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We used Joomla to edit our content and maintain our website. All of our page edits were done via Joomla, as well as building new pages. …
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What is Joomla?
Joomla! is a free and open source content management system used to publish web content. Included features are page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, a search function, and support for language internationalization.
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- Availability / breadth of extensions (45)8.080%
- Role-based user permissions (44)7.070%
- Page templates (45)7.070%
- WYSIWYG editor (46)6.060%
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What is Joomla?
Joomla! is a free and open source content management system used to publish web content. Included features are page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, a search function, and support for language internationalization.
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What is Joomla?
Joomla! is a free, open source content management system used to publish web content. Joomla is written in PHP, uses object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques and stores data in a MySQL, MS SQL, or PostgreSQL database. Included features are page caching, RSS
feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, a search
function, and support for language internationalization. Its dashboard organizing administrator tasks into context
menus, from which content is edited, permissions set and changed, contacts
managed, and messages sent to users. Extensions modify functionality in widely
varying ways and provide flexibility.
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What is Joomla!
Joomla Integrations
Joomla Competitors
- Drupal
- Kentico Xperience
- Plone
- Magnolia (V5 and later versions)
Joomla Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Joomla! is a free and open source content management system used to publish web content. Included features are page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, a search function, and support for language internationalization.
Reviewers rate Library of website themes highest, with a score of 9.
The most common users of Joomla are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Joomla is a versatile content management system used by various businesses and organizations to run and manage their websites. It is popular among marketing departments as it allows them to update web content without the need for a developer, saving time and resources. Web development teams also benefit from Joomla's user-friendly interface, using it to design websites for clients and teach them to make small changes independently. Additionally, Joomla serves as a content management system for a wide range of projects, both internally and for clients. Its flexibility and extendability make it a preferred choice for both non-technical users and developers.
Joomla is widely used across organizations to manage content on public-facing websites, including non-profit organizations and startup companies. It is also utilized by web hosting platforms for its user-friendly interface and automatic installation. Companies rely on Joomla to manage their company intranets, providing a centralized information clearinghouse. This CMS is also commonly used by website design and development departments to create and maintain websites for various industries. Furthermore, Joomla finds applications in educational institutions to manage department pages and provide control to individual representatives. Its ability to handle different features like e-commerce and blog sites makes it an attractive choice for businesses with diverse needs. Developers appreciate Joomla's customization options, allowing them to create templates and extensions tailored to specific requirements.
The City of Pomona's website is managed using Joomla, enabling web administrators to easily edit and disseminate important information to the public. The built-in Access Control List features of Joomla allow the creation of users and groups with specific rights, granting access only to authorized individuals. These specific users can sign in to the website from the front-end to edit or update content as needed. Additionally, Joomla's Social Network AutoPoster feature automatically posts new articles from the City's website onto its Facebook Page. The CMS also includes a contact manager that lists the contact information of city departments, council members, and the mayor. The user-friendly interface provided by the Joomla Content Editor Component, known as JCE, makes it easy for standard users to edit and update content, similar to using Microsoft Word. Overall, Joomla offers a range of features and functionality that make it a valuable tool for managing websites across various industries and organizations.
Versatility and Customizability: Users have found Joomla to be highly versatile and customizable, allowing them to create websites that meet their specific needs. Several reviewers have mentioned how they were able to tailor the CMS to their unique requirements, making it a popular choice for businesses and organizations.
User-Friendly Interface: Many users appreciate the user-friendly interface of Joomla. They find it easy to navigate and perform various tasks without much hassle. The logical and intuitive admin interface has been praised by several reviewers, highlighting its contribution to a smooth user experience.
Availability of Third-Party Components and Extensions: Reviewers have expressed their satisfaction with the availability of third-party components and extensions in Joomla's marketplace. This wide range of options allows users to enhance the functionality of their websites by adding features like e-commerce capabilities, social media integration, and more. Some users have even mentioned specific third-party components that have greatly benefited their website development process.
Confusing User Interface: Users have found Joomla's user interface to be confusing and not user-friendly, making it difficult to perform tasks quickly. Several reviewers have mentioned this issue.
Security Concerns: There were concerns about Joomla's security, with users mentioning that it was not the most secure platform in the past and needed regular updates and secure file permissions to combat vulnerabilities. Some reviewers have expressed worry about the security of their websites.
Menu Items Rearranging Themselves: Users reported frustration with menu items rearranging themselves after adding new ones. This inconsistency in menu organization has been mentioned by several reviewers as a source of annoyance when managing their websites.
Based on user reviews, users commonly recommend the following for Joomla:
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Consider other CMS alternatives: Explore other CMS platforms, especially if you are not tech-savvy or lack previous web programming experience. Compare different CMS options before committing to Joomla.
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Invest in learning Joomla: Highly recommend dedicating time and effort to learning Joomla. It is particularly beneficial for small business owners who publish their own web content but have limited experience. Having someone at your business who knows code, including HTML and CSS, is recommended.
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Use Joomla for specific purposes: Joomla is suitable for developing web applications and websites, especially for small businesses without the resources for a website agency or in-house management team. It is also recommended for associations and small to medium-sized businesses with the help of a Joomla expert. Additionally, it is seen as a good option for beginners and creating multilingual websites due to its ease of use and flexibility.
It's important to note that while Joomla offers powerful features, it may not be suitable for all users or scenarios. Users advise considering other platforms if SEO is a major part of your company's future or if advanced or e-commerce features are required. Checking out WordPress as an alternative before deciding on Joomla is suggested.
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September 06, 2021
New Joomla! 4 jumps ahead of the others
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We used Joomla! to make our website. It was so easy to set up with just a few clicks of the mouse and the database details added. Odd as its the same process as WordPress yet a lot of blogs say its harder, I think they are just comparing with older versions. There are a lot of new features in the new Joomla! 4 that we needed, workflows, and the very high accessibility standards so that our site can be viewed by all. There [are] a lot of helpful videos and documentation out there which really helped get us up and running. It's also a free product with 16 years of development behind it so the community who are making this know what they are doing. The media manager has come on leaps and bounds.
- Security. Its got many new features in the new Joomla! 4 which make the already good security even better. I like the ability to use my Yubi keys to log in with the new webauth standard, I don't think any other CMS has that built in
- W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (with AA compliance)
- Really good SEO that gets our sites to the top of the search engines again without the need for any extra things
- Speed, it gets a really good score (100%) in the google lighthouse on our server, can't beat that
- There is not much. I think perhaps a built in cookie system but thats planned for 4.1
- Always welcome more tutorials but they seem to have a fair few
- Not all extensions have been converted to [Joomla!] 4 but the important ones are there
May 29, 2021
Be satisfied with Joomla
Joomla was adopted in my company as a content generator for the internet, with the objective of making websites quick for temporary or permanent projects. It is basically used in only one area of the company, but it has the potential to be expanded in the future. It is not used alone, we have other complementary tools for our communication portal.
- Easy for portals with forums
- Easy setup
- Framework is robust
- Variety of useful features
- Dashboard should have more options
- It can't create a very complex website
- Some extensions should have a free version
May 06, 2021
Joomla is a developer's dream
Joomla is used as our main CMS for all things web-related. We run our web pages, the online cart and all the communication for wood gallery through this CMS.
- Content management.
- Image management.
- free templates
- extension help
April 14, 2021
A Satisfying CMS software
Joomla! is a customizable software, we have used it to create web applications for our organization because it only takes a few minutes. It is more effective than other tools for developing web-oriented projects.
- It provides control and personalization to your website.
- The third party components are also easily available for Joomla!.
- Joomla! has built in revision control. Going back and fixing previous work is easy.
- It's free and open source.
- Sometimes cache buildup becomes a problem..
- Its learning curve is more complex compared to others.
- It can't create a very complex website.
April 23, 2020
Joomla! Is the best CMS that you don't know you need.
Joomla is being used across the whole organization as the CMS of our main websites, including anything from simple documentary ones, to complex content managing databases.
- Moderate control of features.
- Extensive customization.
- Robust and secure structure.
- Should have better interface, automatizing more features
- Should have a better customer service, even when it's an open-source project.
- Should have better outreach for beginner customers.
October 23, 2019
Joomla Expert Admin Since 2006 - Technical Support Specialist
Joomla (inspired by the Swahili word meaning all together) is a community-driven (as opposed to a corporate backing) content management system that gives its users and managers complete control for building and sustaining simple and complex websites. Out of the box, this open-source CMS provides an intuitive admin experience with an array of active components to deliver the user experience and functionality required for something as simple as a blog or as complex as an online news publication and community. Working with Joomla almost since its 2005 inception, I've witnessed the progress and leaps this tool has managed over the last 13 years. As I look forward to Joomla 4 and beyond, I see a powerful back-end engine most websites will want under the hood of their digital platform.
Here are many of the situations where I've been involved in Joomla projects with clients paying me to guide them and serve their digital platform building needs.
Here are many of the situations where I've been involved in Joomla projects with clients paying me to guide them and serve their digital platform building needs.
- Comprehensive online websites with sophisticated front and back-end functionality (with ecommerce, event booking, email marketing, etc..).
- Basic small business websites
- Online product gallery websites (non-ecommerce)
- Online blogging platforms
- Online content repositories
- Complete control over your website content, menus, SEO elements, and site layout.
- A logical and intuitive admin interface for creating and managing the website.
- An engaged and supportive community and marketplace of people, tools, and extensions.
- A module management system to provide more control over a page layout and content in flexible ways.
- A flexible design layout paradigm easily allowing for different design use across different pages.
- A strong community of design template creators and page builders.
- Joomla eliminates antiquated code with two-year deprecation pathways. This ensures all active components stay up to date and are currently supported.
- The functionality power of Joomla can make users feel overwhelmed that they may break something.
- Joomla doesn't have a corporate backing, so the growth and future of the tool is based on community involvement. It is currently strong and well-organized, but has had issues in the past.
October 18, 2019
Jammin' with Joomla!
Joomla is used across our organization. It solves our website address needs and much more due to its flexibility and ease of use. We needed a web presence, mailing list, and shopping cart system. Joomla! solved all of these business needs.
We love the additional plugins/components that can be integrated into Joomla! that solves our business needs without relying on hosted services that may hold your services hostage due to their policies. With Joomla, you have the freedom to do what you need and that's what we love.
We love the additional plugins/components that can be integrated into Joomla! that solves our business needs without relying on hosted services that may hold your services hostage due to their policies. With Joomla, you have the freedom to do what you need and that's what we love.
- Joomla! now does automatic updates very easily by just clicking one button. Vulnerabilities are patched quickly with automatic notifications.
- There are so many additional plugins, many of which are free or for a nominal cost, that extend your business capabilities. These plugins are mostly a perpetual license model so they continue to work after their support date has expired so it gives you the freedom of choice to either continue to use it without any strings attached by hosted services.
- The framework that is available to Joomla! such as the Gantry framework makes it easy to rapidly deploy and structure Joomla to our liking.
- Joomla is doing a great job so far. They should continue to improve their guidelines in which they have the developers conform to their policies and motivate the developers to make use of automatic updates of their extensions. In turn, it's easy for the end-users to keep their extensions up to date in order to reduce any vulnerabilities with outdated extensions.
- Any system requires some level of a learning curve. Like many people, in regard to complexity, I feel that Joomla! is in the middle ground compared to other CMS. If there's a way for Joomla! to make it really simple to adopt, then I think it will be a big win for them.
- If Joomla! can capture the market where it's a matter of drag and drop or a friendly WYSIWYG, then it's a huge win for them. While drag and drop environment is extremely useful for a novice or someone who just needs a basic website, we love the extensibility that Joomla! provides so having both would be immensely valuable.
We use Joomla to run and manage our website as well as send email blasts and provide banner ads to sponsors. It works very well and we plan to continue to use it for the foreseeable future. It's pretty easy to use overall and there are tons of features and extensions that allow you to do almost anything from running a store, photo gallery, classified ads, etc.
- Joomla is great for managing various website pages and updating content regularly.
- We've also used it to sell items in our store. We installed a shopping cart and integrated it with PayPal.
- We have users register to be able to get access to all features of our website, such as posting on the forums. Works great for that.
- Updating Joomla and some extensions can be a little clucky at times.
October 16, 2019
Joomla! is a great open source CMS for businesses
Joomla! is the second-most popular open source Content Management System (CMS) and by far my favorite. My very first website was built on the Joomla! platform for its ease of installation, variety of customization features, and built-in Access Level Control (ACL) that makes it easy to have multiple users for the website right out of the box. I recommend it for all of my clients who need more than just a website with content, particularly if they have membership needs, high-level security and control needs, or extensibility.
- Multiple templates assigned on a page-level basis allow fine-grained control of your site design
- Excellent ACL out-of-the-box means you can have a mutli-user website up and running without needing to install anything additional
- Straightforward control panel and useful help features and documentation make it easy for people to manage their own websites
- Because Joomla's user community is smaller than WP, it lacks as many choices from 3rd party developers, meaning it can be a little more difficult to find the right extension for what you need to accomplish
- Along the same vein, most of the best 3rd-party software for Joomla! is paid
- Simple features such as Add to Menu and Cache cleaners should be adopted as part of the Joomla! core, though they are available as extensions
- Joomla! could use a simpler and easier URL rewriting process
April 25, 2019
Perfect for content management beginners!
I've utilized Joomla to manage site content for a university, a startup company, and a nonprofit organization. The product was used mainly in one department at each company -- marketing. It addresses the fact that we needed to update our web content without having a developer on staff. It also helps that Joomla is free, especially when being utilized for non-profits and startup companies.
- Joomla's top strength is its simplicity. Even if everyone on your team is a beginner, they will be able to easily adapt to using Joomla. It mimics WordPress, but it's easier to use.
- Joomla is also great with helping beginners optimize their site for search engines. If your content does not already include keywords that your audience typically searches for, Joomla has a section where 'tags' can be added to a page so that potential visitors are more likely to find your site.
- Joomla is great at organizing content for a large website. Everything you publish can be listed by title in alphabetical order so you can search for different pieces of content easily.
- Joomla needs improvement when it comes to SEO features in comparison to other CMS's like WordPress. The features it currently has are great for beginners, but over time, users will realize that they need a more advanced system to continue to grow their site. I wouldn't choose Joomla if your team is already accustomed to using a CMS. It's only best for beginners or interns.
- The most difficult part of using Joomla, for me, is that there aren't many good web developers who specialize in Joomla. If you want to make big changes to your site that require a developer, it's much easier to find someone who's great at building WordPress sites.
- There are not as many plug-ins for Joomla as there are for WordPress so, if you need to add any special features to your site using Joomla, you will be limited.
April 04, 2019
One of the most versatile and best CMS.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Joomla! is used by our IT division to rapidly develop dynamic sites according to the needs of each department of the company. We tried to use WordPress but realized that when we had to develop something different from the focus of blogs, WordPress did not meet us and we had to migrate to use Joomla!. We had no problems using Joomla! here.
- Quick and agile websites.
- Easy website content management.
- Lots of extensions for customization.
- Nothing to improve, just keep always releasing update patches.
February 11, 2019
Make sure it's the right fit for your team - for many, it's not
We work with the Joomla CMS when helping customers with website updates, maintenance, and new functionality. Joomla is a Content Management System - so it provides an interface for customers to make updates to their website on their own. It also provides a framework for custom functionality and a library of extensions written by the community to extend its core functionality.
- The menu/category/article structure provides a decent organization.
- The check-in/check-out system can work well to prevent overwrites with large numbers of editors.
- Creating a community-driven site - with large numbers of contributors.
- The Process is smoother with the latest versions.
- There is a bit of a learning curve in order to make edits as compared to other CMSs.
- Upgrading from older versions is very difficult.
- The framework is decent, but it's not the most flexible, nor the most intuitive.
December 22, 2018
Joomla is a Robust Open-Source CMS
Joomla is the content management system used for my companies main site and training site. It will also be the CMS for an online summit that is in the process of being built. All departments use it and it addresses the need for a CMS that is effective, useful and overall easy to use.
- Joomla has great core functionalities and is free to use.
- Joomla has a built-in user management system which allows you to control who accesses certain aspects of your site.
- Joomla is search engine optimized out of the box.
- Joomla is continuously updating itself and I am amazed at what has been accomplished for the better since I started using it.
- Joomla allows me as a simple website designer and developer to build complex sites without much of a need to hire developers.
- The out of the box blogging situation with Joomla definitely needs improving. It is pretty basic, however, there are extensions both free and paid that handle this gap. Joomla 4 is fast on the horizon so I hope this feature is addressed there.
- Joomla's media management system has improved, however, it could use more updating. It would be nice to be able to make simple edits for images.
- Joomla needs more modules to choose from for certain things users may be trying to create.
Joomla! is used in our organisation just for training purposes and giving ideas about the CMS to the newly hired interns.
It is used for the development team so I can say it is not for the whole organization but the development section of each team.
- Joomla! does some things like content management, banner management and templates management very well. So these features are strength of Joomla!
- If I talked about details then managing and creating menus is very easy in this tool.
- Templates are flexible to use so one can easily use templates according to one's need
- Joomla! has a problem with installing plugins that may [cause] problems sometimes when you try to install a plugin that is incompatible
- Once you [have] made your website layout and then if you change your mind to change the layout then it's a big pain in Joomla!
- I have not observed it but people say it is not [very] SEO friendly
November 06, 2018
A great CMS with an even better community of developers behind it.
I use Joomla for a number of websites for my clients. I've used Joomla for over 10 years. Joomla is an excellent CMS for building simple to complex websites. I've used Joomla for everything from small business websites, to real estate portals, to ecommerce websites, to social networks. The possibilities with Joomla and the many extensions and community members behind it makes it one of my top choices for web development.
- Joomla provides a strong core to get website development started quickly and easily.
- The possibilities that the many Joomla extensions offers are unlimited.
- Joomla's templating system is quick and easy to create a custom design for your website.
- The community of experts are second to none, the community offers excellent support.
- The administration can be difficult for non-technical people to use, some of my clients find it daunting and not very user-friendly.
- Security...Joomla is a really big target to hackers...I do know that Joomla works hard to get security patches out as quickly as they can though.
- Speed, I'd like to see the core Joomla sped up with out having to put in tons of work to speed it up.
October 18, 2018
Joomla Offers Hassle, Headaches and Stress
Joomla is used to manage our company Intranet. It is used as an information clearinghouse. We both communicate information on the page and use links, documents and videos to further assist communicating what ever is needed. Whether its for Human Resources, Medical Staff, Security or Marketing, we have place for it on our Intranet.
- Document indexing
- WYSIWYG editor
- Page version control
- Multiple language support
- Massive learning curve to get ramped up on the product. In my opinion, is more difficult than Drupal.
- Terrible experience upgrading between versions.
- Migrating content into Joomla is not easy.
- WYSIWYG editor is a pain. Almost always errors editing content in this fashion as extra code is generated around functions such as bold, italicize, header, etc.
- Document management can be a pain with files uploading into multiple spaces.
- Overall, not user friendly for tech leaders and content managers.
June 28, 2018
Joomla! for CMS... Simple and easy...
At that time, we used Joomla! to address the specific needs to create and build company Portal and some web applications for business purpose. So, we were using Joomla! as the main platform to serve it for IT departments and other teams as well. Joomla! already quite popular and easy to be used when we search the solution for this requirement.
- It is very easy to create any project using Joomla. Easy to use and easy to publish and maintain.
- Joomla! has many add-on and extensions to support the full range of features.
- It is based on Open Source with the strong support from many communities
- Some of the Joomla! plugins and extensions are not free and not cheap as well.
- Difficult for own customization.
- Security concerns.
January 24, 2018
Great, straightforward CMS that allows easy allocation of management of various pages
We use this to manage the pages for the English Department at a big university, so we have total access but each program or individual represented can, if they wish, have control over their own page.
- I love the ability to assign users different levels/areas of access so that they can keep pages updated themselves and I'm not constantly updating something when someone emails me. This is an especially nice feature the bigger the pool of people who need to edit the page gets.
- Joomla's interface looks a little old-fashioned and can be a bit finicky, which is intimidating to less experienced users.
July 26, 2017
Joomla! is a great tool for anyone!
Joomla! is used by our marketing and web development teams. We design websites to hand off to our clients and also teach them to use it in order to allow them to make small changes. It addresses many problems such as time management and reliability. Being that we hand these sites off, they need to be user-friendly and easy to teach.
- Keeps content organized
- Safe to use
- Teachable to someone who is not a web developer
- Make things more customizable
- Sites are a nightmare as far as responsiveness via tablet and phone
- Add more templates
June 14, 2016
Joomla! The Flexible Business Solution
We use Joomla! internally and externally on behalf of Fortune 50 to entrepreneurial firms. Joomla! addresses simplified management, great flexibility, and proper model–view–controller (MVC) development. With these tools, the least technical users in an organization can make significant content contributions, and developers are able to leverage a robust platform for significant customization with minimal distraction. Additionally, Joomla! is the first open source content management system (CMS) to be mobile ready and responsive utilizing Twitter's bootstrap framework. Out of the box Joomla! is ready to deliver.
- Built-in and built-upon a mobile ready framework
- Easy to utilize content creation
- Model–view–controller (MVC) framework for highly customizable web applications
- Powerful and detailed access control could be more intuitive
March 16, 2016
About Joomla!
We used it across the organization and granted different levels of access to employees. We used it for content management of a public facing website.
- Content management
- Build applications
- Build and design websites
- Creating your own templates and themes
December 23, 2015
Joomla - The Leading CMS (Content Management System)
'corePHP' uses Joomla not only for our internal websites for 'corePHP' but we also build and customize our clients' websites to the demands and needs of the client. Our clients range from small to fortune 500 companies with vastly different needs. Joomla is an easy to use product for the end users as well as a powerful CMS to program in.
- East of Use - Joomla has a very easy user interface for the backend where admins will manage their site and make updates when needed. With the latest version of Joomla you have responsive backend that makes updating your site on your mobile device easier.
- Template Clubs - Its super easy for small companies to have professional looking templates with the latest design trends. This helps them look bigger and perform better then a cookie cutter template that you would typically see. Amazing template providers are gavick.com rockettheme.com bang2joom.com joomlart.com and yootheme.com
- 3rd Party extensions - With the many 3rd party developers there are a lot of products that meet the small to medium size companies needs where we would go in and modify the functionality to meet the final needs of the clients. Great companies are www.corephp.com compojoom.com jomsocial.com ijoomla.com and MORE
- Custom Development - When you can't find that perfect solution and you need something customize to meet your need. Joomla is very extendable and easy to build what you need. The great thing about Joomla is it is also very easy to grow your site with without the thought of abandoning the platform later. Joomla will grow with you!
- This is from a coding view point. When modifying the code for users it is very difficult to use. Hoping in later versions this is cleaned up so it makes it easier for developers.
December 23, 2015
Why Joomla still matters and the benefits of its use!
From 2011-2013, as the Web Master for the City of Pomona I personally built a 300+ page website for a city government with little to no budget. The old website was antiquated and didn't allow for the easy and quick editing and dissemination of important information for the public citizens to obtain. After implementing Joomla, the City of Pomona’s website now has these features:
- Each department has its own individual folder to store its data in.
- The web administrator can Create users and groups and then assign them specific rights according to the built-in Access Control List (ACL) features of the new CMS system.
- Specific users with specific rights can sign-in to the website from the Front-End and edit/update content.
- When the web administrator posts new articles to the front page news section, it is also posted to the City’s FaceBook Page automatically with a Social Network AutoPoster.
- Specific users with specific rights can access, edit, and update the City’s Calendar, directly through the front end.
- The website features a contact manger that lists the pictures, phone numbers, email addresses, and fax numbers of the city’s departments, council members and the mayor.
- Utilizing the Joomla Content Editor (JCE) Component, when standard users sign into the website to edit or update, it’s easy for them to get work done because the JCE is incredibly user friendly and very similar to Microsoft Word.
There are many more beneficial features that are too numerous to list.
- Joomla has a Built in Media Manager that allows you to create your own folder, name it whatever you like, and then configure the settings of your Media Manager to redirect to the new folder. Then, after that is complete, you can create other folders inside of the “Main Media” folder in a proper organized hierarchical manner.
- Joomla’s Menu Manager is extensive and configurable. Joomla allows for an Unlimited amount of Links to have in your Unlimited amount of Menus.
- No Separate “Page” and Separate “Post.” There’s only one type: “Article.” ALL “Pages” are “Articles.” All “Posts” are “Articles.”
- Joomla has Unlimited Custom Module Management – Joomla gives you the ability to create your entire website out of Modules or simply create and manage as many modules as you want. You could put them anywhere you want, in any place, on any page you want. You can even put Modules into the Menu Items.
- Joomla has a Built-in Access Control List (ACL). This allows you to create Specific Groups and then you can add Specific Users to those groups and manage with a fine granular approach, which group can access which individual part or element in the website.
- Joomla lets you Sign-in to the website from the Front-End and edit/update content in Articles and Modules.
- With Joomla there is one central place for installing Templates, Components, Plugins, or Modules: the Extension Manager
- Joomla has built in Cache Control. This gives your site a quicker response to requests, if nothing has been change to an article or other element.
- Joomla has a built in Contact Manager that includes Google’s new reCAPTCHA v2. This is the modern version that helps to block spam and other malicious submissions.
- Joomla has built in Global Check in for items. Useful if you want to quickly return articles and release them from users editing it.
- Joomla has a built in Language Manager. Very useful for International Websites or websites that welcome people who speak different languages.
- Joomla is compatible with Microsoft Windows SQL Server and Microsoft Windows IIS Server so it could be seamlessly used in a Microsoft Environment. Most corporations run on Windows Networks with Windows Servers.
- Joomla has a built in Authentication – LDAP plugin that synchronizes with Microsoft Windows Server’s Active Directory so you can just use your standard A.D. Login to sign in to Joomla on your organization’s Intranet Website. Implementing a Joomla based "Intranet" is a great low cost solution.
- Joomla has built in Nested Categories. This provides for a more organized hierarchical atmosphere.
- Joomla has built in Revision Control. In case something goes wrong in an article, you could revert back to a previous version.
- Joomla has built in Tag Management. Tags help users to find articles pertaining to specific subject matters.
- Joomla has built in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) settings on important parts of the Website including: Articles and Menus. This is where you can insert keywords and metadata. This helps with search engines.
- Joomla has Search Engine Friendly (SEF) URL abilities that use Apache Mod_Re-Write. Instead of the user trying to read "?=itemid1" they will easily read "about" or "services" in the url of their web browser.
- For Developers and Software Engineers:
- Joomla is Object-Oriented Designed - Unlike Joomla's main competitors: Drupal and WordPress, Joomla, is an Object Oriented Designed (OOD) CMS. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) takes the view that what we really care about are the "objects" we want to manipulate rather than the logic required to manipulate them. One of the principal advantages of object-oriented programming techniques over procedural programming techniques is that they enable programmers to create modules that do not need to be changed when a new type of object is added. A programmer can simply create a new object that inherits many of its features from existing objects. This makes object-oriented programs easier to modify.
- For Developers and Software Engineers:
- Joomla is MVC - Also unlike Joomla's competitors, Joomla's architecture is MVC. Model–View–Controller (MVC) is a software architectural pattern for implementing user interfaces. It divides a given software application into three interconnected parts, so as to separate internal representations of information from the ways that information is presented to or accepted from the user.
- Joomla is SLOWER than its competitors. Although, with the implementation of new Solid State Device Hard Drives in Modern Website Host Servers, the slowness is becoming less noticeable.
- The Image Editing abilities of the built in Media Manager are USELESS. WordPress is much better at built-in Image Editing.
- The ability to either turn off or turn on, Automatic Menu Item Creation does NOT exist. WordPress is much better at that.
- Sometimes, it seems like Joomla or its database becomes confused and\or Cache Build Up becomes a problem, and then the cache has to be cleaned out.
- There is no built-in Automatic Cache Cleaning at configurable intervals.
- The updating and upgrading process is easier than it ever has been, but it’s still not as flawless and as easygoing as WordPress.
- NO Automatic Update abilities for Components, Modules, or Plugins.
- Joomla is NOT nearly as popular or as used as WordPress.
- Joomla lacks a comprehensive Preview ability. And there really isn't a good plugin for it. WordPress's Preview ability is far superior to both Joomla and Drupal.
November 11, 2015
Joomla - the mature, responsible older sibling in the CMS family
We use Joomla as the primary platform for the development of client and internal websites. It provides a robust framework for creating dynamic websites and meets the needs of web projects from simple informational sites to complex action driven projects. Over the years we have used a variety of Joomla versions to deliver web solutions and have enjoyed the new features that each upgrade brings. We find it to be the best overall CMS on the open source market.
- Framework stability and continuous development by a dedicated group of developers
- Comprehensive network of extension developers providing a wide range of solutions via components, modules and plugins that will accomplish virtually any web related functionality goal
- Well organized, active support community that is communicative and easy to tap in to.
- Reasonably priced template options offered by a variety of professional companies focused on the ongoing development of cutting edge templates to reflect the latest trends and features.
- Easy to customize and build off of without the need for repeated redevelopment when the time comes to revamp and renew a sites' look/feel
- It would be nice to see more of the "internet marketing" based extensions that easily incorporate marketing strategies like email list building, user/mobile friendly popups, etc. There are some available now but it will be nice when they become more plentiful.
- Would like for more SEO options to be built into the core framework but it is simple enough to install extensions to meet those needs.
- Transitioning from major versions can be a tough transition. (i.e. moving from J2.5 to J3) It can be time consuming and tricky to upgrade. They seem to be working on that in the latest version - J3
September 30, 2015
Joomla!, An Open Source CMS For The Rest of Us
I am a freelance web designer and content strategist who uses Joomla! as my platform of choice to implement websites for small businesses and non-profits. These websites run the gamut from brochures, landing pages, e-commerce storefronts, to major information portals. Joomla! and its extensions handles all aspects of each of these types of sites.
- Joomla! is a content management system based on a database so it creates web pages dynamically based on a single editor and keywords. This allows users to update the site themselves and let Joomla create the pages from their input in a familiar environment.
- Joomla! is Open Source software managed by a non-profit organization called Open Source Matters. Because it's free under the GNU GPL license, there are millions of programmers worldwide working on the platform honing it and maintaining it. Open Source also means that there is a strong community of approximately 8 million users who cooperatively share this free software platform.
- Joomla! is modular. You only use what you need for your particular project. Joomla! has an extremely strong value-added software community providing add-ons for security, editing, forms, newsletters, storefronts, payment gateways, SEO, and so forth.
- Joomla! is currently split into a framework and kernel and because it is Open Source, programmers are using Joomla!'s framework to build enterprise-level content management systems and cloud-based systems such as Nooku. Joomla! complies with most standard modern software protocols and runs on LINUX/Apache/MySQL/PHP so it is highly secure and easy to set up.
- Joomla!'s organization consists of a front-end and a backend (called the Administrator). The Administrator area is meant to be intuitive but falls short because of the complexity of its structure -- areas where you perform work. There is a strong learning curve to get used to modules, plug-ins, and components plus articles and categories and how they work together.
- Joomla! has a rigid structure that allows only certain types of pages, namely blogs and lists of articles based on how you classify subjects. Everything in Joomla! is an article. You have to know content strategy to add appropriate keywords to ensure that your articles show up on the appropriate pages either with others tagged similarly, or by themselves. Navigation is based upon these keywords as well. You need to design the site before you jump in and add articles.
- Joomla! is built using PHP and runs on an Apache server. As such, it is not totally secure from malicious attacks at the server level. Extra care has to be taken to set up passwords, roles, and permissions to ensure that spammers and hackers cannot touch the database or Administrator.
- Joomla! is not meant to handle more than a medium- to small-sized website with up to one million concurrent users. It can be placed on the Cloud, such as Amazon Web Services, where instances of the platform can take more users, but it is not enterprise-level software.