Quote:
Originally Posted by anasporn
Do it tomorrow LOL I can read typoese, but not drunkese   |
Quick Review of Habari:
First off, my overall evaluation is that it is a fast, simple platform for publishing a blog. I think one would have to tweak it, as they do with Wordpress, to do a static site or a static site with a bit of dynamic content. It runs fast, uses few resources, has an intuitive interface and your page loads quickly (when I have my site ready, I will publish the url here).
That said, there are some issues to be aware of (are there not always issues with software and scripts). I would say this platform is about 95% ready for the adult blog market, out of the box so to speak.
The overall issue is that this is a platform written by true coders. As such, it is elegant and runs fast AND the docs are written for coders - meaning it takes some time to decipher the docs for a regular person. Once decipered, however, it is easy to install and run with the following warnings:
1. You need object oriented php modules installed in your server - .pdo and iconv. I run my own servers and they are configured as such, but most hosts will have to load these specifically at your request.
2. The install is easier if you have shell access.
3. As mentioned, the docs are a bit coderesse. As such, it takes time to figure out how to do something. Once figured out, it is always elegant, logical, easy and fast to use, but figuring it out is the issue. Right now, I am trying to figure out the image manager and placement editor.
4. Some of the plugins are extremely version sensitive. Trial and error solves this.
5. Some of the plugins that I want to use do not completely interface with the product - easy to solve but takes some time. I use tinyMce and it works when writing but not editing due to a path issue.
6. There are limited themes - about 25. That is changing rapidly.
7. As it currently stands, there is no allowance for categories, only tags.
Summary: I love how it works for a simple blog and the plugins to make it adult and SEO friendly are there (with a few bugs that are mostly path/theme related). That said, the documentation needs to be made clear and simple for the average blogger and some of the plugins need to be improved so the path issues disappear. I am going to plow through all of my issues and put a simple install and publishing doc on one of my sites, but it will take a few days. After I am able to do that, it will be a nice, clean, fast running, stable, customizable alternative to WP. I would advise, however, the technically uncomfortable to not venture there quite yet (at least until someone, me maybe, publishes some clean docs).
On Textpattern:
I uploaded textpattern to do a static site. I will say this, once configured and the site laid out, it will be a very clean and easy publishing device for both blogs and static pages.
The problem is, setting up the initial theme or customizing it takes mucho time. The buzz and support for the project also seems to have died, although they recently released an update.
I never made it very far with it because I concluded that it did not meet my immediate needs which were:
1. A simple, fast running alternative to WP for straightforward blogs.
2. A simple static site publisher for small, SEO driven sites on the 1000 plus inactive domains I have.
I will try it to develop a unique content static site one day as I liked the logic behind the platform, but that is another project for a another time.
Hope this helps. I do not think it helps you right now. I am,however, going forward with Habari and intend to figure out the bugs I am encountering, submit some fixes to the project, and publish a layman's guide. That is on the top of my list right now (I have some mainstream web publishing sites that will benefit traffic wise from doing this), but it will take some time, particularly at tax time here in the US.