Joomla CMS Review

Joomla is an amazing content management system or CMS for short. It is built to be very easy to work with, and installing addition extensions (called modules and components) is as easy as uploading the compressed files and clicking continue.

Right from a fresh install, Joomla is capable of creating an awesome looking site very quickly and easily. It includes Polls, RSS feeds, a search function, banner control, and detailed statistics of the visitors. On top of a great base package are many freely available and commercial modules and components that allow you to do much more.

Some of these are:

Fireboard is a Forum that you can easily integrate into your current Joomla template. It acts like any other content and is displayed right in the main body of your website.

VirtueMart - A Shopping cart and catalogue capable of checking out with everything from authorize.net to PayPal. Options such as Google Checkout are also available as a plug-in.

Template design is much easier compared to most content management systems. The template is based around one index.php and CSS file. The templates also include an images folder with all of the images for that particular template. If you are creating your own template, the only thing that you absolutely need is an index.php and style-sheet(CSS). You can easily throw together a new template in about an hour. This is much easier than many other CMS I've worked with.

Adding content to your website is also extremely easy. It includes TinyMCE wysiwyg for formatting your content. I personally found it slightly aggravating due to some glitches I had with it. For example: sometimes the CSS editor popup windows would not display anything, etc. Luckily, there are many other editors you can get for free or purchase. I found JCE, which is free, to be the best. I still prefer not using any editor and just writing the code myself, but everyone else that posts content on the sites prefer using an editor.

Most people that are new to web design may struggle with it a bit, but compared to any other CMS, it is by far the easiest to use. With a few directions, even a more novice web designer can put together a nice looking website. They will never again have to worry about changing a menu on every page of a regular html website either. Joomla truly is superior.