A typical content management system (CMS) would include features such as a news display, FAQs, vistors book, downloads, discussion forums, and an image gallery.
Popular CMSs include XOOPS, PHPNuke, PostNuke, Mambo, Plone, Zope, Typo3 and Drupal.
The major problem with CMS packages is that they are often very unfriendly to set up, and can be a personal nightmare to integrate with an image gallery, as most of the products do not have built-in galleries, usually relying on third-party offerings. A noble exception is CPG-Nuke, which was specifically designed to get round this problem by offering an integrated package of PHPNuke and Coppermine Photo Gallery - Well done chaps!
Support can be another issue. Most of the affordable products rely on a community of developers to maintain and enhance the packages. Community can be an erratic community of one, or it can be a large, enthusiastic, often international group of committed individuals, producing and testing work to the highest professional standards. To get some idea of the quality of support, have a look at the products support forums. It is also worth checking the download areas for patches, and the intervals between major releases.
Another criticism of CMS from Internet design gurus is that they lead to a bland uniformity of style, as the look is by definition pre-packaged. The jury is out on this one - Whilst there are many samey, out-of-the-box sites, there are also many others out there that are only identifiable as originating from a specific CMS by their page footnotes (or not, if they have been removed!).
Both CPG-Nuke and PostNuke have possibilities, and they are two of the better presented CMS products, but integration could be better. I’ve recently been experimenting with the PHPNuke/Gallery combination. It has to be said that PHPNuke suffers from an inelegant installation procedure, lack of documentation, and seems quite buggy, but the Gallery software itself works extremely well. Typo3 is elegant, but difficult to get to grips with quickly.
Mambo is very slick and well engineered, but the original development team have legged it and created Joomla, which is a parallel development based on Mambo 4.5.3.2. Both integrate with Gallery.
I'm currently using the Drupal and Gallery 2 combo. The install and integration is relatively straightforward, but care is needed to make sure all the steps are followed correctly. The Drupal code is very reliable and continuing support from the community is excellent.
One to watch is Exponent. I’ve had a good look at version 0.96.2 which has got a basic image gallery module and plenty of functionality for adding your own content however it is currently let down by almost zero documentation and a fairly impenetrable admin interface.
Another CMS to consider is e107, which integrates with, amongst others, Gallery 2 and Lightbox.
Here are a few example sites that incorporate an image gallery:
Bath Pubs (Drupal/Gallery 2)
The Chess Knights (CPG-Nuke)
Discover Magazine (Plone)
Further information on CMS systems can be found at CMS Matrix, CMS Watch (a bit heavy), and CMS Review.
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