I have now setup allrite.net with Drupal, an open source content management system (CMS). I swallowed my pride and decided to go with a third-party CMS rather then one of my own design (as previously used) as it offered more features then I could implement in the time I have available. Drupal has multiuser capabilities with support for shared books, blogs, image handling, threaded comments and much more. Plus, it has the support of a larger user community, something I would like to get involved with.
I have not given up on building my own CMS. In fact I am feverishly building one right now for the International Astronomical Union’s Sydney General Assembly Virtual Press Room (VPR). I could not find an existing solution that offered the sophisticated image management I required (handling high resolution copies with proper descriptions) and providing press release templates. Furthermore, it needs to use Oracle 8 as the database backend. The components I use in the VPR CMS will likely form the basis for sections of the main Australia Telescope website. However, the latter is a large beast with a different purpose to this website, and maintaining code for both is more then I can handle right now.
I have still kept all the old content on the site. It will take me some time to migrate all my old data across. It will take me time to learn to use Drupal’s full functionality. I’m sure it will give me ideas for my own projects.