Review of CMS Made Simple
CMS Made Simple is a light weight content management system developed in PHP which falls under the GPL. It was created with the intention of providing a workable CMS to users with very little technical knowledge and allow them to customize and edit their own content on their websites. Professional web developers have also chosen to use it when creating websites for their clients so that changes to the content of a website can be carried out by the client without knowledge of more complex systems, such as Drupal.
To ease the development and dispersion of templates, CMSMS uses the popular Smarty templating engine. It provides stock modules to allow a user to create a simple, static website quickly through the TinyMCE WYSIWYG content editor as well as adding news content. There are some extra modules which can be installed that allow for further content generation including albums, guest books, polls, and more.
Where CMS Made Simple Excels
CMS Made Simple is great as a CMS for anyone who needs a light weight site with static content. The administration panel is intuitive, and creating content pages is simple. Small businesses, profile sites, and hobby websites will benefit from the lack of distracting features that could overwhelm those new to web authoring. CMSMS is successful for what it does because it is easy to install with the wizard and remains simple to operate. It allows for file uploads and management from within the administration panel, so updating the content is simple enough.
Many CMSs are so complex and filled with features that creating a website and handing over its operation to a client will either result in ongoing repair work or having to update the content yourself. They have grown to the point that developers pick a specific CMS that they are most familiar with, specialize in it, and only use another platform when it is absolutely necessary. CMSMS provides an alternative which can save time for everyone.
CMSMS isn't entirely limited to simple websites, though. There are several modules you can install to increase the complexity and interactivity of your website. Blogs, forums, and shopping carts open a large volume of possibilities.
Where CMS Made Simple Doesn't Shine
Since it is geared for simplicity, CMSMS doesn't lend itself to highly polished, user-content driven websites. That's not to say that you couldn't create such a site with this platform, but it is redundant to do so when so many other content management systems already carry the capabilities.
One reason for its inadequacy for technically impressive sites is its youth. Because it is still in the 1.x phase of development, it hasn't had the time to grow the user base and developer base necessary to make it one of the leading competitors among CMSs. That small community limits documentation and technical support to what is found on the CMSMS website and a few smatterings across the net. Therefore, bugs will be found and fixed slower, new modules will be more scarce, and you could spend a significant portion of your time fixing problems or essentially creating modules you need.
If developers use it for what it's good for, the user base will grow and the CMS will gain momentum as more improvements are released. Until then, it's a solid solution for creating small websites for your clients.
Download CMS Made Simple
Post new comment