How difficult is Joomla?

DeadlyByDesign

Guys,

Just looking through CMS applications now. As a whole, is Joomla and other CMS applications hard to integrate to a site? Are they fairly user friendly?

worc

Joomla is a complete pain in the ass when you first start to use it.

I tried Wordpress and Joomla - wordpress is far easier but for whatever reason I ended up focusing on Joomla. Possibly a psychological thing but it felt more robust when I was using it - wordpress felt like it was made of paper and balsa wood, whereas it felt like Joomla was reinforced concrete. Probably because I had absolutely not a jot of an idea about websites, so Joomla's complication made me feel more like the site was working properly when I did things...probably sounds strange! Not to start a WP bashing from that comment - Wordpress is brilliant and isn't made of paper or balsa wood! Just my preference went to Joomla and I just learned how to use it so kept at it.

Joomla has a big learning curve. It's difficult to even give an example...eh....

Just for a basic example, say you've got the plan for a menu of

"Home | About Us | Products | FAQ | Contact Us"

This will require first creating an "article" (i.e. a page) for each of these through:

1. "Content" > "Article Manager" > "New" > put in text/images/etc > Select the "Section*" > Select the "Category*" > "Save"
2. Repeat step 1 for each page/article you want.

*creating these also requires a few steps but you can select "uncategorised" to just leave them alone.

Now for the menu:

1. "Menu" > "Menu Manager" > "New" > Fill in details of the menu, we'll call it "Navigation Menu" > "Save"
2. "Menu" > "Navigation Menu" > "New" > Selection of Loads of possible page types (we'll just say you're only using standard webpage of text/images) so "Articles" > "Article Layout" > Fill in details and select already created article from menu list (e.g. "About Us" page > "Save"
3. Repeat step 2 for every page (i.e. Home, About Us, Products etc.)

At this stage your menu still isn't done more steps needed to create the "module" that your menu will reside in:

1. "Extensions" > "Module Manager" > "New" > Numerous optional types of module, we'll say you want your menu type so "Menu" > Fill in details of menu, selecting what position you want the menu to be in, link the new Menu Module to the Menu you created in step 1 above > "Save"

Now your menu is up and running.

Not sure if that sounds like much work (?), it's not so much that it's difficult to create things in Joomla, it's more the fact that you have to go through various different steps to get something onsite. Like if you want a particular page that, for whatever reason, isn't accessible from a menu link, say you provide a link to it from within text on one of your sites pages, you have to actually create a menu, attach the article to this menu but just not create a module for that menu, so for an article like that to be visible it has to be attached to a menu in the backend...it's stuff like that that can get really annoying when you're first working with it.

Hope that wasn't too long-winded.

Scotty #

When you are installing Joomla on your server make sure to 'install sample data' and it will give you an idea of the structure of Menu's etc. If you have never used a CMS before then it can be a little overwhelming at first but you'll pick it up soon enough.

Loads of beginner tuts online.

Basq

I tried to learn it and found it a nightmare!

I found learning Wordpress a breeze in comparison!