WebGUI - The good, the bad and the ugly.

WebGUI has always been one of my favorite content management systems because it is the most customizable of any CMS I've used. If you'd like to read about the strong points of WebGUI, over a year and a half ago I wrote a glowing review on my blog. This article isn't so much of a review, but suggestions for what needs to improve for me to be able to continue recommending WebGUI.

1. Simplify installation and upgrades. Every time I install or upgrade it seems like I have to wrestle for an hour with CPAN or some other Perl extension that I have to compile. I absolutely hate dealing with dependencies trying to get WebGUI to work. I've been using WebGUI for years, have access to Ruling WebGUI and paid support, yet I still don't feel comfortable upgrading.
2. Fix PlainBlack.com. The design isn't bad, but navigation is atrocious. WebGUI is the main product PlainBlack offers, but nowhere to be seen on the front page is "About WebGUI" or "Demo WebGUI" or "Why Use WebGUI." There is a banner-ad looking link that says "Find out if WebGUI is right for you" but the font is small and it's easy to overlook. That information should be immediately apparent. I'd suggest redesigning the entire site navigation based on questions and destinations users might have in mind when they first go to the site. I'd also suggest using one url rather than spreadwebgui.com and plainblack.com. Personally, I feel that spreadwebgui.com is what plainblack.com should look like. [update - since writing this, it appears they've started doing exactly what is suggested here--kudos!]
   
3. Stop releasing unstable software. Releasing early and often is one thing, but make sure it's working. I'd suggest only advertising releases of stable versions on the front page (or any easily accessible portion of the site) and saving the betas for developers or people who aren't using WebGUI for production sites. I'd suggest totally dropping the use of alpha, beta, gamma and complex version numbers and moving to a more easily understood "beta" and "stable" and simple versioning - 6.0, 6.5, 7.0.

I could go on, but basically, WebGUI is excellent software that is currently suffering from several buggy releases, a bloated and hard to navigate website and very difficult installs and upgrades. Right now my recommendation with WebGUI would be "keep an eye on it." It's still the most customizable CMS I know of, but I wouldn't recommend it for live websites.