Continued from Step 7

Working with WordPress

Many people these days are turning to Blogs as tools to publish their web content. WordPress began life as a Blogger software allowing relative novices to publish their content in a blog format, with ease. WordPress has evolved into a fully fledged CMS software with many of its features comparative to those offered by Joomla. But it doesn't quite offer features and functions to the same extent as Joomla. The beauty of Joomla is that there are hundreds of modules available which can be freely downloaded, easily uploaded, and configured to expand the functionality of the core CMS software. There too are many modules for WordPress, but not quite with the same range of functions and features as with Joomla.

With functionality comes complexity. Joomla makes administering web content about as easy as it possibly can, but due to its broad scope of scalability it is just a little more daunting to learn than WordPress. So if you're looking for basic functionality and you intend to develop and integrate a blog into your website, then WordPress might be a more suitable option for you than Joomla.

Installing WordPress is much the same as Joomla. Many hosting plans come with the software pre-installed and it's a simple case of you logging into your hosting control panel and installing the software into your directory of choice. If it isn't pre-installed then you can download the software freely at www.wordpress.org and install it yourself.

Once you login to WordPress through the user Admin panel, you'll see a very neat and intuitive layout for building your new website / blog.

The important thing to remember with WordPress is that even though it is at its core a blog builder, you can also create 'static' pages with fixed navigation, in much the same way as with Joomla.

As with Joomla, you're going to have a list of pre-installed templates from which to choose, and if you can't find a theme that fits what you are looking for then there are many websites offering free and commercial WordPress templates. Just Google 'WordPress Templates' and you will see the many options available. If you need a completely unique template designing, then there are many companies around who can build your template, expect to pay $200 and up.

Example of a Wordpress Blog

If you visit the www.WordPress.org website you will see that it has an extensive library of documentation to help you get started using the software. It has quick-start guides for novices, all the way through to developers guides for people working on changes to the core software. There is no reason for me to replicate the guides in this book, so please visit the above website for more details on working with WordPress.

5.9 Choosing Between Joomla and WordPress

As with everything there's very little black and white, just subtle shades of gray, and the Joomla vs WordPress debate certainly falls into the gray category. Here's why -

Joomla - Yes it's a powerful content management system with a host of add-on features and functions through the Joomla modular component system. Here are the actual categories for lists of expandable modules available on the Joomla extensions website – scrolling through you'll see add-on modules for just about every conceivable function, and many are freely available -

• Access & Security

• Administration

• Ads & Affiliates

• Bridges

• Calendars & Events

• Clients

• Communication

• Communities & Groupware

• Contacts & Feedback

• Content Sharing

• Core Enhancements

• Directory & Documentation

• e-Commerce

• Editing

• Extension Specific

• External Contents

• Financial

• Hosting & Servers

• Languages

• Migration & Conversion

• Miscellaneous

• Multimedia

• News Display

• News Production

• Photos & Images

• Search & Indexing

• Site Management

• Social Web

Though you can make Joomla function like a blog, it doesn't do blogs very well. Many Joomla website designers use WordPress installed alongside Joomla to cover the blogging aspect of a website. Or you can pay for a WordPress module for your Joomla installation.

So if your website is pretty basic, and the focus is mainly on the blog aspect, with little need for extensive features and add-on functions, then WordPress might be for you - there is little doubt that as far as blogging goes, WordPress is king of the hill. Its user-friendly and intuitive layout makes it very easy for web novices to pick it up and get a website/blog thrown together in no time at all. And don't think that it can't grow with your business, it can be expanded in much the same way as Joomla, but not quite with the same powerful options. For example, most websites will require eCommerce features at some point, and Joomla will make that transition much simpler via its VirtueMart shopping cart component. Affiliate marketing? - Joomla, no problem.

I think basically, with more complexity comes more opportunity for functionality, and Joomla has more complexity/power than WordPress.

Here are a couple practical scenarios I've encountered which may help your decision -

Most WordPress designs I've done have pretty much worked out of the box. Most of what you'll encounter with a basic website will be configurable through the WordPress admin panel and you may never have to use other software or learn other skills. So you're up and running with little or no prior web design knowledge. You can add new modules through the admin and everything tends to run pretty smoothly without technical issues.

With Joomla, you'll have a bit more of a challenge getting the software installed from the get go. You may run into trouble setting up the MySQL database which Joomla needs in the background. Your host may or may not make that easy for you.

Once you have it running you'll want to enable the SEF module (Search Engine Friendly URL's). This should work by setting three checkboxes in global admin, but I've never done a Joomla install where that has worked without the need to manually configure the .htaccess file. That involves FTP'ing to the server, grabbing the file and changing some parameters to get the SEF module functioning. Are you going to be OK with that?

Many of the Joomla modules work out of the box, but many do not. It may be a case of having to manually create a directory on the server (simple) or manually hacking lines of code in PHP. Both Joomla and WordPress use CSS for styling, so you may need to access style sheets and often times an HTML editor can be useful for that. Joomla actually makes CSS modifications easier than does WordPress.

So basically, if you have a simple website and you're mostly interested in blogging, stick with WordPress. If you are a couple more notches up on the technical ladder and you have bigger things planned for you website, then shoot for Joomla (if you're planning to pay someone to do the setup and Joomla web design then the technical skills aspect becomes a non-issue).

On average I've recommended Joomla 95% of the time to new clients. There's no commercial advantage in me recommending Joomla, I just believe it to be a more flexible platform than WordPress.