my all new content management system

[wyrd_fish]

hello...

I'm about to embark on a content managment system using PHP and MySQL...

I alredy have a Powered By logo and a name btu still need a genre... any help appreciated...

PS: its me, Mr. 47, my old account went a bit odd...

 

[Jonty]

Hi there

Well, you really have two options. The first option is to mimic what already exists, only improving upon it. The second, somewhat harder option, is to break new ground and create your own sector of the market.

Currently, CMSs are very popular for gaming and clan sites, but when you actually analyse the systems, you find that they are quite generic creations. This is good as it allows the CMS in question to adapt to a wide range of roles as the user sees fit, but it does mean it lacks focus. The opportunity here, for example, would be to develop a standard CMS system with news posting and other such facilities, but to build in specific utilities for, say, posting clan matches, game results, player profiles - all the things that PHPNuke and the likes lack unless specifically modified.

Other areas of interest may also exist, specifically in blogging. Unfortunately, I'd be a little more cautious about developing for this area, since both Google and Microsoft are taking initiatives which could squeeze out the need for CMSs.

Finally, you could try looking at what people want from their CMS; e.g. easy to install, configure and maintain; attractive layouts without the need to know HTML; powerful features and expansion capability without the need for technical knowledge etc.

Anyway, I'm not really sure that's at all helpful (or even if it's what you were after?!) Good luck with the coding side of things - you know where to post if you need any assistance

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S. Perhaps the BarrysWorld Support Team could sort out your account troubles?

 

[Testin da Cable]

it so happens I've just started out on one of these for myself

 

[[UKLans]Khan]

I have looked around at some CMS's and I find that the more popular ones allow you to easily skin the layouts, if you do incorporate this into your design you have to do so at the beginning of the project.

Jonty mentioned about adding a specific gaming side to the CMS, this is a great idea as none that I have found (trying to save time on a clan site someone asked me to do) do a particularly good job.

What I'd do before starting coding is setup a dummy site and put a questionnaire on the site, try to get as many web people as you can and see what people expect from your system. The PLANNING STAGES are VERY important in a project of this kind.

Hope this helps,

Khan

 

[wyrd_fish]

well...

i'm mainly making it as a bit of a learning project and for a friend of mine, he has a band....

i really don't think I'm up to making it really good, just simple and basic...



i'm also making a gallery and forum for my own site... this is proving rather tricky, although I seem to have it sussed...

as for BW support, I tried that but it all went wrong again...

PS: does any one know of any browsers that support PNGs and there alpha channles propperly???

 

[Jonty]

Originally posted by wyrd_fish
Does any one know of any browsers that support PNGs and there alpha channels properly???

As far as I am aware, advanced PNG support in most browsers isn't what it should be. More importantly, in IE (which now officially dominates between 90-95% of the market) alpha support isn't present in the way the W3C intended.

Thankfully, there are some work arounds, most notably by the clever people at A List Apart. However, people are sadly still reluctant to adopt this relatively new standard.

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S. Khan (as usual ) is spot on when he says that planning is crucial, as having a strong, flexible basis upon which to build is immeasurably more beneficial than trying to add on features at the end as a mere afterthought.

 

[wyrd_fish]

well...

here is the first basic plan...


6 Pages...

1. Home Page, not much to do here exept choose the next page.

2. New Page, Go through the new page functions, including what type of page, the content for the page and a preview.

3. Edit Page, here you can edit existing pages, or delete them. Much the same process as for a New Page.

4. Recycle Bin, well... this is a cunning bit.... when a page is deleted in Edit, a deleted flag is set so it won't show up on the rest of the site, but will only be deleted when deleted from here.

5. Edit Colour Scheme, choose some colours and get a preview, then save the images used for layout etc...

6. Mailing List, automated mailing list, free email account will require admin to clear them, all accounts will require an activation email. Usuale Delete etc functions...


in New page, there are a number of tempaltes to be edited as the used sees fit, these temlates include:
1. Palin text
2. Events to come
3. members db
4. menu (see end*)
5. and some others if I (you) think of them in time.


*i also intend for the pages to have subpages, to pre4vent the main menu from being as long as your arm, such pages as indeviduale member bios... etc...

well, I'm tired of typing now, bye...