CMS Relationsip Advice
Love Letters
and
Break Up Texts
by James England
@JEinOKC
https://jameseng.land
First thing's first - What is a CMS?
- CMS = Content Management System
- Think Wordpress
My Definition of a CMS?
A platform for updating and maintaining an application without needing to constantly touch the code.
What's out there for Node.js?
Apostrophe
Ghost
KeystoneJS
PencilBlue
Taracot
Buckets.io
Calipso
We.js
Cody
Relax
Nodizecms
Playing the Field
Keystone,3
7600+ commits Active 1 day ago
Some call me old, but I like to say I'm "properly vetted"
Not to brag, but a lot of people think I'm fantastic
Nothing complicated. What you see is what you get
PencilBlue,2 ½
3500+ commits Active 12 days ago
Are you ready to get serious, cuz I'm all biznis
The complete package. Will never leave you wanting more
Looking for someone I can scale together with in the clouds
Taracot,2 ½
550+ commits Active 1 month ago
Pretty much down for whatever - as long as you let my friend Redis come with
A bit of a lone-wolf. Wanna join the pack?
Я говорю по-русски
Keystone
http://keystonejs.com/
Built on Express
Uses MongoDB
Lightweight, flexible & extendable
Large community
Keystone
- Seemed nice enough
- would take a bit of work to customize to the point where I would find it terribly useful
- Moved on without much work
PencilBlue
https://pencilblue.org/
Business Class
Built to work in a clustered environment
Openshift compatibility
Does not use express
PencilBlue
- Really liked it. Very robust
- Was a little complicated to customize- doesn't use express
- Got it all working. Pushed live and it didn't work right.
- Would've been much better had I started from scratch rather than trying to fit it into my existing application
Taracot
https://taracot.org/
Uses MongoDB and Express
Redis is a requirement
Comes pre-packaged with example 'modules'
Multi-lingual and comes with Russian translations for everything
Basically one contributor
Taracot
- Connecting to Redis was a little complicated
- Easy to understand the code, make modifications
- A little buggy in the admin console, but gets the job done
- Not as robust as the others, but doesn't overcomplicate itself
- Currently using in production
Picking the right CMS
-
What's the Primary Use? your results may vary
- Blogging - lots of options
- Narrow Focus - Keystone, Apostrophe
- Enterprise - PencilBlue, Keystone
- E-Commerce - TaracotJS, PencilBlue
- Who is relying on this? Can you handle some bugs in the admin UX or will a large team be relying on everything being very smooth?
-
What's your setup?
- Starting from scratch?
- Existing App
- Limited Access
- Redis/MongoDB/Express
- Containers
Some Parting Wisdom on Your Budding New Relationship
- There is no 'perfect' CMS, but there might be one that's perfect for you.
- You may need a little patience at first when you're getting to know your CMS.
- Breaking up is hard (esp. after you've realized you've spent all your nights and weekends together), but may be the right thing.
- You have to work a little too if you're expecting something fantastic.pro tip: that means contribute on the project
Thank You!!
Links
- Taracot - https://taracot.org/
- PencilBlue - https://pencilblue.org/
- KeystoneJS - http://keystonejs.com/
- My Site (Using Taracot) - https://jameseng.land/
- Good slideshow on the many different Node CMS options - http://www.slideshare.net/agriya/11-live-nodejs-cms-frameworks
- If you're looking for a volunteering opportunity in the OKC community (and help out students in OKC Public School District) - http://www.wvacademy.com/