CMS: Armadillo vs. PageLime

hamdesigner1984

Hello!

I've looked up on some other CMS solutions and I wondered if anyone had had some experience with both Armadillo and Pagelime and could recommend one in preference.

I know Armadillo is a one of payment and Pagelime isn't but Pagelime seems to offer a few more tricks like scaling pictures you replace so it fits in with the page the same way that appeal to me. Armadillo looked more basic in comparison.

I would be looking for a solution where by the client can replace texts and pictures easily and it all stays within the theme's look.

Can anyone advise me on this?

Hamilton.

Kevin Mullins

Bookmarked. Would love to hear others opinions on this as well.

Ed Brenner

They are entirely different 'creatures'.

I've never used PageLime but it allows you 'create' editable areas within a page.
Armadillo, on the other hand, lets the 'client' build the page. It doesn't allow for 'editable' areas on non-Armadillo pages.

Determining the 'best' CMS for your client is knowing what your client wants to be able to 'control' in the way of content and then finding the best/easiest solution to meet their need.

hamdesigner1984

Cool. Thank you. I think page lime is the way forward for my client then! Cheers mate!

Jonathan Head

Hi Hamilton,

Since we created Armadillo we're obviously going to be a bit biased, but I'll do my best to stay objective in this post.

You've mentioned that you'd like scale pictures - this is something Armadillo's content editor can do quite easily. After adding an image to your content, simply double-click on it and a pop-up dialog box will appear. In that dialog box you'll see two fields for height and width (see attached screenshot). Just type in whatever height (or width) you want, and the other value will be automatically determined for you. Then click OK and you'll see your resized image in the content editor. You can, of course, align images to one side or the other if you wish.

If you'd like to make your images "responsive" (for themes that provide such support) you can do that in Armadillo as well, by adding some CSS code to the "Styles" field in the Advanced tab of that same dialog box.

You also mentioned that the solution you're looking for is one where the client can replace text and pictures easily, while still keeping the theme's look. This is precisely what Armadillo was designed for, as it relies on the theme almost exclusively for the display of your (or your client's) content.

Probably the most important, key distinction with Armadillo is that all your "Armadillo" content is created via the online interface, rather than in RapidWeaver. This allows you to use RapidWeaver to create the static content that doesn't need to be changed by the client (like contact forms, etc.) but still have a specific area of the site where your clients can add/edit/delete the content they need.

If there are any other "must have" functions or features you need, or you'd like some clarification on a particular point, feel free to get in touch with us.

Best,

Jonathan
NimbleHost.com

mitchellm

Hamilton,

I want to add that I do not have Armadillo, but I am familiar with Jonathan's work in other areas (themes). He does great work, and provides great support. If I had the same needs as yours, I'd certainly go with Armadillo first (knowing the track record of Jonathan, and the excellent support he provides). While it may be that PageLime better fits your needs, you'll still want to test things out.

In my experience, the features a product offers is important, but the support and continued development of the product is equally important.

joeworkman

Both Armadillo and PageLime are awesome. While I do develop the PageLime stacks, I can see where Armadillo fits in. I even review it in my upcoming book. However, you are sort of comparing apple and oranges.

My PageLime stacks are nice because you can create your page using Stacks. We all know how cool stacks are. Then your users can edit your Stacks pages online. However, you cannot create new webpages using PageLime and expect them to be added into your Rapidweaver navigation. All new webpages need to be added using Rapidweaver.

Armadillo allows you full access to create content online within its CMS. This means that you can add new pages and edit existing page that were created using Armadillo. However, you cannot edit pages that were created using Stacks or other Rapidweaver page types. Any new pages that were added using Armadillo are added to a navigation bar created by Armadillo and not the Rapidweaver navigation.

So as you can see, both of these options are very different. They both have their pluses and minuses.

I have completed my PageLime v2.0 stacks which make things even easier to manage. There are also a couple of new stacks in the set. I will be releasing these soon when I wrap up the documentation. However, I am willing to send existing users of the stacks the latest version if you ping me.

joeworkman

I also wanted to point out the misconception that the PageLime service is not free. You can manage put o 5 websites with PageLime for free. After that, you need to sign up for one of their paid plans. Once you have a paid plan, you can rebrand the admin site so that your customers have no idea that PageLime is even there. They will even take care of re-billing your customer monthly if you decide to do that. This means that you can even make money using PageLime.

I think its a great service ran by a few pretty cool guys.

hamdesigner1984

That's all fantastic Joe and I can see that they are different animals. I think pagelime will better suit my requirements and I was going to explain to my customer there would be running costs. Is it usual that a designer would profit from using a service such as this? Like is it usual web practise? I'm just starting up and everything's snowballing so I want to do it all right!

Ed Brenner

@joeworkman

Any new pages that were added using Armadillo are added to a navigation bar created by Armadillo and not the Rapidweaver navigation.

Actually your statement isn't true. Armadillo can be integrated into the Theme's navigation. The option denotes whether Armadillo created pages come 'before' or 'after' the actual RW pages in the project.

joeworkman

Thanks for correcting me Ed!

Ed Brenner

@joeworkman

No problem. See the online documentation here.

joeworkman

@Ed Brenner Please correct me if I am wrong but the Armadillo navigation can only be added to Armadillo managed pages right? So if you want to have a Stacks page on your navigation menu, you are SOL.


Side note: How do you mention someone that has a space in their name? E.g. Ed Brenner

joeworkman

@hamdesigner1984 in terms of you profiting from something like PageLime. Why not? Maybe as apart of your monthly cost to the customer you offer up one hour of your time if requested. You are in a business, you need to make a profit and every little bit counts in my book.

Ed Brenner

@joeworkman

About the mention with the name space, I have no idea. My login was 'changed' when the new forum got set up. Tried to log in with my old one, no go. Then tried combinations of it and this one worked.?.

I guess you haven't checked out the 'Extras' download available on the product page for a cool snippet called 'ImportArmadilloMenu'.

joeworkman

Thanks Ed. Good to know.

Jonathan Head

Just some additional food for thought - today we released v1.1.0 of Armadillo, which includes localizations for nine languages (German, French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, Finnish, and English). Additionally, if your hosting company offers PHP 5.3.1 or greater, Armadillo offers direct Dropbox integration, so that you can sync the latest backup of your site's content to your Dropbox account.

For clarification, just to avoid confusion, you can indeed add pages created with Armadillo to any 'static' page made in RapidWeaver. Ed's post above includes the name of the code snippet required and where it can be downloaded from our website.

Like Joe has mentioned, both products are great tools that provide different approaches when you need to edit your RapidWeaver website online, and it really comes down to which one meets your specific needs:

Is using Stacks' easy drag and drop tools to build the initial layout a deciding factor? If so, PageLime is a better option than Armadillo. Keep in mind, you won't be able to add new pages to the site, or rearrange the page layout via the online interface.

Is it possible you (or your client) will need to add new pages to the site after it has been published, and to be able to rearrange the page hierarchy? Would you or your clients prefer not to commit to paying an ongoing monthly fee? If so, Armadillo is a better option than PageLime. Keep in mind, all the content and layout is done via Armadillo's online interface (not Stacks or RW).

Hope this helps.

Best,

Jonathan
NimbleHost.com

peterdanckwerts

I'm not knocking PageLime (which I've used in the past and found very useful) but I've just bought Armadillo and had a minor problem which was not Armadillo's fault. I have to say the support I received from NimbleHost has been outstanding (12 emails on Friday and Saturday) - well above and beyond the call of duty.

Armadillo is a work of beauty and very slick.

hiproductions

I realize that this thread is a year old but the information about Rapidweaver and CMS is valuable. If there is anyone still monitoring this thread, I have a basic requirement of CMS on my Rapidweaver sites. I would like to create the basic sites and then give the client the ability to sign in to the page I created and they can change the text, image, video, etc or update it as necessary from any browser. There it is, very basic, I've recently tried Sitecake which was free but couldn't get it to work. It would let me sign in and create text but wouldn't upload pdf files properly and in the end wouldn't publish anything so I figured I better move on from the free stuff to the paid offerings. I've really liked what I read about Armadillo, will that fit the bill or is it overkill for what I need?

Thanks for the help.

Andrew

P.S. - Its good to see Joe Workman on here helping people like me out. I've bought a few of your stacks in the past - great work!

dhidding

Armadillo is drop-dead easy to implement and use. I highly recommend it. If, by chance, you get stuck with the implementation of it, I can virtually assure you that Jonathan will be of great assistance. I don't personally know him or have anything to do with Nimblehost - but speaking as a very satisfied customer who has, on occasion, needed some technical assistance, he's in the top rung of developers who want to ensure that their customer's needs are met (along with Joe, Brian, Henk, Mauricio, and others).

Is it worth $30.00? Yes, every penny.

Cheers,

Dave

peterdanckwerts

I, too, would recommend Armadillo. It's very easy to set up (as long as you can set up a MySQL database first), is very well supported and is exceptionally easy to use. For what it offers, I'd also say that it was very cheap. The Nimblehost team have made things even easier by building in settings for many popular web hosting companies. Make sure you have the minimum system requirements, though.

I converted my blog – http://www.book-madness.com – to Armadillo some time ago and it has worked faultlessly.

peterdanckwerts

Oh, and I meant to say that I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about Joe Workman. We RapidWeaver users are very lucky to have so many dedicated developers like him and the Nimblehost team.

Glenn Thomas

I have been using Armadillo since it was in beta, it is a great pice of code. It does have some drawbacks. One of which is the current content editor needs a lot of improvements, in the ability to size your text, choosing font, etc. I have also used PageLime it works very well too, both products are useful, but the do serve different needs.

dhidding

Glenn Thomas wrote: »

...Armadillo...does have some drawbacks. One of which is the current content editor needs a lot of improvements...

That's my main issue too. At some point, the content editor was changed - and got way dumbed-down. I was amazed when a client called to say that he could no longer format text to a 'true' red color. I logged into the admin panel and found that a whole bunch of editing buttons were no longer available. While it is still possible to format the text however one wants - the user would need to know basic html code...and that defeats the purpose of installing it. The method of getting a lightbox also changed...and is NOT as intuitive as it once was. In fact, my client gave up on that feature.

Still - even with these drawbacks, I highly recommend it. It's very, very easy to install, and (if one doesn't mind a simpler toolbar for editing) easy to update blogs or pages.

Cheers,

Dave

shanemo

even after designing sites for clients or friends and handing them off, i still hold on to each website emotionally in some way, after all, they took time and effort to put together, and my reputation is linked to those sites.

i for one am thankful for a completely dumbed down editor. it avoids the horror show of super large or small text, uneven paragraphs, misused headings, misused bold and italics, funky colours (like light grey on a white bg), underlining (which should only be used for links) and all kinds of other crazy mess-ups that the person administering the site probably has done in good faith but destroys the site aesthetic in the process.

you could say "why bother, its their site now, let em do what they want", but personally i would prefer to minimise damage, and a bare bones editor is perfect.

what i would like to see in armadillo, which redactor has built-in, is the ability to auto resize images that are dragged and dropped. most people have no idea of image optimisation and to get their image in a blog, would drag a 3MB file straight from their desktop.

Rusty Wood

@shanemo

Totally agree, it's amazing what people can do to a site even if it is just a bit of text here and there to them .. it can look like total disaster!

Rusty

shanemo

@Rusty Wood

That's because they think the content editor is a word processor, when its actually a conduit for getting properly formatted HTML onto a page. There are rules.

Rusty Wood

@shanemo


Yep I sometimes have to go in and correct their mess ..

I don't think they even notice!

Makes me feel better

dhidding

Ironically enough, one of my clients sent me an email yesterday letting me know that one of the pages had 'blown up" - everything looked HUGE. My initial thought was that the CSS file wasn't being found. But no - upon logging in, I realized that they had formatted their Armadillo text using H1. I applied a different code - and all is good now. Whew.

Funny thing is, they've been using Armadillo since last summer. Perhaps it was a new user this time around.

And, yes - I totally agree about resizing images. Most of my clients are, unfortunately, on PCs and have no idea how easy it would be to use Preview if only they were on a Mac. So, instead, they put their 3,000 px wide image into the lightbox - and then wonder why the page is slow.

Cheers,

Dave