[ale] Creating a website

Andrew Sledge andrew at novologic.com
Tue Dec 13 10:16:36 EST 2011


Going back to the original question: it really depends.

If you need a platform for building applications or if you suspect that
extensibility is a future requirement, you may want to consider going 
with a web-based application framework. There are many offerings of
this type:

- CakePHP - PHP
- Ignite - PHP
- FuelPHP - PHP
- Pylons/Pyramid - Python
- Flask - Python
- Django - Python
- Zend Framework - PHP
- RoR - Ruby

The benefit for this group is that you can really make the application
do anything that you want. Some of them offer many third-party
modules/extensions that allow you to add features such as workflow,
notifications, or they give you an easy infrastucture for building your 
own.

The trade-off here is that many of these require a great deal of work to
get up and going, especially with regards to UI. Many of these
frameworks come with no UI at all.

Of this group, I've worked in Django, FuelPHP, Pyramid, and the Zend
Framework. I like Django the best for it's support, documentation, and
the fact that it's Python (Python is just plain fun). Zend Framework is
nice for enterprise level applications that are treated more like true
applications.

If you are looking for a plug-and-play solution a full-fledged CMS with
many easy prebuilt templates is probably what you are looking for:

- Wordpress - PHP
- PHPNuke - PHP
- Mediawiki (yes, it can be a CMS) - PHP
- Radiant - Ruby

The benefit for this group is that there is very little work to be done
after installation. There are many themes/templates available to get you
up and going quickly.

The trade off is that there is little to no extensibility, or the
application makes it difficult if not damn-near-impossible to add
functionality.

Of this group, I've worked in Wordpress and Mediawiki. Wordpress is very
easy to set up. I've only used Mediawiki as it's intended purpose and
have not extended it. Wordpress is "sometimes" easy to extend if you
don't want to do anything fancy.

I intentionally left out what I call the "sort-ofs". This group has the
benefit of being a CMS that is pretty extensible in the way of easily
creating modules/extensions or at least having an infrastructure that
can support adding third-party modules and extensions:

- Drupal - PHP
- Plone - Python
- C5 - PHP
- Joomla - PHP

This group has the best of both worlds. While not as extensible as the
frameworks, there is room to work and interfaces to the core system that
you can interact with. Concrete5 (C5) has a marketplace where you can
purchase many add-ons that are supported by the original developer.
Drupal is probably the most popular one in this list since there are a
tremendous number of themes and modules available for it.

Of this group, I've worked in Drupal, Plone, and C5. I like the
programming/module interfaces in Drupal better, but C5's marketplace is
pretty sweet if you need something quick and have the budget.


-- 
Andrew Sledge
 
NovoLogic : System Developer 
Direct: 770.609.2242 | Fax: 678.990.3290 | Mobile: 404.939.2493

Providing confidence, security and resources to help our clients complete
technology intensive projects that focus on consumer education, sales and
communication.

"The significant problems that we have cannot be solved at the same level
of thinking with which we created them." - Albert Einstein
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