OSS/FS Web Based Website Management?

Captain Morgan asks: "I work at an engineering company where we have a website for our engineering projects. The problem is that modifying our internal website requires both file server access and the desire to locate and edit html documents. It would be great to have some kind of web based site management software that ran on apache to enable editing and other tasks via a browser. Simplifying website management would also enable more people to contribute to keeping webpages up to date. I've found a few web based site management projects but nothing that stuck out as being great. Does anyone have any experience with open source/free software solutions to this problem?"

Comments

Wiki

[HRbnjR]

Wiki

Re:Wiki

[scrytch]

If you get a Wiki, please use the free links feature (and don't use it if it doesn't support it), and not the godawful WikiWords. It's almost painful to read and have to write things like "CeePluePlus" or "HTMLMarkupLanguage". WikiWords destroy searchability when not using a stemming search engine ... to say nothing of the aesthetics of StudlyCapsEverywhere...

No matter what Wiki you use, keep in mind that most every Wiki stores pages in a database of some sort, and not directly in the filesystem. Wiki is not intended to, and indeed cannot manage an existing site.

My advice is to use DAV, which can be exposed as "web folders" to windows clients (it's an buggy awful DAV client, but it does work), and given simple command-line access through cadaver. I believe Zope has support for DAV, should you need to expand to greater functionality later (Zope also has a wiki product, though it's not terribly featureful)

TWiki

[mnordstr]

http://twiki.org/

A few other Wiki solutions

php and mysql

[foniksonik]

With a little massaging you can have a nice web based file browser and html editor in no time using many off the shelf open source application suites... look on scripts.com or similar sites for those two topics and check the reviews.

Without more info concerning your specific needs (do you need user authentication, page validation, templating, etc.) I couldn't recommend a specific set of scripts to you.

I use geeklog for maintaining a corporate intranet that provides user auth, static page, dynamic page, image uploads, file attachments(with a little hacking) and a nice editor. It is primarily a news portal suite so it also has events management and a site/per user calendar as well as a comments system similar to /. minus all the moderation goodies (don't need them anyways).

It works well for me but you may have different needs.

Zope

[smoon]

Zope is an excellent web-based system, and there are many add-ons for extra features like calendars, discussion lists, etc.

Can run 'behind' apache, but it also includes it's own webserver.

Re:Zope

[beme]

Check out Plone, too. (runs under zope)

http://www.plone.org

Perfect for the task in the topic. Check out the Hawaii govt. movie linked at the plone site...

WebDAV

[Perdo]

Apache/1.3.26
Debian GNU/Linux
PHP/4.2.1
mod_ssl/2.8.9
OpenSSL/0.9.6d
WebDAV/1.0.3 (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning)

Works great, except absolutely anyone can edit any page... But it seems like that's what you are looking for.

Re:WebDAV

[Perdo]

WebDAV plus those libraries might be exactly what he is looking for. They are stable together, and completely open. Why put him through the hassle of figuring out everything he needs to make his project successful? Everything he needs is listed.

Mod me down -1 helpfull when you would rather see +1 RTFM? Those days are over pal. Time to realize that you can use Linux but do not own it. The classic RTFM or more recently "Use Google" response is not the response of someone who wants Linux free and open. Hoarding knowlege and giving F-off answers is neither free, open or productive. Especially on a website centered around Linux advocacy.

Re:WebDAV

[slappy]

Indeed, webdav is an excellent way to go, especially for the users on windows boxen. Just add the dav site as a web folder, and off you go. For permissions management, check out mod_auth_mysql for apache. This makes it really to add and remove users for an auth realm.

CMS ?

[denisb]

It seems your question is a bit badly researched before "Ask Slashdot", but anyhow..

I have personal experience with the following :

- eZ Publish (PHP, *nix, MySQL/PgSQL based)
- Slashcode (Perl, *nix, MySQL based)
- PHP Nuke (PHP, MySQL based)

I wouldnt recommend PHP Nuke, but have little experience with the forks off it.. (Check Freshmeat.net as someone suggested).

eZ Publish is the closest I have seen a complete GPL CMS (Content Management Solution), and integrating some of the addons or buying the desktop edition makes it very easy to use!Highly recommended, and now comes in an easy to install Debian package too ! :) (As of woody, apt-cache search ezpublish and then apt-get install the package ..)

Slashcode is possibly one of the better weblogs, although you should possibly check these too, if that is the kind of website you need :

- Scoop
- Drupal

For non "LAMP", based on Tcl and the AOLServer webserver, check out OpenACS, which is reportedly very feature rich.

I do not have personal experience with either Scoop, Drupal or OpenACS, but several sites use them and produce great sites with them.

Good luck !

WebGUI

[JimMcCusker]

I'd try WebGUI, by PlainBlack Software. They release it under open source, and sell services around it. Seems to be pretty good, I'm going to be playing with it soon.

Whoah

[Apreche]

We had a team website for our Software Engineering class in the spring. We didn't have any web interface. All we had was a shared account with a public_html directory. We also had backups of the team account in case anything happened. It was quite easy.

Lots of good but imperfect options.

[cornice]

I've been using PostNuke for a while now and am mostly pleased with it. It's well supported, mature, actively developed, themeable and there are lots of add-on modules. It's easy to set up, easy to operate and more secure than some others.

Some useful modules include:
CalZone (calendar)
Gallery (photo gallery)
EZ CMS (content management)
PhpWiki

Use the EZ CMS for publishing and use the Wiki for collaboration.

On the other hand, I am starting to favor Python over PHP for various reasons. As a result I've been looking at Zope and wondering if I can get more of what I want. Here's what I have found so far:

PostNuke seems much easier to understand and to get up and running right away. The website is easier to understand and the documentation is geared to making it work rather than the design and theory behind the project. Zope, however does look quite interesting for it's object model and number of products available. It appears as if it would take much longer to get a complex site built but once one has experience with Zope it seems it would be trivial to extend the available products. Also the Zope team had put serious emphesis on the Content Management Framework (CMF). If you're looking for just content management and workflow, this deserves a serious look.

Finally, is it just me or is the zope.org site really hard to understand? There are few examples, virtually no screenshots and links to everything but real answers. Every Zope site seems the same too. There's always a sidebar with a useless, simple calendar and a link back to every other zope site, but little real answers. I must be missing something. Maybe once I wrap my head around everything Zope I'll make a site devoted to showcasing what Zope and Zope products can do with real screenshots, real demos and real example code.