Travel Affiliate

Hi everybody,
i'm starting to work on a new affiliate website (IAN - Travel) and before to start I need a few suggestions.

The first is about the website "engine", I want it made with webservices (XML - SOAP), so dynamic pages with rewritten url. Before to start to write the code myself, do you know if there is any script (i use php) already done, like insert the CID and done?
I mean a complete system, not just funtions as in IAN examples.

Second, I need a CSM for my travel articles. I would like to use wordpress, but it miss some good index page (like list all categories articles or so). Can you suggest me something?

Thanks