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I currently have a simple website that I want to convert to a CMS without losing any of the appearance or existing functionality. Also I would like to re-use my existing code for the site where possible and also make use of our in-house libraries and databases.

Orchard seems like a good bet because it also uses MVC 3 however it seems a bit bloated. There is a small project at atomicCMS which looks interesting. Has anyone used this?

Any hints or tips would be appreciated.

There should be a tag for this post called atomiccms but my account cannot create one.

Nelson Reis
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fireydude
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2 Answers2

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There was a similar question, which you can find helpful.

Moving an ASP.NET MVC 3-based web application to Orchard is a fairly simple task. You just have to wrap it up in an Orchard module.

Community
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Piotr Szmyd
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  • Sounds simple enough but I should probably learn orchard before I start adding custom components to it. In the process of learning Orchard I may end up re-writing my site anyway. – fireydude Nov 28 '11 at 17:39
  • Right, you should learn the basics, at least, before doing that. It'll save you a lot of time. Rewriting the whole site is not necessary in most cases, but it's better to rewrite (or just remove:) *parts* of the existing code and utilize some of the Orchard built-in features (like authorization, routing, database access etc.) instead. – Piotr Szmyd Dec 04 '11 at 21:25
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I have used both Orchard and N2 CMS. Both work on asp.net mvc. I like the way Orchard is designed, but it is a rather steep learning curve. Also you will need to develop modules if you want to add your own custom functionallity. After hearing a .netocks podcast on N2.CMS I decided to try it out for a recent project. It has a different approach/philosophy, you can think of it as a 'plugabble' CMS component. You basically keep your existing web app and can use CMS functionallity where it is required. However, Orchard does have many more modules and skins available. I would definetly give N2.CMS a closer look, especially if you have an existing application. In Orchard you must run as an orchard module (Mvc Area) and have no direct access to the root web.config. Depending on what you do in your existing app (wcf, etc...) this might be a limitation. With N2 cms you are not restricted in this manner.

santiagoIT
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    My concern with Orchard is that I will probably end up converting my MVC layout into a theme. Anything I can do to avoid this would save a lot of time. – fireydude Nov 28 '11 at 17:41
  • Wrapping an existing layout into a theme is a pretty straightforward task as soon as you learn the basics about that. It really ain't that scary:) – Piotr Szmyd Dec 04 '11 at 21:30