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CMS vs Frameworks

J

jimmy43

n00b
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
Messages
41
Hi I am going to be doing a bit of an overhaul on one of my old websites. I've used a few frameworks on some recent projects like RoR, Django and ASP.net (my preferred so far), but I have experience only with wordpress as far as cms's go.

The website is essentialy a publisher which sells its own and other people's sheet music.

What my website needs:
+ Simple user system
+ Flexible but highly customized shopping cart
+ User will be able to add items to the shop's catalog (and collect a % of the payments)
+ Online payments
+ Advanced administrative area
+ Good security

Overall it seems that using a framework would create a better experience but it will take much longer. The CMSs gives u many of these features for free but take a long time to customize and get them to do what you want.

Im leaning towards either .net and a js framework vs joomla + some shopping cart.
Any ideas or other combinations out there that will fit my website?

Thanks :p
 
I don't really see a whole lot of room for CMS-functionality in here, beyond the simple bit of 'having users'. It seems that the core (and most complex) bit here is the cart w/ revenue sharing - you should start out seeing if you can find an e-commerce app (standalone or a module for a CMS) that meets your needs.

Given that this isn't all that common of a use-case & you want it 'highly customized', you'll probably end up rolling your own. I'd probably avoid CMS integration unless you can actually get a lot of value (beyond a stable user system) out of it.
 
You might want to check into modx (modxcms.com) plus foxycart. It seams to be a decent option, but I can't say I do a lot with ecommerce. The other suggestion would be magento, but it's a real pain to get setup let alone working and templated.
 
I was thinking of recommending Magento as well. Setup has never been an issue for me but designing with it certainly has a learning curve. It's not something you just install and rework a template real quick like Joomla, Drupal, or something- you basically have to have an intermediate to advanced PHP understanding and the willingness to learn their (massive) directory tree and file naming schemes. If you have any experience with the Zend framework much of it will come easy to you, since the Mage system is modeled on it (and uses it). It's also fairly new and there is currently only one English book released for it (with a few more on the way this spring).

I just finished a fairly large project with Magento a couple weeks ago. I was fairly impressed with it after working with osCommerce in the past. It's certainly a large step forward in the open source commerce market, but it does come with much added complexity and maybe a bit of over engineering.

You alternatives are the many CMS's which have cart plugins some of which have been mentioned. In my opinion, none of them are acceptable for anything but the simplest of online sales- but maybe that is all you are after.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I will take a look at Magento, I have quite a bit of customization to do anyways so it might work for me. How nicely would Magento play with Zend if i decide to go that route for my framework?
 
jimmy43 said:
Thanks for the replies everyone. I will take a look at Magento, I have quite a bit of customization to do anyways so it might work for me. How nicely would Magento play with Zend if i decide to go that route for my framework?
Click to expand...

Magento uses the Zend framework, so it will play with it perfectly. However, if using Magento you would be best just learning the 'Magento Framework' to implement any additional features.

The problem is there is somewhat limited information out there on how to best work with Magento from this end and it is complicated. With enough digging though you can get enough information to do most things from the Magento KB and Wiki- but the information is scattered and not always up-to-date with the latest version. This will get easier, Magento is just new.

php|architect has a book available for Magento, mostly focused on working with the code it's self (a must read if you go this route). It's available in paperback or as a digital download. To my knowledge, this is the only book currently available on Magento.
 
Tweakin said:
The problem is there is somewhat limited information out there on how to best work with Magento from this end and it is complicated. With enough digging though you can get enough information to do most things from the Magento KB and Wiki- but the information is scattered and not always up-to-date with the latest version. This will get easier, Magento is just new.
Click to expand...

I kinda got the impression from looking at it that their business model is:
  1. Release Complicated Software as Open-Source
  2. Provide consultants when people get in over their heads
  3. profit!
 
ameoba said:
I kinda got the impression from looking at it that their business model is:
  1. Release Complicated Software as Open-Source
  2. Provide consultants when people get in over their heads
  3. profit!
Click to expand...

That's my opinion too... it's pretty clear they plan to (and probably do) make a killing on support / custom shop builds. However, I accept them making their buck in such a manner if they continue to update and release the best (by far) open source commerce system ;)
 
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