Looking for Advice on Creating a CMS from Scratch

I am looking for advice in the form of a conversation that can be done by email or phone. Here's the details:

I’m looking to create a Open Source Genealogy-based CMS (similar to Drupal, Joomla and Moodle, but with focus on genealogy). I am in the process of creating (draft) mock-ups for the developer but my big question is: What should I use to develop it? I am not a coder by trade and would like to get advice from someone with a fair amount of expertise. Here's some basic info:

- The CMS should be a modular and allow for the creation of “add-on?? (modules, blocks, language packs, themes, registration mods, etc.) by the general community.

- It should use a structure and coding-language(s) that promotes code development by the general community (much like Drupal, Joomla, and Moodle currently do). Therefore, I would like to focus on PHP and AJAX.

- The CMS should use GEDCOM files to import and export family tree data. It should have the ability to create roles and define permissions (security)

## Deliverables

I am very interested in using the AJAX extensions made by DHTMLX ([url removed, login to view]) in one form or another. This company will likely be the main coders behind this project. Here's What I'm wondering about:

1. Should we build the CMS from scratch using the tools from the DHTMLX toolkit? Pros and Cons

2. Should we build it with a rapid development system like Ruby on Rails? Pros and Cons. If so, will this take away from the aim to focus on PHP/AJAX as the main languages? How will this limit future development?

3. Am I missing something here? What else should I be considering?

These are the kind of questions I'm grappling with. I'm looking for someone with a broad understanding of web technologies. Again, we could do this via email or via one or more phone conversations (I will pay for any long distance charges). Please reply to this bid with something that indicates your ability to provide meaningful advice on this matter.

## Platform

Apache server

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Project ID: #3550383

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