[opencms-dev] OpenCms High level questions

[Bob Roswell]

We have setup OpenCms and are evaluating it now.  We are very excited
about using an open source content management system.   Much of the
system seems very well thought out with nice XML templates, lots of good
administration, easy installation etc.  However, we could use some help
understanding some of the high level issues.

1)   Has anyone deployed OpenCms with  trained End Users?

We have encountered the following issues when we place ourselves in the
end users' place.

a)    Editing the body of the page from the explorer view is straight
forward, but after that, I seem to get lost.  The best I can figure out
is that I jump out of explorer mode, and into administration mode then
jump to news, and the hunt for the correct headline to edit it.  Is
there a more logical flow?  Or a way of thinking about the process that
makes it more intuitive?

b)  Actually editing the channels on our system seems to take a very
long time.  It is easy and fast to edit the item, but it is about 1
minute from the time I hit the accept button until the system returns
(all other actions on the system seem prompt)


2)  I am not fully understanding the publishing concept.  Does the live
site have to be served by OpenCms, or can we serve the pages from a
standard IIS or Apache Webserver?


3)  Channels seem to be an integral, but undocumented part of the
system.  What am I missing?

4)  When I add a page, and select a template, it seems to copy all of
the content (perhaps related to my lack of understanding of channels)
onto the same page.  How do I create a new page with other information
in the same format, but with new data in it?

5)  What other modules are people working on?

Bob Roswell
System Source
338 Clubhouse Road
Hunt Valley, MD  21031
410-771-5544 ext 4336
broswell at syssrc.com