Joomla?

T

ThatDood

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 23, 2006
Messages
436
So I built a website for a company and they are wanting to edit several of the pages fairly frequently. I've thought about creating my own CMS type admin site for the actual site, but they upload tons of pdfs, pictures, etc... I think I could make something work, but I don't have a ton of time to deal with. My question is, has anyone used joomla and do you like it? I already have the website built, but would need to cut it up into a joomla template (I think?).

If anyone has any suggestions or could shed some light on this, it would greatly be appreciated.
 
i've used joomla briefly, and it's met the requirements for that specific project, not to mention theres a ton of addons available that may fit the bill

there's also drupal that might work, you might as well check them both out

I ended up writing my own CMS for one client, php and mysql ... it was a huge pain in the butt, and still is...if I had to do it again, I'd do whatever I could to avoid it if possible
 
Joomla and Drupal are awesome.

Drupal seems easier to use, for what you're doing I'd recommend that over Joomla. Joomla seems to be more for people who customize it after install.
 
I currently use Joomla as my work site and the site I built for my wife's salon. While Joomla is a great application and does just about everything you need it to do, there are some limitations. The main limitation is that without knowing the core API it is hard to make significant modifications to the templates. This is not to say that you cannot make modifications to "tweak" the system the way you want. There is a wealth of applications, mods, and purchase-able items out there for it and because of that you will always have a means to create what you want. After playing with both Joomla and Drupal I found Joomla to be a bit more user friendly and easier to install. For what you are looking at doing it seems that you are in need of a document repository software. Joomla has several that work well.

My question to you is what will you users be doing with these documents they are posting? Will they just need them freely available on the site or will they need to be posted as articles that can be read?
 
gregnash said:
My question to you is what will you users be doing with these documents they are posting? Will they just need them freely available on the site or will they need to be posted as articles that can be read?
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Basically, what they will need to do is upload results of different events to the website so the contestants and open public can view them. I would think most of these documents will be PDFs that are linked on the website.

I setup Joomla on a test box and have been playing with it. I got my template up and working, but i'm not understanding the lingo just yet (ie. articles, sections, etc..). I need to do some more reading first.

TechieSooner said:
Joomla and Drupal are awesome.

Drupal seems easier to use, for what you're doing I'd recommend that over Joomla. Joomla seems to be more for people who customize it after install.
Click to expand...

Sweet, I'll look into Drupal as well.
 
When you check out Drupal, look at CCK and Views. Those 2 modules alone make Drupal incredibly customizable.

I've found that Drupal has a higher learning curve than Joomla, but both can do whatever you want them to do as long as you don't mind getting your hands in a bit of code.
 
I'd toss Wordpress in as an idea. I'm a big Joomla guy (less so a Drupal guy) but Wordpress is great for simple projects, which it sounds like this is. If you just need content editing, file uploading, etc Wordpress is far easier than the power CMS alternatives.
 
I am a huge joomla fan and run and manage a few sites based off of it. Can be extremely easy to work with via the automated installers and nice gui or as tough as your talents let you dive into its coding underbelly.

Wordpress is better for simpler projects though, but gets a bit annoying with too much customization (the platform just cannot handle extremely advanced addons well out of the box).
 
Wordpress is the best if you want frequently updated posts (A Blog), past that it really is a PITA and has not the same functionality of a CMS.

I'd personally recommend Drupal myself. For what you're doing, Drupal is a crap ton easier to get working. It's easier to customize your addon modules, too.
Joomla seems more for the advanced crowd that really wants to spend time on customizing their CMS. I was looking at doing a user-contributed community (registrations, etc)- and Joomla is better for that. For company websites and such- Drupal is much easier.
 
Try Wordpress for a simple site. I've been using a CMS called CMS Made Simple for my clients and their businesses. I can make a nice lightbox gallery and it looks nice and everything in 30 min tops.
 
Wordpress is great for blogs but honestly, can't touch what Drupal and Joomla do for company websites, etc...
I've tried all three. Getting Wordpress to do half the capabilities for Drupal or Joomla was a major PITA.
BUT, getting Drupal and Joomla do do a blog as well as Wordpress is a PITA as well.
 
When choosing a CMS for your users to update it's important to choose one that you can create a good looking template for and that they will be able to use. Most clients are not that computer savvy and updating information needs to be made as easy as possible on them.

Just about any CMS will allow your users to upload PDF files and sort them in a repository. You can play around with them at www.opensourcecms.com

Joomla and Drupal are by far the most popular. In my opinion Joomla has the cleaner backend interface. But Drupal is easier to create custom code. They both have a great community and available add-ons to plug in.
 
johnglenn said:
When you check out Drupal, look at CCK and Views. Those 2 modules alone make Drupal incredibly customizable
Click to expand...

...and an absolute bitch to maintain or practice any reasonable, long-term, software development on.
 
ameoba said:
...and an absolute bitch to maintain or practice any reasonable, long-term, software development on.
Click to expand...

Yep QFT... They're pretty complicated little plugins that take time getting used to. I honestly have to re-learn it every time I screw with it as infrequently as I use them.

But for what the OP is talking about here, seems to be a pretty static website. He needs something that he can give a user login to someone at the office to update pages, upload new docs, etc... Drupal is stupidly easy to do this with (My personal opinion is Joomla is more complicated). Just grant them permission to change pages, upload files- done. They can't screw anything up.
 
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