PHP Nuke

[briholton]

PHP Nuke and other similar portal systems are not 2 minute websites, nor are they website wizards. Our team has put in over 100 hours of website development and yes, we used a portal system as our base. It probably would have been easier to do it from scratch, like we did last year, receiving our regional's best website award, but then we would not have had the experience of using a portal system and finding its limitations - and learning how to extend them.

Quite frankly, if you were a professional website developer, you would probably not use vi/unix. You would, if wise, use the best tools you could get to do the job in the most efficient manner. If vi works for what you do, good for you, for me, it would be horribly limiting. What works for one person, might not work for others.

To extend your learning, you might want to try doing a site using php Nuke or similar systems. It's really nice to see how others do things, and hacking the code to make it do what you want is quite educational.

BTW, i would love to see your site. Can you post the link?

Originally Posted by Noam Of Doom

but why would people rather have a 2 minute website and actually learn and experience something from the whole business of building a website?

when i volunteered to be the Webmaster of our team, i knew very little HTML and stuff, through trying and experimenting i learned the works, i didn't retreat to a website wizard, which is by the way, lame...

building a site with VI in Unix is tru... anything else is for failures

[Noam Of Doom]

yes, we are currently swaping hosts, but i hope in a few days it will be back up again

[probizzle]

Indeed, if you can use php nuke to hack up something thats meets your needs, more power to you.

I think the complaints people have had arise from those sites that are just slapped together using an available cms. Not many changes are made, and the website has no trace or originality.

However, if you tailor it to your needs, there is nothing wrong.
The point of doing anything is to learn, and writing a website in vi may just be doing tedious work you already know how to do. Editing a cms such as php nuke to fit your specific needs can be as big a learning experience.

[Red Dragon]

Granted using premade CMS systems (PHP Nuke, e107, portal mods for forums, mambo etc) are a major time saver, and most when modded some can work very well for quite a few applications, but there is still always a limit to how far it can go compared to something you made yourself.

for example about two years ago for some odd ball reason, i wanted to create a whole automated gaming league, php/mysql backed, CSS driven, complete with session and member management, and i hadnt a clue at the time on how to make any of those things. attempted to make one from scratch, but when you are starting out it can be pretty intimidating. so went with a forum system i liked, slapped a portal mod, and slowly began learning how everything went together and how it all interconnected.

this is what i started with
http://astralfoundry.com

this is what i ended with on that venture
http://mercarena.com

now 2 years later and many more sites and mad projects, after messing with a premade CMS and forum system, i have created my own (still rough but it works for a first attempt) that powers my teams new site
(demo here, http://universalwebsiteservices.com/robotics ) (please PM comments)

honestly, now from what i have learned from modding and redesigning most premade CMSs, other then just using them for a genaric site, they are worthless but they do make a great starting point for someone to learn how to make their own. IMHO i think, in general, that some rely too much on things like php-nuke(never cared for php-nuke at all, i think the whole phpbb backed system are next to worthless, extremely simple systems, horrible backends, but good article and download systems) when one can make their own, but everyones got to start somewhere.

FIRST is all about learning new things, if it teaches someone something and allows them at a later date to apply it for their own use, dont see why it shouldnt be used.

[Max Lobovsky]

I don't understand why people keep saying something like "premade CMSs may work, but it will never be as good as something homemade" when all the software being discussed is open source. You can take any of these "premade CMSs" and do whatever you like with them. In fact, all the better CMSs (not PHP nuke) with good APIs and module/plugin resources are designed to do just that. They take all the basic CMS stuff (database, session, user, etc management) out of the developer's hands and just lets them write the unique application they want to write.

[roboticsguy1988]

Ok...........this year i am using PHP-Nuke on our teams website. When i started it it was the first time i had used a CMS, so i didn't know about all the other better ones....... not to mention the ones that are fully validated.

Even though we use a CMS it STILL takes A-LOT of time to modify......... and mange.

After this season i think i am going to trash PHP-Nuke and go with another CMS. I say YES any website made with a CMS should be aloud to be entered........ people like me who use a CMS spend just as much time if not more working on there website as other people who do not use a CMS.

But my only suggestion is if your going to use a CMS DO NOT use PHP-Nuke!!!!

[Max Lobovsky]

Personally, I recommend PostNuke (www.postnuke.com). It's what our teams site is built on, and its what at least two team sites with awards are built on.

[roboticsguy1988]

Originally Posted by Max Lobovsky

Personally, I recommend PostNuke (www.postnuke.com). It's what our teams site is built on, and its what at least two team sites with awards are built on.

Is PostNuke fully validated by W3C standards?

[Max Lobovsky]

It depends what standards you are talking about and what parts of PostNuke. Many people run PostNuke sites compatibly with even the most strict standards (like 508 accesibility), but it is largely up to you to make sure your theme is valid. With just a few exceptions, the core code outputted is all legal. Our site almost validates except for a small bug in the links, that i havent gotten around to fixing

[roboticsguy1988]

Originally Posted by Max Lobovsky

It depends what standards you are talking about and what parts of PostNuke. Many people run PostNuke sites compatibly with even the most strict standards (like 508 accesibility), but it is largely up to you to make sure your theme is valid. With just a few exceptions, the core code outputted is all legal. Our site almost validates except for a small bug in the links, that i havent gotten around to fixing

I see........ i guess i am just looking around for something that is fully validated......... no matter what part you look at. I remember trying postnuke at one time...... but i decided against it for some reason....... i will have to download it and try it out again.

[Max Lobovsky]

There is no way you can find any CMS that has any freedom to customize that will be always fully validated. If the CMS lets you enter HTML to display on pages, use 3rd party plugins/modules, or use custom themes or templates, there is room for error.

[roboticsguy1988]

Originally Posted by Max Lobovsky

There is no way you can find any CMS that has any freedom to customize that will be always fully validated. If the CMS lets you enter HTML to display on pages, use 3rd party plugins/modules, or use custom themes or templates, there is room for error.

Yes there is...... i have found several that are fully validated and that are fully customizable. Granted that they can't validate 3rd party modules, blocks, plugins, modifications, etc. For reference take a look at this http://www.opensourcecms.com/index.p...atid=7&id=1277