CMSSurveyReportSpip
Review report of Spip
Person(s) reviewing it: Kwadronaut, Libertinus
More information about it: http://www.spip.net/
See also the old Indymedia addon https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Devel/SpipIndy
Software version(s): 1.9.1 without spipindy
Demo URL: http://cmstest.crackedwillow.net/spip.php [it's on a production server, so please dont try to crash it]
Demo users and passwords: You can make yourself editor (writer of articles that you propose, not publish) or visitor. Ask kwadronaut for adminlogin.
Status of the report: DRAFT
Note: The reviewed version does not take into account ancient adjustements for indymedia-specific use which can't be used immediately for the current version.
Terminology:
- Squelettes are the files to manage the lay-out of articles, columns, which article is visible under which category... (css for the actual appearance)
What We Have
The original feature list is available at CMSWhatWeHave Score:
| Feature | Score (0-3) | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Anonymous open publishing | 3 | IMC Lille make a plugin (ImcLilleSite) |
| easy mirroring capability | 0 | The cache that spip creates looks promising for mirroring, but than... it is still not easy. Cache is meant to consume less resources not to mirror. |
| syndication -out/in | 3 | Kwadronaut says that it works really good for generating feeds. In: rssfeeds makes a new article or proposes an article to the edito-team (they have to approve it) or ... Libertinus says that it could be even better. |
| search | 3 | It works pretty good by building a word index in the database. Kwadronaut thinks that it a. slows the site down for indexing b. requires extra diskspace for the database. Libertinus claims that you can make what you want but is real what Kwad say |
| The ability to create multiple instances | 1 | It's possible, with some tweaking and kwadronaut points out that only french documentation exists for this atm: http://www.spip-contrib.net/Un-noyau-SPIP-1-9-plusieurs-sites |
| Multimedia handling | 3 | This is good in spip |
| Categories | 2 | different kind of choose Libertinus could you phrase that differently? not clear for me what you mean. It is possible to use different categories (called sections), altough if you want the same article be posted in different places, you should actually make new ones that can refer to the original article but wont be adapted if the original gets changed, a big disadvantage imho. |
| Good performence on affordable hardware | I have the impression that the sql queries are consuming quite some resources, but maybe someone else could check this? Spip generates cache, to consume less resources, it is very useful. | |
| Customisability | 3 | you can do what you want, and you don't necessarily have to know php or mysql. You can not change major things (lay-out for example) from the admin, need ftp. |
| internationalisation | 2 | It lacks some things out of the box: autodection of the language of the browser, it will use the default language (specified in the installation of the main site) for searchbox unless specified in cookie or url, the interface for generating ical-pages isn't yet translated in English,... But it already contains a lot of languages, plus there are different ways how to make it visible: by editing squelettes, adding dictionary files or by adding multilingual blocs |
| translation | 2 | A regular visitor can not add a translation, but others (called editors) can, works pretty good |
| comments | 2 | Libertinus: hiding comments should be visible, do you see how to easily achieve that? Kwadronaut doesn't see it coming out of the box. It is possible to have forums behind articles. |
| anti-abuse measures | 1 | Just an anti robot for publishing |
| easy moderation | 3 | IMC Lille make a plugin (ImcLilleSite) |
| calendar | 2 | There are existing plugins for that, or you can do it with the squelettes and playing around with published dates. There is a good integrated personal calendar. |
| features | 3 | you can do what you want |
| documentation | 2 | Exist a multilanguage documentation and now a code documentation site |
| user moderation - open editing | 1 | they have to enter to the admin. Spikini (plugin) is a wiki for spip. |
Legend: 0, feature not present at all - 1, the feature exists but is poor and doesn't suit to our goals - 2, the feature isn't as complete as we want but we can use it - 3, the feature is fully functional
What We Want
The original feature list is available at CMSWhatWeWant
| Feature | Score (0-3) | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| User Logins | 3 | For logins you have admin and editor (write but not publish). You also have visitors. Visitors have to register to become editor. |
| User Logins (network wide) | 0 | |
| Access Controls | ||
| Notify Moderator Button | 0 | but Libertinus can easily make it |
| User Moderation - Open Editing | 1 | |
| User Profiles | 2 | Registered editors (people that publish articles) can publish some basic information about themselves. |
| Podcasting/Vodcasting | 1 | Libertinus sees some plugins |
| Redundancy (DB content storage) | ||
| Version Control | 2 | Only visible in the admininterface, it isn't intuitive but fully functional. |
| User Notifications | 2 | have something |
| Customizable skins by users | 1 | we can make it |
| Accessibility | 2 | nice work here |
| GIS | 0 | |
| Photo Galleries | 2 | you can make it how you want |
| Licencing Options | 1 | no, but you can make it easy |
| Image Manipulation | 2 | some filters inside, if you have GD2 you rock! |
| P2P Integration | 0 | |
| Social Networking - Filtering systems | 0 | |
| WYSIWYG Editor | 2 | wiki style or you have some plugins like TinyMCE |
| Tagging | 0 | not at this version. But Libertinus is sure: soon will have it |
| Anti-bot Systems | 2 | have something |
| Easy installation | 3 | yes, very easy Altough they make some compromises while installing to security by recommending to chmod a directory to 777. There are no packages (eg .deb), only need ftp-access |
| Cross Site Search | It is possible out of the box, not yet tested by kwadronaut | |
| Documented APIs | ||
| Software modularity | 3 | you have lots of plugins and addons, almost all of them have to be installed extra. Depending on the extra you can (de)activate it easily in the admin, but this really depends on the plugin. |
| Healthy community behind | 3 | multicultural very active community |
Legend: 0, feature not present at all - 1, the feature exists but is poor and doesn't suit to our goals - 2, the feature isn't as complete as we want but we can use it - 3, the feature is fully functional
What We Could Also Have
Other interesting things this software provides and we can use.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Admin notification | You can specify an e-maillist or one e-mailadress where editorial changes can be mailed to. This also exists in sf-active |
Overal remarks: Spip tries to be easy in set-up and it achieves that by compromising a bit of security. It are not security leaks, but rather facilitating the access for non-tech users or admins. It *is* a problem if you are blindly following spips advice and have a *click next* approach.