Hi All I run an online Poker Community and I would like to change the set-up of the site to a Content Management System. At the moment I have the forums (phpbb) with an integrated homepage at: www.checkraise.com.au . The site also contains some other pages (i.e poker strategy section) and I'm planning on adding a lot more. However with the current set-up it is very difficult to add new pages to my site, update the homepage, etc.. Simply, the current site is a phpbb forum, with an integrated html homepage placed over top of it. The problem with this is, it's really built to be a static homepage, but I would like to be able to update it quickly and easily just about every day if I can. This is very difficult at the moment because if I want to update it I have to add new items in html code to a template. likewise if I wish to add new pages it's a long and drawn out process. What I basically want to do is transfer everything I have into a content management system. Is this possible? what's the easiest way to go about it? Will it be an expensive job and who can do it?
I haven't try something like that before but if you have a SQL database it might be possible. I have used some CMS like wordpress, joomla and drupal they also uses SQL databases. But there is also a problem because the database structures are different from each other. If that is the case then you have to manually add all information to the new CMS database.
I don't see any proper directory structure in your setup. Even individual threads from the phpBB appear as direct HTML files from the domain, i.e. yourdomain.com/some-phpbb-thread.html! You can obviously install a CMS like WordPress and port all of your content to it, and even get it to be displayed in the same way that you have now. But you're gonna have to have proper URLs. I don't know how many URLs you currently have; you may be able to redirect some of them, but I think some of them will break. If you're planning to work on that site more, I'd advise that you do move to a more robust CMS.
That's what i'm looking to do msafi, move to a proper content management system set-up so I can give some structure to the homepage and make regular changes, plus add new pages quickly and easily when I want to. I'm just a bit lost as to the best way to do it at the moment. I've started getting some quotes from some people to rebuild the homepage so it's more manageable, so hopefully I can find someone to buidl me a custom CMS shortly. As far as the URLs go, I'm not sure how to change them, especially the threads?
There's two ways A free one: Installing Joomla with a bridged forum inside. It's really easy. B: Paid solutions. You can pm me if you need more informations for both the solutions.