Mambo install on jeannot.uklinux.net

First issue was with the permission settings. I uploaded all the files (using Dreamweaver actually), and then hit the installation page via the browser. Most of the directories came back as "Unwriteable", so for the moment I have changed them to permissions of 777 - I must get in touch with Uklinux support to see if this is necessary, or if there's a way round this. One important thing: you need to have the x bit on for a directory in order to cd to it. I was getting "550 Failed to change directory" until I found out. OK so I changed the directories and sub-directories that Page 1 of the installation required, but it still tells me that /tmp is unwriteable (I have created a /tmp in my root folder mind you!), and configuration.php is unwriteable too, although apparently this you can worry about at the end of the installation (but then how do I get to configuration.php on their server at all??). Anyway I thought I'd just click Next, continue the installation, and see how far I get.

I seem to have got all the way thru it - I got the msg at the end saying "Your configuration file or directory is not writeable, or there was a problem creating the configuration file. You'll have to upload the following code by hand. Click in the textarea to highlight all of the code. ". So now I have to figure out where to put this configuration file - in fact I just put it in the root of the site and it appears to work OK...
I also have to remember to delete the installation directory... which I have done.

Still not sure if this message that "/tmp" is unwriteable is going to affect the site at all...

Mambo

Am looking again at CMSes. The most recent one I have looked into is Mambo. Whilst I would dearly love to get involved with a CMS which is Java from the ground up, the actual open-source Java CMSes available are quite limited. I'm thinking particularly of Lenya, which is so generalized as to be very involved and difficult to tailor to a specific purpose (unless you have a lot of time available), and Magnolia (from Obinary) which is very slick and looks nice but doesn't easily give you a wide range of templating options.

So leaving those aside for a mo, I am now looking at Mambo. Embarrassingly, someone I know recommended Mambo a couple of years ago as a good, free CMS, but at the time I was a bit of a Java-bigot so didn't really take it seriously. Now I have some more PHP involvement I am more able to take a balanced view! Also the product has obviously come on a lot since then, and it looks like a serious option, with extensive content-management features and also comprehensive handling for XML content sourcing.

I downloaded it for Linux/Apache (just over a meg, zipped) and installed. The initial install pages that it provides you with a very easy to follow and a site with the sample data was up and running within 10 minutes. This gives you an example portal to play with.

Extensive documentation and user community resources are available for Mambo. I am currently reading thru the suggested article on How to evaluate a content management system which I am hoping will ensure I cover all the bases and don't go off down any blind alleys.