Not news to some: I’ve been working on writing a CMS for my church. We considered some of the readily available FOSS solutions, but none really fit the bill in the ways that we need for one reason or another. So with this post I’m adding a Flood category to my blog.
It’s still in the nascent stages and quite frankly, very rough and awkward in many cases, but it’s all part of a learning experience. It will run on PHP5/MySQL 4.1/SMARTY templating, and object-oriented. First strike against us is that this is the first or second project any of us PHP guys have ever done in OOP, so we’re learning a lot and making a ton of mistakes, but its all worthwhile. I’m beginning to realize the version 1.0 release is going to be a lot rougher and incomplete than we were hoping, but given the timescale for an part-time, all-vounteer force it’s expected (roughly six months for two programmers). Luckily we don’t need to focus on design or content, but we’re still going to be fairly busy.
In this first release (slated for May, 06): Articles with parent/child relationships, a versioning system, public/private content, and a basic calendar system (for events scheduling and notification).
Second: email blast system, and event registration, and possibly a survey application (survey/poll)
Somewhere in there will probably be a LOT of code refactoring – especially as we get more in-tune with common OOP practices and principles.
Future posts will cover some of the ups and downs of rolling your own CMS, some tips, and advice.
Finally: DIVEintoFLOOD.com