Online Website Builder Platforms

matman wrote: I'm hoping someone in this forum will know whether I stand a realistic chance of finding an OWBP that offers that degree of flexibility.

Yes you can always get flexibility, the problem is that flexibility is nearly always inversely proportional to ease of use.

matman wrote: I've been trying for a while to identify an Online Website Building Platform (OWBP)

Much depends on what you want to do, but I've never heard of an 'OWBP' that's any good. If they were most of the people here would be working in Tesco (or Wal-Mart depending on which country you're from ). You could probably build a simple site, pick from a couple of designs and enter content in a restricted way. If this is all you need then good, however I predict you're going to quickly become annoyed by the limitations of such a system and will want that flexibility you described.

I am assuming that by 'OWBP' you mean one of those wholly automated systems, you enter some details and it builds the website for you? I doubt anyone on this forum would think of using a system like that, we find it very simple to write our own sites and install our own software.

The example of 123-reg is interesting as the software offered by them seems to be freely available anyway, it's good that they're using FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software), but I doubt their ability to offer support it (since they aren't the people who make the software). The blog software is almost certainly Wordpress, while the photo gallery is likely to be Gallery. Not sure about the others items on that list.

matman wrote: However, I need one that is flexible enough to allow me to easily and inexpensively integrate 'third party' functionality.

I don't think one exists. As these systems tend to be very restrictive you will--at the very least--have to learn how to install your own CMS/blog software (trust me, it's not difficult to do). There's another problem when integrating those third-party products, unless the CMS/blog software already has one available, a plugin will have to be written.

matman wrote: One point on something you said - please make due allowance for my 'novice naivety' in these matters!

Heh, no problem. You seemed set on a particular path so I was working under the assumption that you weren't a novice as such. Seems you've done some pretty extensive research though.

If I were in your situation I would pick a CMS and use plugins for it to do everything I needed. If a plugin didn't offer what I wanted I'd write a patch and make sure it was included in the plugin code. In your case you could pay someone to write a patch (or even a whole module, this happens quite often). It's nearly always beneficial to get the code that's been written into an existing plugin, then it will be checked by other people (so if you paid for it to be written you know they're not ripping you off). Also if it's part of another module you wont have to worry about upgrading your code when the CMS changes. You should be able to download the new version and go!

Personally I use Drupal for pretty-much everything, it's excellently written and has plenty of modules to choose from. Some modules that would fit requirements (but take no integration work) are:

• In place of 1shoppingcart: the E-Commerce modules or Ubercart (daft name, but looks really good). There are also many complimentary modules and backends to eCommerce.
• For sending e-mails to your customer contact list: Mass Contact, Advanced User, or News.
• Recurring payments (subscriptions and wotnot): E-Commerce can handle this. lm_paypal has similar functionality as does Quickfile (although it doesn't require that the user sign-up for a Drupal account).

Using standard modules like this will help you a lot, these are popular so are going to be around for many versions to come. If you decide that you must use those specific third party modules, then get someone to code plugins for you, I fear you'll be stuck when the time comes to upgrade your CMS/OWBP to the latest version.

Hopefully the 'this is what I'd do' scenario is somehow helpful. There's nothing stopping you from downloading Drupal or even trying it online (although you wont have access to the extra modules). There are plenty of other CMS to try on http://www.opensourcecms.com/ too.

*** EDIT ***
If you really need paid support, Lullabot have a good reputation, or I can put something together if you want. Don't think you need to be paying a subscription though, you should only pay for the development you need, once a website is setup and you're happy it doesn't require much (if any) more work.

You might try http://weupgradewebsites.com... They have a web builder that includes hosting and they have a include feature that allows you to use 3rd party scripts.