21 replies to this topic

[winlonghorn]

I decided to proceed with writing my own very basic cms because I don't require a lot of features right away and I want full control of the code. I want to be able to control every aspect of how the system works and have full freedom to modify it. I just have one more quick question. Is it wise to use just one news.js and news.php script and have each page that is displaying news pass in its own category? If not, what would you recommend to generate each page's news? I appreciate all of your help.

[threetonesun]

winlonghorn, on 29 November 2012 - 19:14, said:

I decided to proceed with writing my own very basic cms because I don't require a lot of features right away and I want full control of the code. I want to be able to control every aspect of how the system works and have full freedom to modify it. I just have one more quick question. Is it wise to use just one news.js and news.php script and have each page that is displaying news pass in its own category? If not, what would you recommend to generate each page's news? I appreciate all of your help.

Just FYI, if this is for fun, or to learn something, go right ahead. If this is going to end up on the web in some way... I'd argue it's a terrible idea. Basically, you have full control over any framework or CMS if you want it, but you also get the advantage of having someone track down bugs / build in security / make things easier for you, and provide an update path, which is fairly important in PHP.

As for your second question, yes, one script or function will always be better than multiples of them doing the same thing.

[winlonghorn]

threetonesun, on 29 November 2012 - 19:26, said:

Just FYI, if this is for fun, or to learn something, go right ahead. If this is going to end up on the web in some way... I'd argue it's a terrible idea. Basically, you have full control over any framework or CMS if you want it, but you also get the advantage of having someone track down bugs / build in security / make things easier for you, and provide an update path, which is fairly important in PHP.

As for your second question, yes, one script or function will always be better than multiples of them doing the same thing.

Ok, thank you. I appreciate the help. It is actually for a church website that I am developing. Are there any good tutorials related for drupal in that case. I have no clue where to even begin. It has to be able to integrate with my website theme as well.

[threetonesun]

Drupal's documentation is pretty good. It might help to pick up a book (I've read through this one, it's good, but save some money and get an e-version) as it will have a good explanation of using views.

Just to clarify, I suggested Drupal because it looked like you were planning on display a lot of information drawn from a database, which Views is great for. I find Wordpress to be easier to use if you're just dealing with posts / pages. Either can be themed, and you can set up a child theme from a template to get up and running faster.

[winlonghorn]

threetonesun, on 29 November 2012 - 20:01, said:

Drupal's documentation is pretty good. It might help to pick up a book (I've read through this one, it's good, but save some money and get an e-version) as it will have a good explanation of using views.

Just to clarify, I suggested Drupal because it looked like you were planning on display a lot of information drawn from a database, which Views is great for. I find Wordpress to be easier to use if you're just dealing with posts / pages. Either can be themed, and you can set up a child theme from a template to get up and running faster.

I am planning to display a lot of information actually. It is going to build up over time and consist of news, blog posts, and occasionally a letter from the pastor. In depth content management is very important. If I can get this to work well, it will free up a lot of time for me to create other custom components. Hopefully I can figure out Drupal and make it fit into my site.

[threetonesun]

winlonghorn, on 29 November 2012 - 20:06, said:

I am planning to display a lot of information actually. It is going to build up over time and consist of news, blog posts, and occasionally a letter from the pastor. In depth content management is very important. If I can get this to work well, it will free up a lot of time for me to create other custom components. Hopefully I can figure out Drupal and make it fit into my site.

OK... then I would actually suggest Wordpress. It will be easier to theme, and easier to get others to add content to if that is ever the case in the future. For that I would recommend a book, as the Wordpress documentation can drive you crazy sometimes, although perhaps someone else can chime in with a good one, as I've sort of picked it up over time.

Drupal is better if you had, for example, a database of all the events for multiple churches in an area, and you wanted to be able to sort the events and see who was going to each event.

[winlonghorn]

threetonesun, on 29 November 2012 - 20:17, said:

OK... then I would actually suggest Wordpress. It will be easier to theme, and easier to get others to add content to if that is ever the case in the future. For that I would recommend a book, as the Wordpress documentation can drive you crazy sometimes, although perhaps someone else can chime in with a good one, as I've sort of picked it up over time.

Drupal is better if you had, for example, a database of all the events for multiple churches in an area, and you wanted to be able to sort the events and see who was going to each event.

Well, after thorough research, it looks like I can't run drupal 7 on my godaddy hosting plan. I guess I am stuck coding it myself because I do need the site to be fully enabled for those advanced features at some point. It is going to continually evolve to include new features as time goes on. It isn't a news only site. That is just how it is going to be until I am able to add more to it.