Drupal
Drupal is a
free and open-source content management system and content management
framework. It is written in PHP and
distributed under the GNU General Public License. The basic program contains most
features common to content management systems. These include user account
registration and maintenance, menu management, RSS-feeds, page layout
customization, and system administration.
Because the program is open source and his based on a plug and play
framework there are also a number of add-ons available either at no or reduced
costs that extend Drupal’s basic functions. Drupal offers the basic building blocks of websites
in a module-styled format where content and rules can be created quickly. The
program offers a sophisticated programming interface for developers. Supported databases include MySQL, Oracle,
PostgreSQL, SQLite, and Microsoft SQL Server.
The system also has in-depth reporting generating tools for advanced administration.
Because of
its flexibility Drupal is used as a back-end system for at least 1.5% of all
websites worldwide ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political, and
government sites including such top notch sites as: The Economist,
Examiner.com, The White House, Popular Science, Harvard, MIT, Ubuntu, Sony
Music and more. Drupal now displays contents in 182 languages by over 538,813
people in 228 countries.
Using the
program does, however, require a tough learning curve and is considered more of
a developing platform than a simple CMS tool.
Additionally, Drupal is a relatively new system and is not backwards
compatible with other software so if you have other content, systems and
programs in place that you have become accustomed to then Drupal might not be
the system for you.
While no
programming skills are technically required for basic use, the system is
generally used by more advanced developers and administrators and might be
overkill for smaller sites. Basic users usually go with the more basic CMS
platforms including Joomla! and WordPress, although they can create basic sites
simply using Drupal. While Drupal is a great CMS, for some it can be too much.
Consider the advantages and disadvantages to using Drupal as your CMS.
Joomla!
Joomla! is
also a free open source content management program. Joomla! too is written in PHP and uses object-oriented
programming. It is designed for quickly
creating highly interactive multi-language Web sites, online communities, media
portals, blogs and eCommerce applications.
Its features include such items as page caching, RSS feeds, printable
versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, search, and support for language
internationalization. Joomla! supports only MS SQL databases. First introduced in 2005, it is now up to its
third version which is set to be introduced in September of this year.
Joomla! is considered
easy to use. Once Joomla! is installed and running, it is simple for even non-technical
users to add or edit content, update images, and to manage the critical data
that makes your company or organization effective. Anybody with basic word
processing skills can easily learn to manage a Joomla! site. Yet the program is still more powerful and
robust than WordPress. Additionally,
there are tons of YouTube videos and other training material easily accessible
on the web.
The program
does have some disadvantages. Javascript
and CSS can get bulky causing slower loading time and possible additional
hosting costs. The program is not SEO
friendly out of the box and development is clumsy if you want to change the
layout.
Otherwise,
Joomla! is much easier to use than Drupal, has many good features and is a good
fit for most users. Additionally, if you
have a group of people working on the same site, then Joomla! is a solution for
you. Different authors of the site can easily upload their content instead of
waiting for programmers or Designers. Uniform website templates used in Joomla!
provide a consistent look to the whole site.
WordPress
WordPress is
a free and open source blogging tool and a dynamic content management system
(CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. While it
has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system it is considered
primarily a system used for blogs. The
program was first released in May 2003 with the current version being 3.0.
WordPress has
numerous plugins and widgets, small modules that offer users drag-and-drop
sidebar content placement and implementation, are available to extended the
capabilities of the program. Historically WordPress supported one blog per
installation. However, later
advancements allowed multiple blogs to exist within one installation that is
able to be administered by a centralized maintainer.
WordPress is
a very user friendly blog system. You can create pages and posts, and with
plugins, you can add a lot of functionality included standard in Joomla, except
that all code is web standard. Anybody can learn enough in two hours to create
content with WordPress right away, including using categories and
subpages.
However,
adapting the look requires some knowledge of CSS. For instance, adding or
removing postdates, need to be changed in design mode and it requires knowledge
of WP scripting. The navigational structure is determined by the layout
template you chose. Changing that structure requires knowledge of the WP
scripting language and CSS. With Joomla,
you do not run into this problem because menus are controlled via the control panel
and attributes like dates, author name etc, can be turned on and off per
article or for the whole site in one go. In that sense, Joomla! is much more a
content management system.
Because
WordPress is web standard, Google really loves it. So, from a marketing standpoint, WordPress is
hard to resist. Setup is very quick and you can be listed in Google within 2
days. WordPress can handle tons of
visitors. It will not break down easily.
The basic
difference between WordPress and Joomla! is that Joomla! is a portal- or
community type site while WordPress is a blog.
Both overlap each other in several areas and can be extended beyond
their original purpose thanks to the use of plugins. You can find those plugins
almost everywhere on the internet. Both
have a large user base with a lively community where tips and tricks are
shared. Both are free to use and many
hosting providers have them as an option in their web tools section.
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