Dot Net CMS systems to consider?

[darrel]

After several months of working in SharePoint to get it ready to implement
our intranet using the CMS features, it's been decided that the organization
doesn't feel that sharepoint is the right product for this. It's a long
story. ;o)

So, I'm now tasked with finding an alternative.

The last time we looked at .net CMS apps was about 5 years ago, and the
market was, well, lacking. We eventually wrote our own, which worked well,
but it seems like I should give a look at what's out there these days.

Some of the ones I'm seeing as potential candidates are:

Community Server
DotNetNuke
Umbraco

Any opinions on the above? Anyone use Umbraco? The primary concern is
'intuitive interface'. Personally, I have yet to find an off-the-shelf CMS
that has anything close to being called 'intuitve' in terms of an interface,
but, that's the goal, at least.

Any suggestions? Are there any other's I should take a peak at?

Admittedly, SharePoint is a bit convoluted from the CMS standpoint. It's
really a mini-CMS built upon this giant SharePoint framework. Powerful, but
it seems to be scaring a lot of our end-users.

I'd also be interested to hear if there are any viable .net based Wikis out
there. I know there weren't many to choose from as of a few years ago.

-Darrel

 

[Cowboy \(Gregory A. Beamer\)]

I would consider getting another organization.

Umbraco is fairly nice and easy enough to work with as a developer. It is
not as easy to extend as SharePoint, but it has a lot in the package. Look
at the sample sites from umbraco.org. I like it better than DNN, but I have
never been a huge DNN fan. On the other hand, DNN has a lot of open source
plug ins and is extremely easy to extend, comparitively.

There are some starter kits you can try, but you will end up writing a lot
of code to make them production ready.

Community Server is rather nice, but not free.

There are a few other open source CMS bits at Sourceforge.net.

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP, MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

*************************************************
| Think outside the box!
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[darrel]

I would consider getting another organization.

Are you saying there are actual organizations that make informed, planned,
IT decisions based on careful analysis and planning rather than randomally
torturing their IT staff with pointless projects? I don't believe you. ;o)

Umbraco is fairly nice and easy enough to work with as a developer. It is
not as easy to extend as SharePoint, but it has a lot in the package.

Extending probably isn't an issue. People want simple, and if they want to
extend the functionality, then, damnit, that's what we bought SharePoint
for. ;0)

Plus, part of me would be happy being able to say to folks 'sorry, can't do
that, the product you chose just doesn't support that'

Look at the sample sites from umbraco.org. I like it better than DNN, but
I have never been a huge DNN fan. On the other hand, DNN has a lot of open
source plug ins and is extremely easy to extend, comparitively.

DNN seems to be getting a lot of buzz, but in looking at the site, I found
it funny that the product 'looks' a lot like sharepoint on the surface. ;0)

Umbraco looks compelling in that they seem to be focusing on UI and web
standards (which, admittedly, SharePoint could care less about).

Thanks for the info, Cowboy!

-Darrel