Lightweight CMS (possibly ASP.NET 2.0)

I'd like to ask for some personal advice:

Can anybody recommend - based on personal experience! - a lightweight Content Management System (CMS) for creating a corporate website with mostly static content?

I am not looking for larger solution like Umbraco or Axinom, I'm searching something more lightweight. I personally like Textpattern but it's PHP and we would more like to go for something ASP.NET based.

It is important that the CMS outputs valid XHTML!

Any tips?

Have you looked at DotNetNuke?  Not only is it ASP.NET but open-source.  http://www.dotnetnuke.com

Stoddard wrote:

Have you looked at DotNetNuke?  Not only is it ASP.NET but open-source.  http://www.dotnetnuke.com

Has anyone seen an actual implementation of DNN that looks nice?

I tried it out a long time ago and was disappointed.

PHP has some really nice apps and I was hoping that DNN would be the .NET answer to them, but again, I was disappointed.

Be# wrote:



I'd like to ask for some personal advice:

Can anybody recommend - based on personal experience! - a lightweight Content Management System (CMS) for creating a corporate website with mostly static content?

I am not looking for larger solution like Umbraco or Axinom, I'm searching something more lightweight. I personally like Textpattern but it's PHP and we would more like to go for something ASP.NET based.

It is important that the CMS outputs valid XHTML!

Any tips?

I've got one that I wrote and use myself, the few people I've given it to have nothing but praise for it, I reckon it's good for what you need it for.
Basic features:

• Section tree heirarchy
• Versioning
• Multiple users
• Trackback
• Fully skinnable, no hard-coded XHTML (and the skins I've developed are all XHTML1.0 Strict compliant)
• And the backend actually looks good

Let me know if you're interested, I'm giving it away for free thesedays.

The only caveat is that it runs off SQL Server (only a problem if you're a Jet or MySQL junkie) and right now is ASP.NET1.1, but someone who I passed it to was able to run it under ASP.NET2.0 with only a few teething issues.

phreaks wrote:



Stoddard wrote: Have you looked at DotNetNuke?  Not only is it ASP.NET but open-source.  http://www.dotnetnuke.com

Has anyone seen an actual implementation of DNN that looks nice?

I tried it out a long time ago and was disappointed.

PHP has some really nice apps and I was hoping that DNN would be the .NET answer to them, but again, I was disappointed.

I have to agree with that. Every page I visit that uses it screams "This is a DNN page!" and not in a good way.

TimP wrote:

I have to agree with that. Every page I visit that uses it screams "This is a DNN page!" and not in a good way.

DNN was built off that IBuySpy thing from Microsoft, so it incorporates Microsoft's "vision" for web-apps to the extreme.

i.e. javascript-initiated postbacks for everything, and useless UI widgets galore (there is no need to collapse page sections, even less need to do it through postback!). Oh, and all controls wrapped in their own <table> element.

W3bbo wrote:



Be# wrote:  I'd like to ask for some personal advice: Can anybody recommend - based on personal experience! - a lightweight Content Management System (CMS) for creating a corporate website with mostly static content? I am not looking for larger solution like Umbraco or Axinom, I'm searching something more lightweight. I personally like Textpattern but it's PHP and we would more like to go for something ASP.NET based. It is important that the CMS outputs valid XHTML! Any tips?

I've got one that I wrote and use myself, the few people I've given it to have nothing but praise for it, I reckon it's good for what you need it for.
Basic features:

• Section tree heirarchy
• Versioning
• Multiple users
• Trackback
• Fully skinnable, no hard-coded XHTML (and the skins I've developed are all XHTML1.0 Strict compliant)
• And the backend actually looks good

Let me know if you're interested, I'm giving it away for free thesedays.

The only caveat is that it runs off SQL Server (only a problem if you're a Jet or MySQL junkie) and right now is ASP.NET1.1, but someone who I passed it to was able to run it under ASP.NET2.0 with only a few teething issues.

I'de love to give it a test drive if possible.

phreaks wrote:

I'de love to give it a test drive if possible.

Sure, email me (the same goes to anyone else, pass me your messenger addresses)

Oh, and it supports "friendly URLs" too, although for that you need access to IIS Admin.

But it meets the original criteria.  Yes, out of the box all DNN sites do look alike, but a change of skin might go far towards addressing your concerns.

W3bbo wrote:



... (there is no need to collapse page sections, even less need to do it through postback...

I can't disagree enought with this statement...

ubercoder wrote:



W3bbo wrote: ... (there is no need to collapse page sections, even less need to do it through postback...

I can't disagree enought with this statement...

Why do it through postback when a simple client-side script can do it?

I don't see any point in collapsing the sidebars of a base DNN installation, what could possibly be the use?

W2bbo,

I'm not talking about "collapsing the sidebars". This is too primitive.

There are cases where you want to keep the user in the same page, like a search. Instead of redirecting the user from search results to other pages to do his work, you can show/hide page sections. It helps the user's workflow.

You can show/hide sections based on server-side processing and the app must decide which section to be shown or hidden. Still is done with javascript but from server side code.

ubercoder wrote:

There are cases where you want to keep the user in the same page, like a search. Instead of redirecting the user from search results to other pages to do his work, you can show/hide page sections. It helps the user's workflow.

You can show/hide sections based on server-side processing and the app must decide which section to be shown or hidden. Still is done with javascript but from server side code.

That's done with AJAX, but pages accessible only by postback are a stupid idea since search-engines and script-disabled clients can't get to them, not to mention all the control over your pages you surrender to ASP.NET.

QueryStrings in HTTP GET exist for a reason, shame ASP.NET never exploits them.

Hi. Take a look at some of these:

http://www.codeplex.com/Project/ProjectDirectory.aspx?TagName=CMS

I use N2 and My Web Pages.

Hi There!

What could we do to make umbraco more lightweight? Or how do you find umbraco a heavyweighter. I'm asking out of curiousity and to see if we could improve umbraco on this.

Cheers,
Niels Hartvig (founder, umbraco)

W3bbo wrote:



phreaks wrote:I'de love to give it a test drive if possible.

Sure, email me (the same goes to anyone else, pass me your messenger addresses)

Oh, and it supports "friendly URLs" too, although for that you need access to IIS Admin.

Why not post it on C9?

Another_Darren wrote:



W3bbo wrote: phreaks wrote:I'de love to give it a test drive if possible. Sure, email me (the same goes to anyone else, pass me your messenger addresses) Oh, and it supports "friendly URLs" too, although for that you need access to IIS Admin.

Why not post it on C9?

I haven't written a user-manual for it Whilst the installation process is simple, there's almost always some teething issue that is best sorted out by having me available over IM.

I'll make it public after I've written up the docs though.

Hi W3bbo,

I would like to see your CMS as well. How can I get a copy?


Thanks

Brian