Content Managers

I’m still not happy with my website. I feel half-assed with my Nucleus/MT setup, and continue to feel that there’s got to be a better (for me) solution, one that actually makes me happy.

Apple is adding a slightly tweaked version of Blojsom to Mac OS X 10.4 Server, so I took a look at that. It’s very pretty, and feature rich. It also requires programs my current web hosting provider doesn’t carry (namely, Tomcat). Additionally, some of the syntax is counter-intuitive, and I’m unhappy with the documentation.

Then, while looking into ecto, I noticed their current poll listed a slew of blogging solutions and communities that I’d never heard of. At last, hope for a system I like! I clicked through several, and came across Drupal, a content manager that I REALLY like the look of. The built in featureset is robust, it is under active development, it has an extensive and feature rich plugin library, and (important), it will run handily on my current web host. Worth noting in particular is the plugin that allows LiveJournal users to participate/comment without having to re-register. There is also basic migration support for importing MT entries into their system.

Now, I’ll admit it. It seems to even me that I make site revisions more often than I post content (ESPECIALLY true with the main site). It would be very silly of me to yet again gut and redo my site without even posting anything, for an untested content management system. So I’m showing some restraint, and instead installed it onto my home system, so I can experiment at leisure.

I will say this: so far, I like it. If I still like it in, uhh, whenever it is that I’ll officially have “free” time for a full site revision, woohoo! If not, oh well. I’ll let you know my take on it in either case. Likewise, I’d love to hear opinions Drupal or other Content Managers. The best way to learn is to ask, so I’m asking.

One thought on “Content Managers

  1. I run an internal sales portal on Drupal (on OS X Server 10.3) and it works very well for me. The development community is active, it runs with no issues on OSX, and I’ve been able to hack the PHP with no problems, the code is clean.

    It does require some PHP knowledge to really use it to full effect, it’s not very newbie-friendly. If that doesn’t intimidate you, I think you’ll like it.

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