RE: [Web4lib] CMS or something else?

[Darci Hanning]

> I installed Plone, and while the interface is nice, it looks like a CMS  where 
> the management is tied into the interface (there will always be a  login link 
> on the page the public sees, and the page is sort of  pre-configured into a 
> plone interface with plone's menus, etc.).

The entire front end of Plone is pure CSS. You can put any CSS on top of it you
like, including doing things like removing the login link that the public sees, 
etc.  And you can redesign the navigation / menus to any look and feel you like.
You can customize the look of Plone to your heart's content assuming you 
  looooove to play with CSS ;-) 
  
> What I'm really looking for is a means for staff to edit and add pages  
> to an existing site through a web interface, but have the site itself 
> be completely independent from the editing interface.  

What's driving this requirement? Other than having an existing site 
where you don't want to port the content to a database-driven CMS?

> The editing  interface, for instance, would go through a different port 
> than the  site itself, with authentication, and they'd be able to see 
> the  directory tree under the document root of the web site, and then 
> be  able to edit those files as well as add new ones.  Ideally, it would 
> be  nice to have an approval stage.  WYSIWIG would be nice, but not  
> essential.

Plone can do all of these though perhaps not in the fashion you're
used to. For example, the editing view does provide a 
"directory-tree" view (the "contents" tab) and you can certainly
edit existing content and create new content. Also, Plone's workflow can 
be customized to be as simple or as complicated as you like.

I have also found it relatively easy to port an existing static site
to Plone (can you say copy/paste? ;-)

Cheers,
Darci