Welcome to C5 -- a lot of people (myself included) had a similar impression when we first discovered Concrete5. I've been building sites with it professionally for over a year now and it's been great (I primarily build marketing / informational sites, which it's ideal for -- obviously it's not perfect for every situation though).

To briefly answer some of your thoughts:

1) Yeah, it's pretty awesome to see how happy clients are with the ease of editing.
1a) There are no folders, but look into "File Sets" which mostly serves the same purpose (although admittedly not exactly the same when you're talking about thousands and thousands of images). What I've noticed in C5 is that its interface is geared to make smaller sites easier to maintain, at the expense of making larger sites less efficient to maintain. The file sets vs. folders is a prime example -- having folders when you have a 10-page site with 20 images is totally unnecessary and clutters the interface and confuses non-technical users with one more abstract concept to learn. But yeah with thousands of files it winds up being less efficient. Concrete5 has been used to build massive sites but IMO it's not ideal for those -- I think its sweet spot is really the small- to medium-sized sites (1 or 2 people maintaining it, content updates every week or so, no more than a few dozen pages).
1b) Sitewide content search/replace: this is another one of those things that makes the system simpler and easier but might cause problems with massive scale. That being said, if you find yourself needing to replace content across the whole site in one fell swoop, you might be architecting it wrong -- there are some ways you can set up your theme so that there is one place to go to edit certain pieces of content that appear across many pages of the site (look into the "Global Scrapbook" and "Page Defaults" features, as well as the free addon called "Global Areas").

2) Version histories of changes to pages are kept. When editing a page, click "Versions" in the toolbar.

3) See above. For database backups, go to Dashboard -> System & Maintenance -> Backup & Restore.

4) There's kind of a half-baked sylesheet customization functionaltiy -- check out Dashboard -> Pages & Themes, then click the "Customize" button next to your active theme. Only works if the theme was built to take advantage of that functionality (the built-in themes do so you can test it out with those). And only works for a couple of styles (font and color I believe).

5) Not sure what you mean -- maybe the same as #4?

6) Not sure what you mean.

7) There's a "Themes" forum for templating. By default though the main forum page shows all forums -- you need to check the box in the sidebar next to "Themes" to filter it so it only shows those posts.

8) There's a "Building with concrete5" forum for development. Same deal as above with the filters.

Best of luck!

-Jordan

Thanks Jordanlev for your reply


You said —————————————————————————
1a) “ having folders when you have a 10-page site with 20 images is totally unnecessary and clutters the interface and confuses non-technical users”
—————————————————————————

I have to desagree with you, if Concrete target 20 images sites they will not become a serious contender to the big 3 and I waisting my time here.

I try the Set things, I guess that can do the trick?. I was able to create easily a custom set but I see no way to make a multiple upload to my custom set (even if only the custom tick box is selected) (they go in the default starting place) and I find no way to transport the 2 or 3 images I upload to that custom set....?????

By the way, personnally I will get rid completely of the add Choose file one by one image upload, An keep only (in a button form) the upload Multiple fonction.... And please,,, being able to choose a set destination....

The way it’s presented here it’s confusing — The Upload button seem to be part of the Upload Multiple link text and that make two tools for overlapping functions. Not good ergonomic.

Advise on ergonomic to Concrete designer.... Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, the files and folders systems is understood and recognize worldwide replacing this with “Sets” is, for me an error. But, I agree your system of set is acceptable but not quit there...

You said —————————————————————————
there are some ways you can set up your theme so that there is one place to go to edit certain pieces of content that appear across many pages of the site (look into the "Global Scrapbook" and "Page Defaults" features, as well as the free addon called "Global Areas").
—————————————————————————

I will that seem really interesting

You said —————————————————————————
2) Version histories of changes to pages are kept. When editing a page, click "Versions" in the toolbar.
—————————————————————————
Cool

You said —————————————————————————
3) See above. For database backups, go to Dashboard -> System & Maintenance -> Backup & Restore.
—————————————————————————
Cool

You said —————————————————————————
4) There's kind of a half-baked sylesheet customization functionaltiy -- check out Dashboard -> Pages & Themes, then click the "Customize" button next to your active theme. Only works if the theme was built to take advantage of that functionality (the built-in themes do so you can test it out with those). And only works for a couple of styles (font and color I believe).
—————————————————————————
The day Concrete can (Like Firebug) try and save on the live site CSS they will become Kings...... That type of tools is directly in the Concrete main idea of simple and direct edition.

You said —————————————————————————
5) Not sure what you mean -- maybe the same as #4?
—————————————————————————
e.g. (The Dream) You build a special class with my “Firebug” tool for a certain type of images/text/whatever. You save that special class to a custom librairie of CSS. In edit mode you select any image and you are able to add to that image that save class easily. Imagine the power.....

You said —————————————————————————
6) Not sure what you mean.
—————————————————————————
A complete file browser and editor for configuration files, template files, CSS, ALL FILES. With some access levels, Like Beginners (CSS and other simple important files), advanced (More important files), full access. All that with a administrator access lock...



Ok, need to work now !......


I BE BACK!

The File Manager is not very intuitive at first, but I believe it is capable of all the things you're asking. When you upload files, you should be shown a popup window where you can click the "Sets" tab and put the files into a set or create a new set to put them into.
If you've already uploaded files, you can check the boxes next to them in the File Manager list and choose "Sets" from the action menu at the top of the list (the little dropdown menu that has "**" in it). Yeah, it's very hard to figure out at first, and would be nice if the workflow was improved, but I still think it's better than folders.

You say that "the files and folders systems is understood and recognize worldwide", but I very much disagree with this -- it is understood by technically proficient people worldwide, but have you ever seen your mom or grandmother try to figure out where the file she wants to open is, or why she can't find the file that was just saved? Most "normal" people do not understand the concept of hierarchies and are totally baffled by folders and filesystems. Part of the popularity of the iPad is because it appeals to non-technical people because among other things it does away with the file system entirely.

You're absolutely correct that the UI could use some improvement though.

Yeah I'm with jordan on this one. Files and folders are an abstract
concept you will see less and less of as you see more of things like
google docs, and cloud repositories.

It's easy for a UI designer to assume what makes sense to them makes
sense to everyone. It's rarely the case.

best wishes

Franz Maruna
CEO - concrete5.org
http://about.me/frz

You gotta admit though that "Upload" and "Upload Multiple" should probably be one button. Yeah, people "get it", but (without regard to the functionality being different) having a federated upload button is better than having two separate buttons.

Imagine if google required you to use certain search boxes for certain queries (ie I could search for only web pages in one form and only videos in another). Curretly, there is one search to rule them all (and yeah, you can narrow it down afterwards, but you get my point).

Something to think about.

wait, you mean like:
http://images.google.com
vs.
http://video.google.com/
vs.
http://google.com

yeah that would be completely insane.

in all seriousness. Yeah I recognize that sometimes people don't know what "more" does until they click it. I also know that if i really do just want to upload one file, the basic browse upload we have is pretty fast compared to anything else. Also works if flash doesn't, etc.

I dunno, i rather like it being simple and a standard that people have seen before "browse file, upload" rather than always bringing up a pop-up with tabs about incoming directories, remote locations and a flash uploader that dies if you have mod security installed. Sometimes these UI decisions that happen organically are actually pretty decent. The single uploader will more or less always work if your concrete5 install is setup properly at all. parts of the more UI wont always.. (you gotta make that import directory, mod-security, flash versions/availability, etc..)

Generally I've been shocked by how powerful the act of turning things off and hiding stuff has been for us. Case in point; advanced permissions. They actually existed like you see 'em since the very early days of concrete cms. When we did concrete5 we added the /simple/ permissions and made it so you had to turn advanced permissions on with a flag in a config file. I'm sure everywhere programmers are saying "but wait, thats more powerful you should show it right away" but the truth of the matter is 60% of our audience self identify as site owners, not web developers, and they're looking for simple UI that gets outta the way.

By no means am I saying I'm right and you're wrong, or there aren't other answers.. I'm saying just because you could doesn't mean you should...

But yes, hypothetically - if there were a multiple file upload solution that was going to always consistently work as well as a simple http push, regardless of browser and server config, was just as fast, not overwhelmingly filled with options, and was MIT licensed - I don't see any reason why we wouldn't accept a pull request in GIT to swap it out. I know facebook and flickr have gone through endless revisions to their uploader, and the gmail one routinely causes chrome to crash on my mac... so I think we keep the single file uploader there as a safety check as much as anything. Probably the smartest next step would be to get a multi-file uploader that was really rock solid in place of the one we have now and then debate if it was causing real issues to have the single uploader first.

That last paragraph is certainly the most telling. My response was in the "perfect world" sense. I understand the differences at the moment and dont have a real issue with the way it currently is. But, in a perfect world, just throwing that out there... 0.02 cents. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I don't think doing away with the single uploader is necessary or desirable (mostly because of the Flash issue), but surely the UI could be streamlined or made clearer. Similarly, that "action" dropdown ("**") is also very un-intuitive.

Ideally I think the upload functionality should be more prominently placed, maybe over to the left a bit, so it's in the center of your field of vision.
And the action menu should say "Action..." or "Operations..." or anything other than "**", and also should somehow be visually tied to the checkbox column so it's more obvious that that's what it's related to.

None of these are functionality changes, just making it easier to figure out for new users.

I completely agree that the bulk actions in there suck in every way
and feel like we prototyped their potential existence more than
anything...

<cough cough> git pull...

best wishes

Franz Maruna
CEO - concrete5.org
http://about.me/frz

Hey now - let's not confuse two separate issues. Bulk actions in the file manager are actually pretty sweet. I mean, you can select all of your files and then download them all in one zip, for goodness sake. To say nothing of setting sets, attributes, duplicating images, deleting them, etc...

Page/User search? Yeah, those need work.

Hard to tell who's responding to what at this point (forum indentation only goes so many levels deep)...

But Andrew, I don't think anyone is suggesting that the bulk actions are anything other than amazing. But it is completely unintuitive and "non-discoverable" -- two asterisks don't mean anything to anybody. I've answered a lot of forum questions where people are wondering how to do bulk actions because they don't realize what that "**" menu is for. And I've come across it with my own clients when they first start using the system. And come to think of it when I first discovered C5 I didn't quite get it myself either.

Just sayin' that menu (and the file upload) could use some UI polish to be more discoverable / intuitive.

Err. That's right, my bad. There's been times I woulda killed a man for bulk attribute set on people

Best wishes
Pecked out on an iPhone

Don’t take me wrong here. I love what you do and I just want to freely bring advices or suggestions completly free of charge.

I pack around 30 years of experience with various type of Designers, from expensive watch manufacturer to architectural Designers, marketing strategy and web design.

I will review the system of set, that are in fact “folder, container,classification system or whatever you want to call them...) — I probably miss something there. I don’t have to much time to test. Sorry...

I was thinking that the billions of people that uses computer everyday and actually doing something with it, I mean work, use that graphical interface. Even Grandma use that to make her email tidy.

That doesnt mean to not been inventive, and Concrete proove that they are with a revolutionary concept in site building. What people like me dream of, you guys are building it.

You are bringing us a brand new type of motor, but be carefull when it will be time to redesign the wheel.

Always love to have another voice in our community.

We took the set system from our experience with gMail and iTunes. Both of these give you a sense of folders but are really organizing things as collections, not categories. (Collections meaning you can have stuff in more than one collection without it being an alias)

I agree there's no reason to re-invent what works.

I also believe that file systems are intrinsically flawed and I think a casual glance at any group of office workers will prove my point. Take programmers and librarians out of the equation and I bet you'll find well over half of the file systems you find are in complete disarray.

If that arguement doesn't get you, this one might: versions.
One of the biggest practical challenges people actually have is version management on files. The only way to do that well with a Folder/File system is to make a folder the file and consciously save files with new version numbers. While I'm sure CS teachers across the world would highly recommend that, its very uncommon for people to actually do it. What you get instead is a weird organic hodge-podge of poorly names files, email attachments and nonsense.

concrete5 supports versioning within a file record.