Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Choosing an Open Source CMS - Beginner's Guide

Choosing an Open Source CMS - Beginner's Guide
 

  
Publisher:   Packt Publishing 
Number Of Pages:   285 
Publication Date:   2009-04-17 
ISBN-10 / ASIN:   1847196225 
ISBN-13 / EAN:   9781847196224


Table of Contents
Preface 1

Section I – Opening up to Open Source CMSs

Chapter 1: Do I Even Want an Open Source CMS? 9
You need a CMS! 11
CMS alternatives 11
Which CMS? 12
What about you? 13
About this book 14
Approach 14
Let's get started! 14
Chapter 2: Evaluating Your Options 15
Genres of Content Management Systems 16
Portals or general-purpose CMSs 16
Core features 17
Possible uses 17
Example sites 18
Top general-purpose CMSs 18
Blog CMSs 18
Core features 19
Possible uses 19
Example sites 20
Top blog CMSs 20
e-Commerce CMSs 20
Core features 20
Possible uses 21

Example sites 21
Top e-Commerce CMSs 21
Wiki CMSs 22
Core features 22
Possible uses 22
Example sites 23
Top Wiki CMSs 23
Forum CMSs 23
Core features 24
Possible uses 24
Example sites 24
Top forum CMSs 25
eLearning CMSs 25
Core Features 25
Possible uses 26
Example sites 26
Top eLearning CMSs 26
Collaboration CMSs 27
Core features 27
Possible uses 27
Top intranet CMSs 28
Photo gallery CMSs 28
Core features 28
Possible uses 28
Example sites 29
Top photo gallery CMSs 29
Different types, but strong overlap 29
Understanding CMS technologies 30
PHP is most popular for CMSs 32
But why does the technology choice matter? 32
Summary 32

Section II – Thinking your choices through

Chapter 3: Understanding your Requirements 37
Setting our expectations right 37
Time for action-setting your expectations for "The Yoga Site" 38
Creating intended outcomes 40
Measuring your site 42
Time for action-measuring the scale of your site 42
Are you expecting a lot of visitors? 45
Working with others 46
Time for action-determining compliance and interoperability needs 47
Determining additional feature requirements 50
Time for action-choosing additional features 50
Summary 52
Chapter 4: Building the Site 53
Get hands-on experience with a CMS 53
Time for action-taking a test drive 54
Checking out a live demo 58
Create navigation structure 60
Time for action-creating navigation structure 60
Do you need a different navigation structure? 64
Understanding technical requirements 65
Time for action-understanding technical requirements 65
Installing a CMS 67
Before the installation 68
Creating a database 68
Uploading files using FTP 68
Using phpMyAdmin 68
Managing file permissions 69
Time for action-install WordPress 69
Summary 73
Chapter 5: Content Editing and Management 75
Adding content to our site 75
Time for action-adding a page 75
What is WYSIWYG? Why is it important? 78
Adding images 79
Time for action-adding images 79
Maintaining content 83
Time for action-adding metadata 84
Tagging is keywords on steroids! 86
Allowing people to contribute 87
Summary 88
Chapter 6: Templates and Plug-ins 89
Giving a professional look to our site 89
Using templates 89
Time for action-finding a good template 90
Template selection criteria 93
Where to find templates 93
Time for action-setting up a template 94
Different CMSs have different templates 98
Free, paid, or custom 98
Enhancing functionality with plug-ins 99
Plug-ins, or modules, or extensions 99
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The plug-ins that you need 99
Time for action-finding a photo gallery plug-in 100
Time for action-showing a photo gallery on our site 103
No coding required 108
Uninstalling a plug-in 108
Summary 109
Chapter 7: Extending and Customizing 111
Customize a template 111
Fixing the site logo 112
Time for action-replacing the default logo in our template 112
Changing the site color 115
Changing the menu style 116
Time for action-advancing customization via CSS changes 116
Customizations may need code changes 119
What is a programming language? Is it easy? 119
Understanding the code architecture 119
Understanding the level of support 121
And there are books! 123
Finding professional help 124
Summary 125
Section III – CMSs by breed
Chapter 8: Blog CMSs 129
The first question-do I need a self-hosted or service-based CMS? 129
Top blogging CMSs 130
Let us cover the top choices 131
Taking WordPress for a test drive 132
Time for action-managing content with WordPress 132
Extending WordPress 135
Time for action-customizing the design 136
Customizing the theme 138
WordPress widgets 138
Add unlimited power with plug-ins 139
Comments or spam 141
Additional resources 142
Evaluating Movable Type 142
Time for action-managing content with Movable Type 143
Customizing Movable Type 146
Additional resources 147
Expressing opinions with ExpressionEngine 147
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Time for action-managing content with ExpressionEngine 149
Customizing ExpressionEngine 152
Additional resources 153
Searching for more alternatives 153
Additional help is also available 154
Summary 154
Chapter 9: Web CMSs 157
Do you want a CMS or a portal? 157
Time for action-managing content with CMS Made Simple 158
Time for action-exploring customization options 162
Diving into Drupal 166
Time for action-putting Drupal to the test 168
Drupal code quality 174
Is Joomla! the best choice? 174
Joomla! gives you more 176
SilverStripe—easy and extensive 178
Notable features 179
Is it for you? 179
ezPublish—enterprise CMS 180
Is it for you? 181
Umbraco—rising high 182
Notable features 182
Is it for you? 183
DotNetNuke—the first you may notice 183
Notable features 183
Is it for you? 183
Plone—for Python lovers 184
Notable features 185
Is it for you? 186
dotCMS—enterprise and Java 186
Notable features 186
Is it for you? 186
Where to find more? 187
Summary 187
Chapter 10: CMS for e-commerce 189
Content or commerce? 189
So what are your options? 190
Magento—open source e-commerce evolved 190
Time for action-adding products with Magento 192
Notable Magento features 198
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Single page checkout 198
Product attributes 199
Full control over design 200
Magento as a CMS 200
Other features 201
Is it for you? 201
VirtueMart—bringing e-commerce to Joomla! 201
Time for action-adding products and selling them 202
Is it for you? 205
What about Drupal and WordPress? 205
Freeway—e-commerce for products, events, services, and subscriptions 205
Time for action-selling weekly yoga class registrations 206
Other notable features 210
Other notable e-commerce CMSs 210
osCommerce and variants 210
PrestaShop—a breath of fresh air 211
DashCommerce—for .Net 212
Looking for even more? 212
Summary 213
Chapter 11: Team Collaboration CMSs 215
Why a collaboration CMS? 215
Can we use any CMS on the intranet? 216
Alfresco—an enterprise CMS 216
Time for action-planning the Yoga Site with Alfresco 217
Alfresco Explorer 221
Time for action-creating workflows and revisions with Alfresco 222
Document detail page 225
Alfresco can do much more 225
Finding alternatives to Alfresco 227
Mix and match 227
Summary 228
Chapter 12: Specialized CMSs 229
Wiki CMSs: The power of collective contribution 229
Time for action-creating events listing for the Yoga Site 230
What makes Wikis special? 233
Other Wiki software 234
Additional resources 234
Discussion forums: helping each other 234
Time for action-discussions on yoga products 235
What makes forums special? 239
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Other forum software 240
Additional resources 240
Photo galleries: Sharing memories 240
Time for action-posting team photos online 241
What makes galleries special? 245
Other photo gallery software 246
Additional resources 246
Online learning: facilitating learning 246
Time for action-creating a yoga course 246
What makes e-learning special? 251
Other e-learning software 251
Additional resources 251
Other specialized CMSs 252
Summary 252
Section IV – Open source CMS tips
Chapter 13: Hosting your CMS-Powered Site 257
Do I need hosting? 257
Keep this in mind—hosting evaluation parameters 258
Hosting on your own machine 260
Finding a good host 261
Common tasks and problems in hosting 262
Making sense of the welcome email 262
Time for action-create a database with cPanel 263
Using FTP to upload files 265
Changing permissions for files or folders 266
Editing files with an online file manager 267
Time for action-editing a file using cPanel File Manager 268
Apache configuration with .htaccess 269
You may find this useful—some hints and tips 269
Summary 270
Chapter 14: Getting Involved in the Community 271
Where to go for support 271
Searching for an answer 275
Keep this in mind—asking good questions 276
Recommended message structure 279
How can you contribute? 280
Summary 281
Table of Contents
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Chapter 15: Working with a Specialist 283
Basics of Software Project Management 283
Software development Stages 284
Recommended readings 285
Finding the right expert 286
Finding experts online 287
Look for CMS experts 288
Outsourcing requires different thinking 289
Further reading 290
Tracking progress and controlling 290
Online project management tools 291
Handling risks and conflicts 293
Risk management 293
Conflict resolution 294
Succeed with your project—recommendations 294
Summary 296
Chapter 16: Packt Open Source CMS Awards 297
Why an award? 297
Award methodology 298
2008 award winners 298
Drupal 298
Joomla! 300
DotNetNuke 300
SilverStripe 301
CMS Made Simple 303
Plone 303
dotCMS 304
ImpressCMS 305
MiaCMS 305
Other finalists 306
Most valued professionals 306
Summary 308
Index 309


Download links are here :

For English readers :

http://ubookmark.blogspot.com/2010/02/do-you-know-joomla-also-joomla-learning.html

For Arabic readers :

http://ubookmark.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post_24.html

1 comment:

  1. I read this book :

    This book is very useful if you want a CMS for your website designed by PHP language

    It has poor information about ASP.Net CMSs
    but it is rich with info about PHP CMSs

    You can use this book to build your website as it links you to all websites help you to make your website

    also, give you advice about how to choose a hosting server , connect with it through FTP programs.Ratings for CMSs - in the last of the book- is helpful

    I see it is very good as it helps you through all the website building journey not only the design.

    ReplyDelete