CMS vs. direct HTML for a site?

Question

I am going to start work on a site for a client, and I am afraid how to do it. They want (in order of priority)

• A site that looks nice and functional in that it will present the information they want in a way that makes sense.
• A site that is easy to update and add. The guy who will make updates is a smart guy and can figure it out, but he is not a programmer.

So, I began to think that I could bend Wordpress to my will. They have a very specific design that they created, so I would have to create my own Wordpress theme. But I use Wordpress Pages to create the (many) pages that they need to create. I kind of struggle with the bend of navigation to work with these pages. For example, I want the links to child pages to be displayed only when the parent page is shown. I poked with plugins, but I was not lucky to find one, and I don’t think I really crack my own plugin.

I could just create a theme where it’s just the main navigator and logo, and leave all the code on the pages, but then I could go for direct HTML.

I had limited experience with Joomla and Drupal. Do any of you guys know if I can make this easier with these CMS?

I lean toward the straightforward HTML route, and then go through it through how to update it and is useless with it. But I have a fear that I will be their long-term technical support in the future.

Any tips?

Thanks.:)

Answer 1

I think Wordpress, or some CMS, is the best solution in the long run, because it can get very hairy saving things like archives, comments, categories, tags, etc. with direct HTML. In addition, with a popular CMS such as Wordpress, you can use a wealth of plugins that are developed by others. It would also be much more convenient to present your client with a pleasant user interface (for example, the Wordpress web interface), rather than a bunch of HTML files that need to be supported manually.

Regarding the problems associated with the pages “I want pages with child pages to be displayed only with the parent page”, you can arrange Wordpress pages hierarchically and then use this hierarchy in the PHP theme. See " if it is a page or a child of a page or in a category (solution) " for an example of Wordpress PHP.

Answer 2

I think it depends a lot on your skills, your client and the guy who updates it. In my experience, you can never go wrong with plain HTML. Choosing something else is either a headache for tuning, or a headache for maintenance, or, most likely, both.

Answer 3

As you do the work for the client, definitely give him a strong job with a CMS, such as Joomla, before turning your own. Creating your own website will add future value to your client, if you can avoid it. Using an existing CMS means that someone else can take on your work a lot easier. It also means reducing the amount of support you will have to provide, as Joomla (etc.) has user communities that can help with problems.

Answer 4

It’s best to install some pre-created CMS. PHP-Fusion is a good one that runs on PHP and MySQL (the main W / LAMP stack) and is highly customizable.

Easy to customize, customize and easy to update. There are also tons of plugins that you can use.

Please keep in mind that PHP-Fusion is a simple CMS to configure, easy to configure as an administrator, and easy to modify, but it is not as powerful as, say, Joomla. This can be a good middleware for quick setup when you get a more scalable structure. They can use the same database, and data is the foundation of most web applications, so there will be no big deal for migration.

Answer 5

If they're awesome with straightforward HTML and don't have a budget to make CMS fancy, just go with direct HTML.

If they are willing to spend extra money to get a cool CMS, then you can afford to spend time setting up wordpress or even learning drupal. You can even create your own using PHP, Rails!

Answer 6

How likely is the change in "user design". In my experience, when I see that things like a group have a certain design that has already been created, but they don’t do the work - all I hear is future changes and potential headaches that I will encounter. Joomla may be the most effective solution. Creating templates and applying them to linked pages is a bit more complicated, but as soon as you do this several times, it picks up pretty quickly.

In my opinion, Wordpress is not a CMS.

Answer 7

Well, the choice really depends on what your client requires from the site. You mention that he is going to make some updates. Thus, WP is a good option for a site that will be updated at least once a month. Otherwise, your client will contact you every time he needs a new page or topic.

Wp is pretty easy to use, so this can be a great option.