Drupal is the most powerful, industrial-strength option amongst the open source content management systems (Drupal, Joomla, and Wordpress). But it's notoriously difficult to configure and manipulate. Hence the up-front sub-title to this publication. The answers to the problems have been supplied by designers creating plug-in modules which deliver separate functions. These all sit on top of the Drupal core. The user is left with 'only' the task of getting these modules to work together. And as anyone who has tried it will tell you, it's no mean task. That's where this guidance manual comes in. It takes you through a selection of the most basic add-on modules you'll need to get a site up and running. It's written with the latest version of Drupal in mind (6.0) and you should be warned that modules written for other versions (5.0 and earlier) are not compatible with the latest version, and ... Read more >>
25 February 2009
Using Drupal
03 February 2009
Content Management Systems
For what seems like the last two years, I've been psyching myself up for a re-design of my Mantex web site. It's ten years old now, and showing its age. The 1,400+ pages are all hand-coded, and an update to any design features was a nightmare until I recently started using style sheets.
I asked everyone I could think of, and the answer seemed to be, use a content management system (with templates) plus an eCommerce option - both open sources. So far so good, but then comes the question - which CMS to use? There were three options so far as I could see - Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal.
Wordpress was originally designed as blogging software, but recently lots of extra features have been added and free plug-ins and templates designed. Enthusiasts claimed that ease of use outweighed any high-tech limitations. I opened an account and started a trial blog there to get a feeling for the interface. It's neat, clean, and produces fairly stylish results. I even nicked the header graphic and stuck in this blog.
But eager not to miss out on something more sophisticated, I also tried Joomla. This too produces clean-looking results when I tried with a test version of my Texman site. But after spending several hours finding my way round its counter-intuitively named control panel sections, I threw in the towel. I could see a six or twelve month learning curve rising before me.
All the wisdom gathered so far adds up to this: they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. But nobody I have consulted yet has managed to persuade me that a normal human being can handle Drupal without two years' training in a sealed room. So I'm back at Wordpress.
I just thought I would pass on these few words of experience just in case anybody else was thinking of doing the same thing.
