Joomla Content Management System

Joomla is one of three well-known content management systems; the other well-knowns are WordPress and Drupal, and yes there are perhaps over 100 others. None is the best, it's more a matter of what suits the clients' needs. They each have their loyal supporters and their customer niche. I have worked for most of 10 years with Joomla, not because it's the best, more so because it was developed with the functionality and extensions that suited me.

What is a content management system? In simple terms it is a program that comes with tools to manage the content of your website without messing with the design. It gives you control and this is a big thing. In earlier internet days you had to rely on your webmaster to make even the simplest changes to a page. Joomla comes with a core framework which includes the administration control panel, and much more. The framework is developed using PHP programming language, JavaScript, MySQL database, HTML and CSS for styling.

WordPress Content Management System

Be it accurate or not, WordPress has a reputation for being slightly easier to learn off the shelf than Joomla, whereas Joomla might be more powerful. Both or perhaps some of the lesser knowns will work for many clients. It's a matter of taste, choice and requirements of the job. After the fact, with lots of Joomla knowledge in my back pocket, I've found that much of what I learned can be applied to WordPress.

WordPress and Joomla

Many people won't know this, but although WordPress is famous for its blogging platform, that Joomla can also be used by bloggers. In fact in addition to bloging extensions that were built for Joomla, there is a Joomla extension for WordPress such that it can be run within Joomla, taking on the look and feel of your website template.

Besides the core framework that makes up the CMS that you choose (assuming you go with one), there are theme shops and developers that provide 3rd party extensions and templates to fill gaps. Some are licensed and some are free. As a designer/developer I'm pretty familiar with theme shops as well as developers who support their products well, and not.

Customization

Although in some cases you can use your CMS off the shelf, it typically involves some work to make the product and the theme suit your needs and business requirements. That could involve customizing the theme appearance and locating extensions that you need for your business needs. Other tasks that the designer/developer might include performance-tuning your website and making it secure (as is possible) from hackers.

Bootstrap

You may have heard of Bootstrap and Bootstrap themes. To quote Bootstrap, "Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web." Okay great, what does that mean? Bootstrap is a framework for creating responsive websites but without the administrative control panel to easily manage the content. Many CMS theme shops incorporate some of the Bootstrap principles in their themes.

There are some lovely Bootstrap only themes available for purchase for insignificant cash. However, to implement one of these themes you will mostly like need some technical skills and possibly coding language. Off the shelf they will not be easy to update for the average non-technical person. The good news is that it is possible for a developer to create custom administration forms to get you over that hump; it's also quite possible to take an administration control panel such as Joomla's and adapt it to run your Bootstrap website.

For more information or to discuss your website or project please contact me to discuss your options.

WordPress vs. Joomla

What's important with regarding to any CMS is choosing what's right for you, what's scalable for your requirements. Gone are the days when you had to contact your webmaster for any/all updates, including the simple ones.

Joomla Update

Since the writing of this original article Joomla has fallen way behind in market share. Although Wordpress may now be king in web presence, if you're not excited by Wordpress there are many other options available including a custom one such as the framework which drives this website.