In reply to Rick.

Well I have played with Concrete 5 for a few hours. It does take some time to install on Xampp, whoppin 253 tables on a base install to the database. It takes some getting used to and more study to be sure.

Its completely drag and drop and in as far as "page design" goes for the most part its exactly what the TMT team here is saying. It's base theme uses Bootstrap. The "theme" is exactly that at least from the webmaster perspective. You simply have areas for content, you can assign whatever you please to them. Layout is built in. So if on a row I want 3 boxes, layout, 3 boxes, done. Its all editable right from the front end.

From my cursory look at it this beats Joomla hands down. It DOES have workflows which I have not yet messed much with. What it doesnt appear to have is a large community of developers. It is a VERY different user interface, sorta like a brain dead word processor / desktop publisher hybrid so it might not be brain dead but simply takes getting used to.

CLEARLY in as far as a webmaster (or if workflows are granular and REALLY workflows) it affords alot more flexibility that Wordpress in as far as the software itself goes.

If it had the massive amounts of plugins it most assuredly would eat away at the "run my own show" marketshare.

Of course, there is a caveat to "drag n drop" and page customization based upon such freedom (and it appears to have ALOT of freedom). What caveat?

It means that the webmaster or if there is the ability to create truly fantabulous workflows has to pay very close attention to things NOT getting out of hand.

"Isnt my website cool? I have a thousand pages!!!! My theme is AWESOME! Dont you think so?"

How come every page layout looks different? It looks like 1000 grade schoolers got together each with their own idea for page design.

If workflows allow for things such as "image lady", "layout alien", "writers", "editors", "publisher" with all the accept, reject, interactive communication between roles of these entities (and others) such as "event planner", "chicken farmer", "programmer", etc etc. and those roles can be assigned granular enough to work smooth together as well as on pages and/or areas of pages, sections, categorical this/that. Then its a winner assuming its not, gee... I run 16 core server and can serve a whopping 100 users" It says it is enterprise capable sorta.

Workflows are !important.

If mamma is running her country cupcake grazing site no big deal. She is the workflow.
But for say a information news site dealing with whatall... say Wordpress... Workflow needs be one's friend as otherwise one is fighting the platform to succeed .vs the platform making for smooth work, so folks can concentrate on writing, layout and getting the product (pages/information etc) to market (the web).

Imagine your local newspaper or PeePle Magazine or The National unEnquirer. Organizations that are in Print media. They have workflows and assignments. Organized in a way that teams produce product (pages). Advertising folk who need sell space based upon that content. Department that does the feedback jibe to corporate about all content/sections.

All very differing workflows.

While these entities could use Jooml'r, Wordpress, DriPal etc. what it all comes down to is workflows. Thats why I am anal on it. Been there, done that.

In some respects it crackers me up on this theme stuff. I understand for example the need for a consistent end webmister/mistress having a consistent user interface. But if the moment a moderately complex workflow comes to need its, "Well... If you write it and dont publish it, then I can take that and move it here, and then she can edit things, then I can take it back, then I can add images and see if Julie approves of the way it looks".

What?!?!?!

*I* am the publisher for "The Dell Story", "Harvey is the writer", "Bob is the artist", "Jan is the layout person", "Julia is the copywriter", "Bill is the council", "Mary is the editor", "Norma is assigned to the ad's on this articles pages", and lastly, "Gary is responsible for historical accuracy".

Our workflows might be:

Harvey -> Gary -> Bill -> Mary -> Bill -> Jan

and

Bob -> Jan

Norma -> Jan
|
|
Me , the publisher and goes live -> Julia Copywriter

And it need be able to be changed on a dime if need be.

In corporate it can vary wild. One reason that LifeRay (java based portal/cms) is used by some real heavies. GM US, GM China, GM Europe all have similar content they need put forth but quite a bit not similar as well. They all need communicate to one another about that global presence. All done under one application.

Anyways... I need mess with it more and I am curious how session munchie it is. I wont do the full "9 yards" on performance. Just cursory stuff.