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Joomla! - 2006/12/28 14:24
I know it is sometimes a daunting thing to try and choose a content management system, and this website is my first real experience of using a complex CMS - Joomla! Therefore I am going to review it and if you have any experiences with it please reply with them.
Summary:
Pros:
It is very powerful and with customisation can do pretty much anything you need it to
There are loads of components and modules to install and it is really easy to do so.
The community is fairly strong - i.e. good community support
It's not too hard to customise if you read the odd tutorial or really get your hands dirty.
The admin interface is pretty easy to use and powerful
It's free and opensource!
Cons:
There are not many good, free (or included) templates like there are for most forum scripts I have used.
The CMS does sometimes feel "bloated". i.e. because it is so powerful, there is probably a lot of stuff you could do without.
Some things are confusing at first, mainly because of poor documentation. - apparently to be fixed in version 1.5 (currently beta)
It will probably take you a long time to set your website up, at least first time.
Who is it for?
The reason I used it was expandability. I have used several forum scripts in the past, but on their own I have found them to be limited. For example I had a lot of problems with TinyPortal and SMF, and all I wanted was to create a front page note on my forum and an RSS feed down the side, but keep it managed in the admin panel. With Joomla! there is no chance of this being a difficulty. However, although it is much simpler than, for example, Drupal, I wouldnt recommend that webdesign novices try and tackle it without help.
Customisation is mainly possible through the admin interface, but some hacks, template modding etc would require extra knowledge, and I think this is a must to ensure the site looks like yours and doesnt use the default Joomla! template with a modded banner. Of course Joomla! is free so it is ideal for websites like this where I will probably never make a profit. However, if you are designing for a company with decent funding, look at the commercial alternatives as you will get guaranteed support and potentially less problems with bugs in 3rd party plug-ins. I do not know how alternatives compare because I have never used a commercial CMS.
Expandability was my main reason for choosing Joomla!. And I think it was a good choice. Now I am familiar with everything and have spent the (pretty large) amount of time customising it and getting to know the system the benefits are evident. The nicest admin control panel I have used (in terms of functionality and interface combined) and at this stage I can very easily expand my website.
Notes:
I'm just going to add stuff here as I remember it and probably a few useful links (I'm in IE for some reason atm so I've got none of my bookmarks).
I thought it was worth mentioning that I had been recommended Mambo as a free CMS, I went on their website and downloaded it etc etc. Basically Joomla! is the new version of Mambo it would seem. I think they still update Mambo a bit to support people still using it, and this is probably what makes their website confusing. But anyway....get Joomla! not Mambo if you're between the two. I think. I still am slightly confused over this.
Hope all that helps.
Post edited by: admin, at: 2006/12/28 19:38
regards,
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