Silverstripe case study

Part1 - Installing and learning

I chose SilverStripe for SEO enhanced site design. I went through a typical chore; download and read INSTALL documentation.

Silverstripe's documentation is still early stage and its licensing is BSD for it is released from commercial phase.

Installation was typical except the install script kept dying after it could not resolve minor version of the MySQL. I expect the install to be smoother for version greater than 0.X. With the version number 2.0, I expected it better. After removing version check, it did go through the setup.

I had to install Mysql 4.1 and Mysql 5. It tooks 1/2 hour.

Then I took me nearly 4 hours to realize I had an incomplete upload of "sapphire" directory. Thanks to Sigurd Magnusson  of SilverStripe. Again, I did not find much documentation or user comments. Silverstripe community does not exist yet. I set up IRC channel and update the wiki.

A redeeming aspect of the SilverStripe is AJAX editing and you don't bounce around between different interfaces.

Meanwhile, I ran a host of problems; can't upload image, can't edit image, can't edit members, can't add fields to the form, and missing templates for email.

There were answers to most of these problems somewhere in forums. I am just beginning to understand how to access their "trunk".

My patience paid off. It is nice enough to see the site coming together.

I like the way it works. It is easy enough to stay on the same interface and keep producing content without disturbing the web site. It is easy enough to create new page type. It is easy to develop new templates and change page behaviors.

I still don't understand its version number being 2.0. As an open-source package, it needs be more mature.

I will work on sitemap.xml and other SEO features. So far, most of it is easy and gentle in learning curve.

I would rate SilverStripe difficult on installation ease. I would rate below average for its documentation. Fortunately, tutorials were good and PHP is easy. If you have MVC or CRUD experiences like Rail, it is easy to learn. It will prove difficult for most newbies.