Post Nuke

[Sheila]

Anyone here using it? I'm looking at switching a whole site over to it to meet some specific needs, such as to minimize the amount of direct hands-on work a volunteer webmaster must do to maintain the site and to make it so members only have to enter one password for the whole member-only area including the Forum area.

I found a programmer at www.postnukemodules.com who makes a couple of great modules. Unlike all the free mods with no support, she charges a minimal amount for her mods but supports them tirelessly. I spent an hour on the phone with her (tool-free number) just to understand how this whole PostNuke thing would work and how we'd convert my site. She'd actually setup the theme to match the exisiting site and install and customize everything to my exact specs. All we'd pay for are the mods we buys ($30 + $50) and all the work and ongoing support are basically free (donation of any amounts accepted).

So my question before I jump in is... this almost sounds too good to be true! What am I missing? Is there a major downside to this approach? I'm interested in others' experiences.

Thanks.
Sheila

[kenyon]

Yeah PostNuke looks pretty darn cool. I'm about to make a new site with it as well, so we'll see how it goes.

[broken1]

Well, I use Xoops personally, but I think all the CMS's are very similar.

They are great for ease of updating, or having multiple webmasters, or having visitors add content. The modules are great, and everything works easy and seamlessly.


The part that I did not like was, that If I had a section of my website that I wanted to link to from the main page.. I couldn't really find a way to do it. I always had to find some module that would let me do what I want.

With your programmer this may not be a problem, and she may be able to do exactly what you want, but I have found that CMS's don't offer much portability when you want to add personalized content to your site.

But you sound like you got a good deal.. and in general CMS's are great and really fun to use.

[Sheila]

Thanks for the input. That's encouraging. I think since the site's already been up for two years we have all the page requirements pretty set now. We're unlikely to need to add more to the navigation once she's converted. And we'll be able to add content to any exisiting pages. The proposal just went out to the board and they meet next thursday. If they approve it it'll take a few weeks for the conversion. I'll keep you posted how it works out.

Sheila

[Fireater]

Sheila, I would recommend that you take a closer look at Post Nuke, Xoops, phpnuke and all the other phpnuke clones before you take the plunge.

The reason is that you will have to evaluate whether you really need such portal scripts or not.

The Nuke family has been trying to formulate itself as a CMS, but in reality it is a Community management system instead of a Content Management one.

Reason? Because its easier to operate a blog with Postnuke where you can post news and your users can comment on it, operate a downloads section, weblinks etc..

There are a great many modules to help you do what you want ur site to be, but after all that work I have gone through, I have come back to simpler Dreamweaver generated static pages.

Even after so much of development activity, none of the nukes promise a good Content management system where you can post hundreds of information pages with automatic navigation tools generated, etc.

Although some modules exist to add HTML pages to PostNuke, Xoops (Incontent) etc, they are inadequetely or not seamlessly merged into the main system... and stand out like sore spots.

I am yet to see a content rich site implemented using nukes.

If you want nuke, your priority must be:
User Management.. first and foremost... for enabling users to register for a profile that enables them to post news, comment on news, access restricted modules etc.

You all that you want is to maintain a site with information like portfolio, go for a static designing it yourself, where you enjoy the most flexibility in terms of layout, graphical elements and candy.

By the way, the nukes haven't yet broken out of the three column yet.. when they do, I will look at them more seriously.

Nice page you have Sheila, personal and unique: something you can say is your own creation.
I would NOT want to see a nuke in its place

[Sheila]

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I'm interested in your perspective. I must say that we really DO need the user managment and password interegration more than anything else. The programmer I'm working with has indicated the site will look/feel just like it does now. If it doesn't then I probably won't make the switch. I'm moving ahead cautiously. Thanks again for taking time to write.

Sheila

[dtrumbower]

I would also suggest you look at http://wwwgeeklog.net , http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu or http://ez.no/ .

I have been looking at using one of these bloggers for a site I have.

As Fireater pointed out, none of them are really good at true content management, but they do allow users to add stories easily.

If you plan on having a forum, geeklog has one of the better integrated forums. It is still be developed but it is looking really good. It is at version one but next version is soon to be released.

It looks like the prices you where quoted is not bad. Unless you enjoy getting your hands dirty, most of these systems take a fair amount of time to understand and customize. Someone who does it all the time should be able to make changes quickly.


my .1/2 cent
Dwight

[objectve]

Originally posted by broken1

The part that I did not like was, that If I had a section of my website that I wanted to link to from the main page.. I couldn't really find a way to do it. I always had to find some module that would let me do what I want.

I actually just figured this out so I might as well share it. I had been looking to do this same thing with PHPNuke. It is actually simple. Just add a new block, give it whatever title you want, and instead of setting the content source, just type HTML content into the edit box. You can then move the box where ever you want. Also, in this way, you can disable the Module box in the upper left hand corner and add replace it with you own menu.

[Katrina]

just thought I'd throw in a link to an excellent resource:

http://www.opensourcecms.com

[Vodalus]

I have created a number of postnuke sites, and while there are very valid points expressed above, with a little creativity and diligence you can do almost anything you would like to do with the postnuke content and layout.

If you really use postnuke to it's fullest extent it can be a very powerful method to handle alot of content using the topics and sections of the postnuke functionality coupled with various blocks and modules for displaying this content, creating a static html page linking to the dynamic content directories if you like, you can segment as much content you want and still have very viable navigation.

While the core of postnuke has not in fact broken out of the 3 column design, there are some add-on's that will easily let you do whatever you wish to do with the design by creating an html template with the content blocks (up to 9) declared where ever you would like them. You can do this using the nuclei blocks module found at http://www.tangant.com/ You might also look at Autotheme (http://spidean.mckenzies.net/) and Envolution (http://www.envolution.com/) which is a fork of postnuke designed to allow for greater flexibility with your design.

You can take a look at some of my postnuke sites at
http://www.mattdpeterson.com (my test site)
http://www.amerigopoppy.com (a band I manage.. buy their cd!:-))
and
http://www.atlantamusic.us (soon to be on page-zone once I finish the migration.

[Sheila]

Vodalus:

Thanks for sharing your PN sites. Our conversion is nearly complete and I'll be redirecting the domain name to PZ this week. The programmer we hired to transition the site has done an awesome job. You really can't tell it's a PN site at all. It's really out of the box, literally. You can check it out at its temporary address: Evergreen Tandem Club but you won't get to experience most of the best features as it's a subscription site. When folks join ($25) the join button becomes a member's button with 6 features under it that are only available to members.

Anyone wanting to convert a site to PostNuke, I highly recommend Leithya at Post Nuke Modules

Sheila

[stratplan]

Excellent job on evergreen site!