I'm developing a PHP-based application that requires internationalization (i18n) support.
I'm using Smarty 3 as a template solution (and TinyMVC as the framework), and although I've been using it for small projects before (back in the days of Smarty 2.x), I haven't known about any easy-to-use i18n plugins for it. Is there such plugin/extension for Smarty 3.x that'll do the job for me? I don't mind if the backend is a bit hard to setup, that's fine, all I need is a good way to implement it in templates.
I need to translate this app into multiple languages, so I need to find a way for Smarty to support it. Is there one? Thanks.
You can use a gettext plugin with Smarty, such as the one posted on this thread which the poster developed for Smarty 3 and that he claims to have been using in production for over six months without issue.
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I have experience with Joomla and have modified and wrote some simple Joomla extensions. I don't have experience using one of the popular PHP frameworks (such as CakePHP), but I was thinking about using the Joomla framework because I'm familiar with Joomla. How would I use the Joomla framework for a software project instead of using regular Joomla and writing the extensions needed for it to extend it's capabilities? Thanks!
The basic idea is that you:
Get a copy of either the whole framework or just the packages you need+dependencies (from github or composer) or use the older copy that is shipped with the CMS,
Bootstrap your application (JApplicationWeb or JApplicationCli).
Write your code using the MVC structure provided.
The big difference with writing a totally independent application is that you are doing just that, you need to build everything in the application whereas in the CMS there are already a lot of things in place. (The good part of that is that you can make new code with no legacy concerns.) For example, if you look at the JIssues project you'll see that they had to think about things like authentication. So as you would expect writing a simple application is simple, writing a complex one is complex.
You can see many examples of framework applications around, ranging from the ones found in the CLI folder of your CMS installation to JIssues, and of course the three web applications in the CMS are all examples of applications on the framework.
The Joomla Framework is intended (among other things) to be the platform upon which you can build a web-application. The framework is like the frame of one of those motorcycles they build on "American Choppers." It provides the backdrop so that you can hit the ground thinking about your app without worrying about User Authentication, database connection, and a thousand other things like those that get in the way of bringing your app to its potential audience.
If you're trying to extend Joomla, the current edition is what you should be using.
Will learning Codeigniter (or any framework for that matter such as CakePHP or Zend) help my development in Drupal or are they two separate systems that won't really benefit the other when I have knowledge in one?
I know expression engine is a CMS developed specifically with codeigniter in mind, but Drupal has a larger community and I was hoping I'd still be able to stick with drupal as well and see if me knowing codeigniter (currently what i'm studying, i haven't gotten into drupal yet) will be of any use for developing in drupal.
Drupal & CodeIgniter are different PHP frameworks (Drupal could be considered the CMS that became a Framework). Your work/learning in CodeIgniter will undoubtedly give you perspective when working with Drupal and grow your coding skills, but it wont necessarily help you learn Drupal Core API's and Methodologies.
I recommend getting into Drupal cause it's hawt (in demand), once you get your head around assumptions & common patterns it helps you build things very fast, the community is huge and all the cool kids are doing it. But if you are learning CodeIgniter and want to leverage that learning in EE, that makes perfect sense...and if that's what you/your clients want, rock on.
To start with Drupal I recommend getting into what it can do out of the box with Core & Popular Contrib Modules:
http://drupal.org/documentation/structure
Here are a few more learning resources for drupal:
http://drupalize.me (video site with lotsa free content and fair priced paid content)
http://planet.drupal.org (the drupal planet feed, lotsa great tutorials come down the pipe)
http://api.drupal.org (your friendly Core API docs)
http://drupal.org (excellent multisite search kicks butt for finding help on your topic)
Both Codeigniter and Drupal is great but Codeigniter and Drupal's structures are different. Learning Codeigniter for Drupal does not sound like a great idea.
Please don't use them both, cause you will just waste your time.
Instead, start with CI cause it's easier, find out how the code works, develop some sites or applications and then start with Drupal which is much more complex at least for customizing, but yet more powerful CMS. I haven't tried Expression Engine yet, but it has really nice feedback especially from designers.
We currently use MySource Matrix CMS for large projects, Wordpress CMS for small projects and Zend Framework for bespoke applications...
I'm not trying to confuse and compare a CMS to a framework, that has been done before :-)
I want to identify a few CMSs for review that have foundations in strong (preferably independent) PHP frameworks.
The only one I have looked at is SilverStripe CMS and Sapphire Framework.
We have many clients that have a CMS for internet and/ or extranet and then various other bespoke applications that are then integrated via various means to look like they're in the CMS.
I believe it will be more productive and beneficial to have a common framework between these branches so they can be natively merged.
Hope this makes sense.
PS. I have used custom assets in MySource Matrix and specific modules in other CMS but you feel you are working for the CMS not the application you are building.
Have you looked at Expression Engine? Its built on top of the CodeIgniter MVC framework, and may provide a lot of flexibility for having parts of the site be managed content, and branching out into more application type stuff using CI when needed. Not free, but all my colleagues that use it, swear by it (so much so that I'll actually consider it for the next project that fits this profile). There are also add-ons for many of the commons problems you're likely to want to solve.
And while not PHP, the Django framework is also a nice cross between CMS and App Framework, with some really great features like DB Migrations, etc. I can honestly say that Learning Python made me a better PHP Programmer, and the projects I've done with django were fun and fast to code. Not to start a holy war, but I describe Django as Drupal without all the clutter (and yes I've worked with Drupal enough to respect and fear it at the same time ~ too much friction in the Drupal dev process for my taste).
Even if I didn't get clearly what you are looking for I was just searching for a CMS that is not bundled with a propietary PHP framework and it should also be fast, simple coded, ordered and flexible to extend.
After a lot of search I found OctoberCMS. It uses Laravel PHP framework and it's intended for wevdevelopers/programmers, may be in a future it will also support more WYSIWYG edition. Right now it's very fast and easy to extend via MVC implementations or plugins.
It has a nice code and structure to work as programmer. If you like to create content via HTML+CSS and you don't care about WYSIWYG, then this could be a great alternative.
It's a very different approach compared to other CMS bundles. I'm not saying it's better, just different.
With their slogans:
The PHP framework for web artisans
http://laravel.com
The platform that gets back to basics
https://octobercms.com
Have you tried Drupal? We have used it as a CMS and also integrated it with things like Microsoft Dynamics and UPS Worldship. It's pretty flexible like that.
I wouldn't call sapphire and independent framework for the simple fact you'll have a hard time finding many apps written in sapphire alone - sapphire pretty much is silverstripe. Theres also the issues of silverstripe using an ajax powered admin interface for much of its own functionality meaning you have to adhere to these to keep the same look and feel with the bespoke work you want to add.
I am looking for an easy-to-use CMS that can be used to host a multilingual website with photo galleries and a few forms.
I am open to PHP/Python, excluding WordPress/Joomla/Drupal.
Django CMS 2.0 is a great multilingual CMS.
Views are cached and being a pluggable Django app makes it very extensible.
You would like the plugin approach of the design, is very helpful to integrate existing apps to a project.
http://github.com/digi604/django-cms-2.0/tree/master
Try CMS From Scratch. It's hard to get any simpler or easier.
Also, don't forget http://www.opensourcecms.com/. They host demo versions of most CMSs out there that you can try.
If you're open to Ruby, see Radiant CMS: "Radiant is a no-fluff, open source content management system designed for small teams." Also Mephisto.
For something in Python that isn't Django, you can also try Pylons.
Checkout django-blocks. Has multi-language Menu, Flatpages and even has a simple Shopping Cart!!
Since you tag django, I can suggest you a reusable Django application called django-photologue. IMHO it's worth it to use a CMS capable framework like Django rather than using a ready made CMS because in the future there would be a chance for you to customize your application. Using a ready made CMS I reckon is not as flexible as using a framework like Django.
One of your tags is 'django'.
I don't know if I would call Django simple, but it is easy
to use - once you know how... It has a very steep learning
curve.
Perhaps you are really looking for which framework to learn
and use for web-development for the next many years? I that
case I would recommend Django. Others systems I considered
were (all PHP based):
Joomla
CMSMS (CMS Made Simple)
Drupal
CodeIgniter,
CakePHP
Symfony
Smarty
Concrete5.
I have completed a Django project.
The problem is that the lighter CMS systems out there don't usually offer a lot - which is why WordPress/Joomla/Drupal have made it so big. WordPress actually takes 9 MB to load the index page on a vanilla install.
Have you looked at http://chryp.net?
If you know how to program in Python or PHP then there are MANY CMSes built by the users of frameworks that offer a lot if you don't mind messing with code.
I have to develop a CMS for a friend of mine, nothing commercial...
I'd like to take this opportunity to learn a php framework, to see if it would be suitable for future (and more complex) developments, or at least to steal some nice ideas...
SO I'd like to easily implement a content management system and at the same time have a look at a modern php framework (one of the rails inspired ones, or at least implementing MVC, which I think covers them all...)
I've heard of http://www.digitaluscms.com/, built with zend framework, and http://radiantcms.org/, but that is ruby on rails (I'd prefer php for ease of deployment and hosting...)
If you want a CMS built with a real Framework, I've heard (just today, actually) of Diem, which is built upon symfony (and uses some components of Zend Framework).
Maybe Sympal, also based on symfony, could interest you too.
If you want to learn, and work with symfony, one of those two might be the perfect match for you.
Still, as those two are not as popular as Drupal (or Joomla, or whatever other well-known CMS you can think about), I would probably not use them for any "real" site -- at least, not before studying them for a while.
For a framework, I would recommend Code Igniter wholeheartedly. It's MVC based, super-lightweight and it reminds you of Rails a lot. You can check out a screencast of a hello world application here: http://codeigniter.com/tutorials/
In regards to a CMS that could be http://expressionengine.com/, it's a popular CMS built on top of Code Igniter. I don't really like it as a CMS, but you were asking about a good platform to build on, so that would probably be a great bet.
The most common PHP frameworks are Symfony and CakePHP - I don't know CakePHP so much, but personally Symfony is too big and bloated for my taste, although very powerful.
The most common used CMSes are of course: WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. There are endless other systems available, but most of them don't really have a great platform to build on.
Good luck!
Others have mentioned various pre-built CMS applications. If you want to build your own in an existing PHP framework, check out CakePHP or symfony.
http://cakephp.org/
http://www.symfony-project.org/
But really, you should just learn Django, because it's so awesome.
A free CMS built on CodeIgniter is PyroCMS. The demo is currently down but installer is so freaking simply you could have it running in a few minutes.
Modular, multi-lang, UTF-8 throughought and pretty easy to skin.
Unlike other CMS' I have seen built on frameworks, PyroCMS doesn't touch the core framework at all, which means future upgrades of CodeIgniter will be easy.
you should take a look at silverstripe - besides the fact hat you really should read about what a framework nowadays can deliver, so some basic knowledge about Rails and Django is absolutely essential to put yourself in a position of beeing able to decide yourself what is good for you and what is not.
One most important thing ignored is RESTful-ness - many CMS or Frameworks still not support it or at least do it very complicated. Yuo need to read about REST to understand, why you want a framework or / and CMS that suppirts REST.
Talking about Joomla here is, of course, a joke.
Use Joomla. It probably won't teach you much but you will get a very nice system. Professional level even. Joomla has a MVC framework but most of what you do will be configuration. But really who wants to do a cms any more anyway? So many of them out there.
All kidding aside, Joomla is written in php, scales nicely and has a nice admin interface for the client/end user. It is also used all over the place.
If you really want to learn a usable framework try to write the cms in zend or codeigniter. those are beautiful frameworks.
If you really want to experiment a popular PHP framework while developing a simple CMS, look for a real CMF.
The only one I know at this time is Symfony2 CMF. It's a set of Symfony bundles providing popular CMS features like the Node concept, blocks, menus, dynamic routing (for routing to newly created nodes), etc.
Using a CMF instead of a CMS prevents you to configure your application only using a big administrative back-end and make you to understand the framework behaviors. As a consequence, you will be able to use the framework (Symfony in my example) even for a non CMS related project !
Using a CMS like Wordpress or Drupal (which is built on top of Symfony) will hide you the framework.
P.S: Actually, Symfony CMF is only compatible with Symfony 2. But beta versions of the bundles are already available for Symfony 3. Anyway, there is a LTS version of Symfony 2 whose bug fixes support ends in 2018 and security support in 2019 !