Need advice on CMS
Hello - I am a bit of a beginner webmaster, but I have been building websites for several years. I am looking for a very simple content manager for my clients to use. I have been searching through hundreds of CMS - but cant seem to find what I am looking for. Here is a list of features I need.
1 - I want it to be simple to instal on my server using mysql, php, linux, cpanel - easy setup with my existing websites.
2 - I want to be able to use a simple admin login screen for my clients
3 - It would like it to use simple wysiwyg editing for specific content areas that i would active - with tags perhaps.
4 - I would like it to be able to edit product or list tables - so a customer could manage an inventory list - without contacting me to make edits.
5 - I dont want them to be able to edit the template or structure or to add/remove pages - just a few simple areas on each site.
6 - One administrator would be fine.
7 - is it possible to have the CMS access and edit the meta tags and title as well?
Everything I find seems like it allows template modifications or is actually a website builder. I dont want my CMS to be a website builder, just be able to add a few simple dynamic areas that my client can easily edit. I have an almost perfect system that I found called "simpleCMS.com", but it is not hosted on my site using mysql AND I have to pay a monthly fee to use it. I don't even mind buying a program, but I dont want a monthly fee.
Any suggestions would be very helpful.
Thank you,
Aron
Megan posted this at 19:57 — 23rd February 2010.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Hi Aron,
Welcome to TWF! This sounds like a job for Drupal (with multisite) or even Worpdress MU (I don't know as much about that).
To address your points, with Drupal you have one installation on your server (1). It's an easy install with php/mysql. You need to have lock permissions for your mysql user which might be the only hindrance (should be easy to change that though).
There is a simple login screen for users (2), but unlike other CMS platforms, in Drupal you edit directly on the content screen. There are admin pages for administrative things (searching content, administering users, setting permissions etc.), but for editing content you just go to the page you want to edit and use the edit button there. I think this makes more sense than having a separate area for editing content, but some people don't like it.
Several WYSIWYG editors are available (3). FCK Editor is the most popular, although there are new ones popping up all the time.
Not sure about what would be best solution for product lists (4). The Uber Cart module handles eCommerce, including product lists. I think you can install sub-modules depending on what you want to do exactly (I don't have much experience with this myself).
Drupal has very fine grained permissions so you can customize what your users can and can't do (5). Turn off the theme permission and they can't touch the theme. By default they would be able to edit all content on the site, but you could use an additional user access module if you wanted to.
In Drupal you have one root user who has access to everything (6) but you can set up new user groups with full permissions if you want more administrators. I prefer to do it this way and keep the default user generic (so multiple people could access that account if needed).
You can install a module to customize the meta tags (7).
Drupal does take a bit of time to understand, but once you do it's very very powerful. As I have alluded to above, it uses a modular interface. You install and activate only the modules you need. If an individual site needs custom functionality, you can install a module for that site only.
Let us know if you have more questions about Drupal.
Megan
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