An Overview

[Maxal]

Evaluating Vivvo for an online edition of a daily newspaper, I have come to feel that it needs some sort of tweaking.

• Latest News
This module brings all the latest news published in any category, to the frontpage. And as such, this bloc is the biggest one to populated the index page. No newspaper website publishes latest news in every category. It has a section of latest news and any news worthwile goes to that section. A matured and developed news item is posted to the relative category only the next day. For a newspaper, there has to be an inbuilt system whereby admin shows categories in the same fashion as Latest News is used. and Latest News should only be a small bloc somewhere on the left or right. I will perhaps get an answer that it is possible, refer to docs. My point is that Vivvo should be by default ready to be a first-choice for a newspaper website angle without getting into .phps and .tpls.

• Lead Story dispaly
As I had statated in the other forum, take into account how every newspaper in the world displays its lead story. Vivvo, again for a newspaper website, should have a (very) special display for the lead story of that day edition.

• Archieve
If today is 5 and I go back to 1st in the calendar, I should get news posted ONLY on the 1st. I guess currently this is not the case.

[Maky70]

Right, but unfortunately every news or media site uses its own style & layout in showing latest news, top stories, etc.; there's nothing STANDARD in media sites nowadays... everyone is heading on their own way :rolleyes:

As someone who had tried & tested a bunch of other CMS solutions, I believe Vivvo is moving in the right direction while maintaining its flexibility, the ease of use and reliability. Yes... Vivvo 3.5 might not be the best news CMS out there, but SpoonLabs is on the right track. Vivvo 4 will change many things, as Boccio stated in the new forum, and will probably lead other similar tools in its category.

Modern CMS tools are not just articles or blogs interfaces with some fancy options, they are becoming all-in-one packages for developing modern, Web 2.0 portals with many useful features and more user interactivity.

The real power of any CMS tool depends on two things: 1) Extensions availability, power and support, and 2) the number of available eye-catching and customizable templates/front ends for that tool. Joomla, Xoops, Drupal and many others are very popular because of the available number of powerful extensions that support them... just name a feature, and most probably it's available for those CMS as an extension (whether it's free or commercial).

It's quite hard to believe that the same tool (http://drupal.org) used to develop US Horse Trainer (http://www.ushorsetrainer.com/) site was used to develop The NY Observer (http://www.observer.com/) or IBNLive (http://www.ibnlive.com)!

Vivvo - including many other good CMS packages - is like the Swiss Army Knife; if you know how to use or customize it properly, then the options are endless; it all depends on your imagination and technical background with such scripts :p

Stay tuned for Vivvo 4 in the coming few weeks... everybody is impatient to get it and install it on their sites :D

[Maxal]

The real power of any CMS tool depends on two things: 1) Extensions availability, power and support, and 2) the number of available eye-catching and customizable templates/front ends for that tool. Joomla, Xoops, Drupal and many others are very popular because of the available number of powerful extensions that support them... just name a feature, and most probably it's available for those CMS as an extension (whether it's free or commercial).


Nothing could be said more about a next-generation CMS application. Vivvo is a great tool. Hats off to the developers. But as you have pointed out about the availability of extensions, it greatly surprises me as to why on earth a developer will avoid coding more plug-ings to attract more and more users. Like I said someone on this forum about a weather plug-in. I was told there were oceans of third-party feeds available for that. That is fine. Thanx for the information. But than ocens of CMS are also available on net. Than why Vivvo? I mean, come on, coding is your work, so just do your work and leave it to users if they use it or not. If I am a coder and I am selling a product like Vivvo, I will try not to leave ANYTHING AT ALL on the buyer to find as 3rd-party application or do it himself. Being a coder, how much time will it take me to make an extension? To me, it's pretty simple, and right as you have also said: More features, more acceptability.


Vivvo - including many other good CMS packages - is like the Swiss Army Knife; if you know how to use or customize it properly, then the options are endless; it all depends on your imagination and technical background with such scripts :p


This is my point. If I am purchasing an expensive system like Vivvo, why I should have a technical background? Why not coders make a 100 plug-ins and just dump them in admin section, leaving on users to turn them on or off?

[Maky70]

You're right. I believe the Vivvo development team will focus on developing several useful plug-ins and extensions after Vivvo 4 release. Outsourcing the extensions development's process to an external & reliable party is also a good option, as this would allow them to focus on improving the core system and develop new, attractive templates/front ends for this next generation CMS tool.

Unfortunately, even the most expensive and powerful CMS tool still requires some hacking & customization to exactly get what you're looking for. In reality, a total out-of-the-box CMS solution only exists in our minds & dreams, or you'll get 70-85% satisfaction level at best!

If I am purchasing an expensive system like Vivvo, why I should have a technical background? Why not coders make a 100 plug-ins and just dump them in admin section, leaving on users to turn them on or off?

That would be great, but the problem here is determining what every user wants or expects to get from the CMS package, and that's why every CMS out there has its "Pros & Cons" when you compare it to other tools. If one CMS could include everything - or at least 90% - of what we expect to have in it, then everybody will simply buy it and leave all other tools :D

[Maxal]

Outsourcing the extensions development's process to an external & reliable party is also a good option, as this would allow them to focus on improving the core system and develop new, attractive templates/front ends for this next generation CMS tool.

This is the most effective modus operandi I have seen these days. But for that to happen, the Vivvo team will have to kick start the craze of developing plug-ins for Vivvo. They will have to encourage part-timers for a while. Once this become a trend, which it will, then the whole Vivvo team could sit back and see their programe progressing.


...a total out-of-the-box CMS solution only exists in our minds & dreams, or you'll get 70-85% satisfaction level at best!
/QUOTE]

This is where plug-ins come to play their role. 70% from the original programe and the rest of the 30% from plug-ins.

[QUOTE=Maky70;4528]
...the problem here is determining what every user wants or expects to get from the CMS package.


When I say that "Why not coders make a 100 plug-ins and just dump them in admin section, leaving on users to turn them on or off", it will most probably satisfy almost everyone. Than there are experienced users like yourself who give excellent feedback which could be used as a guideline for future development.