Hosted solutions for Mezzanine

[Luke Plant]

Hi all,

Are there any hosted solutions for Mezzanine? I'm talking about something oriented at people with zero web development skills - an equivalent to something like Dreamhost for installing WordPress http://www.dreamhost.com/wordpress-hosting/

Unlike most WordPress hosting, the solution I have in mind would automatically manage things like all security updates, and allow point-and-click selecting of different themes.

An ideal solution would allow users to export their project so that they can continue to develop it themselves, on hosting of their choice.

Does such a thing exist, or something close?

Thanks,

Luke

[Graham]

Hi Luke
As far as I know, no such thing exists.
The Mezzanine 'friendly' places I have heard of are

1. Webfaction - https://www.webfaction.com/
2. Digital Ocean - https://www.digitalocean.com/
3. Python Anywhere - https://www.pythonanywhere.com/

However, 'getting your hands dirty' with things like 'fab files' and the command line, is I believe a requirement.

On a more general level, the issue of who Mezzanine is for, is something that I am trying to get clear in my own mind. I know from listening to Stephen McDonald talk about the birth of Mezzanine - https://vimeo.com/103614826 that it was in response to his management wanting to 'go with Wordpress'....

My working hypothesis is that creating websites with Mezzanine is *not* for non-developers. Other things would be better...

Cheers
G

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[Ken Bolton]

Hi Luke,

Thank you for all your hard work on Django! Without Django, we would have no Mezzanine.

I have not come across any Mezzanine hosting services a la WordPress.com or Dreamhost's offering. I don't know of any services that do hosted and maintained Django, either.

Cheers,

Ken

[Sam Kingston]

Hi everyone,

I would like to gauge some support for this - does the community as a whole think it would be worthwhile to have a "one-click-to-run" host that allows Mezzanine support?

I've hacked on something similar previously that was designed to do the same thing - hosted Mezzanine with no development knowledge required. It's currently lacking a web interface and targets a much older version of Mezzanine/Django.

Would be happy to try and turn it into a usable system and throw it out there if there is a want/need for it?

What do you all think?

Sam

[Luke Plant]

On Tuesday, March 24, 2015 at 7:40:28 PM UTC, Graham Oliver wrote:

On a more general level, the issue of who Mezzanine is for, is something that I am trying to get clear in my own mind. I know from listening to Stephen McDonald talk about the birth of Mezzanine - https://vimeo.com/103614826 that it was in response to his management wanting to 'go with Wordpress'....

My working hypothesis is that creating websites with Mezzanine is *not* for non-developers. Other things would be better...

Having something that functioned as a WordPress replacement would be awesome. I'm trying to weigh up whether Mezzanine could be that. At the moment, I'm still at a loss for what to say to people who just want a website with a simple CMS. For the typical person, WordPress is going to give huge problems with security etc. - I couldn't sleep at night if I was recommending it or using it for clients.

Alternative web site builders like weebly.com get people so far, but you've essentially got to start from scratch when you outgrow what they provide.

Regards,

Luke

[Mario Gudelj]

Hey Luke,

Why not go with something like Business Catalyst or Squarespace for those simple brochure sites? They're SaaS solutions, and Business Catalyst in particular offers a lot of customisation. Ans use Mezzanine for more custom and complex sites.

Cheers,

M

P: +61 2 9281 3315

M: +61 415 193775

E: ma...@twoblokeswithapostie.com

W: www.twoblokeswithapostie.com

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[Graham Oliver]

Hi Luke
I see that you are a Django core developer, you live and learn as they say :-)
Just like to echo the sentiment expressed elsewhere on this thread. Ngā mihi nui ki a koe as they say in Māori (THANKS!)

I was impressed with the OOBE (Out Of the Box Experience) I got with Mezzanine.
I tried developing a site with Django and found the experience exhausting (just too much to learn). Looking at a urls.py file still makes me lose the will to live. Regular expressions are really a bridge too far for me :-)

Here are some things that I think would be needed for me to recommend Mezzanine to non-developers...

a. The ability to install and do day-to-day stuff without going near the command line
b. Undo functionality on the bit in the admin site where you organise the pages (it just feels a bit precarious)
c. One click installs of things like 'Mezzanine Blog', 'Mezzanine Shop', 'Mezzanine [whatever you think needs to available out of the box]'
d. Quicker updates of plugins like say 'Tinymce' (I am guessing a non-tech user base will be less understanding of not having the latest and greatest)
e. Closer relationship with Django https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mezzanine-users/_QWfFVB3RVc/AgcYAjZ7fdkJ (See Stephen McDonalds comments on this)
f. Easy 'check button' ways of switching on and off functionality like for example 'in line page editing' http://mezzanine.jupo.org/docs/inline-editing.html (no editing of text files basically)
g. A clone of Stephen McDonald :-)
h. Very simple way to change the theme (and various ones to be available)
i. Improved documentation

There is a post somewhere in the mailing list where Stephen lists some of the people types he thinks the project needs.

Note that I am relatively new to Mezzanine so there will be plenty more wisdom out there from those who have more experience...

Thanks
Graham

[Pushkar Paranjpe]

+1 for 1-click-installer on the sorts of Hostgator/GoDaddy...s