Loading...
 
Community and *.tiki.org site organization

Community and *.tiki.org site organization


Is this for me?

posts: 5 United Kingdom

I have been looking at various CMS systems for a collective/collaborative project I am involved with. TikiWiki seems to have every (well almost) feature we could possibly need and more. I really do think it is brilliant in concept and features, but I am concerned that the learning curve for me will be huge as the documentation is er... well somewhat lacking. The documentation outline is very logical and I am sure will be great when it's fuller, but right now even what is there seems to be either too sketchy or too techie.

My concern is that because the community seems to be quite small (eg forum logs are scarecly daily) will there be the help I would need to get a complex site up and tailored to our needs (including the look and feel).

I have experience of HTML (mostly Dreamweaver) and have set up a site using e107, as well as playing around with Mambo, Drupal, PHP-Nuke and PostNuke. I haven't had too much problem with any of these - but they do have very active communities and a fair amount of documentation. It seems that most of the features in TW don't need coding knowledge but much of the time I can't even find what the huge feature set does and how you use it. I have intalled it just fine and have played around for 8-10 hours including a play on the OpensourceCMS demo. That much time with Drupal or e107 seemed to take me much further than with TW.

So honestly please chaps, would you say that I should attempt using TW? If you think the pain isn't too great for someone intelligent but not interested in code, I'd love to give it a go (and even get involved with documenting as I go - can't code but can write!)

Thanks in anticipation of your serious consideration.

posts: 1630 Canada

Hi!

"community seems to be quite small": Tiki community is huge. Just pop by on IRC to meet some people.

"learning curve for me will be huge as the documentation is er... well somewhat lacking." : About documentation & the learning curve. I suggest you download and print out the 350 page Tiki 1.6 documentation in PDF. While many more features have been added since, it is an excellent introduction document.

"a complex site up and tailored to our needs (including the look and feel)": Tiki is an excellent solution for a complex site as it has many features and many options for each features. And then, you can customize the look & feel via the excellent Smarty-powered templates. Tiki has many smart features to manage large sites, including the site-wide search, the theme control center and the category system.

"That much time with Drupal or e107 seemed to take me much further than with TW." : hmmm, I'm sorry to hear that. I have not looked at them for a while, so I can't comment. Please see: WhyUseTiki


Best regards,

M ;-)

posts: 5 United Kingdom
I have found and started to look through the previous documentation. It looks as if some of my first questions could be answered there. I'll keep you posted how I get on!

posts: 5 United Kingdom

Thanks for speedy reply. I will have a look at the PDF - though printing 350 pages seems a little hash on forests so I'll view it on screen I think!

Just pop by on IRC is a bit of an alien concept for me. I have always shied away from chat and haven't even got a client! Maybe I'll have to overcome my ageist prejudices (I am the old one) and look into it if that is the best way. Though I have to say that I had a peek at the logs which seemed pretty sparse to me. I am still getting used to forums!!

"Tiki is an excellent solution for a complex site as it has many features and many options for each features." ...is exactly why I would love to use it. BUT I can't intuitively see how to alter stuff perhaps be cause there is so much stuff. For example, the first CMS I looked at was PHP-Nuke. I didn't like any of the themes but quickly managed to understand the structure and change stuff a bit even though I ahad never seen PHP code before. You mentioned Smarty, which I visited when I got dazed trying to follow the "How to create a custom template" page. I hoped it might be a WYSIWYG easypeesy thing. I couldnt even understand the website!! (It has been a trying day and my concentration level is low!)

I am not giving up yet, and your response gives me hope, but I haven't yet got the confidence that I can do it.

Thanks again, I'll look at the old docs.


Upcoming Events

1)  18 Apr 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting
2)  16 May 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting
3)  20 Jun 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting
4)  18 Jul 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting
5)  15 Aug 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting
6)  19 Sep 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting
7) 
Tiki birthday
8)  17 Oct 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting
9)  21 Nov 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting
10)  19 Dec 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting