Hi, I am after a bit of advice really from anyone that currently builds CMS based websites. I currently build static sites in Dreamweaver, and have done for some time, however I would like to offer more. A number of small businesses ask if they can have shopping carts or add information to their own sites and it is something I cannot currently do (I could use Paypal carts etc but would rather have a better system). I have downloaded and locally installed Joomla, and I like the way it works, however I have struggled to find any suitable templates for a number of different websites that I could possibly use it for, and creating customs templates doesn't seem particularly clear. Does anyone recommend a CMS that allows websites to be updated, and the use of shopping carts etc, that either has a very wide range of templates or allows them to be adapted build for custom use (possibly by CSS). I have been tempted ot get in touch with web design companies to see what they use, but I am assuming they probably don't really want to advertise how they build their sites! Any input would be most appreciated.

I use Drupal. I've tried others & have the same problems with a completely customized design. Drupal is the easiest to theme, IMHO. Just copy the default theme in the /themes folder, and you can modify the CSS & the entire page layout from there. You can also write PHP directly into the CMS pages & have it execute, with the proper permissions - so you can make some very versatile hacks. And, there's many, many modules for adding new features. I haven't personally done a shopping cart in Drupal, but a quick search turned up these two: http://drupal.org/project/ecommerce http://livetest.ubercart.org/uc1/

Excellent, thanks for the recommendation - in fact I was looking at Drupal a couple of days ago and it looked pretty good so a recommendation is exactly what I needed. I think I'll download it and have a look. Thanks again

Content Management System aims to maintain and expand website easily. But there are still other web developers who don't know much about CMS. Here are some of the frequently asked questions about CMS and their answers. These will help you decide whether or not you need a content management system.as i know Joomla is a wonderful content management tool that worked really wonderful for me.. Best Regards James

Hello A content management system is a computer software system for organizing and facilitating collaborative creation of documents and other content. Content Management Systems are used to create, manage and publish web content, empowering business users to directly manage their content without technical assistance and automating the process for review and publishing of web content. The best content management solution for your web site is one that will generate a measurable return almost immediately by lowering operating costs and increasing profit. Best Regards James

A content management system, which is more commonly known as CMS, is software that you run on your own server in order to handle and publish all your website content easily, from HTML files, images, etc. CMS makes the process of updating and uploading your content much simpler and easier, plus it gives you the added bonus of being able to easily create a dynamic, automated website. Best Regards James

Content management is the organizing, categorizing, and structuring of information resources (text, images, documents etc.) so that they can be stored, published, and edited with ease and flexibility. A content management system (CMS) is used to collect, manage, and publish content, storing the content either as components or whole documents, while maintaining dynamic links between components. Best Regards James