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1. paddy
   Member

   Ok first no flaming, or fanboy posts
   
   I'm just curious on what peoples thoughts are on Joomla as a CMS and more importantly as an application framework. I do a lot of development in it but I also know that it has a bad rep amongst a lot of php developers out there. Personally I feel this is unjustified but I'm curious to here the communities opinions on it and maybe I can dispel a few myths or point out some features that people are largely unaware of.

   Posted 1 year ago #

2. conor
   Member

   Well I have never actually developed anything with it but I did install it a while back. My first impression was wow. I think that it is way too complicated for a normal non-techi user. I got to grips with it after a while but I do think that it is a bit much to ask the layman to learn.
   
   If you look at other OS CMSes like Wordpress, it has a very user friendly interface. I think to make something so big work then you have to not show off all the advanced "cool" features. You should make the features that people use regularly easy to access and have all the advanced features hidden - but still easy enough to access if you need to. That is a hard balance to get right and I think that Wordpress has done it where as Joomla has not.

   Posted 1 year ago #

3. paddy
   Member

   True Conor, the admin system is a bit of a nightmare to get your head around at first. I definitely think a training session with your client is required to get them up and running on it. However when it comes to doing things like adding pieces of content or editing content I think it is pretty straight forward. A few clicks and their done. Something I'm considering doing is putting together a wordpress style admin template for it which would be easier for your joe soap user to get to grips with but give you the under the hood power when you need it.
   
   Personally I wouldn't consider Wordpress a CMS, it's great in it's place but doesn't really have the feature set to make it a contender for replacing Joomla for me.

   Posted 1 year ago #

4. conor
   Member

   I agree that it does not harness the same power as Joomla but I would not go as far as saying that it is not a CMS. Wordpress can be used to simply manage content. There's no need to actually have a posts page in there. But it is not ideal for that function. I also agree that it won't replace Joomla in the near future because of the simple fact that they are not built to perform the same tasks.

   Posted 1 year ago #

5. kae
   Key Master

   My own opinion on it is that it's /way/ too complex to hand to a client.
   
   Remember that most of your clients (for normal web development companies) are probably used to Word and Excel and nothing else, so throwing something that complex at them is /asking/ for trouble.
   
   I mean, if you need to RTFM to figure out how to use it, then it is too complex. Anything you hand to your client should have just over the bare minimum capabilities enabled.
   
   Using a car as an analogy - you really just want to hand them a steering wheel and a "go" button, instead of requiring an aircraft-like dashboard, full of buttons which most likely they will never need.

   Posted 1 year ago #

6. php.allstar
   Member

   I only done one install of it and that was enough for me!
   
   It took me ages to figure out there was a template override feature.
   
   Having tested the latest wordpress, I think I'm going to use this as a CMS from now on, very impressive.

   Posted 1 year ago #

7. paddy
   Member

   So the impression I'm getting is that with a dumbed down admin interface everyone would think it was the business?
   
   Now there's a little project for me...

   Posted 1 year ago #

8. kae
   Key Master

   exactly.
   
   depends who the end client is.
   
   if it's your standard joe, then yes, you need to give them a "dumbed down" interface.
   
   the /only/ time you should ever give someone a full-on interface is if the end-client is someone that is going to work with it day in day out, hour by hour. In that case, the client has the time to learn what all the buttons do.
   
   If they're only going to use it once a week to change a sentence or two, then the dumber the better.

   Posted 1 year ago #

9. dahamsta
   Member

   I've tried Mambo/Joomla several times over the years, never understood it's popularity. It's clunky and awkward and the developers seem to have very little understanding of usability. Drupal is as bad in some categories, worse in others. Power and control is all well and good, but when it's at the expense of usability, it's simply useless to me.
   
   I lean towards WordPress for the smaller projects, and I'm currently evaluating ModX for larger sites. I'm very impressed so far.
   
   adam

   Posted 1 year ago #

10. vediovis
    Member

    Unfortunately for me I have to develop a lot on it. Plug In, Modules, and most of all a big compnent.
    
    Documentation is uncomplete, local conventions are sometimes very restrictive (I have a lot of templates named only "default.php"). Anyway it's real MVC inside. But you have to follow their way of doing all the time and it makes developments to be slow.
    
    Cheers
    
    Stef

    Posted 7 months ago #

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