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Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
See the reason I’m calling symfony “something a java programmer puked up” is because configuration (and model definition?) are all done using XML as well as other various little parts. When I tried to use it, it reminded me of the XML pushup java requires one to do. Terrible!
CakePHP never makes you leave php. You define your models in php, you edit the config in php, you write your controllers in php, you write your helpers, components, and views in php, etc.
If you enjoy writing xml, then by all means, symfony.
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Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
If somebody has taken a deeper look into the applications it would be nice if he could post a review here :)
You may want to drop a site mail to Bauhouse , he is fairly active on the Overture21 forum for symphony and he is using both txp and symphony. I emailed him on the the matter a few months ago and this is what he had, to say; hopefully Stephen won’t mind me posting his email… I think he had some good rounded points (excerpt) :
========================================================
Stephen Bau wrote:
> Hi Jamie,
>
> I’d say now is a very good time to try out Symphony. Take a look at what version 1.2 will be able to do and I think you’ll agree (http://www.chaoticpattern.com/journal/symphony-v12-edition-screencast/). Lately, things have been fairly quiet on the Overture site as everyone appears to be waiting for the next version, due to be released in September as a free download for new users. You only need to pay for support.
>
> In the meantime, I would recommend purchasing a copy to try it out. The current policy is, purchase one license and you need only to email a request for additional licenses and they’ll give them to you free. Twentyone Degrees is in the process of changing their license structure from one license per site to subscription-based support for developers.
>
> There is a little bit of learning to do: XPath, XSLT. But I was surprised at how quickly I was able to pick up the basics. It does take me a while to figure things out. But, once you know, you can do practically anything you want. No hacking required.
>
> You can choose different URL structures for each page:
>
> www.example.com/archives/2006/04/31/article-title/
> www.example.com/page/category/title/
> www.example.com/page/page/page/title/
>
> You can pull data and images from external datasources like flickr:
> eg
>
> Textile and Markdown are available as campfire services.
>
> Custom fields are unlimited and can be a text field, text area or select box.
>
> Things that require plugins in Textpattern can easily be produced using XSLT: for example, displaying active links in a navigation menu.
>
> A couple things you need to watch out for is character entities and ensuring your XSL templates and XML data are well-formed. In that way, XSLT is very unforgiving. If you have an improperly encoded character or a mismatched XHTML tag, it is possible that the entire site will be affected and every page will display an error. For example, Allen Chang’s site, Chaotic Pattern, is not showing up very well at the moment because of a parsing error that is affecting the entire Journal section: http://www.chaoticpattern.com/journal/. However, the Home page and About section appear to be working fine.
>
> If you are not ready yet, check things out in September. Then you can try Symphony out for free (if the development team sticks to the announced release date). Also, a beta version should be coming out soon, according to Alistair ( link ).
>
> Stephen
====================================================================
Again, I like the ideas behind it and perhaps I did not give it enough time, I have been very busy and it’s sometimes easier/quicker to just go ahead and pound something out with what you know (txp) and get your project out than to monkey with something new etc.
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Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
Skubidu wrote:
<blockquote>Untill now I just clicked through the online demo and watched some screencasts. In general the system seems much more flexible to me, especially if you need unlimited custom fields and a customizable inferface on a per section base. I never worked with this XSLT stuff but it seems to be very powerfull and it’s also – as textpattern – tag based, so you don’t need to know php or something like that.
Sure, Textpattern has some great things out of the box (files, links) but if you want to do more than a site publishing texts, it can be very limited, too (we only have 10 custom fields, and the interface – especially the write tab – is not that easy to use for “normal” editors, if you’re having many custom fields or have to enter an article image).
If somebody has taken a deeper look into the applications it would be nice if he could post a review here :)
</blockquote>
That is exactly what I saw, too. It looks like it is fairly easy to show ANY type of content. Also, some people are complaining about the whole “register to download” service. But, the reason they do this is to provide you with probably the easiest installation you have ever experienced. You download a single PHP file (or something like that), then the script automatically downloads the files for you and puts them on the server. I’m assuming the updating would also run rather smoothly. If i had more time to explore XSLT and stuff I think Symphony would be awesome. Also, once they start getting up some real Campfire Services and some Themes for the new version 1.5….
bludrop studios .::. Creative Expression
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#16 2006-10-09 22:10:30
- hazel
- Member
- From: Glastonbury, UK
- Registered: 2006-09-22
- Posts: 36
Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
So I tried installing Symphony today…
The install was actually a little tricky. I presumed something with my .htaccess file, but it turned out to be my MAMP setup, aparently it only works on PHP/MySQL’s default ports. Who knew?
The admin interface looks nice, but has some odd conventions (‘Campfire services’, ‘Blueprints’ ?). Also has a bit of a new conceptual model to get your head around (pages, components, controllers).
Having now read a bit about XSLT it seems it could be worthwhile learning, as it’s useful elsewhere, i.e. turning XML into useful stuff (picking out the data you need from API’s).
But, the fact that IE is not supported is a showstopper (standards compliant browsers only, presumably the Ajax stuff?). Too idealistic.
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Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
You don’t get the AJAX calendar and a few other things in IE6, but the admin is functional. IE can display both the demo admin and hompage.
I really like Symphony, but I just don’t have the time to learn XSLT right now. Maybe this winter.
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