How many of you use pre-built frameworks?

Freakish_05 · 16 Jul 2007 at 22:02

Just a general question.

Over the last 3 years I've laboriously created mini-cms's for each of my database driven projects.

I've just stumbled across Joomla which seems to be taking the world by storm.

How many people use systems like this as the basis for their sites. Has anyone made their own one? Most importantly, do they work well?

Ok thats multiple questions. But any enlightenment greately recieved

Cheers,
Freakish_05

blade007 · 16 Jul 2007 at 22:29

joomla is not quite the revolution imo. It's big, and bulky, and is full of stuff that only confuses.

Drupal is probably the pro solution to open-source CMS. XOOPS is also meant to be quite good.

psyr33n · 16 Jul 2007 at 22:36

CMS != framework, tbh. On top of that, Joomla is bloatware.

I'm in the slow and ongoing process of creating my own PHP framework to reduce the constant repetition of boring everyday tasks; though there are good frameworks out there already you can't beat making one yourself. At the moment I have a bunch of classes I use in most projects which helps make development time quite a bit faster. It's worth having at least some sort of system in which you don't end up writing the same code from project to project, which drains all the fun out of it.

The_KiD · 17 Jul 2007 at 11:52

i use Sedito (www.neocrome.net) and have set up a few sites for people using it.

I reallly like it, but it is down to individual taste I guess.

My main reason for selecting Seditio is because it is not as well known, so less attacks and spam bots hit it.

Inquisitor · 17 Jul 2007 at 11:55

As psyr33n said, Joomla isn't a framework; it's a CMS.

I've just started using the CodeIgniter framework for a couple of my websites and it's pretty nice to use.

I'm also tinkering with Rails, which seems pretty good too. One thing I don't like though, is that it all seems a bit too 'magic', like there's too much going on behind the scenes that's out of your control.

Dj_Jestar · 17 Jul 2007 at 15:06

Used Zend Framework for a small project, but there were some nasty pieces of code in there (it was still beta at the time, so meh) but since created my own Harvested Framework.

However I don't touch PHP much anymore.

In Smalltalk, I use the Squeak development environment, which comes with all the common objects etc. and the Seaside Web development framework - undeniably the best framework out there for web-dev. (Despite them having a shocking website)

GLORP ORM framework fantastic Object Relational Mapping framework. If anyone wants to see a "true" object oriented project in full swing, this is the pinnacle.

Joobs · 18 Jul 2007 at 02:27

I assume your original question was about CMS rather than frameworks? Here are my experiences with what i've used.

Joomla - I really didn't like Joomla, although they are releasing a major upgrade soon which may or may not change a few things. It does benefit from having a large and great online community, plus lots of free and commercial extensions. But i found it a non-starter if you wanted to create anything that wasn't a standard Joomla style site.

Drupal - another open source project. It is supposed to be harder to use, but i found it easier than joomla. It's also very flexible if you master it, with sites such as mtv.co.uk using it. Creating templates and themes could be a little bit easier, and to get it's real power it helps if you know PHP. The community isn't as friendly or as large as Joomlas.

ExpressionEngine - This is a commercial CMS (there is a free core version). I really like EE, the templating system seems to geared towards designers rather than developers, and its really easily to create unique looking sites. EE isn't as flexible as Drupal when it comes to building certain types of web communities. Also EE has a friendly but a rather small web community, quite hard to find tutorials etc.

Freakish_05 · 1 Aug 2007 at 16:44

Righty-ho!

I've been trialing drupal over the last few days and I've become a little attached to it and I think it would be good to use as a development tool.

Therefore, I present the following to you web gurus... \"Is Drupal a good tool to use as a web development platform in a commercial environment?\" (escaped for the PHP guys

).
Basically I'm trying to get into the web scene and have exposed myself to a lot of PHP over the last couple of months. However, I've found that a lot of the things that I've been doing, user authentication/management being a prime example, Drupal seems to do really well for me. The alternative is to create my own, scaled-down version of Drupal (or similar) to apply to my projects.

Opinions?
Freakish_05

Joobs · 2 Aug 2007 at 11:23

Each CMS does certain things better. Pick the best tool for the job. Especially if you're giving it to a non-technical client.

If you like Drupal and can template it and create your own modules for it then use Drupal. There are several big sites using drupal like mtv.co.uk and The Onion. But apart from 10 or so examples that keep getting mentioned around the web I think most Drupal sites look incomplete, which is probably due to the learning curve of the templating system. But it seems if you are an expert (especially if you can create your own bits of custom php) you can create some fantastic stuff. You might want to find a copy of "Pro Drupal Development" created by some of the guys at lullabot (they make very good drupal related podcasts too).

Personally, i like expression engine because i find it much easier to design sites for, but very few poeple have heard of so it gets dismissed. It does lack some features of drupal, mainly around social networking and advanced user managment.