Trying out Joomla 1.5RC after using Wordpress and trying Drupal: Part 1
As you can read in previous posts, I had attempted to use Drupal as a blog and I tried to get to know the different features it has. After finally noticing that it cut off my long posts after about a page I decided that enough is enough! If it is going to cut off my text without warning then I can't even use it as a CMS. I still haven't deleted it from my system.
I am of course still using Wordpress for blogging. I think it is great. I have only come across three problems:
1. You can't insert javascript.
2. You can't properly insert iframes. I tried two plugins but neither would display correctly.
3. You can't easily modify the menus. They are handled by the themes.
What I mean by changing the menus would be a way to do it through the administration or page writing menus. It would be nice to be able to select a list or category and a type of menu and move it over as a widget.
These limitations are the reasons why I am trying to use an additonal program for site management. If I could do those things then I wouldn't install anything else.
Remember that the less time you have to manage your site, the more time you'll have available for adding more content, making sales, and other activities.
So finally I'm going to try testing Joomla 1.5 RC. I didn't want to do it yet since it is still technically a beta version and there are limited modules/plug-ins available.
Why test with 1.5 when there are the 1.x versions?
If you check the Joomla site, it tells us that Joomla 1.5 and 1.x.x versions are incompatable. This is to say that you can't easily patch the upgrade on top of your 1.x system.
When new features and patches come available I will be able to use them with 1.5, but that isn't the case with the 1.x.x versions.
Yes, there aren't many modules avalable for testing but I hope that if I decide that I like the system, I will be able to get the updated modules as they come. If I don't like Joomla 1.5 either then I will probably wait another 6 months or so for significant updates and keep using Dreamweaver with templates even though it isn't dynamic and a pain to upload changes (templates in dreamweaver are modified in each page so if you make a change you have to reupload every modified page. It is simple but slow).
I downloaded Joomla 1.5 from its website and I extracted the files to /joomla, and uploaded them to the server. I then went to my webpage URL + /joomla to see what would happen since normally you have to type in the full installer addresses when putting new programs on a server.
I was surprised to find that it went directly to the installer and I had no conflicts. My php configuration was ok. I later had an option to install sample data which I selected. I of course had to enter my database name, host name, database user name, and database user password. This is normal for any installation of a program online.
Once the installer finished, it told me to delete the install folder. Once the installation folder is deleted or at least renamed, you can enter Joomla.
It showed me the sample data on a page with a lot of blue and a white background and a column layout. There were no instructions, so after reading the sample data I found a log in box in the lower left hand corner.
I entered the administration user name and password that I had entered in the installation stage and a new menu 'box' appeared in the left sidebar.
I clicked on 'administrator' and I got a log-in screen which later took me to an attractive and organized control panel screen.
This was a big change from my attempt at using Drupal! Drupal was messy and hard to read. The admin stuff only appeared as a menu on the side bar.
For a Release Candidate (beta) version, it seems less of a beta than the Drupal version I had tried.
There is a horizontal menu bar on top with:
Site, Menus, Context, Components, Extensions, Tools, and help.
I can tell right away that I can easily modify menus through the menu menu.
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