barrier for churches needing an easy way to maintain a site.

I have been using WP to get churches online and have developed a number of themes. I have also been keeping a http://www.livingos.com/?p=71" title="WordPress churches">list of churches using WordPress. 

 

# Posted By LivingOS | 10/5/06 1:10 PM
Mark's Gravatar Web-Empowered Church (http://webempoweredchurch.com), which uses the TYPO3 content management system, provides the most powerful features targeted at church ministry. It is used around the world and has a strong online support community to help you.
# Posted By Mark | 3/5/08 8:18 AM
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