Open source software has gained a lot of momentum recently, most notably because of its low cost, flexibility, and large, collaborative support network. Even the U.S. federal government has gotten into the pool to swim, using the Drupal Content Mangement System (CMS) for their site at www.whitehouse.gov. But with all the great benefits of open source, there are still a few points to keep in mind when choosing an open source solution for yourself or a client of yours.

Know Your User— Clients, Customers, and YOU!

Frankly, this is the most important factor in developing a successful website. The more you know about your customer’s knowledge, skills and attitude toward technology, the better road map you will have to delivering a great user experience.

But don’t forget about yourself! Ask yourself…

• How much HTML/CSS do you know?
• How comfortable are you configuring your Website through an administration interface?

If you have a hard time managing your Hotmail or GMail email through those browser-based interfaces, then you should consider CMS systems that REALLY simplify content management for your site. If you are very comfortable with navigating online tools, you can consider some of the more robust CMS systems. Regardless, a web designer specializing in open source technologies should be able to lead you through the options, weighing the pros and cons of each open source candidate.

For example, when choosing an e-commerce package, you may evaluate ZenCart, Magento, or the Ubercart module, plugged into the Drupal Content Mangement System.

These systems have many differences to consider, and you must weigh you or your client’s technical ability and business processes against the features and functionality of each system.

Magento, for example, offers many ways of configuring custom products and an extremely well thought-out product and order administration interface that accommodates complex product listings. e.g. If two products become a set as is done with a yoga pantsuit found on this recently published LearningChange project, you can list them individually, or together as a “combination product.”

By comparison, ZenCart is a more mature e-commerce platform, so it naturally has a greater number of modules that have been developed to offer wide varieties of functionality. It’s back end store administration controls are a little more complex, however, since the project has been boiling for so long that it has evolved into a bit of a giant functionality gum ball— but not insurmountably complex. www.learningchange.com

This example shows the site design and the backend Drupal interface.

If your web site project contains a lot of different types of information, and a smaller e-commerce offering, then I might recommend using the Drupal CMS with the UberCart e-commerce plugin. This will allow maximum flexibility and development of your Web site content, while not sacrificing the need for some e-commerce functionality.

Of course, the first step in developing an e-commerce site is the proof on concept. If you are unsure of the market out there for your product or service offering, then wading into the realm of e-commerce using services such as PayPal are a very cost effective way of approaching a phased development plan.

Product Support

Open source applications for the most part are a contribution of knowledge from various sources. An important question to ask is if the developer of the application is providing on going support and security updates? The software should also have adequate support documentation. If no support information is easily available, utilizing and modifying an open source application to meet your project’s functionality requirements can become cumbersome and quickly out of scope and budget.

Application

Does the tool meet the project needs entirely or only partially? More times than not, you should avoid open source programs and modules that provide only partial functionality. Many open source plug-ins, scripts, and modules can be multi-purposed. Your solution will not always be with the software you expected, so prepare to be flexible.

In Summary

Deciding upon open source is almost always a good bet, but you need to know what you’re getting into. Appropriate selection of the technologies you build upon will ultimately reduce the amount of maintenance and support you must put into your site, ease the stress of working within systems that aren’t quite what you need, and allow for a more harmonious development process ensuring a successful and timely project completion.

Please don’t hesitate to contact LearningChange with any questions you may have about open source technologies and web development.

Written by:

Earl Jessee

Learn more about Earl, and the rest of the LearningChange team, by visiting The Team page.