Best CMS for Multiple Content Areas

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Usually I use WordPress for adding content management to my sites, although I have been given a site to build from a graphic designer that has lots of little content areas on each page.

I could do this with custom fields on WP but the CMS gets messy and not very usable.

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I was thinking of using Drupal or Expression Engine but can’t find easily whether I could add multiple editable blocks on pages with either of these two systems.

Django CMS looks great but isn’t PHP based.
Symphony looks nice too.

Anyone have any ideas what the best CMS for this job might be?

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6 comments

  1. WordPress IS great for sites where each page has multiple fields, you just need to get the user interface working a little better:

    As you suggested, custom fields do a lot of what you need. And fortunately, it is pretty easy to add multiple WYSIWYG editors in a single page/post. In this way, the editor/author can work on content across different parts of the screen, but all held with a single page.

    Although you can find different ways of doing this, I haven’t yet found a need to go beyond the plugin ‘More Fields’ by Henrik Melin. The only shortcoming is that you cannot insert images reliably in WYSIWYG fields other than the main one. However there are often better ways of putting images into their own DIVs using WordPress.

    Let me know how you get on or if you need more info,

    Philip

  2. Drupal would work great for what you’re after. There are two approaches you could consider.

    1. Create content types with the relevant custom fields (but this is not much different to your suggestion using WP)

    2. Use Drupal’s blocks to create areas for the different pieces of content

    We regularly use the second option for building sites, and Drupal offers many options for doing this (using a combination of contributed modules). A combination of Views + Node Reference + Content types will give you a great deal of flexibility. Modules like Node Block and Context would also be well worth a look.

    Drupal is a great CMS, but its learning curve can be a little steep for newcomers. This is possibly worth bearing in mind.

  3. You could blow this away in Drupal in about an hour. Combined with Panels or Context, there is nothing you can’t really do. Plus with CCK, you can generate fields all day in the GUI.

  4. I love WP for single content block sites, but for most everything else I use CMS Made Simple

    You can easily define multiple areas by name and edit all of them using TinyMCE.

    For example:

    {content}                              // your main content block
{content name='Testimonal'}            // shows the name when editing
{content name='Author' oneline='true'} // shows a single input box

  5. It seems you’ve already made your decision, but I wanted to note that ExpressionEngine is perfect for this sort of thing. In EE, you create Channels for each of the types of content that you want to handle within the system. EE Channels can power any repeating content, such as blog entries, a list of bands, an employee directory, or a recipe collection.

    Within each Channel, you’re able to break up your data into any amount of fields, as well as choose what type each field is. Like Drupal, there are many fieldtypes available. There’s also a fieldtype API that allows you to develop your own. I personally think that EE’s got a much more robust fieldtype selection than Drupal and WordPress, thanks to fieldtypes like Matrix, Playa, and Dive Bar (all available from Pixel and Tonic).

  6. I use WordPress and the WordPress Themes for almost five years and must say I’ve not found a better platform for building and managing a website.

    Doesn’t matter whether you’re blogging, have a store front, create a massive business site or need a basic, static website to promote your services and products – WordPress can manage it all.

    And the themes are not only good for personal use, but also for your clients, makes it easier to customize to their style.