September 17, 2009 - 12:27am
Lots of answers
Hello Anna,
I'm just going to run through and try and answer some of your many questions very quickly. If I skip something or you'd like more detail, please don't hesitate to ask.
1)What one would you recommend? Why?
Stick with one of the Big 3. Wordpress is great for blogging, but not as powerful as Drupal. Joomla! is very popular but I'm not too familiar with it. Drupal is my favorite, but has a difficult learning curve. The big three have very large development communities who contribute modules (or plug-ins) you can use. Many people are willing to offer free support. Should you wish to hire a professional, the larger projects have a bigger pool of talent to select from.
2)I need a CMS Provider(?) with good free professional templates.
All three projects have many free themes (or templates) which will modify the way your site looks.
3)Which requiremts/access like a cpanel or a database does my website host (strato) need for the different CMS ?
Every CMS requires a database to run. CPanel is nice, but not necessary. You will need CPanel or FTP to move files from your local machine to your host.
4)Do I need to learn php?
No.
5)Do I have to download software?
Yes
6) Can I set up/edit the website with my html editor(PSPad)?
Yes
7) How do I beginn? Should I already start collecting materials eg textes, pictures or bit by bit while progressing?
The largest challenge you will face is learning how the CMS of your choice works. That will be what you need to do next. It's always good to have content ready for upload, but getting the site installed is a real good first step.
8) Is it easy to embed videos in the "welcome page"?
Yes, upload your video to a video sharing site which provides embed code. Then paste that code in your page.
9) What errors should I avoid?
All of them. >grin<
Without knowing what platform you will be using, this question is too big to answer.
10) How much time does it really take to set it up? If I work every day to every second day 2 hours can I be finished in less than a month time.
Setting up your first site will take a long time because you are learning the system. Once you understand how things work, things go much quicker. A good Drupal developer can put together a decent simple site in a day or less. Unfortunately, it takes a very long time to become a decent Drupal developer.
11) Is it possible with CMS to have the website in two languages?
Yes, Drupal can do this.
12) I fell a littel bit uneasy about wix or joomla because you always can see somwhere on the page "done/provided by joomla" or their "ugly"(Sorry) icon. I don't know if I'm right, when I see www.joomla/wix.com/yourchurchname.* it doesn't look real professional to me. Am I wrong?
If you are working with a CMS all logos and links are in your theme layer and can be removed. If you are using some sort of builder or hosting service, they may add links/ads/etc.
My best advise is to start small. Far too many developers want to do great things with their first project, take on too much, and give up. Begin with a small project, learn the basics, and let your skill grow with time.
Hope this helps. Blessings!
-NP
September 17, 2009 - 10:16am
September 17, 2009 - 11:23am
A good tutorial on how to install Drupal
Hi Anna, check out:
http://ftp.drupal.org/files/videocasts/Install-D6.mp4
It's a good tutorial on how to install Drupal.
Blessings!
-NP
September 17, 2009 - 12:08pm
Suggest using Acquia Drupal
Anna,
I just listened to the tutorial NP recommended; it's pretty good.
A couple of suggestions:
- While I don't like a couple of their techniques for module/theme placement, Acquia's Drupal distribution is a better starting point than the download from Drupal.org. I say this because it includes quite a few of the contributed modules that are "must haves" and saves you the time, trouble, and confusion of finding them and downloading them separately. Also, it includes the Administration Menu that is a great convenience.
- Acquia also makes DAMP (Drupal, Apache, MySQL and PHP) stacks available for Windows and Mac. This is a great way to install a Drupal site on your PC and develop you skills.
Finally, start building your (small) website in a "private" location. For example, you could place it in a subdomain/subdirectory of your primary site, or use your PC. Another technique, a little more expensive, that I use for my clients is to have an "administrative" domain used for hosting the site that's different than the publicly known primary domain.
Hope this helps,
Curt
Hi,
hopefully in a few months time we will move away to another country and as final "deed" I want to redesing and reorganize our church website with CMS.
But I can't get my head around: joomla, php, drupal, viviti....and everthing else what is on the market lacking in time, money and english language skills:)
I have got some basic knowledge about html.
I'm in charge for updating the church website regulary. I've updatin the church website nearly for 4 years, I also created some websites (mainly for the church youth group) over the years.
I never felt capable to redesign the church website because it was done by a professional around 2002. The design is still great but is not an uptodate design. Every year we talking about hiring somebody but it has never been done due to money shortage.
Why CMS?
Somebody recommended it, because of easier and less time consuming updating, also easier to upload media, the time setting up will take time. When I'm gone there will be no one with any website skills. So I want to leave it as easy as possible for layperson to update it frequently.
My questions/needs:
1)What one would you recommend? Why?
2)I need a CMS Provider(?) with good free professional templates.
3)Which requiremts/access like a cpanel or a database does my website host (strato) need for the different CMS ?
4)Do I need to learn php?
5)Do I have to download software?
6) Can I set up/edit the website with my html editor(PSPad)?
7) How do I beginn? Should I already start collecting materials eg textes, pictures or bit by bit while progressing?
8) Is it easy to embed videos in the "welcome page"?
9) What errors should I avoid?
10) How much time does it really take to set it up? If I work every day to every second day 2 hours can I be finished in less than a month time.
11) Is it possible with CMS to have the website in two languages?
12) I fell a littel bit uneasy about wix or joomla because you always can see somwhere on the page "done/provided by joomla" or their "ugly"(Sorry) icon. I don't know if I'm right, when I see www.joomla/wix.com/yourchurchname.* it doesn't look real professional to me. Am I wrong?
So I hope I don't sound too much like an amateur. I'm in my mid twenties so I think I'm allowed to ask maybe some stupid question, to be someday a real geek:)
Thanks for God&Geeks and for any advice.
Anna
P.S Please excuse any grammar or spelling mistakes, English is only my second language:(. Please ask when sentence are wacky and don't make any sense. Thanks.