I really need a CMS framework to build a real website.

Hi All.
Does anybody have experience with dotNetNuke?
Could you compare the two as far as installation/features/ease of use.

I just checked out the modX demo on openSourceCMS demo
It looks cool...

What I’m having the most problem with is getting a test server setup on my home computer. It’s running windows XP just the home edition.
Any recommendations what I need to do to setup my home test server, install modX on it.
Is there any reason to setup the application locally, I figure there is I’ll probably be doing endless tweaking on the CSS layout if nothing else.

Will I need to setup anything with Dreamweaver is that going to be required.
If there’s a general overview for modX already posted someplace, post the link for that.
I need a plan of action & attack.
Thanks loads!

Meanwhile I keep toying with other name brand CMS’s people have recommended Expression Engine & Word Press and of course DNN for .NET stuff being the three biggies.
Too much on my mind maybe, help a brother out.

I don’t have any particular website design or function in mind, until the creativity and inspiration of the magical CMS kick’s in.
Looking under the hood at the demo, modX looks like a rocker!

dotNetNuke
Nuke and .NET in one word, ack! Sounds like do not puke; but I have no experience with it, so I’ll refrain from further childish outbursts. Anyone here can take a stab at comparing contrasting these? I’d love to see an honest comparison.

Developing with MODx
I am a core developer and I use Eclipse (http://eclipse.org/) with PHPEclipse (http://phpeclipse.org) as my web development IDE, though you can choose your favorite editors for editing MODx content, as there is nothing proprietary beyond the template tags used in the HTML templates.

Local Dev Environments for XP
Check out XAMPP from http://apachefriends.org/ -- I have about 10 different XAMPP installs with different versions of PHP and MySQL for testing various environments, and using the XAMPP Lite versions is sufficient for most needs.

I hope that helps you out a little brother...

Thinking about the website design I only get 1 database with my hosting, but would like that to support 2 domain names and many subdomain’s.
How do I go about organizing the 2 domains and sub-domains in the same database?
My hosts supports virtual directories is that going to be advisable to implement, if I don’t want all of my resources ripped, downloads and the like... ?
They don’t support htAccess... any other suggestions there?
Thanks again... the website documentation is awesome... digging deeper...

How do I go about organizing the 2 domains and sub-domains in the same database?

You can install several MODx installations in one database, just use different "table prefix"es at the installation.

They don’t support htAccess... any other suggestions there?

No need for that, the standard installation doesn´t use it. You only need it for URL rewriting.

Marc

Is there really any need for me to have a testing IDE (internet development environment...maybe?)
It should be possible to just put it up live and go for it right?
Worrying about a local setup is just a stall/procrastination technique, right right?
Any major changes in the works on a modX upgrade that I should wait for at all?
That’s about all I’ve got for not...
Thanks T-out

And if you enthusiastically run an upgrade to your favorite snippet, and it turns out to have a bug that totally breaks your site...well, it’s not all that hard to re-upload and repair with a good backup plan, but it’s sure a lot easier to do on a local development machine. Personally, I have both, a local dev environment on a Mac and a standard shared hosting Linux environment remotely, but then I like to be able to develop on my laptop in places where I don’t have Internet access. And not everybody is willing to pay for a hosting service just for development and testing.

Quote from: sottwell at Apr 27, 2006, 01:42 PM

Personally, I have both, a local dev environment on a Mac...

Susan,
Have you tried MAMP from WebEdition? The latest version (1.2.1) includes:

Version: 1.2.1
released on: 04-04-2006
Included software & libraries

* Apache Version: 2.0.55
* MySQL Version: 5.0.19
* PHP Version: 4.4.2 & 5.1.2
* eAccelerator: 0.9.5 beta
* Zend Optimizer: 2.6.0
* phpMyAdmin 2.7.0-pl2
* SQLite Version: 2.8.16
* SQLiteManager Version: 1.1.3
* Freetype Version: 2.1.9
* t1lib Version: 5.1.0
* curl Version: 7.14.0
* jpeg Version: 6b
* libpng Version: 1.2.5
* gd Version: 2.0.28

I have found it to be infinitely more useful than Mac OS X’s included installation, and much easier to configure. I have been using this since version 1.0a3, and it is still the most important part of my webDev kit. just a friendly tip from one OS X web developer to another!

-sD-

Sounds nice...I’m happy with my plain-vanilla system for now, though. Maybe when I get my 20" iMac...

So is this a Mac exclusive community then?
I’m sure that it isn’t... but since it seems the discussion has begun.
IS an IIS/windows install going to be any easier or harder. Are there different sets of documentation for example.
Or is the documentation just written for the LCD or windows user...lol!

Not at all! We are a very diversified bunch. I only mentioned the Mac bit to illustrate why one might want to have a local development environment: to see how well MODx works on different platforms. If I had a decent x86 machine I would have WAMP and LAMP, and maybe (ugh...) even work on IIS. The new iMacs can dual (triple?) boot now, so that’s what I’ll be doing when I get my 20" iMac. Besides, if you’ve ever seen the same website on a Windows machine and on a Mac, you’d see why Mac lovers are so emphatic about it. Windows is just so ugly!

As far as I can tell, the main difference with IIS is an awkwardness in supporting SEO friendly URLs. And file permissions seem to be an issue sometimes as well, but I’m not familiar enough with it to know what I’m talking about.