CMS Website Systems

[Mike]

Open Source CMS allows you to test lots of CMS programmes. May play with some of these just for fun! No replacement to the forum though.

[Mike]

Kajona 3 review pending.

I tested this one for a good couple of days. The installation process is actually quite different to what I would expect. You have to install each module as you go along. Ie it brings up a page with each module you have uploaded and you have to decide to install it or not. First installation was wrong because of this because it lets you go to the next step without installing the system!

There are some translation issues as this is a German made programme that has an English Language module. This means that a couple of pages - such as the search page, have the 'Search' box in German.

The programme is pretty tightly controlled and not very flexible. As it is a new system it does very well but there is quite a lot of room for improvement. Graphically it looks great but the GUI is not very intuitive which is a shame!

All in all
Style
Substance
Flexibility

Overall pretty average with more style than creative help.

[Mike]

Concrete 5 is another Content Management System. It is very flexible with a good GUI, it has a very nice feature where you can record each change you make to the site through a version control. If you decide that you don't the changes - they can be discarded easily. Fewer features than Kajona 3 but the flexibility and ease of use place this on a higher ranking.

The system allows you to
- Generate image galleries
- Add navigation systems
- External / internal forms
- File downloads
- Add flash
- Add googlemaps
- Page lists
- RSS
- Search functions
- Slideshow
- YouTube
- Surveys

All in all
Style
Substance
Flexibility

Overall a good