Own Your Data Model

Application frameworks can be divided up into two broad categories. Those where you define your own data model and those where the data model is provided for you. Examples are the former include Symphony, and Ruby on Rails. Examples of the later include Joomla and Drupal. Any web application framework where you do *not* create and own your own data model is probably *not* a framework you want to base a long-term business on.

The more generic a solution is the more unlikely it is to solve any one particular problem that deeply. It may solve of bunch of problems partially. But it does so superficially and it will never cover all of your requirements and use cases. It most certainly will not keep up with your changing business needs. With a generic solution you will find yourself shaping your site to fit the framework.

The people who design and write these packages are smart but they're subject to the same laws of software development as the rest of us. They still have to make assumptions about how the product will be used and what kind of users will be involved. They have to make assumptions about what kind of sites will be produced with their tools and how it may be customized and extended. Even with ones that are extensible there are still limits on just how far you can take your custom modules or plugins.

When starting a new business it can be very tempting to use one of these off the shelf solutions to get a product out the door quickly. You can do your due-diligence and figure that the product will meet all of your requirements and will only need a few customizations. What these people don't take into account is that the business will change. It will change is unpredictable ways. It will change faster than anticipated. Then you start running into the limitations of your off-the-shelf solution really fast. Then you start spending a lot of engineering time slogging through the framework or outright fighting against it. Short term gain; long term loss.

At the very least you need to go with a framework where you own your own data model. The data model is your most important asset. It is not an area to corners in or make compromises. Your data model informs the rest of your application. If your business is online then your database is the core of your business.

Chances are good that an application framework that lets you specify your own data model will also implement a decent MVC pattern. Conversely, the all-in-one systems aren't likely to have any approximation of MVC at all. The code you invest in those system means a bigger mess to deal with. That mess is going to happen sooner than you thing. Remember the business will change in unpredictable ways very fast.

Chances are also good that an application framework that lets you specify your own data model will also implement a decent testing framework and may even allow for easier scalability. Easier than the all-in-one systems anyway.

So, if you think you're smart and will save your project a lot of money and time by using a ready-made content management system which you can customize please please please reconsider. You're setting yourself up for a lot of headache in the near future.