Deciding on a CMS

[ptmuldoon]

Hello all.

I've just recently purchased an owned license of Vbulletin (haven't even downloaded it yet), and now I'm looking to figure the best CMS to use for what I want to accomplish. Simple said, I'm putting together a family website for everyone to keep in touch, post pics, etc. What I want from the website is the following.

• A Photogallery where I can have a choice of either a fixed, scrolling, or random image block on the home page. Something similar to coppermine.

• A calender module where my family members can enter in things such as birthdays, etc. (Possible even an automatic email to everyone notifying them of an upcoming birthday or event)

• A recipe module were everyone can post and search out recipes by type, ie: meat, poultry, desserts, etc.

I've been doing a lot of searches out there, and have found the following portals that I know exist, and could use some feedback from you guys as to which to think offers the best approach to that above, and is also perhaps the best regarding themes/templates, etc, as I'll be looking for a nice simple, soft color theme that perhaps I use with a flash header.

• VbAdvanced
• VbPortal
• Mambo by bbpixel.com
• nephp Publisher
• MKPortal

[Dean C]

I've found in my experience developing websites over the last few years that no CMS has ever met all my requirements. I've always developed custom one's for myself so that it meets all the requirements

Mambo is very nice though

[vbcore]

www.subdreamer.com

[ManagerJosh]

I recommend using http://www.ezdatabase.org

[ptmuldoon]

Thanks for showing me subdreamer as well. I Wasn't aware of that one. I didn't see a recipe module, but I've asked over about one, and will begin searching out subdreamer plugins to see it exists.

[osirisjem]

don't forget joomla!

bbpixel now integrates joomla! and vBulletin (works).
vBridge (http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/board,174.0.html) is attempting to integrate joomla! and vBulletin without modding any files in either j! or vB.
Drupal also has Drupal-vBulletin integration.

Just thought I'd update here.

[jamesyfx]

Thanks for showing me subdreamer as well. I Wasn't aware of that one. I didn't see a recipe module, but I've asked over about one, and will begin searching out subdreamer plugins to see it exists.

I've tried subdreamer a little, it wasnt that good. Not worth buying anyway.

The free options like Mambo or Joomla! are better, im my opinion.

[MRGTB]

I still think vBadvanced is the best because it intergrates so well with vBulletin in every way as vB CMPS should, plus it's really easy to create your own custom modules that can use vb permission systems etc.

Mambo, I hate mambo. Tried it ages ago because I thought there site looked cool. But it uses a separate NUKE style admin section. I didn't like it at all.

I hear quite a lot about SubDreamer, never tried it though. But from what I've heard it one of the best. Personally I think it cost too much though.

[TruthElixirX]

The Lite versino of Subdreamer is jsut as good as the paid. You should try lite out. If you can't find the link let me know and I'll post it.

[Bob Isaac]

I have yet to understand what all the fuss is about CMS. I suppose it is for those who have just started web design and find html/shtml et al a bit baffling.

Maybe someone can educate me as I am always looking for new and better ways.

Bob

[jamesyfx]

It's just an easy way to add content to a page, through a form or something. Instead of doing it directly into a pages code.

Also, multiple people can contribute, and not just the webmaster, who you'd imagine would have the proper skills to add content to a website without a CMS, but the other people, probably not.

[MRGTB]

I have yet to understand what all the fuss is about CMS. I suppose it is for those who have just started web design and find html/shtml et al a bit baffling.

Maybe someone can educate me as I am always looking for new and better ways.

Bob

Well most people like to use a CMS so it gives there forum a homepage to enhance there site, which can grab content from the forum like latest threads to display there, as give them the option to add custom content.

But there are times though when you see people who join your site never using the CMS and always come straight to the forums instead. So there is a valid argument as to how useful they really are and how much a forum really needs a CMS.

[Bob Isaac]

Well most people like to use a CMS so it gives there forum a homepage to enhance there site, which can grab content from the forum like latest threads to display there, as give them the option to add custom content.

Don't need CMS to do that.
Bob

[barroca]

using cms and bridges

Hi!
well I use and like the http://www.mkportal.it is a free option and I use in http://www.x-trad.org .
The bbpixel [koudanshi] solution to brigde with joomla/mambo is ok, too, but, if you have many groups with different levels of acess...they will not be the same. That is: You will have to adjust the groups in the two VB systems and joomla. If you have many...wow: this is a lot of work.
regards,
barroca

[jhobbs]

It boils down to "an easy way to manage web content". SubDreamer, vbPortal and vbAdvanced integrate with VBulletin, allowing you to easily add "Most recent", "Most viewed", "Current News", and other threads.

Other things that make an integrated portal special:
- Only one user login/database (handled by VB)
- Download module can prevent "Guests" from downloading, if desired. Also, can place files to be downloaded in a folder that's not accessible to users, and can set to prevent hotlinking.
- Photo (image) module
- Easy generation of pages in WYSIWYG editor.
- Easy display of RSS newspages from other sites.
- Easy generation/ modification of Navigation links.

Just login to the portal sites you've listed, and decide whether the features they display would be useful to you. Most have "plugins" for extending the core capabilities. And, note whether they are unique to that product, or universally available.

Then compare costs, ease of use, appearance, extensibility, support, etc.