CMS system

[Chatmaster]

I am in the process of designing a CMS system, basically it will integrate all kinds of functionality required for a successful website. I would like to know what you would want in such a system, and how would you like the data integration between the different segments of the CMS to work. The system will have both PHP, ASP and .net intergration.

[duncan drennan]

Maybe it would be helpful (to me at least ) if you could explain what different segments there would be?

[Chatmaster]

Well the concept is based on a CMS for a portal site. So the CMS will have a News section, Article Submission, Forum, Blog and then the normal pages that you can add as much as you like.

[SilverNodashi]

Even though this sounds like a great project, what will your CMS have / offer / do that other current CMS' don't?

I don't want to be negative on this one, but a CMS is one of those things that people expect to solve all their problems, and make coffee as well. I've thought of writing my own CMS many times as well, but since I don't want to target the over-priced commercial market with yet another CMS, and I can't afford to spend all my time & energy trying to support non-supportive end users, I rather just use Joomla or Drupal and develop / user extra addon modules with it.

[Chatmaster]

Oh yes, it will be VERY unique. Nothing else like it. Unfortunately, I can not say more about it's uniqueness. The thing is that there are many CMS systems out there, and new ones arrive daily. None of them are the full solution though. Therefore I must develop my own system for my own sites to be able to manage them properly. Whilst doing it, I might as well do something that is worthwhile for others as well!

[Dave A]

The key probably is to have a basic, easy to deploy platform with lots of hooks to allow for more complex plug-ins and modules.

I've got a sense of where Chatmaster is expecting to get his edge in this. Just remember your target market then is probably going to need as close to a plug 'n play solution as possible because they are not particularly web-tech savvy.

Also, from a user point of view, WYSIWYG editors in most online CMS applications are fine for capturing text and image presentation - but are not that hot for presenting table layout info (other than posting a link to a spreadsheet, which is a really sucky solution). Solve that without the user having to resort to manual HTML coding and you'll have made a leap forward in the data presentation side too, I think.