This worked great, however when installing the CF module onto a Linux server, there are a few items that we learned. For anyone that will be installing a windows based site onto a Linux server in the future, here are a few tips:

1. Linux is very picky about Upper/lower case in the url structure.  So, if your directory structure and page name uses upper/lower cases, ensure that you use the same structure for the url link.  As an example, if your directory structure is /UpperCase/files.cfm  don’t use http://www.siteurl.com/uppercase/Files.cfm.  This won’t work, you must use the same structure as your site which would be: http://www.siteurl.com/UpperCase/files.cfm
2. Forward slash and back slashes. While windows uses the back slash structure \ for it’s server path, Linux uses the forward slash structure /.  You may need to search and replace any instances in the files where a backslash \ is used.
3. Upper/lower case in image names.  If using Flash or other types of applications that can be called to display within a page, ensure that the same Upper/lower case structure is used for images.  If your .fla flash file has the images that are used to create the flash application as lower case, ensure that images on the server are lower case as well.
4. A strange item, although not specific to Windows/Linux conversion, is when placing a site live and using WordPress you may need to resave your permalinks (without making any changes, just hit save again on the Permalink page).  I had this issue when placing the new site live, where some of the site url’s were displaying the temp url structure used during the initial set up and testing phase vs. the domain name. Once I hit save on the Permalink page, all worked fine.

Good luck with any new site deployments and any other recommended items to look out for are welcome!!

Then ASP.NET became popular and new CMS’s arrived that were open source, included plug and play modules for very little costs. These systems, whether ASP.NET or PHP, were slick and easy to use. Very little set up time and offered ease of use. The costs of the previous paid CMS’s were reduced. Some drastically lower than a few years prior (about ½ the cost).

Now with there being many open source CMS’s available, (Joomla, WordPress, DotNetNuke, Drupal, or Microsoft’s latest offering called Oxite (http://visitmix.com/Lab/Oxite), are paid CMS’s a thing of the past?

This would depend on your website needs. Not all CMS’s will fit everyone needs. Whether it is a paid CMS or an Open Source CMS. Custom programming can be added to each type of CMS in order for the completed system to be one of use to your organization. But first you will need to determine the needs of your organization. What do you need the CMS to do and what do you want available for your end web site users?

Some other important items include: Host provider, type of programming language and database hosting available, integration with a member database, user interaction, design, etc. The answers to these questions will help in determine the systems that will best fit your needs to begin with.

The CMS you select will be your tool to create/administer your web site. This is how the public will view your organization. Ensuring that you have the right tool is important. Check with your web consultant to provide guidance in outlining the best solution to fit your needs.