Content Management Systems

[bryantms]

Hello, I currently have Wordpress installed on my website, but would like to branch out. I am interested in creating my own Content Management System that will enable me to customize each feature exactly the way I would like. Specifically, I would like to be able to control everything from user access and administration controls to the actual website look and feel. I know this requires tons of PHP and MySQL programming.

Part of the motivation behind this is to eliminate the need for me to wait for someone to make the site that I really want, which is a slim chance. I want to be able to change, edit, update and create content as well as back-end programming without having to rely on others.

My question is for those who have done or know how to do something of this magnitude. What resources would be valuable in achieving this? Is there a specific book or series of books that breaks this down and lay out some basics for which one can build upon?

[felgall]

Why not just use one of the many free content management systems that have already been written?

[Lydia123]

Why not just use one of the many free content management systems that have already been written?


I see there are a bunch that can be installed via Fantastico. How does one evaluate which one to use? Also, do you recommend a manual installation of a CMS instead of using Fantastico?

[felgall]

Probably the best way would be to visit the web site for each of them and read through their writeup on what their system can do and try out their demo.

From there it really depends on whether you want access to use the full features of the product or whether you are prepared to accept all the default values that Fantastico uses to reduce the choices that you get to make during the install to a minimum. If you do a Fantastico install and then decide you want it set up differently then you may end up having to uninstall from Fantastico and do a manual install in order to gain access to the configuration options that Fantastico hides in order to make it simpler for newbies to install a very basic system.