[Gllug] OSS CMSs

[Richard Turner]

On Thu, 2005-05-05 at 13:49 +0100, Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> The APLAWS+ project was all about taking the previous APLAWS codebase
> and working to stabilize & mature the core system & featureset to provide
> a solid & reliable platform for long-term deployment. Since we achieved
> that goal, there isn't any immediate desire for another big round of 
> development on the system. So since the APLAWS+ release just over a year ago
> there has been a change in direction to a much more community focused model
> of development, with a broader range of small companies also involved in
> working on bug fixing / small feature enhancements & layered applications.
> So, its not so much a case of Red Hat dropping APLAWS+, just that the 
> project changed its focus & direction, so there is no longer a big need 
> for our own large scale development work on it.

Ah, thanks for that info. I was wondering what happened since links on
RedHat's site are broken and there's a paucity of information about the
CMS in general. Interesting stuff.

> > APLAWS+ was the first CMS I tried installing to test and although the
> > RPMs went on OK, and the DB seemed to be set-up fine, it wouldn't
> > actually run. The only help anyone on the forums could offer was 'ensure
> > you're using exactly the packages documented, no earlier, no later'. Is
> > it worth the effort it'll take me to install it; hunting out all the old
> > packages it needs?
> 
> This is sadly a fact of life with 'enterprise' java. I've found that
> despite the fact that there is supposed to be a uniform API that guarentees
> an app can run in any conforming servlet container, in reality things 
> often break even between small version number changes. We've traditionally
> had a fair bit of trouble with Tomcat in particular. So yes, I would 
> recommend you try and stick as closely to the recommended servlet container
> versions in particular. Oh, and my personal recommendation is to use Resin
> rather than Tomcat, since its historically 'just worked' on many many more
> occassions than Tomcat. IIRC we tested Resin 2.1.x series - there was
> definitely something odd in Resin 3.x series causing setup problems.

Excellent; thanks :)

> As to whether its worth the effort - the answer rather depends on your 
> intended scenario. If is more personal use / hacking, IMHO you'd be
> better off with a CMS based on a scripting language perl/python/tcl since
> its just that much more productive. If on the other hand you just need a
> standard out-of-the-box CMS with good support for standards - particularly
> those related to Government online services, then APLAWS+ is a very goood
> fit, since we put alot of work into making the content types, navigation
> structure & all that stuff follow the government information standards.
> 

I want to review it at home with a view to possibly using it to host the
Disabled Living Foundation's website when that's given the complete
over-haul that's long overdue. We need a standards compliant system
that's highly accessible and easy for on-staff Word users to use. That's
why I was interested in APLAWS+ from the beginning but when I had no joy
with it started to widen my search.

Thanks for all the info.

Cheers,

Richard.
-- 
"Racing turtles, the grapefruit is winning..."

30F2739E: B53 8184 E61F 3604 FBF3  4CCB EF07 2942 30F2 739E
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