Joomla, a one stop solution for a CMS?

[JamesDavid]

I have used Joomla in the past and personally feel it is a very powerful CMS with alot of options and extensions. I also feel its two strongest attributes, being open-source and its extensions are also its two biggest weaknesses.

Joomla is free and open source, problem with that is your don't have a development team working full time writing and securing new code.

The extensions available for Joomla cover a vast array of uses and industries, the main problem with these thirdparty extensions is code security.

On occasion I have had my Joomla sites hacked not because of the CMS itself but because of the installation of a badly written extension.

If you haven't used Joomla I would strongly encourage it, it is an amazing product...

JamesDavid

[Teacher]

I like Joomla as well. I haven't had a chance to play around with it since they went to 1.5 as I was waiting for the developers to start converting their plugins and such.

I see that its rolling along very well now.

[denisecook]

I have another portal site that I built in Joomla, and I'm happy with it but it took me soooo long to find all of the modules and components that I needed. How do you compare phpCity Portal with Joomla - do they work together? What are the advantages of using one over the other? Other than the obvious, there is no customer support with Joomla.

I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to build this new site with Joomla again or buy phpCity Portal. I'm leaning toward this one though but kind of afraid of the installation process, whereas I've installed several joomla sites with no problems.

[JamesDavid]

to answer your questions

1) if we can see your sit eyou made with joomla we might be able to compare features etc and tell you which is better and which makes sense for you.

I personally have tried to create simething close to this previously in Joomla with no success... However Joomla is a very powerful tool so depending on WHAT you are trying to accomplish the answer may change...

As far as installation have no fears.. pretty straightforward, does require some technical know how but nothing HUGE. PLus you have a forum here where people will help and worst case scenario you can just pay for the installation which I think may be $5o.

I guess if you tell us WHAT you are trying to accomplish with your site, then we can fill you in...

Hope to hear from you soon!

[spidershop]

Joomla is very versatile but can be too OTT for most peoples needs.

If you want a CMS that is easy to use and most of all 'easy to upgrade' when the next version appears (whether for security or for enahanced features) then i would really recommend WordPress.

All WordPress updates are now done through the admin backend plus most pluggins and templates can be added that way to. It really doesn't normally require you to get that FTP software out to do much.

It also lets you know when WordPress or even the pluggins have new versions available. Sites also seem to run quicker than Joomla sites mainly because it has a much smaller code footprint.

I just wish there was a better directory pluggin for it....

[denisecook]

Thanks for the replies.

I built this site with Joomla - whatsinmacomb dot com. It took forever but then I was learning Joomla at the same time. Like I said, the biggest annoyance for me was searching for components and modules, trying them, not liking them, and searching for more.

I'm looking to build a similar site for a different community and I want it to be much more streamlined. I want to spend less time designing the site and more time developing and building content.

[JamesDavid]

First off. Very nice site. I could honestly say the best city portal site I have seen come out of Joomla...

PHPCITYPORTAL doesnt hang with joomla as far as the modules etc.. but if you want a solid product to develop and advertise than phpcity is the right choice.

From what I can tell there isnt anythign you offer on whatsinmacomb dot com that phpcityportal doesnt have built in and fully functional...

[denisecook]

Thank you, JamesDavid, that encourages me to start working on it again! I kinda let it sit dormant for many reasons, things going on in my life and I just let it fall by the wayside. Once I moved out of the community, I didn't have as much of a connection to it as I did when I was living there. But now I'm building one for where I now live, and that's what I'm planning to use phpCity for, to save time and make it more functional for the users. I like the customer support, that's the biggest selling point for me right now.

I know html and some php, so I think I'll be okay with the customization, but I might have to pay for installation.

[nordal]

Hi guys ... regarding the installation cost, James mentioned $50 but it's actually just $29 ;)