[PLUG-Devel] Latest Word on Content Managers?

[Joseph Sinclair]

Just a couple of small adjustments:
1) GWT is a tool for developing client-side AJAX apps using Java, not a CMS, and it does not provide any server-side support.
2) GWT is available under Apache 2.0, not BSD
3) OpenCMS is highly comparable to Drupal or other PHP-based CMS's, although each CMS has it's own feature set, with it's own strengths and weaknesses.
4) There are actually more Java-based FOSS solutions than PHP ones, they're just not as well publicized ;P
5) Obfuscation is of very limited value, GWT does it for code-size reduction more than anything else, and you can turn it off if you like.

Not saying you shouldn't use GWT, it's an incredible toolkit, and the latest version (1.4) has a couple highly compelling new features (and a significant performance improvement to the JS code).  I'm just saying it isn't what the OP asked for.

Joshua Zeidner wrote:
>   Victor,
> 
>     If you are building a web app with Java, I highly recommend building
> with GWT.  The other Java CMSs recommended in this thread do not have a very
> healthy community.  GWT was recently relicensed under BSD, which offers
> liberal provisions for commercial apps.  You can also /obfuscate/ your
> client side code which is a huge advantage.  There is also the ongoing
> financial stimulus provided by Google that fosters ongoing development.
> 
>     I have yet to find anything comparable to Drupal or Joomla in Java.  The
> Java world has a tendency to have fairly sparse offerings in this area for
> some reason.  I attribute it to the fact that it is difficult to obfuscate
> code in PHP, so pure open source apps make more sense.
> 
>   -jmz
> 
> 
> On 8/24/07, vodhner at cox.net <vodhner at cox.net> wrote:
>> Hi, Strangers!
>>
>> I am tasked with updating a departmental web site for software developers
>> on our Solaris platform.  This will be FOSS based.  I will not a lot of time
>> to spend on it, and I want to make it easy for others to hack on it too.
>>
>> I'm thinking I should learn something about content managers now.  The
>> current rambling implementation has a lot of hand-coded pages, with Apache,
>> PHP4 and resin components, mostly four to eight years old.  I need to
>> simplify this.
>>
>> We are becoming largely a Java-focused shop (though I'm still mostly a C
>> and Perl guy), so  that could influence some of my decisions -- since I want
>> co-workers to be able to help support this.
>>
>> The goal is to minimize maintenance costs, and make it simple to organize
>> a bunch of miscellaneous resources online.  So I'm really just looking for a
>> pretty simple page builder that co-workers can add entries to.  We'll be
>> pointing at some other applications, but those will be in their own virtual
>> domains.
>>
>> A form-based data organizer might be very handy.  For starters, we want to
>> re-do our employee profile section which includes vacation schedules.
>>
>> Efficiency is of very little concern.  We'll have only a few dozen users,
>> typically only one or two at a time, hit and run access.  We're on a Solaris
>> platform.
>>
>> So my question is simple.  What comes up quick and pays off with minimum
>> effort?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Victor
>>