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perl-based CMS

by geektron (Curate)
on Jan 18, 2004 at 21:13 UTC ( [id://322221]=perlmeditation: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

i'm reworking a site from the ground up. the old one is horribly bloated, all static HTML, basically every maintenance nightmare one can think of. i'm sick of cutting and pasting new content into static pages.

i have a small volunteer team working with me. one of them has suggested postnuke as the CMS to use. i'm not adverse to using PHP, but for familiarity's sake i'd rather use a perl-based solution

i know that Everything and Slash are out there, but what experience have my fellows had with small teams of designers and these? are there perhaps 'better' CMS out there for something like this ( a small team of non-programmers who can make pretty pictures and might have some PHP knowledge and no perl knowledge )

i have no issue using postnuke if it turns out to be the best tool for the job, but since i'm still in the requirements gathering and tool evaluation phase, i want to make sure i get the most bang for my buck.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: perl-based CMS
by zby (Vicar) on Jan 18, 2004 at 21:56 UTC
    I think you should try bricolage. It's based on Mason and it even has a chapter in the O'Reilly book on Mason. There is also Callisto based on XML/XSL. Both have some Open Source licence. And finally you might have a look on my Collaborative Media post - the subject is close to your question and there is a list of CMS like systems.
Re: perl-based CMS
by oakbox (Chaplain) on Jan 18, 2004 at 23:37 UTC
    You might want to take a peak at Plone http://www.plone.org it's a pretty web interface pasted over the (rather steep learning curve) Zope architecture. They were voted as one of the top Open Source projects of the year.

    I took a look at their home page and signed up for a demo account: Slick.

    Everything is a big engine to install and you have to have a hefty box to run it on. Javajunkies.org didn't start running smoothly until I had upgraded to a 2Ghz machine with 1G of ram.

    You can also export the contents of your Kwiki http://kwiki.org into a template based on your site. I'm using a Kwiki back end with write access to my developers and exporting the contents into the main site's documentation with a cron job (you might want to have a manual 'commit' process). The formatting rules for Kwiki are super easy and look good and exporting them is as easy as (code modified for publishing here, untested in this form):

    use CGI::Kwiki; use CGI::Kwiki::Formatter; use constant DEBUG => 1; sub CGI::Kwiki::Formatter::wiki_link_format { my ($self, $text) = @_; return qq~<a class="empty">$text</a>~ unless $self->driver->database->exists($text); return qq~<a class="private">$text</a>~ unless $self->is_readable($text); return qq~<a href="$text.html">$text</a>~; } use strict; use warnings; publish_static('/webdirectory/manual'); sub publish_static { my $outdir = shift or die "must specify outdir"; die "can't read/write to $outdir or it's not a directory : $!" unless -d $outdir and -r _ and -w _; my $driver = CGI::Kwiki::load_driver(); $driver->load_class('display'); for my $page( $driver->database->pages ){ print STDERR "processing $page\n" if DEBUG; my $outfile = "$outdir/$page.html"; my $wiki_text = $driver->database->load( $page ); my $formatted = $driver->formatter->process($wiki_text); open OUTFH, '>', $outfile or die "can't clobber $outfile $! "; ### unless you modify your templates like I, you ought to modify all l +inks ### using HTML::Parser to remove references to admin.cgi, blog.cgi ... my $templatedoutput = $driver->display->template->process( [qw(display_body)], display => $formatted, is_editable => 0, ); my $trashcan = qq(<input type="submit" name="button-login" valu +e="LOGIN">); $templatedoutput =~ s/$trashcan/ /gm; my $fulldoc = $Admin->Template_Canner($templatedoutput,"$page" +); print OUTFH $fulldoc; close OUTFH; } }
    That "$Admin->Template_Canner" section at the end is my site's templating engine. This script is basically: Read each page of document repository > strip out headers and footers > dump content into site template with formatting > put in appropriate directory. The Kwiki site is heavily monitored so you can get hints and tips quickly.

    The Kwiki solution is good for flat web sites, but probably not a suitable solution for sites with a lot of directory depth. But, creating content repositories for each individual site is a breeze because it's so damn easy to install.

      going the Wiki direction may be a little too 'interactive' for the goals ... for the most part only a select few will be able to perform updates. plone looks a little more like what i had in mind.
Re: perl-based CMS
by pg (Canon) on Jan 18, 2004 at 21:57 UTC

    Obviously there are lots of CMS (stands for "Content Management System", in case someone is wondering what you are talking about) solutions out there, and is probably the fastest growing branch of software development.

    If Perl is your choice, you might want to take a look at Mason.

    But you didn't present a strong case against PHP. It is not very easy to determine which tool is the best one, most likely it would/should really depend on which language has the biggest user base within your group, not just you. Otherwise the learning curve can go up significantly.

    There are quite a few Java-based ones, like Struts and CodeFusion (CodeFusion is not free), if Java is the most common language among your team members.

      It is not very easy to determine which tool is the best one, most likely it would/should really depend on which language has the biggest user base within your group, not just you.

      well, for the most part the programming expertise on the team *is* just me. from what i know of the other 'members' of the team, one "wants to learn some PHP" and the other has used postnuke ... but i don't know if he's hacked on it or just used the admin interfaces to it.

      when it comes down to it, the biggest user base, well, probably *is* me.

Re: perl-based CMS
by Len (Friar) on Jan 19, 2004 at 10:15 UTC
    Take a look at WebGUI.

    It's a CMS written in perl.

Re: perl-based CMS
by synistar (Pilgrim) on Jan 21, 2004 at 16:16 UTC

    I have looked at and reviewed quite a few CMS systems. The ones that stood out to me are Zope/plone (python), Xoops (PHP), Drupal (PHP), and Bricolage (Perl). I have installed and used all but Bricolage (more on that later). All the systems have their advantages and drawbacks. And a lot depends on what you want to do with the CMS.

    I found that PostNuke's code was a mess. I would not recommend using it. It has also had quite a few security issues in the past.

    Zope/plone:

    Strengths:

    • Very easy installation
    • Cross platform (windows, *nix, mac)
    • Built-in Database & webserver
    • Many add-ons available (called Products in Zopese)
    • Large developer community
    • One of the few OSS CMS systems with a real industrial-strength workflow engine.

    Weaknesses:
    • Zope w/plone has a rather steep learning curve for admins.
    • It has a steep learning curve for programmers creating new add-ons (Products).

    Drupal:

    Strengths:

    • Well designed code makes it easy to modify/create add-ons(and run fast too).
    • Has strong syndication features (RSS , Blogger API, etc.)
    • Theme (templating) system is easy to use and well designed.
    • Admin interface is fairly easy to use.
    • Taxonomy metadata system is unique
    • Well documented on its web site (drupal.org).
    Weaknesses:
    • Smaller development community.
    • Installation requires manual setup of the database.

    Xoops:

    Strengths:

    • Many add-ons available.
    • Has strong developer community.
    • Admin interface is very easy to use.
    • Easy web based installation.
    Weaknesses:
    • Documentation sometimes spotty.
    • Many add-ons are of varying quality.
    • Engine makes pure CSS layouts difficult (lots of tables built-into core layout).
    • Somewhat weak workflow engine.

    Bricolage: I have not run bricolage (I have installed and run all the others) due to its strict requirement for Postgres. So take these comments with a grain of salt they are based on using demos for a short period of time.

    Strengths:

    • Very well designed workflow engine (created to run Salon.com).
    • Its in Perl :-)
    • Admin interface is fairly easy to use.
    • Templating system is switchable (currently HTML::Template or Mason).
    • Proven performer in the industry (Salon.com, Macworld.com, etc.)
    • Well documented.
    Weaknesses:
    • Very specific requirements (requires Postgres DB).
    • Installation can be prickly (requires many Perl modules, no binary pre-compiled packages, other specific dependancies)

    Another option for you may be Callisto. It uses AxKit (Perl, XSL) underneath but is designed to be entirely wysiwyg.

    UPDATE: Added links.

      Perhaps the intersted person should visit Callisto at Sourceforge the link given above goes to a domain squatted porn link pen.

      Be Appropriate && Follow Your Curiosity
Re: perl-based CMS
by Anonymous Monk on Jan 21, 2004 at 11:37 UTC
    Two commercial, but reasonably inexpensive Perl-based CMS systems (I've used them both, and each is quite good within its domain)

    Article Manager - Good for newspaper/magazine type sites

    Big Medium (very flexible layouts - get's you away from the samey look of many CMS systems)

    These will get you up and running pretty quickly. But if you want ultimate flexbility, then I guess Bricolage, as suggested above, is best.

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