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Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory
app103:
I have volunteered to create a more organized all inclusive software directory for DC. This is going to be a big time consuming project and I'd like to start a discussion concerning what CMS I should use to do this.
The only CMS I am really familiar with using is Wordpress. I have done a directory using it before and I can easily use that for this, but if anyone can think of something better, please share.
I'd like to spend the bulk of my time on this project adding listings and not fussing around with writing buggy code (If I am forced to do that I might as well scrap the whole project, so don't recommend something like Drupal)
What I am looking for is something where I can have multiple editors that can add new software listings, without opening up registration to the general public.
I would like it to be a fill-in-the-form approach with custom fields to make it easier for us to add new entries.
Must be able to handle adding stuff to main categories, as well as handling individual tags separate from the main categories, basically giving 2 lists.
Individual RSS feeds for the whole thing as well as each main category.
Renegade:
I'd recommend going with PADkit to start for some basic functionality. Rip it apart and build from there, but do yourself a favor and start with some ready code to ease the burden. It's not a CMS, but it has large sections of functionality that are useful. I'd say it would make a good start. The database and data access stuff in it would be good to plug into another CMS. Or, you could simply use PADkit on the back end and write a new data access layer for it. That would free you up to use different platforms, though you would likely still be tied to MySQL, which isn't a big deal as it's a good database and most CMSes support it.
app103:
Renegade, thanks for the suggestion, but I think that might be way over my head. I am not a web coder and really can't handle that kind of stuff. I can handle html & css, adding plugins, ripping out or deactivating unnecessary stuff, but the moment I have to start writing any php code beyond an include, this project is unbuttered burnt toast.
Additionally, ASP has stopped distributing PADkit...
The Association of Software Professionals has temporarily stopped distributing PADKit, due to unresolved security issues, and spaming of PADKit based web sites.
A new PAD Specification and PADGen (PAD file authoring tool) have already been released.
A new PADKit may follow at a later date. - http://pad.asp-software.org/padkit.php
--- End quote ---
I am also not looking for something that would require every app to have a PAD file in order to be included (most of the apps here don't have one), and some of the info I want to include about each app is not in the PAD specification and very specific to DC.
Carol Haynes:
You could have a look at Joomla 1.5 with the free extension "Phoca Download".
For details of Phoca Download see: http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/directory-&-documentation/downloads/5551/details
For extra addons to supplement Phoca Download see: http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension-specific/phoca-download-extensions
Note this uses Joomla 1.5 at the moment (Joomla 1.6, despite it 0.1 version increase, is a large scale rewrite and redesign of Joomla and currently most extensions aren't ready for it)
You can download Joomla from: http://joomlacode.org/gf/download/frsrelease/13105/57240/Joomla_1.5.22-Stable-Full_Package.zip
And use XAMPP as a local testbed for trying things out (it is a complete package which includes a local Apache server, PHP and MySQL which can run on the Windows desktop) see: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html
If you need a hand give me a shout and we can arrange a time to get together online.
Renegade:
Renegade, thanks for the suggestion, but I think that might be way over my head. I am not a web coder and really can't handle that kind of stuff. I can handle html & css, adding plugins, ripping out or deactivating unnecessary stuff, but the moment I have to start writing any php code beyond an include, this project is unbuttered burnt toast.
Additionally, ASP has stopped distributing PADkit...
The Association of Software Professionals has temporarily stopped distributing PADKit, due to unresolved security issues, and spaming of PADKit based web sites.
A new PAD Specification and PADGen (PAD file authoring tool) have already been released.
A new PADKit may follow at a later date. - http://pad.asp-software.org/padkit.php
--- End quote ---
I am also not looking for something that would require every app to have a PAD file in order to be included (most of the apps here don't have one), and some of the info I want to include about each app is not in the PAD specification and very specific to DC.
-app103 (March 02, 2011, 03:24 AM)
--- End quote ---
Hmmm... Not being able to code there is a problem. If you could find some help, I'd still recommend PADkit. I know that I have it laying around somewhere. I'll see if I can dig up a copy.
Regarding:
I am also not looking for something that would require every app to have a PAD file in order to be included (most of the apps here don't have one), and some of the info I want to include about each app is not in the PAD specification and very specific to DC.
--- End quote ---
I think you're missing the point of PAD. It's an XML specification, so it's trivial to modify, and even includes an extension method. PADkit would also be easy to modify there to include DC specific items.
The thing is that you could get access to a LOT of good programs, and all the information for them. The amount of work involved in creating the content would be a fraction of what it would be otherwise.
Another option is to simply use any kind of directory software for some CMS, then write something to pull in content from PAD files into the database. DNN has a repository that would work. There are others too of course. Going that route, you could easily avoid any web programming as all you'd need to do is write some software in any language (we all know you can code!) that creates the correct set of SQL INSERT statements to enter the information into the database.
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