Printable View
Hi,
I have never used Joomla before and I was asked by a friend of mine to research how it works. Specifically, I need to know how easy is it to search the code to located the section I am after in-order to change a particular value.
Thanks,
Nightwalker
Joomla has some pretty decent documentation.
Like any platform, how easy it is really depends on how well you know the platform itself. I've done modifications in Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress. While Joomla isn't hard, it isn't as easy as I found WordPress, but it wasn't as complex as Drupal is.
Maybe I will download Joomla and have a bit of text run with it to see what it is like.
I've fiddled a bit with it and there is no real coding in it, you have have to 'write' articles and connect it to some menus, etc.
Joomla Demo
Edit:
Beginners Portal
Hi Nightwalker83
Using Joomla has become incredibly easy. There are many things we can do with Joomla in a easy way and fast for you to play all the functions. One more thing is it is only easy for developers.
Joomla can be a pain in the arse for more bespoke and advanced websites. It depends upon what your aim is. If I were you and looking for a simple system, I would suggest a Wordpress site. Keep it simple in functionality and keep it updated.
Joomla is good for 3rd party plugins and so your site can be almost infinitely extendable. The trouble with having lots of extensions from different devs is that each one has to have the same level of support as the base system. Your website requires continual and regular maintenance to keep it up to date and the complexity is raised with each and every plugin. In addition, vulnerabilities exist in each and every component and you have to be extremely watchful and keep all components up-to-date. This can become a heavy load. Although Joomla 3rd party modules give it flexibility, its strength in this respect is also a security and maintenance nightmare especially when your requirement grows to several such sites.
Useful and popular sites tend to grow and the temptation is to build in more and more complexity and bespoke code, avoid this like the plague and you will simplify your life.
In the past the Joomla devs failed to ensure any backward compatibility when upgrading. When the devs decide on some new core functionality then the site will almost certainly need a migration and not just an update. Some of these can turn out to be an almost new site build with regard to the workload. As such, if the workload is too great or a technical challenge, you can become locked into an old customised version and the vulnerabilities/maintenance rests solely on your shoulders when the devs abandon you - and they will abandon you as they work on those things that interest them (and that does not include old code...).
Early Joomla users had to undergo multiple site migrations and incurred significant cost in time or money just to keep up with the devs. For the site owner that work resulted in very little extra useful functionality. Many simply refused to pay for it leading to a lock-in on old technology.
Joomla is a good fit for middle-sized websites (small organisations, businesses &c) but there is a penalty paid for building a Joomla site and that is continuing and regular cost either with regard to developer time or paying for updates to 3rd party extensions, keeping them up to date too. I would not start with Joomla if I was newbie, I was a dyed-in-the-wool advocate for Joomla once being a CMS webdev for years - but now I would hesitate to recommend Joomla for a beginner as I know where it all leads, unless of course you take it on as a learning process for building small company websites.
For ecommerce and larger sites I would avoid Joomla altogether. There are better solutions.
If after 6 years, nightwalker hasn't decided that Joomla is for him or not, then he's got some issues...
Please be cognizant of the age of the corpulant status before grave digging.
-tg
Oh dear.... ahem, "then I raise this thread from the dead by the power invested in me...."Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
Turns and leaves quietly.