Exponent CMS Review

CMS Roundup: The search for the perfect Content Management System

Version used: 0.96-rc2

Site I tested it with:

I used Exponent CMS to develop this site. See it in action! Zimmer Design Services

Installation

Installation was amazing. Took less than 1 minute. I recommend, if it is possible, to upload the compressed file onto your web server, then extract it there. It will save a lot of time. To do this, first upload the compressed file with an FTP client (I like FileZilla). Now log into your server through SSL (I recommend Putty). Login, then type tar -xzvpf filename.tar.gz (replace filename). This should extract it. I created my database for it, then went to their install wizard. To get the wizard, just go to the directory it was installed in. For their installation documentation, go here.

First Impressions

Looks very clean. No administration interface, instead it is just integrated into the site, which makes it simple (I love it!). Admin activities are done in the administration panel, which is a module that can be added anywhere on the site.

Templates

The only available documention I found was at the Sourceforge Exponent Project Page. Read through this, and you should be able to figure it out. What I did was download one of the themes, renamed the folder (it must end in "theme"). First, edit class.php. Find the line class sometheme, and replace it with class yourtheme (must be the same as the folder). Then I edited index.php and style.css to make the template. It has all the code that calls modules and everything else already there. Last, I uploaded the theme. Now go to the administration panel (should be on the homepage in the side panel), and click on "Manage Themes". Your theme should be there, so go to it and click "preview". Now go to the administration panel again, and click on "Configure Site", then "edit" at the top. In the drop down box, select your theme. Save the changes, and your theme should be there.

Match to Requirements

• Page-Based: Yes. Very simple. Favorite of all CMS's.
• Runs on LAMP: Yes.
• Runs on shared hosting: Yes.
• WYSIWYG editing: Yes. Uses HTMLArea, and allows you to customize it (only show the buttons you want, etc.)
• Friendly URLS: No. Not in this version. Possible in later versions.
• Open-Source: Yes.
• Easy template engine: One of the best. It is a PHP template, and you can call content with simple functions. A little harder to customize the output of these functions (such as the navigation bar)--they are hidden in modules/modulename/views/something.tpl, and use the tpl language, not PHP.
• Flexibility: Definitely.
• Modules and Built in Applications: Some. Most of the ones you need: blogs, email forms, user management, theme management, search, news feeds, banner rotator, etc.
• User Management: Offers simple user management. Turning off users is a pain though, I can't find a way to do it. So I just hid the login form for the admin.
• E-commerce: No.
• XHTML / Standards Compliant: Not completely. Some code outputted by script uses tables, but you can use XHTML to design your pages.
• Auto-Generation of Bread Crumb Navigation: Yes.
• Usable UI: A+ No messy admin panel that disconnects you from the site. Just login, then surf the site, but you can add modules wherever you want (as defined by the template).
• Easy Installation: A+ Less than 1 minute. Literally.
• Documentation: This is where exponent lacks. There is almost no documentation. There is a half finished article for templeting. I'm sure this will get better though as Exponent is a new project. In the mean time, check out my Exponent CMS Tutorials.

Pros

• Admin: Very simple and powerful. Great package management (you can just upload a zip file and it will install it).
• Templates: Very easy to theme.
• Content Structure: Very easy to add pages where you want them (unlike Mambo).

Cons

• Documentation
• Search Engine Friendly URLs
• Does not write XHTML/ Standards compliant code

Conclusion

This is definitely my favorite content management system. It allowed me to do what I wanted to do easily, and still made it simple for my client to add his own pages and content. Easy to customize. Only downside is a lack of documentation and community. This means that if you want an easy poll script, or bulletin board add-on, you are out of luck. For me, this isn't a problem, because there are plenty of open source solutions out there to fill the void.

Exponent CMS Tutorials

• Exponent CMS Review
• Exponent CMS Theme Tutorial
• Customizing the Contact Form Module - Set their Email as Reply-to Address
• Change Link Class for Current Page
• Customizing the Contact Form Module - Adding or Changing Fields
• 500 Internal Server Error Solutions for Exponent CMS

Other Reviews

CMS Roundup: The search for the perfect Content Management System: The parent article for this review. If you haven't read it already, click the link.

Mambo CMS Review: Another review in the series.

Sitellite: Another review in this series.

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