| I was recently asked by a potential client why I | | | | developer as well as the end-user.Some other good |
| recommended Joomla! to be used for building their | | | | reasons to use Joomla!One of the most attractive |
| website. Let me explain the benefits of using Joomla | | | | features of using Joomla! is the fact that is so very |
| versus using anything else, and by anything else I | | | | easy to extend its functionality. You can build |
| mean comparing building a website using some type | | | | anything from a brochure website to a full-featured |
| of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) | | | | shopping cart or interactive membership site. This is |
| editor, such as Frontpage or Dreamweaver, or | | | | because there are over 3500 add-ons and plugins |
| building a website with a comparative type of | | | | available to extend its functionality. This ranges from |
| software package.Joomla! is a Content Management | | | | shopping carts, image galleries, video plugins, forums, |
| system, which means that it is built to ensure that | | | | blogs, and project management tools, etc etcThe |
| website pages can easily be maintained and updated. | | | | Joomla templating system also makes it easy to |
| This includes for example, adding new pages or | | | | change the look and feel of your site without having |
| removing pages. This is the main advantage above | | | | to redo the whole site from scratch you can visit |
| building a website in straight forward HTML that | | | | You can literally change the whole graphic design/look |
| would normally be the end product of using some | | | | of the site in a matter of seconds while retaining the |
| type of HTML editor. But why Joomla? Why not | | | | content. There are also over 2000 templates, most |
| something else like a Microsoft based product or | | | | of them free, available to change the look and feel |
| another commercial product?Joomla is Open Source, | | | | of your site.But again, why Joomla! Why not |
| which means that there are no licensing fees payable, | | | | Wordpress, for example?I have to admit, Wordpress |
| that you have often pay for a Microsoft product or | | | | is also extremely popular and Wordpress also makes |
| a commercial productBecause Joomla is Open Source, | | | | it extremely easy to add new pages. Wordpress also |
| there is a huge pool of community resources available | | | | has numerous free templates available and it makes |
| to provide support or go to | | | | Wordpress an extremely attractive option to build |
| The Joomla community is huge worldwide as well as | | | | websites quickly and easily but it must always be |
| in local countries - there are often local user groups | | | | kept in mind that Wordpress is essentially a blogging |
| which are very well supported often even in small | | | | platform. Although it also has numerous plugins |
| countries such as South Africa. There is an enormous | | | | available to extend its functionality, it just does not |
| pool of people supporting the product. The forum on | | | | have the raw power with regards to its underlying |
| the Joomla.org site has over 200 000 members all | | | | infrastructure to allow it to easily plug in something |
| providing support and input into making Joomla! a | | | | like a shopping cart, for example.So what is the |
| better product.There are millions of sites worldwide | | | | catch? It can't be all roses?Having worked with |
| (about 10 Million if you do a guestimate using Google) | | | | Joomla! for a couple of years (and before that, with |
| that runs on Joomla. It is therefore extremely popular | | | | its predecessor, Mambo) I can tell you exactly what |
| and widely used which also means that it will never | | | | the shortcomings are:Joomla's membership capabilities |
| be difficult to find developers and people to support | | | | fall far short of what they could be. There is |
| it.Because it is so popular, it also means that by now | | | | verylimited support for various access groups and |
| there have been quite a few books written about | | | | access levels. |
| Joomla! from various perspectives to assist both the | | | | |