My Technology Blog

Continuing with the theme that small focused web software is better than larger CMS types of software, I decided to try out PHPBB for a small forum that I wanted to add to a mediawiki web site. The main reason that I selected PHPBB was because it seems to be the most common software being used for forums, and it fit in nicely with the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) software already running for the Mediawiki server. I had used other Forum software, such as Drupal, and Plone before, and I found PHPBB to be much cleaner, which was another big reason for selecting it. Finally, PHP is free while other packages, such as vBulletin are commercial, and only offer short trial periods.

Like most other packages these days, it installed very easily, and was easy to get up and running. I initially did not configure much, and it was pretty easy to add new forums, and topics. Unfortunately, after having the forum up for one day, it started to get hit with spam postings. I enabled e-mail authentication, which cut down on a large amount of the spam, but I still seem to get a few postings even with the captchas enabled. The amount of spam is probably due to the popularity of PHPBB, and they should really consider implementing spam controls, similar to those found in WordPress.

Another configuration setting that is a must, is to disable automatic pruning. The first few postings to the PHPBB forum started disappearing after a week or so. It turns out that the default setting, is for pruning to automatically delete posts without responses after only one week. I also installed a couple of mods to not display the memberlist, profiles, and groups, to people that are not registered. Installing the mods is usually done manually, and is not as clean as in other packages such as Drupal, Plone, and Mediawiki, but not a big deal.

Besides that it seems to be a very nice fit for a small forum.

Pros

• Free .
• Easy to Install.
• Very clean interface for forums.
• Lots of online support available.

Cons

• PHPBB seems to be a target for spam.
• Some of the default settings.
• Mods and extensions typically require modifying the code, and are very version specific.

Wordpress Review

In getting up to speed on web server software, and CMS software, I ended up starting with the most full featured, and then worked down to the more specialized software. As you can see in the background below, my original intent was to find a one solution fits all package, but I am starting to come to the conclusion that multiple small specialized packages are better than one large package.

Wordpress is one of these specialized packages, and it is focused on one thing, and that is creating Blogs. All of the extensions, themes and plugins are also focused on Blogs. It is also the reason why I selected Wordpress for this website, which is only going to be a Blog. Compared to the work involved in getting up to speed on Zope, Plone, and Drupal, Wordpress was a breeze.

The one thing that I do not like is the way things are configured in Wordpress via the web interface. For example, when I selcted the option to create pretty URLs for this site, wordpress prompted for a .htaccess file in the main directory with write access. It is not a big deal to work around it, since you don’t really want ot use a .htaccess anyway, and instead modify the Apache config files directly on the server via SSH. It would be nice if there was more information about how to modify things like this on the server, as opposed to using Wordpress to do it.

Pros:

• Typical LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) installation.
• Great for Blogs.
• Very user friendly.

Cons:

• Most things are intended to be modified via the web interface in Wordpress (this could be a pro for most people).

Background

I have been playing around with different web server software solutions for the past year and a half, and using these packages to create different types of web sites. I have been working with a few people that are trying to do serious work, but it is mostly a hobby. I have not previously invested a large amount of time in any of these solutions, which allows me to be more unbiased, and I am looking at it from from a typical users point of view.

Initially when I started out, I really wanted to pick one very powerful CMS, and then use it for every web site. If there is one thing that I have learned through this whole exercise, is that this is clearly not the way to go. I will get into some of the reasons in a later postings, but a good analogy to why this is not a good idea, would be building an aircraft carrier to go water skiing. It might be possible, and you could do lots of other things too, but it is not very practical.

Zope Plone Review

Zope was the first package that I tried, and it is a very good CMS. From what I had read, it seemed like a very power solution, that could be adapted to multiple applications. I also read the warnings about the steep learning curve, but I didn’t mind investing the since I was hoping that the reward after the fact would be worth the effort involved.

If you want to manage a large amount of documents, and users, then it is a good way to go. It would be a good fit for a company that wanted to share a large amount of documents with their customers. If you want to support things like photo galleries, blogs, and forums, then this is not the way to go. You can do some of these web 2.0 functions, but you will be very limited (see the aircraft carrier comment below).

Pros:

• Very well written code, and good documentation.
• Written in Python (can be a con for some people).
• Very good user management, and access controls.
• Integrated (you do not need to install MySQL, and PHP, since it has its own database)
• Seems to be more secure than other systems like Drupal and Joomla.
• Looks professional.

Cons:

• Very steep learning curve. You will need to dig deep into the ZMI, and DTML to make almost any changes.
• Integrated. I prefer to have a combination of external files, and a standard database.
• Not very user friendly to non technical users.
• Not very good web 2.0 support (blogs, forums,streaming media etc.)

Background

I have been playing around with different web server software solutions for the past year and a half, and using these packages to create different types of web sites. I have been working with a few people that are trying to do serious work, but it is mostly a hobby. I have not previously invested a large amount of time in any of these solutions, which allows me to be more unbiased, and I am looking at it from from a typical users point of view.

Initially when I started out, I really wanted to pick one very powerful CMS, and then use it for every web site. If there is one thing that I have learned through this whole exercise, is that this is clearly not the way to go. I will get into some of the reasons in a later postings, but a good analogy to why this is not a good idea, would be building an aircraft carrier to go water skiing. It might be possible, and you could do lots of other things too, but it is not very practical.

Drupal Review
When I first installed Drupal, it seemed like it was the general purpose CMS that would allow me to create both larger CMS sites, and also smaller Web 2.0 types of sites too. It was relatively easy to get up and running, and it came with built in forums, and a blog. The control over users and postings is not as good as Plone and Zope, but it is not bad, and it is also relatively easy to customize with lots of skins available.

Onced I started moving beyond the the main modules, things started to get more complicated. For example, I needed to recompile php to add GD support for images, and I ran into a bunch of issues getting it to generate the .so files that I needed. I also found the ping module for the blogging tool to be not very useful either.

One important note with respect to all of the above comments, is that I have not tried Joomla yet, which seems to be getting pretty good reviews. It is next on my list of packages to try, but from what I have read, it seems to be very similar to Drupal.

Pros:

• More user friendly than Zope.
• It is a decent compromise between a full blown CMS, and smaller Blog only package like Wordpress.
• Lots of themes, and modules available.
• The basic install includes forums, and a blog.
• Easy to change the look and feel of the site.

Cons:

• The Blog ping module that comes with the installation is not very good.
• There is good documentation available, but it is not always easy to find what you need.
• There are lots of modules, but it is hard to find which one is best, or which ones are the most stable.
• The blog module is not as slick as wordpress (which is what I am using for this site).

Background

I have been playing around with different web server software solutions for the past year and a half, and using these packages to create different types of web sites. I have been working with a few people that are trying to do serious work, but it is mostly a hobby. I have not previously invested a large amount of time in any of these solutions, which allows me to be more unbiased, and I am looking at it from from a typical users point of view.

Initially when I started out, I really wanted to pick one very powerful CMS, and then use it for every web site. If there is one thing that I have learned through this whole exercise, is that this is clearly not the way to go. I will get into some of the reasons in a later postings, but a good analogy to why this is not a good idea, would be building an aircraft carrier to go water skiing. It might be possible, and you could do lots of other things too, but it is not very practical.

Mediawiki Review

After trying Zope, Plone, and Drupal, I moved on to Mediawiki. The main reason that I selected Mediawiki, was because I am a huge fan of Wikipedia. Another reason, was because one of the first sites that I saw with a nice implementation of Google Maps was based on Mediawiki.

The thing that I really like about Mediawiki is that it is great for an open web site. This is a web site where both registered, and non registered users can add and modify pages easily. Since Wikipedia is based on this free for all concept, there is a large amount of support built in to deal with bad users, and spam.

Installing Mediawiki was very similar to the typical LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) installation used by Drupal. It was pretty easy to create new pages, and then to copy and past examples from MediaWiki to try different page formats. I also started playing with the Portals, and was able to create some pretty nice pages, which were of course very similar to Wikipedia. It is surprising how much you can do with Portals and wiki formatting, and you can automate the page creation to a certain extent, and keep a consistent look and feel to a portal.

The similarity to Mediawiki, also turned out to be the main limitation for me. At a certain point in time, I decided that I wanted a new theme for the site, and I had to start modifying the skins. There realy doesn’t seem to be a large selection of skins available, and moving away from the Wikipedia look means lots of changes to the skins.

Pros:

• Great for an open web site.
• Very easy to add and create content if you are familiar with Wiki format.
• You can copy lots of examples from Wikipedia.
• Lots of checks for unregistered users.

Cons:

• Hard to get away from that Wikipedia theme.
• The wiki formatting scares away regular users.
• As the site grows, more time is required to monitor for bad behaviour.

Background

I have been playing around with different web server software solutions for the past year and a half, and using these packages to create different types of web sites. I have been working with a few people that are trying to do serious work, but it is mostly a hobby. I have not previously invested a large amount of time in any of these solutions, which allows me to be more unbiased, and I am looking at it from from a typical users point of view.

Initially when I started out, I really wanted to pick one very powerful CMS, and then use it for every web site. If there is one thing that I have learned through this whole exercise, is that this is clearly not the way to go. I will get into some of the reasons in a later postings, but a good analogy to why this is not a good idea, would be building an aircraft carrier to go water skiing. It might be possible, and you could do lots of other things too, but it is not very practical.