5 ms·
As another poster points out, there aren't a lot of CMS-related posts on HN, but I'd like to share a little of our experience with Django CMS. I've been using
by JonAtkinson 11y ago
As another poster points out, there aren't a lot of CMS-related posts on HN, but I'd like to share a little of our experience with Django CMS.
I've been using Django CMS since early in the 2.x releases (the earliest Django CMS site I still have the code for was using 2.1.0.beta2), and since then we have developed approximately 80 Django CMS sites; with traffic ranging from a few hundred hits a month, to our largest which serves a few hundred thousand hits per day across three languages.
In all this time, I still haven't found a compelling reason to switch to anything else. Django CMS's most powerful feature is that it's just plain old Django. This means that it's rare we can't use the CMS as a base framework for a site, and then plug custom applications into the site tree as necessary. Certainly few of our clients have needs which are exotic enough where this pattern breaks down. Yes, this requires a certain amount of learning curve, but it's not insurmountable at all, and I think it's conceptually simpler than most other CMSes out there (I've been an agency-side web developer for 15 years, and I still can't figure out how some people mangle the Wordpress page loop).
I was concerned early in the 3.x cycle when front-end editing was introduced (and I believe the introduction was mishandled by the development team), but recent releases have polished this to a level where I can ship it to clients with confidence. This week we launched a new site using 3.2, and content wizards, in particular, are a powerful addition (will these be made multi-step in the future? It would be nice from a UI point of view).
The CMS in general is in good hands, though I do worry that without strong community leadership, it might move too far towards being 'the platform which powers Aldryn', rather than a strong stand-alone CMS. Maybe that's too negative, but I do see it as a risk.
5 years ago I made a bet on Django CMS, and it turned out good, so I'm happy. Maybe it'll serve the next 5 years.
- DanieleProcida 11y agoThanks Jon, we hope to be around in 5 years too! It's always going to be an open-source standalone CMS, and nothing will change that. Even an Aldryn-based django CMS site can be made into a standalone site very easily, so django CMS will never depend on Aldryn in any way. We're always trying to find the right balance for the way django CMS is developed. The fact that there is a team dedicated to it at Divio is what has made this step forward possible in a way that would not have been in the past. We also continue to rely on community input and effort, and that's not going away.
- wslh 11y agoHave you checked Mezzanine (http://mezzanine.jupo.org/ http://mezzanine.jupo.org/)? we have used it for one of our websites (http://www.nektra.com http://www.nektra.com) with good success a few years ago. The only complain I have is that you need to develop some modules to add some extra functionality that should be included. For example, making cross references between related pages.
- mkane848 11y agoI'm currently tasked with creating a new version of my company's Intranet system and have been looking into the different CMS options out there and talking over choices like SharePoint and OpenAtrium with my co-worker. Would you recommend DjangoCMS for an Intranet? I'm planning to implement collaborative content tools and a company wiki (probably going with MediaWiki) on top of keeping features we've already got, and the only external applications we deal with are ADP and BST. I'm a LOT more familiar with Python than I am PHP, so finding a framework I can hit the ground running with would be huge. Thanks!
- DanieleProcida 11y agodjango CMS has very granular permissions, so yes, it works well for Intranet purposes. It can take a little while to get them set up just-so, but you can use them to handle just about any scenario.
- mkane848 11y agoGreat, thanks for the reply. Can't wait to give the demo a run :)
- cbertschy 11y agoWe are currently developing a intranet solution for django CMS at Divio. I cannot give you a ETA yet, but should we inform you once it's available?
- trymas 11y agoI have neither used Django CMS, nor hip kid in town - Wagtail. Do you have any comments on differences between them? What I mean is: is Wagtail powerful in features to take on Django CMS? Or it gained it's popularity solely based on new, eye catching design?