Vista Blue News

SilverStripe CMS, The Jury is Still Out

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:17:00 -0700

January 2011
Well, I'm finally back after a very long hiatus. My blog and news posting absence was not due to losing interest or ideas, but because access was lost to admin functions of the site. Admin access was just regained but while gone much was learned about SilverStripe, probably more than wanted. I felt it was necessary to vent some and share what was learned. To those visiting for info on contract manufacturing, the blog will get back on topic soon. Read More

First of all, let me say that I'm not a code guy and don't claim to be, that's why one was hired to create the basic site. The hope was to have the site created in a custom layout that content could be easily managed, hence the CMS. I've been creating and managing sites in html for a while but wanted to give tableless CSS a shot and gauge search engine and overall performance. I can't offer an opinion yet because of not being able to keep content fresh for visitors and search engines. A major goal was to have a modern site with fresh content and not be trapped in paying for code changes. I wanted to maintain the site myself to keep costs down.

Having been introduced to a recommended code guy he convinced me that SilverStripe was the way to go for the new site, sounded good to me. I quickly realized that the available themes were not going to work and we began work on a custom SilverStripe theme/template. Things seemed to go fairly well other than the code guy getting impatient with the time exceeding what he thought it would take. When the site was finished and went live things looked pretty good, other than a few glitches and widgets not working properly, it would work.

The first performance issues were noticed watching the site stats, pretty slow, then came loading speed complaints, not good. Everyone knows if the site is slow most visitors don't wait. Then came the admin login lockout, the CMS wouldn't take my username & password or let me reset it. To make matters worse, the code guy wasn't being responsive probably because of exceeding his original time estimates. I didn't want to invest more to get a site running that I wasn't sure would work out. What a mess, I was getting a sinking feeling that if I didn't pay for help the initial cost to produce the site would be wasted.

Not sure if it's instability of SilverStripe, the custom work the code guy did, or problems with hosting, all I can say is I had to deal with some quirky stuff. Of course the code guy blames the hosting and the host blames the code and says reload the site. At that time I didn't have the knowledge or the files to reinstall the site. Exactly what I was trying to avoid, getting trapped, roped, chained to paying for help.

I decided to invest the time and learn the damn thing to try to stay independent and keep future costs in my control. Damit Jim I'm a manufacturing consultant not a code guy. First I wanted to get SilverStripe running in a local environment then get my site in. After messing around for this long of course it meant that the SilverStripe version had jumped about four revs (nine now I think) so I decided to bring it to the current version. Getting SilverStripe running on a PC is not as easy as it should be; I tried using the WPI (Windows Platform Installer) what a mess, error after error on two machines until I gave up. After stripping out the mess caused by WPI, I was able to install SilverStripe via WampServer (Apache, PHP, MySQL) , easy, fast, painless. If you have a windows machine don't jack with WPI, use WampServer.

Ok, so now I have the latest version of SilverStripe running on my localhost, all I have to do is swap some files and folders and I'm good right? Wrong, if you have a custom theme, upgrading to the later versions may not be so simple. In the case of this site, code customization is riddled with "sneaky tricks" (SS upgrading page) making it nearly impossible for a non code guy like me to accomplish. The site will be left in it's current down version until it's decided to be worth spending the cash to pay someone to do it, we'll see. I did kind of develop my own recipe for migrating the site but it's cumbersome and moving to a Linux server is still being worked on.

It turns out that database sites like SilverStripe may not run well on all hosts. Depending on server load, a shared hosting environment can affect site performance. Do some research on how well your host does with SilverStripe, mine seems not so good, not naming names but we'll be moving to a new host soon. I'm trying to stay in a shared hosting environment to not pay the higher costs of VPS, we'll be doing some testing before long on a new server and see how it goes.

In summary, here are some of the things that I would consider before starting down the path to a new SilverStripe CMS site.

Choose the developer carefully. What kind of warranty is offered that the site will keep functioning? Will I need to pay if the site needs to be reinstalled? Can the site be easily upgraded to later SilverStripe versions or will I be stuck paying for assistance when I want to upgrade or take advantage of the latest modules. How easy will it be to change the theme of the site later?
Choose your host carefully. Don't assume that because your html site ran well that a database site will also run well with the same host. In a shared hosting environment it is possible that there may be performance issues. Do your homework on your host, see what others are saying about database site performance.
If you decide to run your SilverStripe site in a local environment (localhost) for development, experimentation, and testing use WampServer, I wouldn't mess with Windows Platform Installer (WPI).

I hope the SilverStripe info helps someone, like I said, I'm not a code expert but had I known that stuff before it would have saved a lot of pain. Thanks for reading, comments and corrections are welcome.

Bill

New vista-blue.com Site Goes Live

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:00:00 -0600

April 2010
Vista Blue unveils shiny new website complete with interactive Contract Manufacturing Blog. The new site gives the advantage of an integrated SiverStripe Content Management System (CMS). The CMS makes maintenance of the blog and news sections easy and updates to site content are a snap. We are interested in any feedback visitors have about the site, please leave a comment with impressions.

Vista Blue Website, SEO Project

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:00:00 -0700

February 2010
Vista Blue completes website/SEO project for a manufacturing company in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The project included all aspects of the company’s new web presence including:
• Content planning, site layout
• Navigation
• Photography directing, shooting, and editing
• Copywriting
• Graphic design
• On page and off page search engine optimization
• Directory submissions
• Google Analytics

Vista Blue Expanding Global Network

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:29:00 -0600

June 2009
Building on extensive experience and background in electronic manufacturing, Vista Blue continues to expand its network of global suppliers. The network includes dependable, low cost / high quality suppliers of:
• GPS Receivers and Antennas
• GPS Vehicle and Asset Trackers
• Molded Cables, Assembled Cables, Custom Configurations
• Wireless antennas, RF cables
• Electronic Components, Connectors
• Plastic and Metal Enclosures, Brackets, Faceplates
• Electronic Contract Manufacturing Services, USA and Asian Suppliers

Contract Manufacturing Cost Reduction

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:22:00 -0700

January 2009
Vista Blue has expanded consulting services in electronics manufacturing to include material and labor cost reduction, outsourcing, and supply chain management assistance. Extensive work is being performed in research and qualification of GPS antennas and receivers, wireless antennas and modems, all types of cables (including RF, molded, or assembled), as well as most electronic components. Substantial cost savings have been realized by obtaining direct-source pricing from reputable, high quality Asian and US suppliers.

GPS Vehicle Tracking Partnership

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:47:00 -0600

June 2008
Vista Blue has established a partnership with a GPS vehicle tracking system and services provider to for manufacturing consulting services. Vista Blue is providing assistance with hardware documentation development, RFQ package generation, as well as quote compilation, comparison and presentation. A survey of compatible contract electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers and capability assessment is to be performed. Recommendation of the EMS that is the best fit for cost and long term partnership potential will be provided.

Mobile Computing Upgrade

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:34:00 -0700

January 2008
Vista Blue has chosen Dell for its mobile computing needs. The Dell Latitude D830 was selected for its robust construction and performance enhancement options. The Latitude was customized to include an upgraded Core 2 Duo Processor, high performance NVIDIA video card, as well as numerous other performance upgrades.

Updated Web Development Tools

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:21:00 -0600

October 2007
Vista Blue upgraded its graphic and web development software tools to Adobe© Creative Suite® 3 (CS3) Web Premium. CS3 brings exceptional ability to easily share, edit, and manage files between individual applications within the suite. CS3 dramatically increases productivity and helps to quickly turn creative thoughts into usable resources. Read more about how we use CS3 to benefit customers on our Target Marketing Page.