
Ask HN: Why is there no really successful Ruby on Rails CMS solution - etewiah
I know there are a lot of Rails CMS solutions out there but the ones that became popular a few years ago are now pretty much dead.  The newer ones don&#x27;t seem to be gaining traction and there are now so many half-decent options that it is really hard to pick which to use.
What is the reason for this?  Is it likely to change or is there something about Rails that makes it unlikely there will ever be one dominant CMS solution?
======
ezekg
Because the Rails community seems to prefer small, single-purpose gems over
frameworks/multi-purpose gems. There are not a lot of plug-n-play gems aside
from Spree for e-commerce. And besides, Rails makes it super easy to spin up a
custom CMS, so using a gem is pretty overkill. For example, to build a blog,
all you need is a few models (users, posts, maybe comments), CRUD controllers,
admin auth with Devise, Shrine/Paperclip/Carrierwave for image uploads and
you're done. And all of that can be spun up rather quickly.

~~~
etewiah
Yes, I think a lot of people in the Rails community do think using a gem for
CMS functionality is overkill. I strongly disagree with that opinion though
but before trying to make the counter argument I would like to understand your
point of view better. Have you written a real world app that require WordPress
like CMS functionality that you were able to code in less than 40 hours?

~~~
bigmanwalter
I don't use Rails, but a similar framework in Python. My clients love my CMS.
The reason being that I can tailor an admin backend to their specific needs.
Every single button in my backend has a purpose, and all the more complex
settings are hidden behind code.

In a WordPress site, you practically need to be a WordPress dev just to do
basic modifications.

~~~
whatthecrep
Out of curiosity what framework do you use in Python?

~~~
bigmanwalter
I use web2py. I find it strikes a great balance between having an elegant API
and getting shit done. And it generates Bootstrap compatible forms out of the
box :)

~~~
whatthecrep
Thanks, I'll definitely take a look at it. How does it compare to Django and
Flask?

~~~
bigmanwalter
I found that Django makes too many assumptions for my taste, and you really
need to fight it if you don't like them. You can get around the bad design
decisions by using plugins, but they're not all compatible with each other and
I found it got messy.

Flask on the other hand, comes with too few features out of the box. Getting
an application with user auth, file uploads, an ORM and form generation can
take over a week to set up perfectly.

Web2py was created by a professor at DePaul University who got tired of Django
after teaching it in a web development course. He built Web2py to have feature
parity, but, IMHO, he has a much better aesthetic when it comes to API design.

So rather than a design-by-comittee behemoth like Django, you get a succinct
and intuitive API designed by a great programmer.

Beyond that, it has a handful of features that I find unmatched, notably its
data grids and bootstrap compatibility by default.

I really love the bootstrap compatibility because it allows me to grab a theme
off wrapbootstrap.com and everything just works without any tweaking. For
small projects it works out perfectly :)

It also has a very active Google Group where the framework's author frequently
helps people out!

The only thing I miss is the Werkzeug debugger that Flask comes with by
default, and which can bet set up to run on Django. That thing is beautiful.
But Web2py's debugger is good enough, and Web2py surpasses the competition in
every other way.

To really grok how amazing web2py is, I recommend working through the
tutorial. It's not too long and it shows off Web2py quite nicely. A lot of
what makes web2py so great are subtle design decisions. It fixes almost all
the problems I had with the other frameworks and introduces practically none
of its own.

~~~
whatthecrep
Thank for the answer

------
sn1de
I ran into the same issue a couple of years ago. We had an existing WordPress
site. Issues were continuous paving over by consultants resulting in a
overweight and fragile site with zero support for true mobile-responsive
content authoring. When we discussed our needs with consultants the universal
response was to just use WordPress. Clearly Wordpress had frozen this space
with their just barely good-enough solution. The other factor at play was the
rise of site builder SaaS platforms like SquareSpace and Wix. Their tooling
was very slick, but not something you could consider a true development
platform, i.e. something that developers and content authors would both
consider truly meeting their needs. I liked Locomotive a lot and they used to
have a page on their site that really nailed the WordPress shortcomings, but
they were in the midst of working on their next major release and we couldn't
wait. We ended up going with a cloud based, platform neutral CMS, prismic.io.
We got our responsive authoring capabilities and fairly easy integration with
our Rails stack. It has worked well. I think our content authors would say
they would like more control over the presentation, but I would say that is
part of the reason why we like it, because they can't hijack the entire page
which inevitably leads to quality issues because the authors are not prepared
to test their work in multiple browsers and mobile devices. It also lacks the
out of the box blogging structure that WordPress has, but if you are looking
for a more versatile publishing capability then it may fit the bill for you.
The market has evolved, I'm sure, and I have not kept up with it. I would
recommend looking at Locomotive and prismic or other cloud based CMS options
but I don't think anything is going to emerge as a dominant CMS platform al la
WordPress any time soon, if ever.

------
nik736
LocomotiveCMS is very good, I use it for countless client projects. The only
thing I dislike is the reliance on MongoDB, which basically was a no-go for me
in the beginning but it runs fine for years now.

~~~
etewiah
Locomotive does look interesting but I can't seeing it expanding much beyond a
niche market. The use of MongoDB is certainly one reason. Also it seems to hit
a bitter spot: a bit too complex for a non technical person but doesn't really
give much power to a dev/

~~~
nik736
Have you actually looked at it? It's capable of doing a lot.

------
godot
I may be off the mark but I feel like managed web hosts play no small part in
this. Managed web hosts that run Apache still almost predominantly support PHP
only for a scripting language (if you don't count Perl CGI stuff). For us in
silicon valley this seems unthinkable, but these web hosts still run a ton of
sites on the internet.

