phpWCMS Now and Future

[owlman]

Hi everyone:

I'm a designer, primarily of print materials, but also websites. I am fairly capable of mastering the technical side of web technology, but only with a well-explained roadmap and some help and advice. I've got good PHP reference materials and understand it to a degree. I've also gotten quite good with CSS, box model stuff and all that.

Because my designer brain can't handle the "heavy-lifting" involved with the backend of a data-driven site, Dreamweaver can only take me so far. I recently began the search for a good Open Source CMS. I thought I found something good in Mambo/Joomla, but after investing a lot of time I realized how limited a system it is (and how convoluted it's "logic" is).

I stumbled on phpWCMS as the top-rated CMS on OpenSourceCMS and gave it a look. My initial impression is that I can do more of what I want and have more control than I'd ever have with M/J (with those systems I found myself struggling to fit what I wanted into their logic and bumping into wall after wall -- although I do think M/J is exactly the right tool for many users) and I was very pleased with my first foray into adding some sections, articles and menus.

I would like to give phpWCMS a try, and did an install today on one of my SiteGround sites today, but I have some questions:

1. I'm a bit confused by the current state of the project. On one hand it seems robust and active, but I'm noticing that many posts here in the forums are a year or more old. I understand (and actually prefer) that it may be a small community, but I'm trying to determine how vital it is.

2. Is there a balance between using phpWCMS as a primary CMS while also integrating some of Dreamweaver's dynamic tools? (I fully intend to use DW as my primary editor for CSS and page layout -- I'm trying to move toward pages that are as close to 100% pure CSS as possible).

3. Can anyone detail the future of the User Administration system, in terms of things like assigning user-level access to certain functions or site sections -- the ability, for instance, to restrict editorial access based on assigned user levels, etc.?

I have other questions, but rather than try to lay them all out at once, I'd love to get some preliminary input. I hope to become part of this community. Thanks!

[bartve]

Just a 'me too' message to second the original poster. In think PHPWCMS is a great CMS but I'm reluctant to get to familiar with it because any second a new version could be released, or it could take another 1,5 years (that's how long I'm waiting now for v2.0). I don't mind waiting, as long as some kind of information of things to come and some sort of roadmap is available. I know, I don't contribute to the development of PHPWCMS and just advancing in my whining skills (I post a message like this every 2-3 months since christmas 2004), but hey, that's the opensource community: developers and whiners!

[Ben]

Here's the deal (from my perspective) - phpwcms is very stable (1.2.6), very powerful and very easy to use. Oliver always makes it very easy to upgrade an old version to the latest. I have a feeling that front end users and admin groups will be released in the next version. I also can not contribute to development, so I contribute my money to Oliver and my time to helping people in the forums.

[Kosse]

Here's the deal (from my perspective) - phpwcms is very stable (1.2.6), very powerful and very easy to use. Oliver always makes it very easy to upgrade an old version to the latest. I have a feeling that front end users and admin groups will be released in the next version. I also can not contribute to development, so I contribute my money to Oliver and my time to helping people in the forums.

Kochira koso - Same here

Cheers