QUESTION (Honest) Thoughts for a website conversion

[mel47]

Hi,
I'm currently thinking of changing CMS for my website. I already explored GS, even built a "proof-of-concept" website with fake content just to test. I didn't get major problems but it used only main core.
My website is currently consisting of ~50 pages (in 2 languages, so 100 pages) + 200 "pages" for news articles. It's mostly text with images/videos and also gallery images and a glossary.

My questions :
- how stable and easy to use is the multilingual plugin? Is it well maintained and well integrated to core? Does it provide a way to translate some strings and re-use them in pages? Does it is integrated with news plugin or with design template?
- Does it will be better to try to convert my design or restart with something else?
- Does someone experienced a conversion? I'm more upset for news. Does, if I find a way to convert them to xml, it will be recognize by GS?
- Do beginners and non-professionals get (friendly) helped on forums?
- Does GS changes a lot between major revision update? In others words, do we have to change our website because of updates?

I'm conscious my questions are too large to be answered precisely. But I'm looking for opinions to decide if the conversion will worth the work.
Thanks
Mélanie

PS In case, you want to see : my website

[0zz]

Most answers will be "Yes!", no doubts. Except for the ones quoted below.
I'd suggest to try GS on a local webserver, and as soon as you complete transfer of all your pages and articles to the local version, it will be quite easy to upload it to a real server.

- Does it will be better to try to convert my design or restart with something else?

Doesn't matter, you can leave your design, but to my taste, I would definetley change it, sorry )

- Does GS changes a lot between major revision update? In others words, do we have to change our website because of updates?

I don't think conversion will be easy. So, you probably will have to do a lot of Copy and Paste

- Does GS changes a lot between major revision update? In others words, do we have to change our website because of updates?

The recent changes are more about security and will not effect your website layout at all.

[shawn_a]

GS does not introduce breaking changes with releases. Everything continues to work, you may have to wait for some plugins to be updated but great care is taken to avoid this being a problem.

And yes there is pretty decent help on the forums, your best bet is to install a local version and play with it and see what the templating options are for converting, as far as moving pages that is always a manual process.

[mel47]

Thanks for answers. I will most probably try, to see how much work conversion will involved. If someone else have other opinions, I will read you!

Doesn't matter, you can leave your design, but to my taste, I would definetley change it, sorry )

No offense! It's a part of my reflexion. I'm very bad with design, so I'm hoping finding more available templates, and easier to modify, in a other CMS.

[jwzumwalt]

Hi,
I'm currently thinking of changing CMS for my website. [url=http://hepato-neuro.ca][/url]

I just converted to GS about six weeks ago and can share a few observations.
I did 3-4 trials and made corrections for standards along the way. GS is not complicated or hard to work with but it does have a personality. I found a couple plugins that seemed to conflict but I'll get to that in a bit.

I spent 80% of my time getting my theme the way I wanted; I probably spent 2-3 days then tweaked it over time - maybe another day or two total time. I did consider writing a PHP program to convert HTML pages to ruff draft GS XML. After much consideration I decided extensive re-edit was going to be needed anyway and opted to cut and past. After finishing the conversion I am comfortable with the decision I made.

There were 5-6 things that really were not a good fit. When I would leave a post on this forum, I found the solution was easy but sometimes I was too vague to explain the issue correctly. Anyway, I don't think it ever took more than a day or two for a satisfactory solution. Of the 5-6 issues only two were really significant and two members wrote custom plugins to accommodate what I needed - hows that for SUPPORT!

(shawn_a above was quite often the first to respond within 2-3 hours and ALWAYS followed the issue until I was satisfied)

To recap, my site was quite unusual and so my needs certainly were more unique than most folks would need. The support was immediate and just what I needed. If I were not a programmer, I don't think I would be as tickled about my experience but it sounds like you are not a neophyte and I think you will be extremely pleased.

GS itself has never crashed. I have had plugins appear to crash the thing but after a while I learned what was causing the problem and how to avoid it or I got rid of the plugin. I would suggest a couple dry runs and load ALL the plugins you think you will need. I eventually loaded them incrementally about 5 at a time and sorted out the bad ones. I use about 20-25 plugins.

[datiswous]

..I use about 20-25 plugins.

Just curious, can you list your plugins? I think 20-25 is a lot.

[jwzumwalt]

..I use about 20-25 plugins.

Just curious, can you list your plugins? I think 20-25 is a lot.

Here is what I currently am using, I have shaved about 5-6 off for bad behavior.

anonymous_data.php        i18n_navigation.php          pagify.php           user-managment.php
child_menu.php                 i18n_search.php                sa_toolbar.php
DM_PE_pageedit.php         InnovationPlugin.php         simple-c.php
gs_plugin_installer.php       NewPageFrom404.php       sitemap.php
GSCkePatch.php                pages_comments.php        user_login.php