Just a little ramble about CMS...

A lot of content-based sites are based around continously increasing information - due to the need to create new and interesting subjects to encourage repeat visits.

So, the most important and often overlooked aspect of CMS is the ability to archive information easily.

One of the things I love about miniBB is the 'next page' numbers - and the ability to control how many subjects are shown on each page.

I find this one of the easiest ways to archive information - and is crucial to my interest in modifying miniBB for my needs.

As new topics, news or features are added only the newest 5 for example are show - the older ones are automatically added to older pages with next page numbers on those also. Nice.

I like BB-Codes as they keep the content straight-forward. I also like the way the text wraps itself around 'imgleft' pictures.

So...

Sorry, didn't get it - but what this all is about? What had you to say? :)

Nothing much to say really.

Just saying what I'd like to achieve with customising miniBB to make a CMS system.

Rob1
I recommend you to start reading about what the CMS system really is ;) Actually, CMS is a very hard-to-build product, it requires a lot of thinking and programming, and first, you need to know, why do you really need it, or you need it at all. Actually, at this time, everything we can say from our side, - we will not work on miniBB CMS, or miniCMS, or whatever...

As I worked on my miniCMS (I renamed it to PK_CMS) I discovered content management is a lot more different than a discussion board, it does take a whole other aspect of beginning a CMS. Even for a 1-person CMS.

This board could be better modified to be a news system with user comments than a CMS. For me, I only took the edit box from miniBB and the PCREs for BB-Codes, all the rest is completely different.

that's what i was getting at in the other thread, more a news feed than for handling files and static content.

what i'm trying to do at the moment uses one forum for the back end of the website (that is hidden from users), and topics within that forum to house all the elements (links, static content, polls etc). editing and posting to this forum is handled by the admin or moderators - then another (still hidden) forum to handle news with user comments. could do it all in one, but having two makes it easier to manage.

the bit that's slowing me down is the administration side - building a form for admins and moderators to be able to easily set up the content how they want it (this news here, that poll there etc). i need to finish going through the cms's that are currently available and see which are the best features.

i did think about writing something completely new - but my php's not good enough and miniBB's already a very tidy piece of kit with all the functionality required :)