Hi, I am currently in the process of designing and implementing a website for a commercial project. On our website, we will be looking to sell 3 or 4 products/packages. Once a user has signed-up and then purchased 1 of these products, they will then be given access to a custom form (that relates to the product they purchased) to enter details into the database. These details will then be searchable by all users (even when not logged in). A good analogy would be a dating site, whereby the user signs up and purchases a product, which in-turn gives them access to update their own details, which in-turn those details can then be searched and browsed by anyone visiting the website. The CMS's I've narrowed it down to is... Drupal Joomla (Probably the old one, rather than the new one currently in RC2) ExpressionEngine Therefore my questions are... 1) Is the above scenario possible in any of these CMS's, without major custom development work? We ideally want to keep custom development work to a minimum, to hopefully: speed up the build process of the site; keep the site easily supportable and upgradable; keep costs down. 2) Does the CMS have a basic e-commerce solution available either built in or as an add-on that would allow us to sell these 3 or 4 packages? (We would ideally want it to then give them access to the custom form for them to fill in whilst logged in). 3) Does the CMS have the ability to create custom forms (via an add-on etc) to enter details, and then have these details searchable? or does this require custom development. Cheers.
drupal has no rival.however if i have understood your points very well,then there is alot of work to do with either softwares you made mention but drupal has the capability to go further as much as your brain is demanding design-wise. I have drupal already configured and the package comes with an integrated shopping cart.Features already installed on the script allows any person to design a high level website without any technical knowledge.You simply just need to enable or either disable the module or menu you are willing to use/use at that moment.Contact me if you are willing to spend some dough
I wasn't really looking for tenders. I was hoping to find someone that perhaps had/has experience of all 3 CMS's (Drupal, Joomla, and EE) and could advise on which was the most suited. I guess that all 3 'could' do the job, but would obviously like to find the one that 'would' do it the best. Cheers tho.
Ahum. drupal no rivals please.... I have tried over the course of the years (drupal/wordpress/joomla and some other CMS solutions). And they all lack 1 thing !!! DESIGNER FRIENDLY TEMPLATES Come on, which designer loves to work with templates that are like this: <?php $start IF $count ?> etc etc. Only the coders can live with that. I suggest try ExpressionEngine, it has proven itself to be top of the line solution with VERY designer friendly templates and amazing support. And very rarely has to be costumized.
Many high traffic reputable websites are using drupal - there must be a reason for that: amnesty.org, mtv.co.uk, appel.nasa.gov, foxsearchlight.com, greenpeace.org.uk, dev.aol.com, nato.int/issues/pfp/index.html and many others
drupal is very seo friendly so you will have an advantage over your competition that sells similar products if their websites are not as search engine friendly i would go with drupal just because i know it and i know the learning curve is not too bad, although be prepared to put a decent amount of time into at the beginning
i'm pro drupal. but it all depends how intensive you use the system and how deep you dive in. a beginner drupal dev can not compete with a pro joomla dev. this discussion is kind of religious and thats just my opinion. find someone really passionte about the cms they using is probabyl the best advice. i live drupal for sure 100%.
Joomla has the ability to do what you want. I would use it with Community Builder or whatever plugin you can find at extensions.joomla.org. If you want to design your template, there is software made to do just that :LINK Good luck with your site.
When you're talking about using anything for a commercial purpose, always check the license. Drupal and Joomla are both open source, GNU and GPL, meaning you can literally use either platform for your purposes. Primarily when choosing a CMS solution, you should base your decision on many factors. The ones I use regularly (in no particular order) are: Budget Time Constraints Technical Skills (of the person/people primarily responsible for site development) Licensing Issues (especially for commercial websites) Functionality (can the CMS be reasonably expected to do what you want your site to do) Extensibility (can the CMS grow with you) Different factors have different weights depending upon the project. For example, a small, boutique site won't be as worried about, say, extensibility as a full-blown social networking site. To borrow form the construction industry, "measure twice and cut once." Do your homework. Go to opensourcecms.com and test-drive some systems - both front and (just as importantly) the administrative back end. Get a "feel" of the system. Poke around the admin options to see how you can drive it. Nothing beats getting your hands dirty. Using key and hands-on testing goes a very long way in helping you make your determination. Once you know your project, and use key factors that fit, you'll be very confident in your final choice. No platform is perfect, period. No one solution fits all. I am very leery of anyone who "cheerleads" any single product. Joomla and Drupal ARE NOT the answer to ALL sites. Though both are very powerful platforms (with Joomla being my platform of choice for a long time), to say that they are IT is, at best, a bit of an overstatement. And regarding SEO... Content. Is. King. Period. Make sure your site is semantically correct and that your key words actually are part of your site and not just hooks to get robots to look at you. The days of tricking the system are long gone. If your FIRST concern for your site is SEO (ahead of quality content), you're already in trouble. SEO is a factor, but not THE factor. Focus on making a good site with good content that is "pleasing" to humans and fills a need or want, then work on the marketing. Trust me, Google WILL find you if you really work on your site.
Once again Bratzilla has a good idea. If you want to give Joomla a trial run here is the link : Joomla Demo
Plugins (for WordPress, Joomla, etc.) range in cost from zero to well over $100. That's why it is very difficult to just throw out a number. Typically, when designing projects, you start at the very top level. Once you start talking implementation, that is when the technical specifics come in. There are some free plugins that are better than paid ones with the similar functionality. It's probably best to ask the anticipated budget for Project X given the required functionality - and again, this would be based on a lot more detail than provided here. It's the same reason I eschew the "X is the best!" type of response. Just yelping out a CMS or dollar amount really isn't going to help someone.