Research on site development software for nflug.org

[bithead]

I did some research into the software packages that are available for us to make use of in providing a richer web site.

There have already been several suggestions for adopting products just like these, from several individuals. I kinda built this list before those emails originated, so we will have to include those ideas into our list of choices as well. Credit to all of you who are participating (as I haven't yet updated notes below).

My recommendations for features we should strive to implement are at the bottom of this email.

I _hope_ to demo geeklog and drupal at the meeting, as I have finally installed them. For the other products, we will have to rely upon other's experiences or the URLs mentioned below.

- Brian

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John Seth <johnseth at phoenixwing.com> (Tony) suggested:
PHP-Nuke        http://www.phpnuke.org
PostNuke        http://www.postnuke.com   (see below)
myPhpNuke       (see below)
phpBB           (see below)
XMBforum        (see below)

(Then I went crazy and started researching these and other products)

GeekLog http://geeklog.sourceforge.net/index.php
        This is a solid looking tool
        Well documented and actively being enhanced
        Discussion topics, calendars, polls, links, stats
        This product was paired with phpBB on linuxlinks.com
        a good example is http://www.linuxlinks.com
        also http://www.goddammit.co.uk/
        themes

drupal  http://www.drupal.org/
        It is a weblogging tool, primarily.
        for news collection and presentation
        good for user initiated blogs
        has polls
        some customization capability
        clean design and usability
        well documented
        see: http://www.drupal.org/node.php?id=1
        see: http://www.drupal.org/node.php?id=381

phpBB   http://www.phpbb.com/
        strong product for discussion forums
        has its own user enrollment system
        a good example is http://www.linuxlinks.com
        attractive and intuitive

zorum   http://zorum.phpoutsourcing.com/
        A really nice looking web discussion tool
        attractive design and apparent functionality
        Has its own user management functionality
        This can probably be integrated with other CMS software

XMB Forum       http://www.xmbforum.com
        Nice looking forum tool
        need to investigate cost and licensing terms further...

ampoliros with Magellan
        http://www.ampoliros.com
        http://www.ampoliros.com/projects/web/magellan/
        Very slick, excellent content can be generated.
        Very modern (xhtml, xml, soap, etc)
        Attractive development site and content

myPHPNuke       http://www.myphpnuke.com/
        user management
        topics, forums, links, downloads, survey, chat?
        heavy graphics use
        interface seems to be fairly unmutable

phpWebSite      http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu/
        Has most features we desire in one package
        Written in PHP and will probably require customization
        fairly stable, clean output
        fairly easy to use and understand
        has themes (good as examples)

scoop   http://scoop.kuro5hin.org
        http://www.kuro5hin.org
        Clean and simple.
        Features capability to host links, polls, many articles, other static pages.
        Not written in PHP (for better or worse)
        Fairly popular, well debugged.

Typo3   http://www.typo3.com/
        REALLY NICE open source PHP4 and MySQL tool.
        Web based content management.
        Very rich client. (Do not use dynamic image generation if possible)
        May be too complex, maybe not.

Tiki    http://tikiwiki.sourceforge.net/
        Has a demo
        Kinda confusing to use
        What does it do?

phorum  http://phorum.org
        A simple web discussion tool
        This can probably be integrated with other CMS software

www forum       http://shiflett.org/projects/www_forum/
        A simple web discussion tool
        This can probably be integrated with other CMS software

PHPGroupWare    http://www.phpgroupware.org/
        Nice tool for group collaboration, but only for trusted users
        Does not have a public interface as well (such as a portal or CMS would
provide)

PostNuke        http://www.postnuke.com/
        Somewhat busy user interface
        Difficult to get an overview (features, documentation, etc)
        Looks difficult to customize to be anything other than what is is.

Envolution      http://www.envolution.com/
        non-intuitive user interface
        has many buggy qualities
        no apparent documentation
        no central statement of purpose

My recommendations:
        Lists of links (user contributed too)
                other related events (CISSP classes, Flash group, etc)
                lists of employers
        List of Members
        User originated discussions
        Script hosting, possibly for download or small file exchange
        Polls (like what we will discuss next week)
        News pages (slow to update and chronological)
        Site Admin distinction (including back-end stuff)
        Discussion Forums (possibly replacing Majordomo)
        Attractive interface / usability
        Calendar of events
        Meeting location page
        Admin contacts page
        Organization charter
        Projects page

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