[thelist] Choosing a CMS?

[Iva Koberg]

>Does anyone have any recommendations for me? Is it worth hunkering down
>and build my own? Or is it better to adapt an existing system to my
>needs? If so, what's out there that supports multiple subdomains with
>independent features?

If your needs are very simple and you don't expect them to change much,
building a custom basic CMS may be an option for you. Even so, with so
many CMSs out there, you should be able to find one that works for your
needs, while eliminating the need to develop and maintain a home-grown
solution.

Start by identifying all the things that you want to get out of the CMS.
For instance: You mentioned supporting subdomains is important  - easy
one, most CMSs should be able to do that (actually, the CMS may not even
need to know - you could handle that through your server configuration).
What else is important to your project? Answering some of these few and
overly simplified questions will get you a long way into a decision
process - you'd be surprised how many CMSs you'll be able to filter
through. More importantly, you will know what you are getting and end up
happier with the results once you get a CMS ;)

- Is valid markup important to you? Most CMSs disappoint in this area.
What about accessibility guidelines compliance?
- Are non-cryptic URL's such as yoursite.com/somedirectory/somepage.html
vs. yoursite.com/123=xyz?blah important to you?
- Should the CMS be friendly to non-technical users? WYSIWYG content
entry?
- Support for static and dynamic content?
- Should the CMS separate content from presentation? (It looks that way
from your requirement for different look and feel, etc.)
- What are server/client requirements of the CMS? Are you willing to
setup a complex install? Would a hosted CMS be an option?
- Do you need a way to preview changes before publishing (staging)? 
- What kind of templating system does the CMS offer? Standards based vs.
proprietary? Learning curve? Does the templating system pose design
restrictions? 
- Is content reuse (if important to you) possible and easy? How flexible
- does the CMS store pages or content 'chunks'?
- Is an easy way of importing legacy content important? Does the CMS
help in that regard?
- If there is required functionality the CMS does not provide - is it
possible to extend? What's required?
- Of course, cost. TCO? How is licensing structured - users vs. cpu,
annual fees, are upgrades included?
- To avoid making this a giant list, I am mentioning this last, but it
is not least important - how easy would it be to divorce from the CMS?
Of course, you won't have to do that now, but it's important to know
upfront - needs change, technology changes. Would you be able maintain
your site manually and/or easily migrate to another solution?

I would organize my requirements into 'must haves' and 'nice to haves'
and start researching. 

Some good resources:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/is/projects/cms/ttw/ttw.html
http://cmsinfo.org
http://www.cmswatch.com
http://www.hartman-communicatie.nl/extra/tools.htm
and of course, there is DMOZ, but beware that currently the CM section
is extremely poorly organized.

Hope this helps.

best,

Iva A. Koberg
www.livestoryboard.com