Drupal V Joomla V others?

[eclipse]

Hi all,
I found this review telling... from earlier this year.

http://mactheweb.com/software-review/joomla-vs-drupal/

Made some interesting points either way, what's your favourite and WHY?

Also, this next paragraph hit below the belt, but maybe I'm just sensitive about my newbie status.

Unless you are a fairly experienced web designer who has a good understanding HTML and CSS, at a minimum, either of these systems might throw you in the deep end without an adequate life preserver. You will have to learn to swim quickly or drown. A basic understanding of PHP and MySQL wouldn’t hurt either. Though you can do without.

You can create large, feature rich and sophisticated sites with either of these systems. Unfortunately, the dream of a truly simple yet powerful CMS is still a long way from realit

 

[design-is]

CMSs have been explored quite extensively in this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/581307/

 

[eclipse]

OK, it was more about design V "hacking" but some CMS personal preferences came up.

(That thread was particularly challenging for a newbie like me wanting a "quick fix".

I think I'm going to have to spend the year on Lynda.com and read a few books to give our mainly print clients what they probably want in web design. )

But while people sort of blurted their favourite CMS, I found it a bit limited on "why"... are you suggesting that was enough for this forum on CMS for now? I'll go sulk quietly if that's the vibe.

 

[design-is]

That thread was particularly challenging for a newbie like me wanting a "quick fix".

<snip>

But while people sort of blurted their favourite CMS, I found it a bit limited on "why"... are you suggesting that was enough for this forum on CMS for now? I'll go sulk quietly if that's the vibe.

Quick fixes don't really exist

What sort of CMS are you looking for? Have you looked at cmsmatrix.org?

I would never suggest that that thread alone is enough on CMS for this forum, but thought it best to check you had looked through it thoroughly first

 

[lucidmedia]

I am a drupal user.

Drupal is more difficult to learn than Joomla, but I found it to be more powerful and more extensible.

The drupal comunity is large, and stable. It is supported by some large companies like IBM and Adobe. (Adobe has written some open-source modules for Drupal that simplify AMFPHP connections between Drupal and Flash/Flex).

I remember (back in the day) that Joomla's source was a bit of a mess after the split from Mambo. Not sure of the state of that now. Drupal is quite encapsulated and built from the ground up for extensibility.

A basic knowledge of PHP is a must... even to create templates for Drupal. But PHP is quite easy to learn, with lots of free learning resources.

Unless you are a fairly experienced web designer who has a good understanding HTML and CSS at a minimum, either of these systems might throw you in the deep end without an adequate life preserver.

This is absolutely true. You need to understand the separation of content and form that is the foundation of web standards, and then grasp how PHP can add logic to organization and presentation of your content. (I disagree that this knowledge defines an "experienced web designer", however. I would expect this from my most junior employees)

Don't worry about being a learner in this. Everyone has to begin somewhere... amazingly powerful things can be done in Drupal right through the web interface (check out the Views module for instance) and that will help you get started. You will, eventually, want to start theming and adding your own logic to your pages... this is when you will need to start adding in your own PHP.

 

[eclipse]

hi,
thanks for commenting.

I'm wondering how much you used Joomla before deciding between them? The other thing to consider is that both keep evolving, so one's experience of one version of the software "ain't always necessarily so".

Re: php
But the Joomla guys say you can use Joomla without ever having to learn php?... that's why there is a "Joomla"?

 

[lucidmedia]

I'm wondering how much you used Joomla before deciding between them? The other thing to consider is that both keep evolving, so one's experience of one version of the software "ain't always necessarily so".

umm.. I started using Joomla right after it was forked from Mambo in 2005. Drupal since version 4. I have watched them both develop and get shaped in different ways. I think the two have different audiences. Today, I use whatever system my client asks for.

My appreciation of Drupal came from the creation of sites where the the client was asking for dynamic and creative relationships of content -- I personally found that I appreciated the extensibility of Drupal over Joomla.

But the Joomla guys say you can use Joomla without ever having to learn php?... that's why there is a "Joomla"?

Both systems can do powerful things out of the box. But a CMS is not a REPLACEMENT for programming... it is a platform FOR it. A good CMS takes care of the things a designer/developer does not want to have to think about or re-write every time (security, filtering, etc. etc.) so they can focus upon innovative relationships of content, a great user experience, and a strong visual design. Such things cannot happen by default.