I don't use CMS, however, in light of the gov thread (and the fact I like to occasionally play with new toys) I was wondering if those with more experience had any suggestions to offer in regards to a solid, secure, free, easy to install, CMS package for ASP.NET 2.0 (preferably written in C#) that runs on IIS6 and SQL Server?

This looks kind of interesting:

http://umbraco.org/

Anyone have any experience with it?

Our Office has used DotNetNuke a couple times for some smaller CMS projects. I haven't developed with it at all, but the dev that did said it wasn't too bad.

http://www.dotnetnuke.com/

Dan Siegfried wrote:

Our Office has used DotNetNuke a couple times for some smaller CMS projects. I haven't developed with it at all, but the dev that did said it wasn't too bad.

Thanks. Actually, I've used DotNetNuke before. It was okay. I decided to play with Umbraco for the moment, and it seems promising.

My honest question is why in the world would you put yourself in a box and insist on using .net and sql server, which cost a LOT of money? I use Drupal all the time, it used PHP and MySQL and it's amazing. Check out www.billingsdisciples.com and www.bledginosis.com for two examples of websites that I put together in less than an hour each for instance. There are other very good CMS's out there that use other technologies as well. As a professional Business Intelligence Developer, it's always a red flag when someone wants a solution in a box haha, on the other hand, you may have a very good reason for that box, so I'd be interested in your reasoning .

Joshua Austill wrote:

My honest question is why in the world would you put yourself in a box and insist on using .net and sql server, which cost a LOT of money?

I'm not putting myself in a box. I'm just looking to see what's out there to help someone else out.

I use .NET and SQL Server because (A) they are solid and extremely powerful, (B) I'm familiar with the technology, and (C) I have a dedicated server on which I have licensed versions already installed [this one].

I use Drupal all the time, it used PHP and MySQL and it's amazing.

Blah, you're putting yourself into a box.

I actually use PHP with MYSQL/PHPMyAdmin for the college's athletic website. I know it isn't quite what you are looking for, but the CMS works very well and is easy to administrate. I actually have a few of my IT students take care of/webmaster it.

Jeff

www.mccpioneers.com

Groovy. If PHP/MySQL is your thing, go for it. It's not mine.

Just a suggestion...take it or leave it.

Groovy is an option as well I suppose, but grails really isn't a CMS.

Oh wait, you meant...

nevermind.

Not to mention Microsoft has free Express editions of both Visual Studio and SQL Server available that are plenty powerful enough if you don't need an enterprise level solution.

And at most places (like Godaddy) Windows hosting is right around the same price as the Linux plans.

Also, right or wrong, many of the government customers that hire the company I work for do so because of our partnership with Microsoft. To a lot of government open source is a no-no.

So like Larry said develop with whatever you like best or are most familiar with be it PHP/MySQL, .NET/MSSQL, Java/Oracle or any other combination that meets your requirements.

I use .NET and SQL Server because (A) they are solid and extremely powerful, (B) I'm familiar with the technology, and (C) I have a dedicated server on which I have licensed versions already installed

Already owning the software is indeed a VERY good reason to want to use it . Being a Visual Studio/SQL Server developer, I could argue the "solid" commit, but I digress hehe.

Also, I don't put myself in a box at all, I would use whatever DBMS and web programming language the best CMS used, regardless of what it was, so long as the price was right . Good luck on your search!

Being a Visual Studio/SQL Server developer, I could argue the "solid" commit

See, stuff like that is just irritating.

PHP is a scripting language, it started out as a hack, and no matter how much lipstick you put on it -- it is still a pig, no matter how pretty or useful it may have become. But that's my opinion, as obviously, PHP has a vast following and many large scale solutions have been developed using it.

Visual Studio is a development environment. There is no specific language associated with it. Likewise, .NET is NOT a language, it is a framework. A vast, powerful, language-independent one, at that. It wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't some freaky version of PHP for .NET out there somewhere.

The typical core web development is LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) vs. whatever acronym might exist for Windows/IIS/SQL Server/.NET.

Arguing PHP/MySQL against .NET/MSSQL is virtually apples and oranges. PHP/MySQL vs. C#/MSSQL would be a better choice.

C# itself IS superior to PHP, no matter how far it has come.

SQL Server IS superior to MySQL, no matter how far it has come.

All of that said, I should probably not even post this, as I'm just being grumpy and I think we are all in agreement to just use the tool which best fits the job. (Well, as long as it is NOT Perl -- I would rather gouge my eyeballs out with a rusty spoon than ever have to touch that mess of a "language" again.)

Oh, and just to add 2 more cents to the religious fire ...

What language is C# written in? C#.

What language is PHP written in? None. It has no meaning.

Can you write an operating system in C#? Yes.

Can you write an operating system in PHP? No.

Now which "language" is more powerful???

Language performance. This is such a no brainer that it doesn't even require a link or any justification, other than to state, all .NET languages (such as C#) are compiled and PHP is interpreted. Compiled code absolutely DESTROYS interpreted code in the arena of performance.

Database performance. TCP-E is the most current standard. Do you notice anything other than Windows + SQL Server in the list of top benchmarks?
http://www.tpc.org/tpce/r...esults.asp

Database security. This article is from 2006, however it applies.
http://www.darkreading.co...=208804201

... Enterprise Strategy Group, has compiled Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) data from Oracle, Microsoft's SQL Server, and the open source MySQL database, and found some major differences. In fact, Oracle has 70 vulnerabilities, MySQL has 59, and SQL Server has just two. ...

PHP security. (CMS such as Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.)
http://venetsian.com/php-...url_fopen/

... due to the increasing threats from numerous hacker attacks on popular content management systems such as Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, and others ... if enabled, allow_url_fopen allows PHP's file functions ... [to] retrieve data from remote locations, like an FTP or web site. The problem is that this function is enabled by default in standard PHP configuration ... php security issues are a big list and new ones are constantly added with each new version ...

Google Fight.

"C# vulnerability" - 6 hits
http://www.google.com/sea...ability%22

"PHP vulnerability" - 46,800 hits
http://www.google.com/sea...ability%22


Enough said.

And yet, what language does Microsoft turn to when it needs to control the build processes for all of it's fancy schmancy products?

That's right... perl.

But I will agree with Larry that PHP and MySQL are horrific abominations.

Sounds like Larry will see you a C++ and raise you a baptist.