How to add CMS to an existing website

Question

I have an existing ASP.NET website which I would like to painlessly add CMS functionality to.

The site is a estate agent's property website and is backed by a database etc. however some pages like 'About Us' etc. I would like the user to be able to edit using a simple CMS. I would also like the user to be be able to create new pages and put them into the navigation system.

The site is multi-language and the database part uses resource files to store the strings it uses. The site uses ASP.NET Master pages and Themes, I would like the CMS to use these to add new pages and to support multi-language.

Now I could clearly code my own simple CMS but not wanting to reinvent the wheel is there any existing ASP.NET CMS that can be added to existing site and take advantage of the Master Pages model that I already have.

EDIT: I have looked at DNN, Umbraco, My Web Pages Starter Kit, Graffti CMS, Sitefinity.net but as far as I can tell these can't be easily retro fitted. I also want to avoid (if possible) writing my own system using the FCK editor.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

If you want just a 'simple' WYSIWYG editor, try using FCKEditor (.Net Integration) or WMD-Editor (the one Stack Overflow uses)

...or if you are aiming for a fully fledged CMS system, check out DotNetNuke or N2, which both are Open Source .NET Based CMS

Answer 2

I'd second the mention of N2. It's one of the only ones that goes out of its way to not take over the site and gives you programattic access to the content repository. Most CMS's are oriented to be the entirety of the front-end presentation of a site.

Answer 3

For simple stuff it easiest to just write your own CMS-like features into an admin tool using FCKEditor (or similar), a VARCHAR(MAX) field, and a backend admin tool. I've done this with an application I'm working on that didn't easily fit into any CMS model but needs some CMS functionality.

A CMS seems to work best when you have an application that fits the core functionality of the CMS or can be easily extended without hacking it or add unnecessary complexity.

Answer 4

Remember that DNN is written on VB Net, but N2 and Cuyahoga are written on C# and I think both are written on .net framework 3.5; both are extensible and I think you can use them on your site, N2 is more like a framework for developing your CMS.

Hope this helps you

Answer 5

I would suggest looking at Kentico CMS. It is very flexible and uses master pages.

Answer 6

Christopher- I'd try the Bizzuka CMS. Ease of use, flexibility, and scalability are all there. I can get you the keys if you want to test drive it for free. I worked with Joomla, Drupal, and many others and the UI here is far superior. Let me know (http://twitter.com/chasl) if you want to try it and I'll get you a user name and password.

Answer 7

Check out webYEP. It's not free, but it isn't outrageous. I believe that it only requires PHP to run the editor, and that your site can be in HTML or .NET, or something else.

Answer 8

http://www.cushycms.com/ should work, assuming you can use DIVs.