I figured I'd spin off another thread to discuss product/software selection in more detail.
For those of you that have implemented website solutions with the following elements, what software did you ultimately go with and why?
1) Forum (I'm assuming most here are using myBB naturally
)
2) Media Galleries
3) Blog
4) Storefront
5) Event management
6) Advertisement/Sponsor management software
Just looking to get an idea of what others have successfully implemented and some of the PROs and CONs around their selection. My holy grail is having all of those elements and them being loosely coupled enough that product upgrades aren't overly difficult/intrusive, nor held up due to lack of compatibility/support between products.
Of course, I can custom code a good portion of it, but that seems like a lot of unnecessary work overhead reinventing a wheel (and likely a better one) that is already out there.
I've looked for software like this many times but they either end up being to big(drupal once you add all the modules) or the different sections are to simple.
The issue with bridges are as you mentioned upgrades become a pain. I wish their was an end all be all solution but honestly a framework would probably be a better option for a site that complicated.
(2013-02-15, 02:30 AM)Alex Smith Wrote: [ -> ]I've looked for software like this many times but they either end up being to big(drupal once you add all the modules) or the different sections are to simple.
The issue with bridges are as you mentioned upgrades become a pain. I wish their was an end all be all solution but honestly a framework would probably be a better option for a site that complicated.
Alex,
When you say framework, do you have any recommendations?
I'm definitely struggling with the selection process here because this is all new to me (internet based web development).
I'd agree, everything I've seen is indeed too simple and not feature rich enough, or the niche products are perfect but non-integrated solutions (and you have the upgrade dilemma). The worst case scenario with the latter is having some major security or functionality flaw in one product getting fixed in an upgrade, and it breaks some other critical part of your site. Not sure if that *would* happen, but I'd imagine it could if you have a ton of custom integration code to help "blend" the different products.
And currently as a sole developer, I have to either throttle expectations or invest in a dev team if I go the custom route...there are teams of guys working on these individual products, I can't reasonably expect myself (already working a full time software development job) to develop a solution for what I have in mind...it would simply take too long.
Ah the software selection puzzle!
Sadly I don't. I'm not programmer just giving you my experience
. I know laravel is pretty popular if you want to use PHP. Otherwise Django is really popular for python.
No problem, I appreciate your input!
I'd definitely like to stick with PHP overall if possible.
I wouldn't mind running a Java framework and platform for it, but that generally isn't too well supported on the web hosts I've seen...and I haven't seen too many forums or communities built on it, so finding rich features might be a challenge.
The PHP world seems to have a lot more support/options in this type of arena.
Indeed PHP has boomed in a short amount of time. If I do ever make the plunge personally I want to go for pythong though (without a framework probably though since most don't support python3 yet). It just seems like a much more clean language and also had a strong community.
Either way I wish you luck and if it works out well maybe try starting your own open source cms
(even it not open source if it's a reasonable price I might try it
).
Haha taking on a CMS solution is a BIG project!
I have some unique ideas though, ones I'm looking to have satisfied with existing software...if not I may have to custom code something to address them
I just checked out Laravel, pretty cool looking stuff. Basically an MVC oriented framework around PHP, with OO related patterns...and well documented to boot! I'll have to look into that further.
Thus far I've played around with Dolphin and Oxwall to test out, but neither is really blowing me away. Both have great features, but they're just not as flexible or as rich as I'd hoped. Plus myBB seems to have spoiled me when it comes to forum software, while there are other improvements I'd like to see on here, it's quite robust and flexible and my users are loving it. I can't take a step backwards in that department and select something that doesn't give at least as much as myBB does (or they'll be disappointed, never a good thing).
(2013-02-15, 04:14 PM)Clover13 Wrote: [ -> ]Thus far I've played around with Dolphin and Oxwall to test out, but neither is really blowing me away. Both have great features, but they're just not as flexible or as rich as I'd hoped. Plus myBB seems to have spoiled me when it comes to forum software, while there are other improvements I'd like to see on here, it's quite robust and flexible and my users are loving it. I can't take a step backwards in that department and select something that doesn't give at least as much as myBB does (or they'll be disappointed, never a good thing).
and there in lies the problem. its nearly impossible to find a combined product that does everything decent, let alone do them well, but its easy to find single focused products that do very well.
I use Coppermine for pictures and video. Its does okay, but it is a bit outdated. However anything else that is more up to date (i.e. Facebook type uploads and image processing) will be a server nightmare. I have successfully integrated and bridged Coppermine on several sites now.
There are good plugins for Ad Management already and some basic blog plugins. No real good event management plugins I have found.
However, Page Manager makes it easy to build a complete site around MyBB.
I agree that plugins are not always maintained and can get out of date w.r.t MyBB so its not perfect.
If you're looking for a framework, then I know at least 5 people here would recommend Laravel ^_^
1) Forum MyBB, Paid solutions either wBB/IPB
I use things out of all of these,
2) Media Galleries I try to use plugins. Xthreads (don't remember what wBB is) IPD has one part of it.
3) Blog Xthreads for MyBB, N/A IPB suite,
4) Storefront (Never really succesfully usedo ne tbh)
5) Event management Calender, Calender, Calender
6) Advertisement/Sponsor management software, Plugin, n/a n/a
Honestly you can use one system as a framework for the rest aswell. I know people who have used MyBB as a framework itself. (I think even Tomm M did too)