Blog CMS systems?
18
March
Before I go too far down the route I’ve chosen, do any of my more techie and/or more experiences readers know of a blog management software (CMS) that can handle multiple subdomains and multiple users (with different priviledges) without needing more than one MySQL database?
I’ve come up with a pretty good use for one of my own domains, and will at some point migrate this blog there as well as do more tih other bits of it, but the hosting package I have only supports one MySQL without payment, my reading of Wordpress is it would need a new install and MySQL for each subdomain.
I’d love to be told I’m wrong though.
1. Pete in Dunbar | March 18th, 2006 at 11:13 pm
Specifically for blogging? Or other CMS-type purposes? Is a single MySQL database a requirement?
As far as I can recall from the survey we’ve done of freebie CMSs, the killer is finding one with a sufficiently powerful permissions system.
eZ publish is great on permissions (you can create your own and assign them to individuals and groups, including assigning combinations of roles), but the learning curve can be steep, and the blogging module is pretty basic.
At the moment my favourite CMS is Website baker. You can create your own user groups, assigning permissions to them, and it comes with built-in RSS, but the news module which can be used as a blog lacks other features like pings and trackbacks. We’re using it for one of our sites here. You should be able to run multiple installations off a single database by setting a unique prefix for the tables in the initial installation process. The only issue is that a single user cannot be a member of more than one group (whereas in eZ publish, a user could, for example, be at the same time a member of the Forum Admin, blogger and sub-section editor roles). I believe this issue is to be resolved in version 3.
One advantage that Website Baker has is that it is really, really easy to use, even for people with no techie knowledge whatsoever.
There is a big list of CMS applications on Wikipedia which may be useful.
I haven’t tried it myself, but you might give NucleusCMS a look, as it says it supports multiple blogs.
2. MatGB | March 18th, 2006 at 11:47 pm
Well, basically, I want to set up a blogging website for one of my interests; it already exists (Taktix) and I’ve added a bit recently (Chuckadice and Warhammer), essentially when I first decided to set it up, I was unknowingly wanting a group blog but back then I didn’t know what a blog was.
What I want is effectively a subdomain per game or topic supported, with each contributor having their own bit and then an ‘editors blog’ on the front page(s) both promoting good individual articles by contributors (a la Comment is Free) and also covering news for the subject in question (ie Games Workshop announce…).
That I can see, there are no gamer blogs for non-computer games, and it’s something there’s both demand for and interest in.
Plus, it’d be a good use for the domain and I have a number of writers lined up. I just don’t have the technical skill to make it work nor the money to get someone that does. What I’m thinking is multiple blogger pages, quick and dirty, plus it gives each user the ability to customise their bit without overloading my time and/or database.
It’d work, blogger is very flexible and easy to learn/use (plus it’s good enough for boing boing and Gaiman), but the lack of categories makes it slightly limited.
3. MatGB | March 18th, 2006 at 11:48 pm
Oh; was looking at Nucleus when you posted; I’m googling all over the place but figured someone out there could help point me int he right direction; thanks.
4. Paulie | March 20th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
I’m thinking of exploring Typepad - it looks fairly good to me though you have to pay for it ($14 per month). Apropos of which, Mat, I was going to ask you if you’d like to participate i a group blog called ‘The Campaign for Representative Democracy’?
The sheer weight of this obsession is just crushing my own blog, and you’ve come up with the best one-liner on the subject that I’ve ever heard.
Interested?
5. Sunny | March 20th, 2006 at 11:13 pm
Can’t you use Wordpress for this? I’m trying to figure out the same thing… basically having a kind of a diary system ala Daily Kos and then letting people run their own diaries while having a front page that also collates the rest.
I’m trying to find out if Wordpress can do this. I think what you’ll have to do is assign a specific identity to each ‘diary’ and I believe an add-on module like ‘mini-post’ allows you do that.
Then the front page would basically run all the posts on the group blog.
Damn I don’t know know if I make sense either. Comment is free uses Movable Type by the way.
6. MatGB | March 21st, 2006 at 1:33 am
Ah, had looked for what engine they were using, must’ve missed the credit; it’s probably blindingly obvious.
Thing is, I’m looking at approx 8 ‘front’ pages, each in a subdomain with miniblog style diaries linked and aggregated, and then another front page that aggregates all the subdomain frontpages (well, most of them anyway).
It’s linked multitopics, some people will only be interested in one or two subdomains, etc.
I looked at what Kos does, it’s ok but not what I need, especially given hosting limitations. Me, daft. Never do things the easy way, think big and hope it works; it’s not at all a politics blog though, old hobby that I still take an interest in.