I have been look around for Free/Open Source ASP.NET CMS / Portal systems for a while now, and have seived it down to two different ones.
Umbraco - http://umbraco.org
mojoPortal - http://www.mojoportal.com
Both look excellent and have different appealing features, but I am looking for people who have used both and which one you went with and why??
I actually went for Umbraco in the end and would never look back, its incredibly easy to install and use
To install you can use the web platform installer to install it and the AMAZING amount of free projects you can EASILY install with a couple of clicks make it by far the best CMS out there
http://our.umbraco.org/projects
If you are unsure where to start have a read of this
http://www.blogfodder.co.uk/post/A-Complete-Newbies-Guide-To-Umbraco-CMS.aspx
I tried Umbraco and it is not for the timid. I feel I'm a fairly technical person, Sr. Web Developer... and after several hours I gave up.
MojoPortal just works.
It has its flaws, but the simple fact that it just works means it wins.
I used Kentico, DNN, Sitecore, Joomla, CMS Made Simple (Yes admittedly not mojoPortal). Umbraco is by far the most powerful if you are after a highly customised and highly specified solution. Linq2Umbraco just seals the deal.
However, if you are after idiot proof CMS with everything built in, and your biggest concern is to look for check boxes to enable forum/blogs/whatever other joke modules/bells and whistles/etc. Umbraco isn't for you. IMO Kentico/DNN are the ones.
Edit - And 3 years later, I've used SharePoint, epiServer, SiteFinity as well.
Umbraco still wins hands down.
mojoPortal seems easier to use to me and it works even with javascript disabled like using noscript browser plugin. Seems more care of accessibility has been taken using progressive enhancement javascript techniques whereas you can't manage your site at all with javascript disabled using Umbraco.
I haven't tried mojoPortal, but I love Umbraco.
Things I like:
Clean code
Uses XSLT, python, or .NET to extend
Awesome community support
Tutorial videos for easy learning
Admin area is extensible
Good plug-in projects
But really its because I can use it for both small and large projects easily.
Related
I've been asked to make some changes to a site that was built with Expression Engine 1.6.8. Even though I'm not familiar with this CMS, I can find my way around to make the updates, except I'm not sure about adding a contact form. I'm guessing that ultimately I'll have to upgrade this version to the newest (2.7, I believe?) in order to get the tags found on this page to work: http://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/modules/email/contact_form.html?
My only hesitation in making the upgrade is my unfamiliarity with EE, and the fact that someone else is probably creating a brand new website for the one I'm working on, and very likely without EE (so I'm learning something that I may not need again).
Any suggestions for a quick fix, or should I just bite the bullet, upgrade, and use what I've found?
Take a look at the EE 1.x docs.
At a glance it appears that syntax has changed little bit. Maybe that's why your EE2 tags were not working in EE1.
I would definitely try to use the tags as shown in the EE1 docs if this site is that old. Making a jump from 1.6.8 to 2.7 can become treacherous due to variables such as how the templates were coded, which add-ons were used, if those add-ons are even available any longer, what functionality was deprecated or absorbed, etc...
I only say ditch the efforts because you mentioned having another site in progress. If you would like to work through the updates/upgrades, follow the docs here and here and learn it. It is definitely worth the learn. Once you tap into EE, it's hard to roll back.
I ended up writing my own html code within the template and processed it with a php script to send the form input to an email address, just as I normally would on a website. Not being familiar with ExpressionEngine, I don't think I understood why I was continually being referenced to use a module in order to do this, but I suppose for anyone who is not a coder but is experienced with EE, that would be the way to go. From what I understand, the email module is not free and does not come with the core version, which is what I had to work with, but comes with the licensed version, which made this all the more confusing.
I've always been intrigued by DreamWeaver, particularly the ability to click on something and edit its CSS right there so I don't have to find it in my huge list of CSS. However, I use a pretty complex home-made MVC framework for my coding that loads and creates pages through a series of includes, classes, function calls, etc. Quite a while ago, I tried a little to get Dreamweaver to even load a page but gave up pretty quickly. It wouldn't even display a single thing. I didn't try anything special though to get it to work like messing in the settings though.
I was wondering if DreamWeaver can handle something like this at this point and if so, what version would I need and how can I find out how to do it? If not, does anyone know of a good visual IDE where I can edit CSS just by clicking on something that would also support a complex PHP MVC framework page loading process?
You have to know how to develop a Dreamweaver extensions. The following resource, official Adobe website, offers a manual to do that:
http://www.adobe.com/support/dreamweaver/extend.html#dw8
We are in the process choosing a new GUI platform. Ive been looking at subj. but are a bit confused. Could someone please refer to at tutorial or blog that makes a qualified comparison.
Thanks.
Nikolaj G.
We've used SmartGWT for a couple of projects and it's ok but there are tradeoffs:
PRO:
Makes it easy to write a web app that looks and works like a rich client GUI.
Don't have to know any Javascript. SmartGWT coding is pretty similar to Swing coding, which is good if you already know how to do that.
CON:
Unless you do a lot of work tinkering with the look and feel, your app won't look very web-like, it will look like a rich client app running in a browser. You may not care about this.
It's a pretty heavyweight library which has to download large .js files to get going.
We found it difficult to control the layout of form controls precisely, but that might just be our inexperience.
I think you should fully understand what GWT does and what your projects needs are first and foremost. There wont be a source that will adequately compare them for your specific needs.
Start with the wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Web_Toolkit
Here is a comparison of SmartGWT vs GWT
http://www.theserverside.com/discussions/thread.tss?thread_id=60186
If interested in AJAX RIA Frameworts, below analysis is for you
Before starting new GUI for our new project arrival, I made some research.
Here are my findings (remove spaces from "http: // "; bcoz stackoverflow is preventing me to do so :)):
Prototype framework favorable links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ajax_frameworks
http://www.javabeat.net/articles/12-comparison-of-ajax-frameworks-prototype-gwt-dwr-and-1.html
http://www.devx.com/AJAXRoundup/Article/33209
Dojo framework favorable links:
http://blog.creonfx.com/javascript/dojo-vs-jquery-vs-mootools-vs-prototype-performance-comparison
jQuery framework favorable links:
http://blog.creonfx.com/javascript/mootools-vs-jquery-vs-prototype-vs-yui-vs-dojo-comparison-revised
Test speed of different RIA frameworks:
http://mootools.net/slickspeed/#
More comparasions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_JavaScript_frameworks
http://jqueryvsmootools.com/#conclusion
Out of all these findings I started using SmartClient 5. Initially we faced some issues but as SmartClient matures I find it interesting in many terms:
1. APIs doc help and examples
2. Flexible controls
3. Forum
Today I am working on SmartClient 8 and few on my GUIs are in production running successfully. Actually the great help with SmartClient is that you find every thing at one place. No need to dug many other sites that is hard to do for any other open source RIA framework.
So my choice is no doubt SmartClient.
Thanks
Shailendra (shaILU)
I am looking to speed up time to develop website layouts. So I am wondering if using DreamWeaver for layouts is useful - efficient. I am looking at purchasing this software, so, I had a few questions.
I am very comfortable coding HTML, CSS and JavaScript(jQuery) by hand in either PHPDesigner or Notepad++. Most of the time for layouts I use FireFox and Firebug to see results in real time, and then check if it works across different browsers.
I want to know the opinion of people who have worked on the front-end:
I feel code validation is important but not the end of the world(as my priorities) - I do however like to change my code often by hand. Does the output from this software let you do this?(compare to the html/css that micorsoft word vomits - Does this software do a similar thing?)
Is this software used as a primary design tool by people who can code by hand and does it actually improve efficiency? or is it just for newbies?
I understand the Adobe family of products work really well with each other but I am trying to understand is if DreamWeaver really deserves to be in the front-end workflow(if you are proficient coding by hand).
Once you work with HTML/CSS/Javascript enough, it isn't difficult to "code by hand" but it is important to remember that front-end developers also code with their eyes, as well. There is a lot going on up front that depends entirely on the code that runs on the client and you want to use an editor that helps you organize your code and, more importantly, gives you visibility into the challenges presented by complicated CSS and adhering to web standards.
If front-end coding was nothing more than pushing around angle brackets then notepad and repeatedly pressing F5 would be enough. A great web editor will present the structure of your code in a meaningful way and all of your HTML, CSS, and Javascript takes on a complete feel.
You want a professional editor that will allow you to:
Understand CSS inheritance
Run visual diagnostics
Debug across different browsers
Create modern layouts/designs that are faithfully represented
I haven't used Dreamweaver in a few years but, these days, I'm really enjoying Microsoft Expression Web. It is not the FrontPage mess of yesteryears - it is a serious tool for web design and I urge you to take a close look. The code is clean and smart and it certainly gives you the option of using its tools to build a site or you can code everything 100% by hand. Don't forget, the key is not deciding which editor is best for coding by hand. The thing you should be looking for is which editor makes you a better developer.
Regardless of whether or not you're a Microsoft, LAMP, or other platform person, Expression Web is a great tool for front-end developers.
I've been using Dreamweaver for a few years now. While I initially used some of it's code generators, these days I pretty much spend my time in the code widow coding by hand and viewing the output in the browser. The design window is nice for simple coding as it will build the html for you. However, I did have problems getting the right insertion point to edit it. For example, it might place my update before and end tag when I wanted it to be after it. That led my to switch to the coding window to be sure.
I do like the fact that it opens all included files specified in the file you originally opened. I also use it's site views to synchronize my changes to the production server. I'm sure I could take advantage of other features if I bother to learn them. I haven't used any tools besides FrontPage so I can't compare.
Best thing that happened to me was learing about Eclipse and then after about Aptana. I was using notepad++ for everything, but now im doing everything with eclipse and aptana as plugin for eclipse. Just my 2 cents. Oh and its free.
Primarily I do use Adobe Dreamweaver when working on websites. It is a pretty nice tool to use along with Adobe Photoshop for any graphic designs that I create.
Also, I use Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 for Web Application Development (i.e Console apps, Web Apps, Silverlight, etc.). VS is a little different from DW but its still a nice tool for development projects.
Alison, I looked a preview of Expression Web and may check it out. It may aid as an impressive tool for my front-end dvelopment work. I also tried Microsoft Expression Blend when designing Silverlight applications. It does remind you of how Expression Web looks and feels
One of my clients asked me to integrate an open source CMS in her website.The challenge I have right now is that she wants the website to be bilingual. is there any cms that implements this feature? The content on each page should be displayed either in english or french and no automation translation(like google's or babel fish). only static content should be held in language configuration files.
Thanks for any help or idea.
N2CMS can do that. It supports multi-sites on one installation, multi-language, templating, MVC. And it is a very developer-friendly, developed in C#.
http://n2cms.com
http://n2cms.codeplex.com/
Drupal, besides being considered the best php-based open source CMS, has multilingual support
"Internationalization: Build Multilingual Sites"
http://drupal.org/node/133977
Umbraco does this, is FOSS and based on .NET.
http://umbraco.org/
go for joomla it support multi lingual , use joom fish component
According to one of its FAQ's, Plone, running the LinguaPlone add-on can do this, if I understand your question correctly.
MODXCMS.com does enable you to use lots of different languages on the same site!
They call it YAMS - Yet Another Multilingual Solution ---
about YAMS on the MODX Forums
I say go with MODx CMS coupled with YAMS. Choose the Evolution release, not the Revolution. I just installed the YAMS and it's working like a charm.
The learning curve maybe a bit steep but it's worth every hour I spent learning it.
Are you looking for a translation memory/CMS or a CMS that integrates with a TM?
How many languages are you looking to support?
Any of the complicated ones? (HAT, for example)