By hort on

hi there,

i'm new to the idea of a content management system but need to learn to use one for an online journal i'm involved with. the journal will have its text updated regularly and its pictures/colors updated infrequently. i'm looking for something as user-friendly as possible, and that doesn't require knowledge of programming languages. can someone guide me as to whether drupal is an appropriate cms? if it isn't, recommendations for another cms are welcome.

thanks,

hort

Comments

jsilence’s picture

jsilence commented

Hello Hort,

it is hard to answer you question with 'yes' or 'no'. There are a lot of factors you'll have to take into account when choosing a CMS.

I'll try to give some pointers.

For a web based CMS you'll need access to a server with the right software installed. Check this site for 'requirements'. I think it will boil down to Apache webserver, Php 4, MySQL or another database. A Linux or FreeBSD box will be just fine, I guess Drupal will also run on Windows tho.

Regarding the features you could compile a list a features your team needs and try to figure out whether it is supported by Drupal itself or by one of the contributed modules. This might be a good start: http://drupal.org/about

Regarding the skill you need, I'd say that medium administration experience is needed for the installation. Drupal does not have a shining installer, but setup is like 'unpack, create database, configure database, fire up browser, administer from admin page'. This is assuming that webserver and database are already installed. You'll find Installation support here: http://drupal.org/forum/1
Programming skills are only needed if you want to modify or enhance a module.

Modifying the look and feel of your site would mainly require knowledge in CSS and HTML. If you are willing to experiment, then this can be real fun, even if you have little knowledge.

From the three weblog systems I know (phpWeblog, PostNuke, Drupal), I'd clearly recommend Drupal. If you need something more like a classic CMS you might want to check Typo3. But be aware, it has a steep learning curve. If you are unsure about Php and would like to go into the Java direction, then Nukes on JBoss might be something: http://www.jboss.org/developers/projects/nukes/index
Plone is Python based and also has very good reputation: http://www.plone.org . I personally never used the last two.

Comprehensive information can be found here: http://www.contentmanager.net/

Hope this helps,

-silence

--
If you can't walk, try to run.