An SMF CMS?

[Axion]

cool idea cant wait for it GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD LUCK

[Borys Pomianek]

Well basically the most basic cms fetures would be just one block.

The most neaded function in a cms is adding, deleting and editing data. No mater what it is: news, articles, rewiews, rules and regulations, help page, contact page ....

I think that this part should be the only one included in the basic package and should be polished to work great. If that would work with olmost no bug and the block itself would be very customizable just then it would be a very good cms. If you then want anything else you can download it or code it yourself.

Olso i think that the graphics of a block should be separated from the content of the blokc becouse that way it would be posible to more easely configure each blocks and to put blocks in a block.

BP

[richards]

holy yes this is a good idea.

[ryanbsoftware]

not like you save enogh space to make a real diffrence, i just think it would be more conviente to have many standard features.

[AmphetaMarinE]

I would LOVE a cms from you guys.
AND i would LOVE it to be in php, AND open source....
I mean open source software in my opinion is the BEST software around....
So many devs working on the software and rapidly quashing any bugs which arise can ONLY be a good thing.

Now on to features/ideas.

A minimal install is IMO the best option, as then everyone can pick and choose what is necessary for their own site.
Also the package manager is definately a must in my book.
I've been madly trying to learn php for a while now... and beginning to pick it up, but i don't think I could be much help to you guys yet....
But you never know, maybe soon

And my bright spark of an idea.....
A way of adding custom blocks....
A "blocks" directory, where we can add a file which contains the data for the output blocks....
Then a file separate to the settings.php and sources.php, which gets parsed at runtime.... maybe "usersettings.php" where we can add the custom functions we would like with whatever name we want...
(sorta like this)

Code Select Expand

'$newsblock' == <?php includeonce 'sources/blocks/newsblock.php ?>

Then in the page you want it displayed, you just go

Code Select Expand

<?php echo '$newsblock' ?>

Dunno if that makes sense or not... or if it is possible, but yea.. it would be great if it would work.
It's pretty rough, but remember i am still learning basic php... so if its not possible, or a bad way of doing it... forget it.
Just make sure to let me know if it is a crap idea, and i will give up trying to make it work on my testbed... hehehe

Cheers,
Amph.

[NoRad]

I'm currently a fan of Etomite. I do not care for Mambo. However, I SMF. That's where I stand. 

[mister]

Can Etomite and SMF be integrated with one another?

[ryanbsoftware]

ok are theiir developers to make this yet? i eed an mkportal replacement, upgrading cause no only mkportal to mess up but smf as well.  and their support is slower than dirt.

[NoRad]

Can Etomite and SMF be integrated with one another?

I don't see why not? There really isn't much to integrate, though. Etomite doesn't have a user login by default. Do a search for Etomite on this forum and you'll find my other post about it.

[Borys Pomianek]

Well i understand that you want lots of getures but rethink how almost all the cms that are there work
There basically have very little functions.

Creating 50 mods that do the same isnt creating 50 functions.

I personally dont need 50 versions of the same functions: vertical, horizontal, with flash, without flash, with stats, without stas....

I would rather like one polished functionc for adding, deleting and modyfing text + lots of customization posibilities.

Like a form in the admin cetner where i add a new type of article/data, name it news, Tick the checkboxes that say: data, author, put 5 in the "how much to display at a time", 255 in the "max characters, check the newer first, then in the special field compose the code that will be included using html + special tags that will be replaced by the right code by the form = special table generated and aded to the database, code generated and saved to special file.

Then i go to my index.php and add <? include="blocks/news.php" !> ( correct me please if i pute the code wrong, i used php like 1 yeer ago ).

The data from that file is added and the page looks just right.

Becouse the "settings" like what types of data should be shown can be overwrited by sending arguments directly from the include you can put the same thing in many places like in other pages on the right menu block by adding maxchars="40" ( or something similar ) to the include.

This way it would be productive and wery easy to use. Doing thing like this using cms like phpnuke would need a separate writen from 0 "module" that not would have to be compatible with the whole phpnuke but olso with the not so good database and if you would like the same thing look a little difrent but placed in many places that would rewuire work too.

That is my concept, when i have time to work on the webpage of my team i will use a cms or write something similar what i described above for my self.

I was thinking of using cgi if i would write it my self, becouse i would like to stay with c++

If that would apear to be too time consuming, hello php learning, goodbye c++ polishing ;[.
I know ofcourse how to modify php files and still programing is still programing but that dosent mean i can write something from 0 that will be good becouse of lack of exp. Still if i create something practicall ill post a link to source so maby the smf team will be able to use it.

BP

[NoRad]

It seems like a lot of the SMF code could be recycled for a CMS. The user could have an option of using the CMS alone or a combined package of the two with a shared user database and all that good stuff. The most important feature is that it should be simple, which is why I reference Etomite. SMF rocks because it's streamlined, but can be very robust with some mods and the theme development.

[davo88]

Rather than building a new CMS, another option might be to evolve SMF in the direction of a CMS.

This would clearly elevate SMF above the rest of the classic, forum style packages and broaden its appeal considerably.

The project could possibly be handled by the existing development team - perhaps with a small expansion. But overall, the existing management, development and support structure could be retained. This would help keep the focus on actual product development, rather than the internal expansion/re-organizing to cope with a separate product line.

SMF Users would receive immediate benefits of CMS features as soon as they are released – rather than waiting for a whole separate package to be developed.

In turn, this would provide valuable feedback to the development team and perhaps the evolving product would be more relevant to the market and more robust as a result.

The CMS features each user would prefer may vary. But overall there's probably a consensus on priority of features.

Perhaps a list of CMS features could be posted and users invited to nominate their top (say) three most-desired CMS features – then set product development to proceed along those lines. It may be the case that 20% of possible CMS features will satisfy 80% of users' needs. 

Also, a slow-grow strategy of adding CMS features gradually, according to user priorities, might help keep the product closely in tune with the current, actual needs of the majority of  users. This will help retain current users, attract new users and grow both the user and resource base.

Overall, a single evolving Simple Machines package may be more achievable with current infra-structure and programming resources. It could deliver sizeable and more immediate benefits to existing users, attract larger numbers of new users and fulfill the growing and important niche for a combined forum-CMS.

Dave

[ryanbsoftware]

no this is a diffrent simplemachines project, a new team need to be formed, i don't think it would take long after getting the team together to get SMP 1.0RC1 done and ready.

[Borys Pomianek]

Creating a teem is very hard if you want to do it from scrath.

If youre working for instance on a project, you have a 5 people team.
The product was developeped and released,
Now the development slowly continues + support etc. So each of the team members have to work 4 hours a day.

Then a new product is about to be made, you can use the existing teem but without canceling your actual project that can be a problem.

Ofcourse they can work 4 hour on the forum and 4 hour on the development of the cms but that would be 8 hours a day and the development still would not be as fast.

If the other project would eb canceled there would be 8 hours free for the new one = 2 x quicker - 1 finished product.

If there is a new team of same size = 2 x quicker - 2 x more costs

If the project would evolve rom a forum into a cms = 2 x quicker

So the idea of smf evolwing into smcsm/sms/smcs/scms( simple content menagment system ;P ).... with the curent team isnt bad.

Ofcourse it would be imho better to get an aditional team that would be able to work on the new product but that would cost lot of money.

The good side is that theres a posibility to make those products as popular as php-nuke and phpbb.
I think that smf is just better than phpbb ( i used phpbb for a long time ) and with free advertising that for sure a new opensource cms would create it would kill php-nuke and phpbb.

BP

[Trekkie101]

Has anyone here got any serious php knowledge and time to create such a thing, although its all good and well discussing it actually needs made by someone or somepeople. I have very basic knowledge, echos, variables, connections to DB's but nothing good enough or solid to actually do anything on the coding side. So has anyone got time + experience for something like this that arent the current dev team on SMF.

[ryanbsoftware]

Has anyone here got any serious php knowledge and time to create such a thing, although its all good and well discussing it actually needs made by someone or somepeople. I have very basic knowledge, echos, variables, connections to DB's but nothing good enough or solid to actually do anything on the coding side. So has anyone got time + experience for something like this that arent the current dev team on SMF.

i am sure their are, but the planning stage is one of the most impotant, thats why we are disscussing idea here.

[Trekkie101]

No but you need people to say there gonna do this first. No use planning a party if its no-ones birthday plus were not exactly planning, its an organised argument.

[ryanbsoftware]

No but you need people to say there gonna do this first. No use planning a party if its no-ones birthday plus were not exactly planning, its an organised argument.

an organised argument is unorginized planning, lol

and someone might just have pmed Jeff. 

[Trekkie101]

and someone might just have pmed Jeff.

Skuse me? I dont understand? 

[ryanbsoftware]

If you can help you are sposed to pm Jeff Lewis.