Content Management System Help:

September 21, 2006 2:28 AM

I am looking for a easy to setup and easy to use content management system that will allow members to upload large files for private sharing , allow event listings and commenting and other features. I need it to be easy for the users to do this (non-tech people). I need a free and quick solution - no roll your own time.

I've tried Plone and found it to be a poorly documented chaotic mess that requires serious customization to be able to do basic things. Basically, I am about to give up on it out of frustration. I'm considering Drupal but I am not sure how user friendly its back end is for the users creating content.


The big need is to be able to share large files 500Mb to 1GB.

It would be great to have some sort of download tracking.

posted by srboisvert to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Drupal will do just that, though you'll need to tweak the upload limits a bit. 500M to 1GB is pretty large - if this on a LAN because o/w it will take forever for something like that to upload.

Other than that, commenting, story creation, etc. is rather simple with Drup. It's what it's built for.
posted by unixrat at 5:36 AM on September 21, 2006

Response by poster: Plone appears to time out on the file upload Post with no real informative error information. Probably need to get my provider to make some apache tweaks.


The Drupal community looks really sharp. Good documentation in total opposition to the documentation mess with Plone (which really should've been a tip off with a CMS). If I can't get Plone to work by tomorrow I'll probably be switching.
posted by srboisvert at 10:04 AM on September 21, 2006

I know someone who has written this software recently. I don't know about "free". I will contact him and see what state it's in (eg: if it would take much work to use it with another server for another purpose) and if he's charging for it or what.

Basically it has file categories with downloads, user blogs, and a main page blog. You can comment on files, blog entries, whatever.
posted by ODiV at 12:00 PM on September 21, 2006

Don't know anything about Plone, but after thinking about this, I guessed that you'd need to modify PHP settings to allow files that large.

Seems I was right - http://drupal.org/node/19326#comment-72662
posted by unixrat at 2:14 PM on September 21, 2006

Guy I know says there's some modifications he'd like to do to it before releasing it into the wild. Also, he'd probably charge for it.

Sounds like warez over a LAN or something. You try Direct Connect and then just a forum site for the events/blogs/etc?
posted by ODiV at 6:13 PM on September 22, 2006

Response by poster: If only it was warez over a lan! That tech exists, is robust and user friendly!

It is neuroscience test materials to shared on a sign in only basis with non-techie members. Apparently the file upload timeout is a webserver configuration issue rather that plone itself.
posted by srboisvert at 8:19 AM on September 24, 2006