Arrgghhh!!
Well, I’ve decided my next project at work is researching content management systems. I have two applications to develop off of that type of system so it seems logical.
Now, mind you, I’ve worked with and played around with (read: installed on my hosting server) probably a dozen different (LAMP-based) CMS/blog-wares over the past several years. I currently use WordPress as my system of choice as that’s what works for me; but I’ve used Drupal, Mambo and TextPattern to name but three.
Nearly every system I’ve even tried, much less spent any time developing on, has taken under 30min to get running (sans creating a test database). This is download time to “working” site (by working I mean the software is running). I think there’s been maybe 2 I’ve given up on (and those were generally the less-developed ones).
That said…
I’ve downloaded 4 .Net-based CMS systems for testing. Four. Not a single one will install. And, they being .Net—a technology I’m just learning—I don’t fully understand where things are breaking. I’ve tried Rainbow (failed on SQL; seems 7.0 doesn’t support cascading deletes and there doesn’t seem to be a workaround and I don’t know what that’s specifically supposed to do so I don’t know if I can get away with simply deleting it), ndCMS (flat out won’t install), dotnetnuke (this is the Drupal or PostNuke of the .Net world it seems so ought to work with little trouble. Not true. It acts like everything’s gone peachy, but there’s no evidence of install on the db and nothing runs. And the install guide has a cryptic “press ctrl+F5 to build.” Um. Where? What’s supposed to be open? Hunh???) and, finally, Umbraco (again, seemed to be recommended and well-developed. I get partway through the install and…SQL error on “COLLATE.” Oh bother.)
I have, easily, a half-day’s work into this. No, closer to a full day. A full day and I can’t get a single software running???? Sheesh!
Okay. So maybe there’s something screwy with my setup but I dunno…