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Thread: Mango vs. BlogCFC

Created on: 08/27/09 10:08 PM

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Replies: 11

mcadle

Joined: 08/25/09
Posts: 5
08/27/09 10:08 PM

First off, I have known Ray and Laura both, for a long time, met them both personally many times, although they may not know me! I am a coder in the shadows so to speak. Anyway, I have been on BlogCFC for a long time but recently have just started to try to use Mango. I really like them both. I wanted to get some opinions about why you like one vs. the other (yes I know I am on the mango forum) without trying to cause any hate/rivalry here as I think competition is great and only leads to better code. Both Ray and Laura are AMAZING assets to the CF community and I, personally, am very greatful for everything they have done.

I like BlogCFC for its simplicity, but the css layouts are limited and the admin interface is lacking. BlogCFC is very powerful with the new release but at the same point is difficult to extend. You can do custom pods and hack things into it, but it takes some work.

Mango, I have yet to get fully working (not sure what the issue is - might be on my side and not a code issue) so I don't know what to say about it, but I hear great things. My biggest concern is over the templating. I have never worked with templates before, so I don't know what to expect. Are they easy to design? How does that effect your overall site?

We need a site that has the blog on the main page, but then a few more pages where users can navigate to other flex applications but keep the header and overall theme, so will the templates carry across? I love the plugins for Mango, but how is it for tweetbacks, etc? I think Mango's biggest asset is its extensibility.

The biggest thing for both of these systems, is BOTH of them offer amazing support to their users and to that I give a huge thank you! So again, only friendly inquiring here but what are the pros and cons to each in your opinion?

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visual28
Wizard

Joined: 05/18/08
Posts: 652
08/27/09 10:44 PM

I used BlogCFC for a little while before switching to Mango Blog. My biggest complaint about BlogCFC was at that time almost every layout was done in tables. Something I stand firmly against. I tried hacking it to make it all css but put way to many hours into it than it was worth. I also wanted to extend it with custom modules but hit so many walls that I eventually gave up. A friend -- (@sanative) turned me on to mango blog and I was instantly hooked.

Being a designer/front end coder, I did not know CF all that well, but was able to create a plugins that actually worked! Not bad for someone that never used cfc's before.

Creating themes for Mango Blog was also easier for me. Admittedly, I wish the documentation was better and I have nearly threw my hands into the air on several occasions in favor of WP. But I am glad that I did not. Theming is now much easier than previous versions. It is very easy to port over WP themes or to create from scratch. I also like that I can switch a theme on the fly for special occasions like holidays.

Mango Blog has an ever growing catalog of plugins. The biggest issue here is the plugin page on mangoblog.org needs to be revamped to make plugins easier to find. Also the plugin page does not have ALL the plugins available. It's best to follow the forums or subscribe to the forums to hear about plugins being developed that may not have made it to the plugins page.

Mango Blog is surprisingly flexible and can almost pull double duty as a CMS. It's not as powerful as a full CMS but for small sites it works perfectly. Just check the who uses mango page found here: http://www.mangoblog.org/docs/about/who-uses-mango Here are a few sites that I personally created with mango blog that I think might demonstrate how flexible it is as more than just a blog.

http://www.womens-empowerment.org/
http://www.pagedesigngroup.com/
http://www.iscaid.org/

Hope this helps.

-
Mark - www.visual28.com | www.mangowear.com

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cfjedimaster

Joined: 08/28/09
Posts: 8
08/28/09 7:31 AM

Hey mcandle - thanks for the kind words. There is definitely a difference in philosophy between Mango and BlogCFC - which makes sense. :) It's been my experience that folks tend to just prefer one or the other - but I'll definitely concede that for templating and the admin, Mango wins hand down. They have down an awesome job with that.

@Mark: BlogCFC hasn't used tables for layout for a while now. Many version. :)

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visual28
Wizard

Joined: 05/18/08
Posts: 652
08/28/09 10:52 AM

@Ray, your right. I used BlogCFC back in May of 2008, so that's just over a year ago. Back then it was built in tables.

And I also agree with you Ray, that folks do tend to prefer one system over the other. Like Mac vs PC, Canon vs Nikon, etc. Not that one is better than the other. It's more a matter of what is better for that person.

BTW. I dig the forum! :)

-
Mark - www.visual28.com | www.mangowear.com

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cfjedimaster

Joined: 08/28/09
Posts: 8
08/28/09 11:13 AM

Heh, I call dibs on Mac. ;)

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mcadle

Joined: 08/25/09
Posts: 5
08/28/09 11:45 AM

Thanks Ray.

I still have two sites running BlogCFC and just launched one with the new updated 5.9.4 - which is awesome (Thanks Ray!)

If you read Ben Forta's comments about the two, they come down two layouts as most people have said. As far as the admin interface, I don't have a need for it to be customized but in in BlogCFC its fairly simple and for me, that works.

Another thing of BlogCFC is that it comes preloaded with the features which is great, but also kind of a downside if you don't want those. The admin does have the ability to turn most of them off though.

Mango is showing some amazing extensibility with the custom events. I haven't built anything for it as I am still trying to get my freaky JS errors worked out - see the bug forum. I am probably going to wipe and do a clean install to see if that helps. I will say though, that the installer for Mango worked SWEET!

Did we mention Ray is a CF Jedi Master? Thats gotta be worth two cool points right there too! In the end, I support both of these project either by donation or by Ray's Amazon wish list.

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Splim

Joined: 01/30/09
Posts: 10
08/28/09 9:58 PM

Well, the one thing I love about BlogCFC is that you can instantiate it, granted, with a little set up, but it works great. I have multiple users creating blogs, all from a single BlogCFC install. You'll need to rearrange how BlogCFC initializes things (Ray covered that somewhere) and I use CF to create virtual directories under IIS for each user, so they get their own virutal folder (eg. blogs.example.com/username/)

I haven't been seen a way to get Mango Blog to instantiate as elegantly, does anyone have any ideas?

For me, BlogCFC and Mango are both terrific and it all boils down to what you need it to do at the time.

In my experiences though, BlogCFC eeks by in terms of loading speed. I do wish BlogCFC was a bit easier to template, so Mango takes that one.

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cfjedimaster

Joined: 08/28/09
Posts: 8
08/29/09 7:32 AM

I've done the 'virtual thing' a few times with various apps, so if the Mango folks want some help in that regard, I'd be glad to.

Splim - you said BlogCFC "eeks" in terms of loading speed - did you mean reeks - as in slow? I've never seen that myself. If you did, why don't you ping me directly ([email protected]) - I don't want to take up space here with non-Mango discussion.

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Splim

Joined: 01/30/09
Posts: 10
08/29/09 9:46 AM

Sorry, Ray, I should have been more clear, I meant that when comparing speed, BlogCFC is faster than MangoBlog if by a small margin. (That has been my experience.)

It would be a great addition for MangoBlog to support that kind of virutalization, I think there is a call for it, and who better than the CFJedi himself to offer some help??! Laura? What do you say? :D

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EdAtODI

Joined: 08/14/12
Posts: 2
08/15/12 3:15 PM

visual28.com does not come up - and can not download any of their plugins.
Also, some others plugins are also not available, do to assorted issues, for example: parked sites.

Any chance the originators could move their stuff to ria forge, google code, github, source forge, or some other large open source sharing site?

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visual28
Wizard

Joined: 05/18/08
Posts: 652
08/15/12 3:49 PM

My server is broken and no money to fix it. I do have some plugins on riaforge. http://memento.riaforge.org/index.cfm?event=page.myprojects&id=5168

If you see something that isn't there let me know and I will upload it.

-
Mark - www.visual28.com | www.mangowear.com

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snake

Joined: 05/17/10
Posts: 36
08/17/12 6:41 AM

hey mark, you mentioned porting WP themes to mangoblog, have you ever done a post about this ?

If you have no where to host visual28.com and no money to pay for hsoting, why not stick it up on www.cfmldeveloper.com

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Replies: 11
mcadle Joined: 08/25/09 Posts: 5	08/27/09 10:08 PM First off, I have known Ray and Laura both, for a long time, met them both personally many times, although they may not know me! I am a coder in the shadows so to speak. Anyway, I have been on BlogCFC for a long time but recently have just started to try to use Mango. I really like them both. I wanted to get some opinions about why you like one vs. the other (yes I know I am on the mango forum) without trying to cause any hate/rivalry here as I think competition is great and only leads to better code. Both Ray and Laura are AMAZING assets to the CF community and I, personally, am very greatful for everything they have done. I like BlogCFC for its simplicity, but the css layouts are limited and the admin interface is lacking. BlogCFC is very powerful with the new release but at the same point is difficult to extend. You can do custom pods and hack things into it, but it takes some work. Mango, I have yet to get fully working (not sure what the issue is - might be on my side and not a code issue) so I don't know what to say about it, but I hear great things. My biggest concern is over the templating. I have never worked with templates before, so I don't know what to expect. Are they easy to design? How does that effect your overall site? We need a site that has the blog on the main page, but then a few more pages where users can navigate to other flex applications but keep the header and overall theme, so will the templates carry across? I love the plugins for Mango, but how is it for tweetbacks, etc? I think Mango's biggest asset is its extensibility. The biggest thing for both of these systems, is BOTH of them offer amazing support to their users and to that I give a huge thank you! So again, only friendly inquiring here but what are the pros and cons to each in your opinion?
	Link \| Top \| Bottom
visual28 Wizard Joined: 05/18/08 Posts: 652	08/27/09 10:44 PM I used BlogCFC for a little while before switching to Mango Blog. My biggest complaint about BlogCFC was at that time almost every layout was done in tables. Something I stand firmly against. I tried hacking it to make it all css but put way to many hours into it than it was worth. I also wanted to extend it with custom modules but hit so many walls that I eventually gave up. A friend -- (@sanative) turned me on to mango blog and I was instantly hooked. Being a designer/front end coder, I did not know CF all that well, but was able to create a plugins that actually worked! Not bad for someone that never used cfc's before. Creating themes for Mango Blog was also easier for me. Admittedly, I wish the documentation was better and I have nearly threw my hands into the air on several occasions in favor of WP. But I am glad that I did not. Theming is now much easier than previous versions. It is very easy to port over WP themes or to create from scratch. I also like that I can switch a theme on the fly for special occasions like holidays. Mango Blog has an ever growing catalog of plugins. The biggest issue here is the plugin page on mangoblog.org needs to be revamped to make plugins easier to find. Also the plugin page does not have ALL the plugins available. It's best to follow the forums or subscribe to the forums to hear about plugins being developed that may not have made it to the plugins page. Mango Blog is surprisingly flexible and can almost pull double duty as a CMS. It's not as powerful as a full CMS but for small sites it works perfectly. Just check the who uses mango page found here: http://www.mangoblog.org/docs/about/who-uses-mango Here are a few sites that I personally created with mango blog that I think might demonstrate how flexible it is as more than just a blog. http://www.womens-empowerment.org/ http://www.pagedesigngroup.com/ http://www.iscaid.org/ Hope this helps. - Mark - www.visual28.com \| www.mangowear.com
	Link \| Top \| Bottom
cfjedimaster Joined: 08/28/09 Posts: 8	08/28/09 7:31 AM Hey mcandle - thanks for the kind words. There is definitely a difference in philosophy between Mango and BlogCFC - which makes sense. :) It's been my experience that folks tend to just prefer one or the other - but I'll definitely concede that for templating and the admin, Mango wins hand down. They have down an awesome job with that. @Mark: BlogCFC hasn't used tables for layout for a while now. Many version. :)
	Link \| Top \| Bottom
visual28 Wizard Joined: 05/18/08 Posts: 652	08/28/09 10:52 AM @Ray, your right. I used BlogCFC back in May of 2008, so that's just over a year ago. Back then it was built in tables. And I also agree with you Ray, that folks do tend to prefer one system over the other. Like Mac vs PC, Canon vs Nikon, etc. Not that one is better than the other. It's more a matter of what is better for that person. BTW. I dig the forum! :) - Mark - www.visual28.com \| www.mangowear.com
	Link \| Top \| Bottom
cfjedimaster Joined: 08/28/09 Posts: 8	08/28/09 11:13 AM Heh, I call dibs on Mac. ;)
	Link \| Top \| Bottom
mcadle Joined: 08/25/09 Posts: 5	08/28/09 11:45 AM Thanks Ray. I still have two sites running BlogCFC and just launched one with the new updated 5.9.4 - which is awesome (Thanks Ray!) If you read Ben Forta's comments about the two, they come down two layouts as most people have said. As far as the admin interface, I don't have a need for it to be customized but in in BlogCFC its fairly simple and for me, that works. Another thing of BlogCFC is that it comes preloaded with the features which is great, but also kind of a downside if you don't want those. The admin does have the ability to turn most of them off though. Mango is showing some amazing extensibility with the custom events. I haven't built anything for it as I am still trying to get my freaky JS errors worked out - see the bug forum. I am probably going to wipe and do a clean install to see if that helps. I will say though, that the installer for Mango worked SWEET! Did we mention Ray is a CF Jedi Master? Thats gotta be worth two cool points right there too! In the end, I support both of these project either by donation or by Ray's Amazon wish list.
	Link \| Top \| Bottom
Splim Joined: 01/30/09 Posts: 10	08/28/09 9:58 PM Well, the one thing I love about BlogCFC is that you can instantiate it, granted, with a little set up, but it works great. I have multiple users creating blogs, all from a single BlogCFC install. You'll need to rearrange how BlogCFC initializes things (Ray covered that somewhere) and I use CF to create virtual directories under IIS for each user, so they get their own virutal folder (eg. blogs.example.com/username/) I haven't been seen a way to get Mango Blog to instantiate as elegantly, does anyone have any ideas? For me, BlogCFC and Mango are both terrific and it all boils down to what you need it to do at the time. In my experiences though, BlogCFC eeks by in terms of loading speed. I do wish BlogCFC was a bit easier to template, so Mango takes that one.
	Link \| Top \| Bottom
cfjedimaster Joined: 08/28/09 Posts: 8	08/29/09 7:32 AM I've done the 'virtual thing' a few times with various apps, so if the Mango folks want some help in that regard, I'd be glad to. Splim - you said BlogCFC "eeks" in terms of loading speed - did you mean reeks - as in slow? I've never seen that myself. If you did, why don't you ping me directly ([email protected]) - I don't want to take up space here with non-Mango discussion.
	Link \| Top \| Bottom
Splim Joined: 01/30/09 Posts: 10	08/29/09 9:46 AM Sorry, Ray, I should have been more clear, I meant that when comparing speed, BlogCFC is faster than MangoBlog if by a small margin. (That has been my experience.) It would be a great addition for MangoBlog to support that kind of virutalization, I think there is a call for it, and who better than the CFJedi himself to offer some help??! Laura? What do you say? :D
	Link \| Top \| Bottom
EdAtODI Joined: 08/14/12 Posts: 2	08/15/12 3:15 PM visual28.com does not come up - and can not download any of their plugins. Also, some others plugins are also not available, do to assorted issues, for example: parked sites. Any chance the originators could move their stuff to ria forge, google code, github, source forge, or some other large open source sharing site?
	Link \| Top \| Bottom
visual28 Wizard Joined: 05/18/08 Posts: 652	08/15/12 3:49 PM My server is broken and no money to fix it. I do have some plugins on riaforge. http://memento.riaforge.org/index.cfm?event=page.myprojects&id=5168 If you see something that isn't there let me know and I will upload it. - Mark - www.visual28.com \| www.mangowear.com
	Link \| Top \| Bottom
snake Joined: 05/17/10 Posts: 36	08/17/12 6:41 AM hey mark, you mentioned porting WP themes to mangoblog, have you ever done a post about this ? If you have no where to host visual28.com and no money to pay for hsoting, why not stick it up on www.cfmldeveloper.com
	Link \| Top \| Bottom