I do web work for a group at the university I attend. We’re having a design company redo our site and will be coding the site ourselves. We’d like to build the new site on top of a CMS so that people can easily add content. So far I’ve been looking into using Drupal. The problem I’m running into while thinking through how well Drupal will work for us is in regards to data collection. We’re overhauling our database to keep data centralized. For example, rather than create a table for every form with fields for First Name and Last Name (common fields for a lot of the forms we do) and all other fields, we’re pulling the common fields out to tables like a user table. This will help us track people’s involvement with our group much better and make our data far more useful. Is there any easy way to do this with Drupal modules? I’ve looked into CCK a bit but it doesn’t look like it’s useful for more than simple data that doesn’t have “complex” relationships between tables.
What are your recommendations? Are there some good modules I could use; do you recommend a different CMS (NOTE: needs to be php) that would better suite my needs?
I have the same exact question as you -- so far the best CMS I've come across for data collection from forms is Concrete5 (http://concrete5.org). Any time you use their "form" block, the submissions are sent to the "Reports" section on the back end of the dashboard. I don't love their organization method, but it's the best I've seen so far, and it also lets you dump to a file.
I think you want Drupal with Views and Organic Groups.
What kind of forms do you have?
You shouldn't use Drupal if you care about database structure. CCK is the method of defining content types, used on 60% of all Drupal sites and the basis of fields in Drupal 7 core.
That said, you may want to question a few of your assumptions. First, there are a lot of modules that add new field types to CCK, e.g. FileField, so it may not be as simple as you think. Second, do you really need to worry about how the database is organized, or is that just a means to some other end, e.g. reporting. If it's reporting you're after, you can generally handle that with Views, the only module used more than CCK.
If you really do need to worry about the database structure and really do need more complex relations than CCK can handle, I'd suggest you're not looking for a CMS so much as a framework. Those kinds of details are generally handled automatically in a CMS.
Related
I have a large complex web site currently implemented using PHP and MySQL.
Some of the pages (about, contact us, etc) are largely static, but need to be updated from time to time. I'd like these updates to be able to be done by non technical admins, so I'm migrating the site to Joomla CMS. I've created a Joomla template to reproduce the banners, styling etc of my existing web site and have successfully reproduced the static pages by cutting and pasting into Joomla articles.
I'm now trying to embed my existing dyanamic php pages into the Joomla framework. I assume that I need to convert them into one or more Joomla components? I realize that I'll need to strip out the php code that currently generates banners, menus, etc, but I don't want to make major changes to these php pages, i.e. I don't want to re-implement them to follow an MVC pattern. I'm looking for a simple Joomla 3.2 hello world component tutorial. The tutorials that I've found are either too complex (i.e. MVC) or they're "too simple". By too simple I mean the component is not listed when I select Menu Item Type within the Menu Manager. Can anyone point me to any documentation that explains the minimal config that I need to include in a custom Joomla 3.2 component in order for the component to be listed when selecting Menu Item Type?
Also, should I create one big custom component to wrap my existing PHP application containing multiple pages("views"?)? Conceptually there the system could be considered as about 3 sub-systems, but there is some overlap between the MySQL tables used in these different sub-systems.
I don't need the implementation to be portable, i.e. I'm not trying to create a reusable component that others could use, I just need it to work on my site, using the least amount of work possible.
Thanks, Wayne.
I hope to clarify a bit and give you way out.
In response to your comment on #user3057084, the power of Joomla and its flexibility comes from it being MVC! If you want to wrap your existing code with little modifications, Wordpress will let you do all kind of nasty things! Nasty in the sense of mixing logic with data, i.e. copying and pasting your code and getting it to work quickly.
Joomla coding standards require that you separate models from views. And that you understand how the Joomla MVC implementation works. It will take longer, but you'll learn a useful skill that can and should be applied if you want to write portable maintainable code following Design Patterns.
Now about the way out.
Nothing keeps you from putting your raw php code in a Joomla view, including the database access. It's really ugly and I feel bad even suggesting this, but if it can be a small step towards using a great framework, then the end justifies the means.
The absolute easiest way for you in Joomla would be to create a template override (which you'll do from the admin with a few clicks in the template manager), then throw your code in, and it will run. Then, a little bit at a time, you might learn to separate the parsing of the input in the controller, store / retrieve the data in a model, and leave just the markup in the view.
But are you absolutely sure you need to code for this? There are thousands of (free) extensions out there that might do the job for you with no coding and little configuration, leaving you just a data migration to handle.
Have you had a look at Wordpress yet? In my experience, non-technical people find it easier to administer a wordpress website in comparison to a Joomla website.
When it comes to the menu structures,themes and contact forms and blogs - Wordpress takes the cake.
It would be worth your while to check it out? It might save you hours of frustration?
I have a background in .NET and Perl, but have found myself working on a project where the customer is mandating Joomla. They would like me to setup a web site that will allow them to enter rental properties, which would likely include a large description field and a number of smaller metadata fields. What is a good way to approach this problem using Joomla? Would I somehow add metadata fields to articles for entry of rental properties? Would I need to create something outside the realm of an article (I'm thinking maybe a component, based on some intro training videos that I have watched on Joomla)?
My HTML and CSS skills are pretty solid, and I have a little bit of experience with PHP, so I don't mind getting my hands dirty. However, I'd like to get an idea of how a Joomla veteran would approach the problem.
Trying to tack meta information on to the articles is almost certainly not the way to go - for a ton of reasons. You are on the right track with a component. Consider designing a component with a back-end database, admin capability and a few front-end data-entry/information screens. The Joomla framework is a little cumbersome to begin with, but ultimately the MVC implementation makes sense and is quite powerful.
This tutorial at the Joomla documentation wiki runs through pretty much everything you need to know from a basic "hello world" to databases and more complex implementations. It sounds like the basic database-enabled example would get you really close to your objective. The example application builds on itself from one tutorial to the next, so it is not at all a waste to start at the beginning and work through it.
And a couple random bits of advice for a Joomla component development beginner:
One thing you may want to research related to data-entry is the JHTML class (the JHTML::_() function in particular). IMO the approach is less than intuitive, but using it is required to leverage built-in widget classes defined for the standard form fields in more advanced applications. It is also important for working with customized form field types and handlers.
Also, the objects returned by JFactory::getApplication() and JFactory::getDocument() have a ton of useful/important functionality when it comes to manipulating the Joomla application (like access to the JInput object). Get familiar with what they can do and remember how to retrieve them.
Good luck.
While building a component from scratch is the most flexible the initial learning curve might be too expensive (time wise) if you're not experienced with PHP and the Joomla framework.
Generally, if we're asked to do something outside our normal areas in Joomla the first place I look is the Joomla Extension Directory (JED).
From that I can usually find a very good solution or a very near match. If it's not a perfect match I can easily extend it (e.g. adding a plugin for a local payment gateway) or work with the developer to add the features we need to the extensions core). Which is probably a good way to start with Joomla, i.e. modifying or extending an existing extension.
You're lucky though, the area you're interested in has it's own category on the JED — the Real Estate section has 15 items listed and most them seem to have good ratings and reviews.
So, I'd start there.
You could make a form plugin for articles to add the extra field or to divide the body field into sections with json or using the profile plugin as a model you could add fields and store them in a separate table.
YOu could repurpose the contact component and use its many fields, or just clone it and change the names.
You could also use an advanced form extension.
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For the past weeks I can't stop thinking about the architecture of a CMS I have to develop shortly. First of all I want to answer to the possible first questions that you could ask me.
Q: Have you read the similar questions on StackOverflow?
A: Yes, I have. Unfortunately none applies to what I have to ask.
Q: Why would you want to code another CMS???
A: Well, this is a bit of a long answer. Long story short: it has to be closed-source and it has to meet the requirements I need (it won't be 100% a CMS, it's a much more delicate subject - any project developed with it will be somewhere between 60-70% CMS and the rest will be custom code for that project's specific needs)
Tools of the trade:
PHP
Zend Framework (my personal choice; I'm very familiar with it and I won't change it for this task whatsoever)
What I need this "CMS" to be
Developer oriented
Since it won't be a pure 100% CMS it has to be developer oriented - easy to maintain, easy to develop against (more like the feeling when developing on an enterprise level framework)
User/Editor oriented
While working on a project like this one, any programmer might find himself going in a wrong way and not thinking the person who'll work as an editor using this CMS is not in fact a very technical person. This is the part where conflicts happen - if it's not simple to use, yet powerful enough, you will have a lot of problems to deal with.
i18n & l10
I'm almost certain it will be kind of a difficult task to code something both developer and user oriented and if I won't achieve this, I would like to give more importance to the developer instead of the editor. I am aware it's not a good deal to ignore the actual user of the software, but this CMS has to be fast to develop against.
Possible architecture patterns
1. General object
The first architectural design that got me thinking was the following:
I define a general object. The user/admin goes in the administration area and defines the data object he needs. Easy one.
The object page (for example) has a title field, a body field and a slug. It was just defined by the user and now he can create content based on this "data structure". Seems pretty neat, but I still didn't solve some of this architecture's problems.
How will those dynamic objects will be stored in the database? Should I use a dataTypes table, an objects table and link them many to many via objectProperties table?
Or maybe should I serialize them and store everything in the objects table?
Should I give the user the possibility to create new dataType properties and add them to its objects?
How will I i18n all of this?
Isn't too complicated to force the user to define its own data structures?
Will it be too messy if it will have a lot of data structures defined, multiple languages? Would it be still manageable?
2. Extreme developer oriented - scaffold data structures
Today I found myself thinking about this possibility. It would be pretty neat to define the data structure of an object in a yaml or ini file and then scaffold it's database table, model and CRUD. Also mention it's relations to other "data structure" objects to get the right CRUD implementation (think about page data structure and category data structure, for example).
Unfortunately this made me also think about several possible problems.
Will I be able to code such a scaffolding tool on top of Zend Framework? (which is known to be lacking scaffolding if we except the 2 or 3 suggestions made by the community, like this one)
Is too stupid to create 2 tables for each object so I can internationalize it?
Would it be too strict on the user if he can't define new data structures without the programmer?
Conclusion
I'm still very confused on how to approach this subject and what architecture to choose. At this very moment both are pretty challenging in terms of development.
My questions are pretty straight-forward.
If you would have to choose one of this approaches, which would it be and why?
Can you maybe suggest a more interesting pattern to follow, considering my needs?
Just some general advice, if you are really trying to manage free-form content then I would stay away from relational databases for storing your data and go with an XML solution. A relational database has too much structure for something that is purely content oriented. Think of a home page... You have info displayed like: welcome notice, about us, who we are. That doesn't really map well to a table / collection of tables especially when you start adding / removing some of those items. Something with a defined structure, like stack overflow, does map well to a relation datbase however.
Take a look at Day CMS, Apache Sling, Java Content Repository for some ideas.
http://www.day.com/day/en.html
http://sling.apache.org/site/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_repository_API_for_Java
From my point of view more options are always a problem. Users are mostly ignorant, when it comes to complex systems. Therefore I'd stick with the developer-oriented solution. Developer will decide what kind of content can be displayed. Optionally I would allow some kind of "open" content - for power users, allowing complex CSS/HTML/JS. Complex content like photo galleries, user profiles, etc. should not be designed by BFUs.
So to sum up - main feature - creating pages that can be dropped anywhere in the structure (that should be very flexible). If they want user profiles, you can create a new type of page. But at the end of the day, BFUs can do anything with enough time. It depends on the price/time scale. If they can pay for it and need it fast, they will make you create a new user profile page type, taht will be easy to fill. If they are kinda poor, they'll choose to setup all by themselves using normal page and WYSIWYG :D
Are there any PHP based CMS which could be integrated with an existing database? My client already has a big inventory solution which was written in VBA. Now we need to setup a web based shop for them and we are thinking of setting up a CMS from the shelf.
Is there any way we can integrate the current database scheme with that of CMS ?
That depends entirely on what the big inventory solution does, where it is running, how it is structured, and how the two solutions are supposed to coexist.
Usually though, you will want to make use of existing export/import functions on both sides (e.g. XML) instead of having two applications meddle with the same data base. That often ends in tears.
The issue is that the CMS would have to understand how the database was laid out. Even having a different number of columns would prevent the CMS from understanding the structure of the tables. A CMS isn't a human. It just interacts with data how it's told, it doesn't ever interpret or understand the data.
Your best bet would be to first install a simple CMS with a table prefix (something like installing WordPress with "wp_" as the table prefix) to prevent it from over-writing any existing tables. After this you would need to write a plugin for the CMS which tells it how to read your database. It may be possible to find a plugin which already does what you want and then modify it to use your table design rather than the intended one.
In either case, though, the information in a database is part of the site's content. As such it's the job of the content management system to both create and maintain it. Creating it outside of the CMS will generally confuse it and require some work to integrate it.
first of all, just for curiosity, why cms and not framework? Using framework will ensure you can fully integrate your existing database with less effort (in terms of long-time consistency and reliability).
Still, if you want to stay with CMS, I would recommend Drupal. They have nice feature which allow you to interact with multiple databases without modifying your current data structure. Furthermore, you can build your own customized modules or even installation profile to suits your need.
Sorry for the confusing title....
We are developing an application to be used by multiple companies. For the most part, the application is the same, your standard sort of database manipulation pages (search pages, edit pages, etc.) customized for the data that it is designed for.
However, each company has a slightly different process, and we will be dealing directly with each company so we'd like to use some sort of system that would allow us to tweak pages depending on which company is viewing the page. For example, one company might want a couple extra fields on a data input page, or another company might want to view a different piece of data on a search results screen, and so on.
I understand this is all hypothetical and I wish I had a concrete example to give you, but honestly the companies haven't even given us very good examples. We just want to be ready.
So my basic question is, what is the most flexible way to allow for these tweaks and customizations on a per-company basis? Obviously, the most flexible but least programmer-friendly way would be to make a complete copy of the app for each company. This obviously isn't an option because we'd need to manage updating code on all the sites, trying to keep them all running and tested and having issues resulting from the customized code.
What are your thoughts on Smarty being a solution to this? Perhaps if we have a master set of templates, but then each company can have a different subfolder with any replacement template files... Of course we'd still need to update a bunch of different template files whenever we change one of them, but it would be a little more localized anyway.
Is there a better way? Some sort of differencing template engine maybe, so that we can still edit the original files and the changes will adapt on top of the originals (kind of like a patch)? Or perhaps we should use the object-oriented features of PHP5 and then use polymorphism? What is your best suggestion, and especially if you've had experience with this sort of thing, what are the options and which have you used and why?
I think the template method pattern will help you out a lot. It's really a great pattern for factoring stuff that is mostly the same but differs in a few places. I'm actually working out a template method hierarchy for my own project right now.
I would suggest you try to create the application either using an mvc framework or using your own implementation of mvc.
In this manner you could create models that could be reused (and also views) for other companies.