The CMS Decision

I've decided to avoid a CMS for now. The content I'm looking to provide is much easier to handle if I hand-code the system. Now I'm just trying to standardize my scripts so that, rather than have a dozen different php and javascript files that are all performing nearly identical actions (with slightly varying parameters) I can have one of each.

It'll mean a very little more overhead in the design aspect, at least as far as making sure that all of my pages have all the right attributes to use the standardized scripts. I think that's definitely a worthwhile price to pay though, as I'd rather fix a script bug in one place than a dozen or more.

I'm thinking, once I launch, I may write a few blogs about the Javascript/PHP stuff I've done, since I think some of it is pretty handy and I'm sure that other people (like myself) who are seriously diving into PHP for the first time would really appreciate it.

Help Wanted

Firstly: Two posts in one day?! Amazing!!!

Anyway, I've decided that, for the project I was discussing below, I really need a partner who can do the same sort of coding I'm wanting to do. Or at least someone I can bounce ideas off of that won't just smile and nod with that glassy look in their eyes.

I need to find someone who would have the same interests that the project is intended to target and the skills with which to help me progress with it. So far, everyone I can think of falls in one of the two categories or falls into both but has too much else on their plate or it would be a potential conflict of interests.

I'll just have to put some feelers out there, see if I can find someone who is both interested and capable, and go from there. If you know any geeky gamer/programmer types, let me know. The project most certainly can't provide much more than a hobby since I have no money to pay anyone and I've no real intention to monetize it, but if nothing else it could make for some a nice learning experience and possibly resume padding depending on how successful it becomes.

To CMS or not to CMS

Lately, I've been toying with the idea of making a website that does a few things that I've not found any other website to do. Of course, it's nothing earth-shattering or revolutionizing to the world at large, but the target audience that I have in mind would find it useful.

The concepts have been largely worked out, in my mind. I know how the site should work and how all the pieces should come together. Really, it's a beautiful website... in theory.

The dilemma I'm having is whether I should code the entire thing from scratch or try to use some sort of Content Management System (CMS) like Drupal or Joomla. So I thought I'd list some of the Pros and Cons I've come with for using a CMS vs. coding it myself.

CMS Pros:

• Much of the backend stuff is already built (forms for creating news, web pages, users, forums, blogs, etc.)
• 90% of the work is already done on building the site. Only the features of my specific site would need tweaking.
• There is a community of other users of the CMS who could help me with any specific issues I might encounter.

CMS Cons:

• The flexibility of what I can do is greatly reduced since I have to ensure that everything plugs into the specific framework(s) of the CMS I choose.
• My site will be dealing with lots of custom data "objects" and there's not a convenient way to implement it in a CMS.
• The CMS will invariably be upgrading from time to time which may require the site's code to also be tweaked to meet new upgrade expectations.

Hand-coded Pros:

• I have complete control over everything that happens in the site. I can control the exact code that gets generated for every object, page, user, etc.
• There is no restriction to how I must generate my data objects. They can be constructed in whatever fashion I require.

Hand-coded Cons:

• I have to do a lot more work to hook up all the pieces. Rather than having anything built for me ahead of time.
• There is a near infinitely higher probability of running into odd little bugs in the code.

I can't think of more Pros and Cons at the moment. If I think of them later, I'll edit this post to add them.

Another thing to consider. I could try using a CMS for the front-end side of things, such as news articles, event notifications and so forth. The back end will likely be better if it's hand coded. So I guess I'll have to try and do that and hope I don't shoot myself in the foot.