Being a web designer and developer, the CMS I choose for a client is a huge issue. I wrote a little bit about it before. However, sometimes you just can’t find a CMS that will work for that particular project, and, barring changing the architecture of the site to fit in the mold, you’re left writing your own system for displaying and updating content, which, sadly, I’ve had to do a number of times.
I read an article today about FireRift – this seems exactly what I was looking for out of a content management system.
Firerift is a Template Independent CMS. That means you design and/or
develop how you want, and then plug Firerift into the portions of the
site where you want it to manage that content. Firerift will scour your
code looking for any Firerift Code Snippets and convert them into the
corresponding function.
Really looking forward to this, as should any frustrated web developer.
I too got excited when I read the Vitamin article about FireRift, because it sounds like just what I want. But I’m curious what kind of testing or criteria one would do before starting to use it in important client situations, given the time and reputational risk if something ends up not working with the product after it is installed for a client. What would you recommend – a minimum time it has been supported on the open market before using it? using it for a certain period only on one’s own websites? not using it without a complete review of the code? or what?
It is a pretty classic software dilemma – good products don’t get widely used unless the trust factor is there, but it is very risky trusting new software that is critical for one’s company or clients’ businesses. I usually favor using the good new products when I can figure out how to adequately test their robustness, but I’m not quite sure what criteria I’d apply here before using this product on client projects.
Thanks for sharing Zvi; we’ll have to see what comes of FireRift.
Also, Habari is a template engine independent blog that’s currently at a 0.6 release: http://www.habariproject.org/en/
@Victoria … With hopefully simple applications like this – you build it, see if it works, and if it does, start using it for clients. But yeah, there will be a span of time where people will be testing the water. But if noone jumps in, how will anyone know the water is safe?
@Joe thanks for sharing Habari, I will have to check it out!
I have run into the issue of having to create a site to conform to a template. It looks like FireRift will address that issue. I have also created a CMS system that is template independent and technology neutral. My motivation for creating a light cms systems stems from exactly what you said about fitting the mold.