Designing a CMS to allow complete page design

Question

Currently whenever a client wants a website I provide my own CMS however I have been wondering whether a 3rd party CMS may be easier.

At the moment I have built it in ASP.Net & ASP.Net MVC (I'm thinking of moving to Ruby on Rails). A master page has 5 pagecontent areas, top, left, middle, right & footer.

I then create usercontrols such as Image_Top, Image_Left etc. In the CMS the user can create a page and then choose how they want that page to look by choosing from the list of usercontrols. This gives them complete control over their page.

Would you say this is a good approach or is there a better way to allow them to design their pages? I was thinking of instead of maintaining my CMS I would recommend using Joomla, Drupal, DNN, SiteInfinty or whatever to manage the backend. However do 3rd party CMS's allow for that much control or am I better off sticking to my own CMS? Is using a 3rd party CMS as easy as plug and play?

Thanks

Answer 1

I think you need to investigate, perhaps build and try each so that you can accurately match the capabilities against your requirements. You may find that different CMS fit different scenarios, but you will need to determine which is which. Unfortunately the general answer is "It depends" and only you can really decide which is the best option.

Answer 2

What you are descriping is possible with modX using template variables.

It got a quite steep learning curve in the beginning, but i think you'll like it.

It's open source and runs on PHP and MySQL.

Give it a go.

Answer 3

In some respects CMS systems like Joomla have security and version features that may offer you an advantage. Potentially you can incorporate these features into your framework if you have the time.

There is nothing really wrong with rolling your own framework. If you've saved time and created something that your clients like, then this is a good thing. It brings the benefit to you in that you get the learn how to implement the CMS features with a variety of platforms. Why toss this out if it has worked for you?

Answer 4

DOWN THIS PATH LIES MADNESS.

As someone who has been a developer for two commercial CMS products, and implemented at least 4 others for projects of varying complexity and completeness I can only say DON'T DO IT.

The CMS is the technical equivalent of invading Afghanistan ... everyone has had a turn, but no-one wins.

Find some technology you are comfortable with, learn it's nuances and annoyances, and concentrate on the things that are interesting and add value.

Editing content is a commodity.

Personally I like Wordpress, but depends on your use-cases and requirements.