Coding all from scratch or using a CMS/CMF ?

[GeorgeA]

Do you code your websites from scratch or use a CMS/CMF to make your life easier ? Of course,I'm referring to somewhat dynamic websites (php&mysql type of sites).

I for one , use a CMS/CMF called ModX that is extremely flexible , tried Joomla in the past , and making templates for it was such a hassle.So now,I'm sold to this CMS , as it can do whatever I want it to do,and more,and I can extend functionality as I wish. (warning: a bit steep initial learn curve).

What are the reasons for someone to actually write his entire site from scratch (assuming it will be often updated , and page will be added ) ? I think one would say efficiency,but considering that some CMSs implement caching, I don't think you can beat that without a lot of work. About security ... well,using an open-source app,you can spot any vulnerabilities,and if you don't , maybe someone else will ( crackers will do that too unfortunately ) ,but , for your code you can also miss some things.

Then there's the time invested in website development, and the results you get in that amount of time.Having to re-invent the wheel could take quite some time.

So, why do you use/not use CMSs(content management system)/CMFs(content management framework) , what do they lack so you could use them,what are the bad parts in using one(e.g.:data lock-in for some systems).

[Henrik]

Unless you have very specific needs it always pays off to customize an "out of the box"-product.

[GeorgeA]

And your personal favorite is.. ?

[Kevin]

I use a perl-based CMS called Coranto on my personal web site. It's basically dead at this point, and not commonly enough used to be the target of too many exploits it seems. I've used it for many years, and since it creates all static pages for the most part, you have to actually find the installation of the script in order to exploit it.

[adb22791]

I find myself forced to try and code my own. I've tried everything from Joomla to Subdreamer, and nothing really seems to work the way I want it to. Plus, it's already so expensive for us who aren't very designer-oriented to find a good design (unless you find it on oswd ), why make it harder by having to rip the design apart and apply it to some backwards templating system?


Alex

[GeorgeA]

Well adb22791, I would like you to introduce you to the ModX way of templating stuff.
Lets say you've got your template sorted out and designed.
In the region you want your content to appear,you drop a tag named [*content*], where you want a footer , you drop a chunk named {{footer}} that can contain html text and can call php scripts even (called snippets in modx). Same goes for whatever part you have in mind. You just make {{chunks}}, drop them where you want them in a page,and they'll just appear with whatever you put in them (including html,php scripts,document specific variables -these are really neat..if you have a hierarchical structure ,you can inherit a value,code,etc. from the upper level,get the value from a Mysql query,from some php code or from a file). It's really that flexible!

Edit: it takes less then 15 minutes(and that takes that long only if you're a beginner just starting to learn modx) to convert a design into a modx template .

[Henrik]

And your personal favorite is.. ?

Joomla or Drupal I'd say.

[Karl]

Any CMS that uses dynamic pages for everything is just a simple waste of resources. Going with something, such as Kevin suggested, that creates static pages would definitely be the way to go on anything with a decent amount of traffic. The difference between the two configurations is staggering in many cases. We host some sites on multiple high end servers because of load reasons, etc. while a similar site, with more traffic, works fine on one lower end system, all because of the way their site is setup and coded. The more static content you have, the better.

[GeorgeA]

Any CMS that uses dynamic pages for everything is just a simple waste of resources.

Well, how about a site with dynamic pages that can get a full page cached,or just some part of it (so some features remain dynamic) ?

[Henrik]

I agree with you fully, though most CMS has an option to generate static documents for all or the most requested pages. Many newspapers run PolyPoly, which has this function, to mention one example.