What is a good barebones CMS or framework?

I'm about to start a project for a customer who wants CMS-like functionality. They want users to be able to log in, modify a profile, and a basic forum. They also wish to be able to submit things to a front page.

Is there a framework or barebones CMS that I could expand on or tailor to my needs? I don't need anything as feature-rich or fancy as Drupal or Joomla. I would actually prefer a framework as opposed to a pre-packaged CMS.

I am confident I could code all this from scratch, but would prefer not to, as something like a framework would significantly cut down on my time spent coding, and more on design and layout.

Edit: I should have been more specific. I'm looking for a Content Management System that will be run on a Debian server. So no .net preferably.

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I think i may end up going with Drupal, and only adding modules that I need. Turbogears looks a bit daunting, and i'm still not quite sure what it does after it's 20 minute intro video...

TinyCMS doesn't look like it's been touched since... 2000?!?

[tinyCMS][1] is about as barebones as you can get. (**edit**: fixed link, I had gotten a little click happy and linked to the wrong thing)

@modesty, I would definitely NOT use SharePoint, as it is anything **but** barebones. It is a fairly expensive product (especially when compared to the many free alternatives), and it has quite the learning curve to do anything interesting.


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Might want to check out [Drupal](

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).

Here are the details of the [technology stack](

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) that it uses.

I have never used it so I can't vouch for the quality etc but definitely worth a look.

Woo, another Debian nut!

I think you need to be a bit more specific here, Forum != CMS. Is this for internal company or external customer use? What language(s) do you know/prefer? There's no point in recommending a Perl or PHP framework if your language of choice is Ruby. Do you need to plan for scalability?

What's wrong with Joomla or Drupal? I would argue that they can be successfully used on small sites. Maybe a framework isn't what you're looking for, maybe you just need a library or two (eg. [PEAR](

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)?). If you need something smaller, maybe writing your own backend library that you can reuse for future projects would be a better solution.

For a one-size-fits-all framework have a look at [Turbogears](

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). ("it's a big hammer, that makes every problem look like a nail")

I've been obsessing over [TikiWiki][1] lately. Although it has "wiki" in the name, its full name is "TikiWiki CMS/Groupware" and it's an interesting piece of software. It has a real everything **and** the kitchen sink feel. It includes support for wiki, blogs, articles, forums, and files out of the box (and a ton of other stuff too). I think the real appeal to me is that most of the stuff can all be integrated together, wiki pages can include other wiki pages and articles (which is more useful than you might think). It's in RC stage for release 2.0 and is still missing a ton of features, but I think I might keep using it and contribute some of the features that are missing, it's a really interesting base right now.

The [Mozilla support site][2] is implemented using TikiWiki, for an example of a really beautiful implementation.


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if you are looking .net you can take a look at umbraco, haven't done much with it (company i work for wanted much more functionality so went with something else) but it seemed lightweight.

Edit : if the customer wants a tiny CMS with a forum, I would still probably just go Drupal with phpBB or [simple machines forum][1], almost positive they can share logins. Plus tomorrow the customer is going to want more and Drupal might save you some work there.


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I would suggest [PmWiki][1], it's something between a framework/wiki. By default there aren't even users, just different passwords, for different tasks, but using [PmWiki Cookbook 'recipes'][2] You can add additional functionality.
You can check their [philosophy][3] to get main idea what it's about.


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If you want a Rails solution, **[Radiant CMS][1]** is a good option. It's simple, elegant, extensible and, of course, comes with all of the benefits of being based on Ruby on Rails.


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how about you use drupal but scale down and code it according to your needs.

definitely will be faster than code-from-scratch-with-framework

I have been working with Joomla for some time and I believe it one of the best CMS for starting off a Website. I have tried others a lot, But Joomla is better because it has Numerous Extentions (Components , Modules) and also its very Easy to Customize. You could also look at the Community Builder Extension for joomla.Other requirement like Chnage Fronpage Articles etc is a Breeze....

joomla.org


For some reason Joomla Does not Suit you try Drupal.