Textpattern CMS support forum
You are not logged in. Register | Login | Help
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Symphony Web Publishing System
Is there anybody in this forum who has ever worked with Symphony?
It is free to use (not OpenSource though) and has a very good looking, reduced interface.
I like to know what the differences are in what you can achieve with Textpattern and Symphony.
Offline
#2 2006-10-05 10:32:16
- -jw-
- Member
- From: fruitbelly, the Netherlands
- Registered: 2004-03-16
- Posts: 79
Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
Not yet worked with it. Just downloaded the latest installer to play with it on my textdrive account. There is a thread over at the textdrive forum. Maybe there wille be some posts on the differences between Textpattern and Symphony in the next couple of days, at least I hope so.
textile deletes my identity
Offline
#3 2006-10-05 11:48:13
- Ace of Dubs
- Member
- Registered: 2006-04-17
- Posts: 446
Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
I had played with the demo when it first came out. Interface is ver slick but I had a rough time getting my head around the whole XSLT thing..it was also a much more basic admin, good to see they have expanded the functionality (campfire integration is nice too)
FWIW, Symphony was the slowest in benchmark tests against Rail and Django.
Right now ModX and Radiant CMS have my attention. One is still too complex and convoluted and the other is blindingly simple..TXP sits comfortably in the middle for now, but its good to have more than one tool in the toolbox
Offline
Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
FWIW, Symphony was the slowest in benchmark tests against Rail and Django.
That seems to be another Symfony they are talking about – not Symphony.
Offline
Offline
Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
Oh, also, Ace, have you tried out cakePHP? I have been using it to produce project for myself and clients. (this one for instance)
Offline
Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
Symphony looks good on the surface, I’ve yet to kick the tires cause I dislike becoming a member to download a free product. It’s free but it’s not Open Source, you pay for support if you can’t figure out the XSLT based templating system.
Alistair said on the forums:
But Symphony’s strength really shines when people decide they need more than just a blog, and this is something that WP, TXP and MT cannot do easily, if at all.
We Love TXP . TXP Themes . TXP Tags . TXP Planet . TXP Make
Offline
Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
Symphony looks good on the surface…
I would have to agree here. I waited and waited for the release to become “free” which it did about a month ago. I installed it the same day. Played with it for several hours here and there and it has been sitting. There are way to many factors that can go wrong to actually try to set this up for anyone onther than a nerd cough developer. I can’t imagine trying to set this up for a client. Oh, the support calls you would get. You can customize the interface to limit what is seen…. You can make it into anything apparently if you check out the screencasts, but I have to think about who is willing to pay for something that I can do out of the can, with txp.
~jamie
Offline
#9 2006-10-05 22:30:30
- hazel
- Member
- From: Glastonbury, UK
- Registered: 2006-09-22
- Posts: 36
Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
I think they’re asking a lot with the XSLT stuff. Seems a bit of tangent.
Radiant’s looking good, especially the inheritance stuff. But there doesnt seem to be a divide between content and code, theyre both together in the page. As the dev says…
—-
Radiant is a CMS for designers and programmers. It’s made for technically savvy users (From his presentation at chirb)
—-
Also worth looking at is Mephisto, another rails app. Uses txp-like section concept.
Offline
Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
And what about Simplelog? I’ve heard that is simpler than Mepisto
I’ve followed a hint from the creators of the suckerfish that lead me to mephisto, then, in one of textdrive’s forum post witch mentioned mephisto, someone introduced simplelog… they are both rails… or is it ruby? …or ruby gems on rais ;o)
Simplelog even has a nice screencast showing you the installation process in a Mac.
By the way, could someone explain me how o install simplelog in a textdrive account, usin only english vocabulary? please?
Offline
#11 2006-10-06 00:52:49
- Mary
- Sock Enthusiast
- Registered: 2004-06-27
- Posts: 6,236
Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
I haven’t been able to try Symphony, as I have repeatedly been unable to register (verification email doesn’t work). :/
Offline
Re: Symphony Web Publishing System
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 :)
Last edited by Skubidu (2006-10-06 06:46:30)
Offline
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.
Offline
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.
Offline
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
Offline