INTRODUCTION - WHAT IS JOOMLA!?

Joomla! is an award wining open source content management system (CMS). It's open source like the Linux OS, so that means it's free to use and millions of people give up their spare time to develop it.

OPEN SOURCE IS GOOD NEWS

Open Source is generally good news for individuals, non-profit organizations and those companies on a budget. You can spend a lot of money on a commercial CMS, but there are solid reasons for going open source. To start with, your web site won't be in the hands of a software company that can go bust at any moment and you won't be paying expensive maintenance contracts to these companies. 


Static HTML or DYNAMIC site? Take your pick.

a) What is a good news/media site? Actually today what is good site? ANY SITE needs these things.

Put simply:

• It has a 'front-end' (home page)  that changes frequently
• A template design that will appeal to the audience and is easy to navigate.
• It also has 'back-end' database that is stacked full of brilliant content generated by a team of journalists (or perhaps just you!).
• It's search engine friendly.

All major news sites are built around a CMS. Some 'big beasts' include Tridion (used by Emap) and eScenic (used by Daily Telegraph, CNN, Informa  and The Independent) - but you obviously pay a lot for these solutions.

b) Would you benefit from a CMS or are you better using straightforward HTML?

You don't have to be a big media giant to benefit from using a CMS.

1. Do you update your site more than once a week?  (you should if you want to come up in the search engines)
2. Do you have multiple contributors (e.g. writers) to the site?
3. Do you want to keep design separate from content?

If you answer 'yes' to any of the above - a CMS would definitely be worth a look.


JOOMLA! - FREE AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND

There is something about using a CMS that sounds:

• Really complicated
• Really expensive

You can certainly make expensive mistakes - particularly if you take the advice of the designer/programmer, who created a CMS back in 2005 and he still thinks it's REALLY great.

So have a reason to reject open source solutions before looking to a commercial CMS.

Joomla its easy and free, so if you are developing a website with a design company using joomla you'll save lots of money and lots of time.

There are a number of free CMS to consider, alongside Joomla!

• Drupal see a video of some well-known sites that use it
• Wordpress (yes, this 'blog' tool is increasingly being used for websites)
• Xaraya see my post for more info.

There are others worth looking at like:

• Movable Type
• Expression Engine
• Radiant
• TextPattern
• DotNetNuke

It's amazing the number of editors that seem to 'apologize' for using free tools and want to keep it secret. All of them had a good look around and have concluded that Joomla!, Drupal, or WordPress actually fit the bill just fine. So say it loud and proud - I USE OPEN SOURCE!

WE WENT WITH JOOMLA! and RECOMMEND IT to ALL OUR CUSTOMERS!

For more information about Joomla you can go to www.joomla.org or just contact us.
We provide affordable, search engine friendly, CMS websites using Joomla technology. Click here to see some websites developed using this great technology.


Original Post: http://srh.typepad.com/blog

A CMS allows Web site owners with little or no HTML skills to be able to add, edit and delete content on their Web site. This may include changes to copy, or adding photos, uploading PDFs, adding streaming audio or video and more. You can even set publish and remove dates for press releases, calendar events or special promotions.

Many CMSs (including Joomla) allow different levels of access to the site, both on the front and back ends. Contributors may be able to add or edit pages (with or without administrative oversight), while administrators can make changes to the navigation, choose new page templates, add or remove contributors and more. In addition, creating member-only sections and providing unique username/passwords to site visitors is built into the product.

We chose Joomla in part because of the fact it's open-source and has a big user group; that ensures that if Joomla proper doesn't have a functionality a client is looking for it's probable that a 3rd party has created a module that can be plugged in to enhance the product. Examples are events calendars, e-commerce options, contact forms and more. If you can imagine it, someone's build it.

One very cool Joomla feature is that the site's content is held in a database and served up into multiple, attractive page templates. Ourt designers customize templates for our customers so no two websites are the same, this is what separates us from a lot of other joomla website designers. Templates make it easy to create printer-friendly pages. In fact, Joomla allows you to print or save every page as a PDF if you choose (even though we do not recommend it because of internet marketing reasons - SEO).

It also makes future Web site redesigns less costly as you can just apply a new template and appear to have a fresh new look to your site.

We specialize in Joomla Websites and more and more customers ask for the features and flexibility Joomla can offer. We believe this is because people are looking to take more ownership and responsibility over their Web sites. The idea of being able to update your site as you see fit is a compelling one. If you do find that you're constantly sending updates to your Web developer, a CMS may pay for itself.  For a small site or one that doesn't change often we also recommend Joomla just because it will give you scalability to grow in the future without a huge investment and you can have a blog to improve your web presence and communication with your customers.

If you have a question on whether a CMS would be right for you contact us here.

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Original Post: flyteblog.com

Blogging is still soaring in the Web 2.0 era and WordPress is easily the most popular engine on the market.  This multipurpose blogging software is used for everything from personal diaries to business applications, helping many achieve online notoriety and even more bring in consistent revenue.  Although WordPress is generally referred to as a weblog publishing tool, some are calling it a CMS.  Do you agree?  We don’t.  And this article will explain why.

In order to determine whether WordPress is a CMS or not, you should first become acquainted with the three main types of content management systems, as outlined below.

Open-source Systems - Software packages like Drupal and Joomla that are becoming more popular for small to medium sized ventures.

Enterprise Systems - Proprietary solutions like Microsoft Content Server.  This type of CMS is geared towards corporate users that require powerful business applications and frequent database interaction.

Home Grown Systems - These systems are developed in-house by webmasters who have specific requirements for content management.

When comparing the WordPress platform to the software in these classifications, it falls short as merely an over-hyped content delivery system.  Though it has a tremendous following and a number of benefits, WordPress doesn’t have what it takes to be called a real CMS.   In fact, it lacks several of the necessary protocols the average CMS provides as standard.  This includes update features, security tools, user permissions and more complex content management functionality.  When considering the all the capabilities it is missing, calling WordPress a CMS may be like unfairly moving it up in weight class.

Should WordPress be a CMS?

Perhaps the real issue should be whether or not WordPress needs to be more like a genuine CMS.  While this software gives you a lot, there are limitations and thus disadvantages.  Ask a fan of Mambo, Joomla or PHP-Nuke and they will probably tell you that WordPress is highly inferior.

Despite the shortcomings, it still is a very efficient tool and rightly embraced by millions of users around the world.  It can also be a nice alternative to some of the more complex and intimidating content management systems.  For the most part, the user community is happy with the functionality and would probably prefer to keep things as they are.  After all, turning the platform into a true CMS would tamper with a relatively clean code and possibly cause the software to lose some of its natural appeal.  Besides, simplicity and ease of use are two of WordPress’ biggest advantages.

Conclusion

There is no denying the capabilities of WordPress.  The overwhelming enthusiasm the community shares for this platform is certainly warranted.   It is very cost effective and makes and ideal tool for small to medium sized.   Be that as it may, tagging WordPress as a content management system is not inherantly accurate.   In order to earn that title, the software would require a major overhaul which would in turn, cause it to lose so much of the qualities that has made it so popular.

Comment: We personally prefer Joomla since there is a lot more support online in the JOOMLA COMMUNITY, an incredible selection of components and modules available and new and more complex software developed everyday, go to www.joomla.org to learn more.

Another very good article about the differences between DRUPAL, JOOMLA and WORDPRESS:  http://www.goodwebpractices.com/other/wordpress-vs-joomla-vs-drupal.html

 

Original Blog Entry:  http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/04/22/is-wordpress-really-a-cms/