Hi everyone.
I'm chasing a CMS suited to a simple website.

Basically, it's for a friend that's an artist.
He makes both physical and digital art, and was wanting a somewhat simple site that could serve as both a brouchure and online store.

I've had a look / used some of the major CMSs out there (postnuke, phpnuke, mambo etc etc) but most seem to be overkill for his application / needs.

Really all he wants is to have:
1) a main page --> intro to him / business, catch the reader, etc
2) previous work --> ideally to have small boxes / contained areas that have a thumbnail and brief description of the piece. users can then click on it for a more detailed description and *maybe* buy it.
3) static content --> have a few pages simply to contain more detailed info and other stuff.

I thought about using mambo, but it seemed that to get the pages how i described, i'd end up just using static pages, and coding it like it was a plain old html site. Seemed overkill for that.

Any other recommendations? I've also thought about using oscommerce, as it seems more orientated to what he's after. I'd just have to skin it nicely to make it look as far from an oscommerce site as possible. This way, it'd have the thumbnailed products, i could seperate them by categories etc etc. and it'd have the capabilities of online sales if needs be.

Your thoughts??? thanks again.

You could try Limbo (Mambo Lite)

Think i will give this a shot myself had never heard of it looks pretty good.

Cheers

As cms seem to be overkill for your needs would it not be better to look at putting together a few static pages and seeing if there is something that can be integrated to handle to the commerce side.

On the other side of the coin it might seem like more than you need at the moment but the likes of Mambo can be made to look very non cms-looking and if you can look ahead at the potential for the site and the direction you might like to take then the potential to add more facilities for users is already built in and can be utilised far simpler than bolt-on options.

I think the long-term position of the site is the key.

For a site with these features, I'm not sure whether any CMS might not be too much, depending on whether you are planning to expand the site/project in the future.

Have you thought about perhaps using a light software such as WordPress or Textpattern? They are both light weight, easy to install and maintain.

i'll have a look at the proggies.
thanks all.

question for all:
why would one opt for a CMS when one could program a simple DB, and plug in the dynamic fields where the site owner wants control? I am starting to develop sites for restuarants with these dynamic areas in "specials" sections, etc., and it seems to work fine. Am I missing something?

Some people may not know how to program a simple DB and generate dynamic content.

I would also say textpattern would suit your needs well!

I would just write static pages with tables on it or a blog type script like WordPress, which allows for simple updates by novices.

J

I second WordPress.

I think whether or not e-commerce in needed is an importanet question since most CMS apps do not provide e-commerce.

Also, what about platform -- Windows or linux host?

If you're considering a Windows host take a look at PortalApp (CMS and E-commerce) or SiteEnable (CMS only)

That's what I'm trying to do, but it's hard!

Hi Mkerr,

How did the site turn out?

Teresa

You could try website baker:
http://www.websitebaker.org/

I am using Textpattern for my site, but it seems more geared towards blog type websites. If this is what you need, go for textpattern.

I am in a very similar situation with an artist. What we are going to do is create a simple access database that will hold his artwork and a few details and create an admin page from asp which will allow him to manage the content. We are then going to use Candy Press ecommerce software to sell his art online.

I don't know what your experience level is in asp but it is not hard to learn. There are some very user friendly dreamweaver tutorials to do everything I just talked about at http://www.webthang.co.uk

The Candy Press ecommerce software is very robust and is only $50.

I built a backend that I use for my clients. It utilizes the mals-e(commerce) --- mals-e.com -- which is a free shopping cart that is excellent.

An example is rhodasparrots.com. Check it out and add items to the cart. The cart itself it on a secure server and still free. All the products are controlled from a central panel... super easy for the client.

A database is definitely the way to go.

PM me if you would like and I will see if we could work something out.

Mike

I would suggest Wordpress or Postnuke that will give u the opportunity to expand your site in the future if you want/need

Take a look at Zen Cart. It's a complete open source e-commerce shopping system. There is a working demo at http://www.opensourcecms.com/ where you test drive many of the admin functions.

Hi - here's a newbie question for you related to this thread.

I'm looking at doing something similar to what your site is, Earther. (Although I'm looking at another shopping cart, not Zen cart.) A drawback I see is that the home page of Zen cart is fairly simple, and for someone like an artist it seems it would make a better statement to use a very visual home page.

Can you have the best of both worlds? That is - the convenience of a program like Zen cart but with an upgraded or "fancier" for lack of a better word, home page? Is there a way to mix the two?

Appreciate any advice here.

You could customize Zen Cart to the look that you want or just have another index page outside of Zen Cart.

So, could I buy a template to use for a "home page" and add a shopping cart to it?

Would that work? I think that might be possible for me to do myself with the amount of Dreamweaver/Photoshop I know - if someone could coach me through how to add the shopping cart to the template.

Wordpress is the easiest, and not bloated like Postnuke or PHPNuke, extremely SE friendly too.