I have tried out Umbraco for a couple of years ago with no success, the problem then was that there was no modules and I hade do develop everything my self, I decided to build tha site from the ground with ASP.NET and Membership. I did however promissed you to give umbraco yet another chanse and here I am.
I have of couse checked the CMS market and so far I have found DNN (that are hard to customize and a bit slow), Kooboo CMS (That builds on ASP.NET MVC(GOOD)), mojo (havent looked at that yet).
The CMS site will be the company site and the requirements we have is :
Easy to install and move (I supose that the Virtual Folder is not a problem anymore in Windows7 and windows2008?)
Usermanagement with a rolesystem (if you are not approved by us you will not enter the site)
File Manager where we can uppload our diffrent versions of our products
Forum bound to the UserManagment system
WebTV direcly on the site
WebChat direcly on the site
News feed with RSS/Email notifications
Easy to administrate(create pages, news manage users) for non developers.
Easy publising of documents
I know that umbracos strong side is that it is a framework and that I can develop usercontrols as modules from within Visual Studio, but we simple do not have time to create forums, usermangemnet system and so on. But If the system comes with all becides WebTV och WebChat or anything like that we could of course do som miner development.
So Is this possible which Umbraco? And if so, how do I get started with this?
Umbraco is a great framework to build on top of. However you will never get everything for zero effort, you are going to have to get your hands dirty with some developments and set up. There is no such thing as a "website in a box" which will do everything you want so bare that in mind.
That said there is a strong community for Umbraco that is helpful and also creates a bunch of great packages which might be able to tick off some of the requirements on the list. Suggest you check out http://our.umbraco.org/projects and have a look through what is available.
The reason why a number of basic modules are not available in Umbraco (such as news, galleries, etc) is that they are just so trivial to setup. You'll need to know a bit of XSLT, but even then, Umbraco can give you a template file to get you started, and most of the time, it's just a case of adding HTML around what is already there.
That being said, in response to your list, I would say:
1) Umbraco is super easy to setup, either using the Web platform installer, or manualy. It rarely takes me longer than 5 minutes to have a blank install setup. And a further 5 minutes to install all of my standard features.
2) Umbraco already incorporates it own role system which is completley customizable. It also uses the standard membership and role provider model, so you can use all the built in .NET controls, or even hook up your own security.
3) Umbraco has a built in media section to manage this, so you shouldn't have any problems there
4) You may want to give the uForum package a try (http://our.umbraco.org/projects/uforum-basics) Whilst not as fully featured as some others, it may be enough for what you need (these very forums use uForum)
5) Kinda depends what you mean by WebTV, but there are a number of flash projects available
6) I don't think there is much in the form of webchat, but if you are using a third party, many offer a code snippet you could easily drop into umbraco
7) Umbraco provides a template RSS XSLT file for you already, so you should just need to tweak to your needs.
8) Umbraco is really easy to adminisrate, and I regulaly get comments from my clients.
9) Documents can be published at the click of a putton, or schduled for auto publishing.
If I understand it right the Umbraco is a vary flexible solution becourse its only poviding the backbone of the site, practical all the modules will I have to develop on my own or use 3 parts.
This might be grate in some cases but If you dont know anything about Umbraco and needs to setup a site "asp" with forum, blogs, gallery, chat and so on, there will be problems, the learning seemse to be the biggest?
I have looked into the MojoPortal and that project do practical give me anything I need by just administrating the site? It´s almost a "website in a box" , and if I need somthing special then I will be able to develop this direcly in a usercontrol in ASP.NET.
What I am saying that I see the exac problem with Umbraco as I saw the first time, you relly need to work on making thinks easier to understand and go get going.
I can admit, it would seem dawnting if you have specific needs that aren't fulfilled "out of the box", but that is what you have to weigh up really. I've tried a number of CMS systems in the past including Mojo, and whilst the "out of the box" does sound attractive, it usualy ends up being something you can't quite customise the way you want it.
There are plenty of options for you to get up to speed with Umbraco, it just depends on your budget and how much time you have. For myself, the majority of my learning was hands on trial and error, and the support forums and wiki, which are packed with usefull information. If you want more structured learning, then give www.umbraco.tv a try (You get 3 months for the price of one at the moment). And if you really want to kick start your development, then why not enroll on a training course (http://umbraco.tv/training), you'll be up to speed in no time.
But, I guess I can't make the decision for you, so I wish you the best of luck with whichever solution you choose. But if you do have any other questions, I (and I'm sure everybody else) would be happy to help.
Umbraco,MojoPortal,Kooboo,N2cms,Cuyahoga,DNN, these are great CMS.
Umbraco is just like a white paper, so most functions must be created by someone, but this can give you many choises to create functions.
MojoPortal is not like Umbraco, Almost all functions has already be included. But if you need something different, you have to rewrite or modify these modules.
Kooboo is a new project. I have been using it to create a site. For me, I think Kooboo is not so stable, some bugs I don't know if it's maked by me or its own.
Others, I just installed, and tried, and has no good idea about them. I'd like three of above.
Many of the features you have listed as requirements for choosing Umbraco are readily available as packages/modules developed by the great Umbraco community. If there isn't something there that you need, suggest it and I am sure someone will develop it.. or build it yourself (very easy with the extensive open API)... Everything in Umbraco is extendable.. IMHO.. I would rather build something myself because I know what's under the hood. Umbraco is great for developers in that respect..
Hope you find what your looking for, but note that I have not found a more flexible CMS on the market today then Umbraco!
I agree with all of the above posts - I set up Umbraco (in record quick time compared to any other .net CMS) a few weeks ago.
Then I stared at it like a chimp for a few hours thinking, "what now?????........"
When I delved in deeper and looked into the Xslt, Macro and user control development I was quite simply staggered - it is hands down, streaks ahead of anything else out there. I, like many other developers out there, will at some time have been irritated at the hoops you need to jump through to create custom controls, dotnetnuke for example is an absolute nightmare.
The reason why snow covered does so well is that the core componants of DNN arent great so everyone goes and buys a 3rd party control.
With Umbraco, it is just soooo simple to create and add functionality that the through of creating a custom contact form actually makes me smile now. Even the 3rd party projects (the amazing Blog4Umbraco for example) are easy to customise. I have a completely custom blog that I can pretty much do anything with in under 2 days.
For a simple site, you can get a website in a box, albeit with a fair degree of pain in terms of customising it. When your client turns around and asks for a small modification then things can get very tricky with something like DNN. With Umbraco though, one can rest assured that pretty much anything can be modified, changed or created with the minimum of fuss.
I would consider MojoPortal in your choice as well - I did a very simple test site with this and it is easy to install and use. You need to think about it from the end users point of view as well though - Umbraco is a breeze for content creators. You can even do a CTRL+S to save your content.
So many CMS, which one to choose?
Hi,
I have tried out Umbraco for a couple of years ago with no success, the problem then was that there was no modules and I hade do develop everything my self, I decided to build tha site from the ground with ASP.NET and Membership. I did however promissed you to give umbraco yet another chanse and here I am.
I have of couse checked the CMS market and so far I have found DNN (that are hard to customize and a bit slow), Kooboo CMS (That builds on ASP.NET MVC(GOOD)), mojo (havent looked at that yet).
The CMS site will be the company site and the requirements we have is :
I know that umbracos strong side is that it is a framework and that I can develop usercontrols as modules from within Visual Studio, but we simple do not have time to create forums, usermangemnet system and so on. But If the system comes with all becides WebTV och WebChat or anything like that we could of course do som miner development.
So Is this possible which Umbraco? And if so, how do I get started with this?
BestRegards
Snowman
Umbraco is a great framework to build on top of. However you will never get everything for zero effort, you are going to have to get your hands dirty with some developments and set up. There is no such thing as a "website in a box" which will do everything you want so bare that in mind.
That said there is a strong community for Umbraco that is helpful and also creates a bunch of great packages which might be able to tick off some of the requirements on the list. Suggest you check out http://our.umbraco.org/projects and have a look through what is available.
Cheers
Pete
The reason why a number of basic modules are not available in Umbraco (such as news, galleries, etc) is that they are just so trivial to setup. You'll need to know a bit of XSLT, but even then, Umbraco can give you a template file to get you started, and most of the time, it's just a case of adding HTML around what is already there.
That being said, in response to your list, I would say:
1) Umbraco is super easy to setup, either using the Web platform installer, or manualy. It rarely takes me longer than 5 minutes to have a blank install setup. And a further 5 minutes to install all of my standard features.
2) Umbraco already incorporates it own role system which is completley customizable. It also uses the standard membership and role provider model, so you can use all the built in .NET controls, or even hook up your own security.
3) Umbraco has a built in media section to manage this, so you shouldn't have any problems there
4) You may want to give the uForum package a try (http://our.umbraco.org/projects/uforum-basics) Whilst not as fully featured as some others, it may be enough for what you need (these very forums use uForum)
5) Kinda depends what you mean by WebTV, but there are a number of flash projects available
6) I don't think there is much in the form of webchat, but if you are using a third party, many offer a code snippet you could easily drop into umbraco
7) Umbraco provides a template RSS XSLT file for you already, so you should just need to tweak to your needs.
8) Umbraco is really easy to adminisrate, and I regulaly get comments from my clients.
9) Documents can be published at the click of a putton, or schduled for auto publishing.
Matt
Thanks alot!
If I understand it right the Umbraco is a vary flexible solution becourse its only poviding the backbone of the site, practical all the modules will I have to develop on my own or use 3 parts.
This might be grate in some cases but If you dont know anything about Umbraco and needs to setup a site "asp" with forum, blogs, gallery, chat and so on, there will be problems, the learning seemse to be the biggest?
I have looked into the MojoPortal and that project do practical give me anything I need by just administrating the site? It´s almost a "website in a box" , and if I need somthing special then I will be able to develop this direcly in a usercontrol in ASP.NET.
What I am saying that I see the exac problem with Umbraco as I saw the first time, you relly need to work on making thinks easier to understand and go get going.
//Snowman
Hi Snowman,
I can admit, it would seem dawnting if you have specific needs that aren't fulfilled "out of the box", but that is what you have to weigh up really. I've tried a number of CMS systems in the past including Mojo, and whilst the "out of the box" does sound attractive, it usualy ends up being something you can't quite customise the way you want it.
There are plenty of options for you to get up to speed with Umbraco, it just depends on your budget and how much time you have. For myself, the majority of my learning was hands on trial and error, and the support forums and wiki, which are packed with usefull information. If you want more structured learning, then give www.umbraco.tv a try (You get 3 months for the price of one at the moment). And if you really want to kick start your development, then why not enroll on a training course (http://umbraco.tv/training), you'll be up to speed in no time.
But, I guess I can't make the decision for you, so I wish you the best of luck with whichever solution you choose. But if you do have any other questions, I (and I'm sure everybody else) would be happy to help.
Matt
Umbraco,MojoPortal,Kooboo,N2cms,Cuyahoga,DNN, these are great CMS.
Umbraco is just like a white paper, so most functions must be created by someone, but this can give you many choises to create functions.
MojoPortal is not like Umbraco, Almost all functions has already be included. But if you need something different, you have to rewrite or modify these modules.
Kooboo is a new project. I have been using it to create a site. For me, I think Kooboo is not so stable, some bugs I don't know if it's maked by me or its own.
Others, I just installed, and tried, and has no good idea about them. I'd like three of above.
Hope this will give you help.
Many of the features you have listed as requirements for choosing Umbraco are readily available as packages/modules developed by the great Umbraco community. If there isn't something there that you need, suggest it and I am sure someone will develop it.. or build it yourself (very easy with the extensive open API)... Everything in Umbraco is extendable.. IMHO.. I would rather build something myself because I know what's under the hood. Umbraco is great for developers in that respect..
Hope you find what your looking for, but note that I have not found a more flexible CMS on the market today then Umbraco!
Good Luck!
I agree with all of the above posts - I set up Umbraco (in record quick time compared to any other .net CMS) a few weeks ago.
Then I stared at it like a chimp for a few hours thinking, "what now?????........"
When I delved in deeper and looked into the Xslt, Macro and user control development I was quite simply staggered - it is hands down, streaks ahead of anything else out there. I, like many other developers out there, will at some time have been irritated at the hoops you need to jump through to create custom controls, dotnetnuke for example is an absolute nightmare.
The reason why snow covered does so well is that the core componants of DNN arent great so everyone goes and buys a 3rd party control.
With Umbraco, it is just soooo simple to create and add functionality that the through of creating a custom contact form actually makes me smile now. Even the 3rd party projects (the amazing Blog4Umbraco for example) are easy to customise. I have a completely custom blog that I can pretty much do anything with in under 2 days.
For a simple site, you can get a website in a box, albeit with a fair degree of pain in terms of customising it. When your client turns around and asks for a small modification then things can get very tricky with something like DNN. With Umbraco though, one can rest assured that pretty much anything can be modified, changed or created with the minimum of fuss.
I would consider MojoPortal in your choice as well - I did a very simple test site with this and it is easy to install and use. You need to think about it from the end users point of view as well though - Umbraco is a breeze for content creators. You can even do a CTRL+S to save your content.
Check out the create web started kit - http://www.creativewebspecialist.co.uk/2009/03/06/creative-website-starter-(cws2)-for-umbraco-is-released.aspx
I looked at this for a few hours and it pretty much taught me everything I needed to know in terms of what and how things can be accomplished.
Stick with it, learn it, love it.
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