Mambo – the thoroughly simple content management system (CMS)
Mar 25, 2008 by Heather Williamson Content Management
Mambo is an open source content management system which is currently being managed by an Australian non-profit corporation founded in 2005. Although the Mambo Foundation http://mambo-foundation.org didn’t begin the development of Mambo, it has made the support and development of Mambo its primary objective.
Mambo is free software, using PHP and MySQL to create a dynamic web site which supports the organization and creation of documents and other content interesting to your site visitors. Because of the extensibility of Mambo, it can be used to create portals, as well as complex corporate intranets and applications.
Software and Server Requirements
Mambo is quite easy to install, and has simple server requirements. Like most PHP based GNU/GPL open source programs, you simply need a server running Windows, BSD, or Linux with the following options.
It is recommended that you have the GD, Zlib, FTP, XML, IconV, GetText, and MBString extensions as part of your PHP installation.Mambo has been designed to work with any web browser software on any operating system. You will need to test it thoroughly if you make any changes to the base software, and after you have installed any Mambot extensions.
Installing Mambo
Mambo is available through a variety of control panel applications such as Fantastico’s cPanel and Plesk. If you have a control panel application running on your web host, be sure to check there for the latest version of Mambo. If your server will install it for you, you can be up and running within just a few minutes. A manual install takes a bit longer, but can still easily be completed with access to both your database server and the FTP portal of your web server. If you need to manually install Mambo, you can use the following steps:
1. Download Mambo from www.mambo-foundation.org by clicking the mambo cms download link in the right hand column.
2. Select the Mambo Core Complete package for download for the current version. When asked, click Save on the File Download dialog window.
3. Once the download is complete, extract the files to your hard drive, maintaining the integrity of the directory structure within the ZIP or TAR file.
4. Using FTP software, log into your web server and upload all of the files onto your server, maintaining their original directory structure.
5. Create a database on your server to hold your Mambo installation and information. Write down the information you used when creating this database. This information is required to complete the installation.
6. Open up a Web browser to the installation folder on your server. For example: http://www.mywebserver.com/installation/ 
7. Read through the Pre-Installation Check. It will give you a list of files and folders that need to have file permissions changed. Use your FTP program to alter these settings using the CHMOD or File Permissions function of that software.
8. Reload the page to ensure that you have properly changed all of the specified File Attributes.
9. Click Next, and agree to the GNU GPL.
10. Click Next, and provide the database login information you specified when you the database was created.
11. Click OK, and verify that you wish to install the sample data.
12. Specify a name for the site.
13. Click Next, and specify the administrator’s email. A password is already provided. You can change it if you wish.
14. Click Next, and copy the information given to you for the configuration.php file. Make a copy of the configuration.php-dist file, and rewrite its contents with this information. Save it with the name configuration.php.
15. Upload your new configuration.php file to your web server using your FTP software.
16. Delete the installation directory on your server.
Mambo Features
Mambo is a feature rich software, with an easy to use interface that may belie its strength and power as a full fledged CMS system with powerful and easy to use tools.
Content Management System:
Mambo uses a WYSIQYG editor to create and edit pages so that the administrator doesn’t need to know code. This allows you to create nested or flat content hierarchies all through your web browser without needing to upload additional content, or manipulate your database through any other interface. You can add images to your content directly through the Administrators interface, or link to images that have already been uploaded to the server through FTP. Mambo allows you to preview your content without making it live on your site, ensuring that you get your content “just right” before anyone else has the opportunity to view it. Once your content is live, it can be incorporated within the site search engine, or included in an RSS feed for dispersal to other sites.
User Management
Mambo supports a variety of classes of users from full members to guests. You can control what information each type of member ahs access to, and even block members that have been problems in the past. If you wish, you can even use the user manager to send out mass mails to users.
Workflow Management
Using Mambo you can control the content that is created by your users, editing preferences, and even set up schedules for authoring and publishing documents. These schedules can even include start and stop dates for article availability.
Create Your Own Templates
There are a variety of Mambo templates that can be downloaded, or you can create your own using the built in template designers. You do not have to be limited to sites that look like every other site on the net. You can easily use the template editor to build a site that uniquely expresses your business or interests. These templates all use CSS to control much of the appearance of the site.
Extensions Abound
The Mambo community has been actively creating extensions for the CMS for over 5 years. While some of these extensions add functionality, others simply increase the features set of an existing function.
Elaborate Help Systems
Mambo doesn’t leave its users in the dark. It has an elaborate help system directly integrated into the administration panel. If you have questions, you can get assistance from the online help, forums, or even commercial publications.
Mambo Support
The Mambo Foundation provides extensive documentation and well populated user forums for those that require assistance in installing or using their Mambo installation. The following sites provide a wide variety of information that should fulfill the needs of all Mambo users. If you can’t find the information you need within the documentation, be sure to ask you questions on the forums. You should have your question answered shortly.
Other Popular CMS Programs
There are many other CMS programs available under the GNU/GPL license. Two of the most popular ones are Joomla and Drupal. The following chart will show you how Mambo compares to these other popular programs.
Check Out Mambo in Action
You can see Mambo in action at a variety of sites located across the globe. These sites can show you just a bit of what can be accomplished using Mambo.
Conclusions
Mambo is a relatively simple content management system (CMS) that can provide many of the functions of more complex systems, while maintaining an ease of use and configuration not found in many of the other available packages. If you are developing a web presence that may require a collection of applications such as forums, photo galleries, news reels, and blogs, you will want to look at a CMS based solution. Mambo is one of the easiest to install and learn to use. Its wide variety of extensions, also called Mambots, can help you add to the functionality without learning a new program.
Your site would be served well by incorporating Mambo into its basic structures.
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Heather Williamson has been a professional writer and author since 1997 when she had her
first IT related book published. Since then she has published 11 more Internet and technology related titles covering the gamut from browser technology, to XML, from Dreamweaver to Linux Applications. She has been involved in Internet related software development for 14 years, and runs her own web development and contract writing firm in East Texas.
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Tags: cms, content management system, mambo, open-source
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May 27th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Nice work on the peek at mambo. It’s a very good system. It’s features are fantastic, an awesome job. Enough to keep me from using wordpress in the future…I’m not sure about that.
May 30th, 2008 at 8:40 am
Very nice article Heather, and its great to see some sites showcasing Mambo.
There is, however, one error in your article – Mambo does not recommend installing on MySQL 3.x. It has been tested on MySQL4.x and 5.x but hasn’t been supporting MySQL3.x for a long time.
May 30th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Thank you. The error was corrected.