Content Management Systems - Questionnaire

Funkygreendogs

Hello all,

I would like your help in deciding how I can improve a homegrown Content Management System, I have been working in the web development industry for almost 7years and things have changed since I first started out as a 'webmaster' back in the day

I would like to start a rollout to third-parties of my new content management system, I really need your help on this guys as I really dont know if there is such a need with the free open source solutions nowadays - they have such massive comminities powering their development and are improving at such a fast rate! Please let me know what your opinions are, it would really help me make a smarter desicion on weather or not the web development community needs this right now:

1. Besides designing the website, how long do you spend exclusively on Development work for clients websites?
2. Do you use your own 'homegrown'/inhouse, open-source or commercial CMS?
3. Does your CMS have support for eCommerce solutions? (eShop/reservation systems...etc)
4. Can you rate the following in terms of importance when deciding on a CMS:
   - iPhone/Mobile integration
   - Multi-lingual management
   - Ease of use / Nifty looking Graphical User Interface (be honest now!)
   - Cost
   - Extensions available / flexible/modular design
   - Media management (photos, video ...etc)
   - SEO capabilities (Marketing options)
   - Template management
   - Documentation
   - Direct support/Technical or Marketing assistance
5. Would you use a third-party eCommerce CMS solution even if you already own/use one?
6. Would you prefer a hosted solution or self-deployed solution?
7. Would you trial a 'limited; free CMS solution?
8. What do you consider to be the most important features from a CMS? (Technical support/online community ...etc)

Appreciate your thoughts/opinions on this - as I say before I know there are lots of brilliant CMS solutions already in the marketplace for free ...etc but I would question weather or not there is room for improvement here especially if there was some kind of demand for new ideas/innovation in CMS. If everyone is just going with 1 or 2 CMS solutions then there can never be an independant viewpoint from which to step back and question where we can improve, what new core-features can we deliver...etc

Thank you all for any feedback you give me on this

was.deevey

For me while most bases are covered with third party addons (I use joomla mostly) .. I'd say there is alot of room in the e-commerce / social network side that if could be easily factored into a CMS WITHOUT needing third part addons could be a winner.

Of course the Addons for joomla which I'm referring to are mostly free anyhow PLUS templates are a dime a dozen and easy to create and oursource management to if required, its become an industry standard from a dev point of view for me thats the key, if someone drops the ball, it can be picked up and support is never an issue.

Building or modifying components and add ons would also be a key feature for me for site expansion purposes, if I'm stuck with using a singular system with no room for modification on my terms its useless to me.

Personally I think development of some good unique component integration with existing systems would yield better than developing a entirely new CMS system which can (and probably will) take years to mature completely.

My 2 cents

jmcc

Archival and management of historical articles/posts.
If the CMS is going to be used to generate a lot of content, then there must be some method of storing the historical articles separately from the current articles. This way the CMS can display the highly trafficked articles (the current ones) and not get ground down when people search for old articles or phrases in the old articles. It also means that the current CMS tables or database is lightweight.

Perhaps as an expansion of this point, backup and restoration would also be important for a CMS.

Regards...jmcc

Funkygreendogs

Thanks for your input guys, it seems like there is some interest in having a specialised CMS with options for eCommerce or other handy functionality which is only available as third-party addons currently. I also believe that the multi-lingual management within the more popular CMSs currently available could me made alot better

thanks for your input on this