An SMF CMS?

[zhoushi]

Gosh, time stops here.

[[Unknown]]

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

You have to remember, though: some people want a forum, not a CMS...

CGI would be slower anyway; if it were in C, it would have to be sapi... which would be really complicated, in the long run.

There is definately a difference between a CMS and a portal.

-[Unknown]

[splamoni]

I'm a php coder of 7 months experience, i've recently started coding my own cms.
I would be happy to help out with this, although alot of posts have already been posted, i'm not quite sure whats happening with it.
Will it still be done in PHP with MySQL ?

[OvermindDL1]

[half-joking]I say use Python,  It is as powerful and more so then php, and it is faster since it can be compilied into bytecode, and any OS worth its salt contains Python (heck, even Mac OS X comes with Python). [/half-joking]

[Peter Duggan]

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

You have to remember, though: some people want a forum, not a CMS...

Absolutely! So you might also like to remember that SMF, good though it is, *already* offers far more as standard than many of us require or will ever use for our forums.

[roxpace]

[half-joking]I say use Python,  It is as powerful and more so then php, and it is faster since it can be compilied into bytecode, and any OS worth its salt contains Python (heck, even Mac OS X comes with Python). [/half-joking]

To be business-wise I say, use Java with servlets and maybe one or two applets combined with servlets, also when coding in Java it is so easy to make GUI for any kind of environment for administration and more, not just a web interface.

Just take a look at Sun Java with servlets and beans with GUI in swing, it's yummy

/R

[NoRad]

I would love a GUI where I can literally drag and drop elements onto a page. If anybody is familiar with the popular music program "Reason", you might liken this to flipping around the back panel and dragging the wires to the correct audio ports. A CMS that could let me do this would make things really easy. Just apply the style sheet on the fly and go.

[JanEm]

What I miss in this discussion is the scope of the project (to be?)
CMS is more than a webdesigners tool, usually referred to as WCMS
The area of Content Management extends to document management, e-mail management just to name a few.
The larger the enterprise the more content to manage!

Any info on the status of the project would be better than all the chitchat passing by on this post.

BTW I AM interested in teaming on the subject! Whatever part, so count me in.

[ltabdiel]

I am interested in teaming for this project if needed also, but don't really know the state of the project.

[richards]

I would love a GUI where I can literally drag and drop elements onto a page. If anybody is familiar with the popular music program "Reason", you might liken this to flipping around the back panel and dragging the wires to the correct audio ports. A CMS that could let me do this would make things really easy. Just apply the style sheet on the fly and go.

ive used the program and know what youre talking about. however, the time it would take to make such a thing worth while is not worth the outcome.

[roxpace]

It's worth the time, it is a big commercial interest of it, look at all intranets all over the world, I has developed several CMS and I know how many hundred thousands in payment there is for a such system, they are worth a lot.

But maybe not easy always to fight the big companies with more famous solutions. But well many organisations have specific needs and needs people who can customize a CMS to their own need and there is a lot of money if you have the knowledge to accomplish it.

[NoRad]

I am having a tough time understanding what would be so difficult about making a drag and drop system? It could be done relatively easy with Flash. I did something like this last week in 15 minutes. Just take out the static stuff and populate it dynamically with code. Just an idea. It would make the initial setup of a CMS easy. Maybe an add-on or mod?

[bloc]

I don't think the point is drag'n'drop feature....but more the underlying system needs to be there. Flash - for example - can then be a frontend to this, and in that respect be pretty innovative.

btw, also love Reason, still having the first version lurking on my PC, used now and then.

[roxpace]

A drag-and-drop solution is not at all difficult to develop, but I think the best most crossplatform solution and most approved by institutes, governmental departments and companies would be to use Java like I said earlier and the pages would not be big either.

Maybe time to start a such project with drag-and-drop ?  It would be a welcome solution for many...

Sincerely
/R

[NoRad]

I would have to disagree because I know of several companies that disable Java. Flash seems to be easier to secure and just as good if not better at cross-platform in my opinion. I could be wrong, but you also have to weigh in the ease of flash creation with PHP and how well they go together. Seems like a natural fit.

btw - I am not a reason fan, just using it as an example. ; ) I like Steinberg Nuendo and Ableton Live with lots of VSTi.

[[Unknown]]

I don't have Flash OR Java installed in this browser, and don't mean to have them.

-[Unknown]

[OvermindDL1]

I don't have Flash OR Java installed in this browser, and don't mean to have them.

-[Unknown]

I do not have flash on this one, but I do have Java, tied up pretty well though.  You would need to figure out a way that is actually compatable.  I have a good idea for one method...

[roxpace]

First of all, for many operations in Java doesn't require Java installed on the clients/visitors/user/administrator computer, it's possible to use Servlets. If you wish to use any kind of drag-and-drop you of course needs a Java applet to get some kind of GUI for this purpose.

Flash is not available on all big platforms, and it is not often pre-installed. Many companies never installs it.

My experience is working with companies in many different sizes and governmental departments, there is Java mostly accessable but not Flash (well in the bussinessworld is Flash more common but not more than Java). I have never seen Flash authorized to be installed in any department where I has been assigned.

Last, I would never compare a multimedia extension like Flash which is good on presentations and with limited interaction with Java which have so huge field.

If you take a deep look into what Java is, you will not only see Java applets, but also Java beans, Java Servlets, a gigantic range of professional libraries/classes, JFC/Swing, J2ME.

For example, if a CMS is getting constructed with servlets on the server side and a GUI with Java applet (it would only require Java activated for the superuser or highest administrator, not the common user). With the Java applet you could easy have a drag-and-drop. With J2ME you also could administrate from the most modern cellphones. Java have a superior support for XML which can be necessary in case of export of data to another system or spreadsheet/wordprocessor software.

Please ask and I will try to answer.

Sincerely
/R

[beau]

Late to this discussion - I just now started looking into SMF as a CMS.

I thought it was already a CMS and that I just wasn't using it correctly... my reason being that SMF has News across the top, messages, whatever, so you could build a forum that also provided articles, calendars, etc, I figured that sure SMF has alread been developed into some sort of CMS.

I built (well, AM building) a Mambo site and linked it to SMF and use the bridge to tie them together, it works well enough, (looks a little clunky, but maybe that's my lack of design on the site up to now).

I think SMF shouldn't try to work on a CMS. This is a great application as it is, my fear is that when you branch into CMS, you won't be able to compete with MAMBO or others, and the focus on a CMS will take away from the development of the F in SMF.

Just my opinion. But hey, if you do make one that's tied into SMF, I want to be the first to know.

[NoRad]

roxspace, I suppose we just come from different backgrounds. From my experience, Flash is a more useful tool and is developing more quickly than java. It's visually more exciting, and it works natively with php. Java appears to be a platform that never really achieved the full potential because their CEO is a sore loser and still biting Bill Gates. lol sorry. 

Anyways, if you're doing any type of drag and drop, there is no need for java. Do a gui in flash and all of the back end is PHP. Why make it more complex than it needs to be?