NYCPHP Meetup

[Greg Rundlett (freephile)]

2009/5/29 Peter Sawczynec <ps at blu-studio.com>:
> As it turns out, I have ended up specializing in helping businesses greatly
> improve their
>
> presence on the web with a modern, well-designed website that really speaks
> well for
>
> the business entity. My new sites will freshly amplify the best aspects of
> the business entity
>
> and often revitalizes how the staff, clients and vendors view the business.
>
> This site, though, does or does not need to be dynamic PHP.
>
>
>
> Joomla In Every Job
>
> But I am considering initiating a plan to build all my website projects on
> top of Joomla
>
> even if the client has only a few or no dynamic PHP needs. But this will
> allow me to
>
> introduce the most common dynamic PHP tools at any time if needed.
>
>
>
> Does anyone have any thoughts on such a move? Is it worth the hassle of
> customizing a CMS like
>
> Joomla even if I may not be using the structure right now?
>

I'd say that all web projects would start off with either a CMS (like
Joomla or Drupal); or a framework.  I'd think the vast majority of
websites can be handled with a CMS while in rarer cases where you are
building custom functionality (i.e. an application) you'd use a
framework.   I don't know how a client would not need "dynamic PHP".
All clients need to update or add content and need to accept some
forms (e.g. contact).

No client wants to learn HTML, and they usually don't have those
skills on staff.

Maybe some clients would be happy to outsource content management - in
which case you could use an old-fashioned approach of editing HTML for
content.   Still, in those cases (e.g. dog groomer wants a brochure
site), I'd think the low hanging fruit would be solved with services
like Google sites, while slightly more expensive projects would be
served by implementing your "stock" Joomla.  By "stock" I mean the
specific configuration of the system that you've come to know and
deploy to serve as a base.

One key issue for sites based on a CMS is that the client should
understand that periodic patching must occur to keep the underlying
application up-to-date.  This is both a business opportunity for the
developer/consultant and also an argument for using hosted services
whether that service is Google Sites, or a hosting provider who
maintains the Joomla install.

.02

Greg

-- 
Greg Rundlett
Web Developer - Initiative in Innovative Computing
http://iic.harvard.edu
camb 617-384-5872
nbpt 978-225-8302
m. 978-764-4424
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