CMSMadeSimple - pages very slow to load?

3stripe

Any http://cmsmadesimple.org/ users here? I'm testing my first ever install of this at http://tinyurl.com/f7srf Easy enough to set up - but it seems VERY slow - taking 3/4 secs to generate a page on Firefox 1.5 Mac, and about that time to load each page in the Admin Panel as well!!!! This is way to slow for my liking - any ideas how to speed up? (I've got a feeling my shared hosting might be partly to blame - however Wordpress operates at a normal speed on my account so not sure why CMSMadeSimple is running so much slower)

3stripe

I'm not digging the ugly urls either, need to find a hack to get them a bit more friendly! (hmm wondering if I should revert to trusty old Wordpress)

LiquidChris

Hey. Try Jaws http://www.jaws-project.com/ Best part about it is the damn simple templating system.

nathan

Jaws is really large though. If there was a version WITHOUT all the images for navigation and such, I would use it. But for something like 14mb for a basic installation, it is insane.

fernando

How come you want to use a huge "cms" script?

Wouldn't it be simpler, faster and lighter to use a blog tool and custom navigate and template it?

zoom!

LiquidChris

Hmm, my jaws installs come to right at 7mb, just over 7mb after I add the blog plugin. Weird. At any rate, good luck with cmsmadesimple.

nathan

-- Hmm, my jaws installs come to right at 7mb, just over 7mb after I add the blog plugin. Weird. -- It could be all the themes I have in there. Weird though.

Kosmo

I would almost go throught the trouble to learn Plone, it has been haunting in the back of my head for a while now. Tho I'm not in a hurry since I'm learning RoR, my earlier post about frameworks being the next CMS is a good example of what I think about this. CMS systems are mainly very very limited, and usually they don't let you do everything you want to do without using plugins and hacking (plugins are great tho, modularity is the way I see it should be done, not the typo3 way). But depending on the project you are about to run, I would suggest that for fast execution and easy to use, you should look for the option to adopt TXP or WP as your publishing platform, they lack nothing and usually are really pluggable and everything that is even remotely popular works on them (mint plugins, several popular templates, so on and so on).

3stripe

Ah just remembered about this post! Well, funny, I'm now thinking of switching from CMS Made Simple for Wordpress. CMS Made Simple seems nice (and was recommended by several folks on here previously) - but does some things in a roundabout way that I don't like: 1. Friendly urls are not on by default. And I can't get them working yet. Arggh. 2. By default, css stylesheets are imported into it's database, and requested dynamically for each page.... a load of nonsense if you ask me. 3. Slow loading times... ok maybe my host is to blame, but no cms I've ever tested is this slow. Hell even the admin panel is slow. One thing I did really like about CMS MS - content blocks. I need 2 seperate columns of info on each page - this was easy to do by adding a second content block which also appears when editing the content. No way to do this in WP - although I've been requesting it at http://wordpress.org/support/topic/68628?replies=1 if you want to help me out.... At the end of the day I need to finish the site fast, so probably better with WP as I know it all already. Jaws looks worth a peek though - would probs be nice for a client to look at - I hate the WP admin interface with a slight vengence. Phew. Off to work now!

fernando

3stripe: You can add a second column of data easily in WP. If you want to fake it, then it's pages and css to solve the problem. However, something tells me that you don't want to fake it. Why not use a second loop in your index.php and curtail that loop for only the category, or sub category you want displayed in it. Further, then curtail your main loop to excllude this data and voila! Read up on the loop and it's interesting and flexible exploits in the wiki at wp not a difficult task at all.

3stripe

Hey sorry I didn't explain properly... let me try again...

I've got the second column working fine... using this marker to divide the post into two:

<?php $content = split("<!--nextcolumn-->", $post->post_content); ?>

and then calling the content like this:

<?php echo apply_filters('the_content', $content[0]); ?>
<?php echo apply_filters('the_content', $content[1]); ?>

But now I want to have TWO textareas inside 'Write post' to matche these two columns.

... instead of having both columns editable in the same textarea.... does that make sense :-?

fernando

Hmm... Originally it sounded like you wanted to split your loop. Now it sounds like you want to split the "admin/write.php" so that you can write both sections from the same input page in the back end. My guess is that neither of these guesses are correct. can you draw me a picture?

3stripe

split the "admin/write.php" so that you can write both sections from the same input page

Yes! You got it!

Was trying my hardest to make some sense.

There would be 2 input textareas, each with there own formatting quicktags above, to give you a left and right content block... either side by side, or one above the other.

Have posted some messages about this on WP forum but no answers yet from that, or the WP hackers mailing list...

I did try adding the split function to the php for 'write post' - but it just gave me a < br > in each of the textareas...

fernando

I think that people may not have responded because it's sort of hard to understand why you wouldn't just create your posts uniquely. Also, I think that where wp is concerned it's somewhat taboo to mess with the admin interface.

In wp, the admin/post input page is handled in the fairest possible way. You choose your category, and then post the entry. The code you write up for your index will then display it as desired. I have used wp for extensive cms work, and limited the index to a single cat (news) and created the remaining site using pages, and then created footers, and sidebars, and cat specific loops to display other entries. It works really well.

The immediate trouble I see with what you're looking to do is that you want to create your multi entry from a single input page.
This would seem to be a matter of either a.) hard coding the cat for the second input box (perhaps edit the except input box and assign it to post in a specific cat) which seems limited, and might cause problems when you post (two new entries at once.)

Another solution might be to duplicate the input boxes and cat selection on the same page so that you can choose the details for both posts at the same time.

This would assume that you were ALWAYS going to make a dual entry, and might still cause problems when posting two entries at once.

Here's a totally different approach:
Why not use CSS to style your post's content and use a desigtn specific div to create the secondary content?

for example:

post.php:

entry one text is entered like any other entry and the cat is selected as expected. entry one text is entered like any other entry and the cat is selected as expected. entry one text is entered like any other entry and the cat is selected as expected. entry one text is entered like any other entry and the cat is selected as expected.

<div id="secondary post">
this is the entery for the secondary post within the main body of the post. this is the entery for the secondary post within the main body of the post. this is the entery for the secondary post within the main body of the post. this is the entery for the secondary post within the main body of the post.
</div>

With CSS you could easily create vertical columns which flow (if that's what you want.)

The only problem i see with this solution is that if the entry for the A post is quite long, and you want to add a "read more" link, then you would have to be very careful about where you placed that code, and think carefully about how you write up your entry to avoid the second column not showing up, or the read more link being in the wrong place.

just a thought.

3stripe

fernando, thanks for the detailed reply! good to know someone is reading my posts :-D

my main concern is making things easy for the client - whatever the solution - it should be easy to use - so they don't mess up the site when they update it. (static verion of the site already online at http://tinyurl.com/h97de)

having seen how easy it was to have multiple content areas in CMS-MS (if there are 2 content tags in your template, the edit page spots them, and automatically shows 2 editing areas), i thought it couldn't be so hard to do this in wordpress. maybe I should ask on the CMS-MS how they do it there?

anyhow, best solution i can think of for now is to use the option, and add my own quicktag to the formatting bar to insert this - something similar to the existing 'more' quicktag...

i like your secondary div suggestion (in fact i've done something with blockquote before to the same effect) but i think it's too hard for the client to do....

fernando

Ah...

Then the solution is definitely to create this CSS solution, and then to add a java quicktag for the client to click to automatically create the div needed.

Then all you need worry about is IF your client can use quicktags (not available in safari)

Seems to me to be the most hassle free method.

But I like the solution a lot for my own use, I just wouldn't rely on a client's ability to remember that (or use it.) Quicktags are always right there in front of them.