Community Notebook Free Software Projects Projects on the Move Drupal and WordPress often hog the spotlight, but other content management systems offer impressive performances. This month, we look at the latest Joomla
release and check out concrete5. By Rikki Kite
lthough I wouldn’t call myself a web designer, over the years I’ve managed websites running on eZ Publish and Drupal, and I’ve created several sites running WordPress, which I think is the most user-friendly site to hand off A for non-technical clients to maintain. Recently, I started using Joomla, which powers the advancedclustering.com website. At first, I found Joomla to be less user- friendly than WordPress, more inviting than eZ Publish, with a learning curve compa- Dmtry Sunagatov, Fotolia.com rable to Drupal (although newer versions of eZ Publish are pretty Drupal-like). In short, Joomla is different from other content management systems, so it takes some getting used to; however, it is feature-rich, has an active community, and comes with excellent documentation. “Each CMS has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, but for me Joomla’s unique strength lies in the breadth of the community and the range of available ex- RIKKI KITE tensions – over 8,000 – that give site builders unrivaled versatility with the type of websites that they can build,” says Brian Teeman, co-founder of Joomla. Rikki Kite is Director of Marketing at Advanced Clustering Technologies in Joomla 1.7 rolled out in July and was the first release on the new six-month release Kansas City, Kansas. In addition to Linux cycle [1]. In addition to security updates, the new release offers the option to specify Magazine and Linux Pro Magazine, Kite the site name before or after the page title, a “remove installation folder” button as has been published in Sys Admin part of the installation process, and the ability to add a background image to the cus- Magazine and UnixReview.com. She can be contacted at tom HTML module. [email protected]. To test Joomla without installing it, users can create a demo account, which in- cludes 30 days of free hosting, video training, and support [2]. The Joomla site also
Figure 1: A systems check before takeoff. Figure 2: Enter your site name and admin details.
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bar, provides links back to the Joomla documentation and community. Whether you are a novice or an expe- rienced web designer, Joomla is packed with features, well documented, and powered by an international community of contributors. The learning curve can Figure 3: Install complete; the installation be a bit intimidating, but the extensive directory is ready for removal. documentation, active community, and a little hands-on experience will help you provides detailed install manuals, vid- get your personal or business site up and eos, documentation, and a Joomla on- running quickly. line magazine [3]. During the Joomla in- stall, the first screen offers the option to concrete5 choose a language, and the next screen Released in 2008, the open source con- provides a pre-installation check and crete5 content management system is recommended settings (Figure 1). the offspring of Concrete CMS, created In the next three screens, you will add by Portland developers Franz Maruna your database configuration, FTP config- and Andrew Embler [4]. The project site uration (optional), and your main con- says that concrete5 is a CMS made for figuration, which allows novices to in- marketers but built for geeks. stall a sample data set to get started (Fig- How does concrete5 compare to other ure 2). After congratulations for a suc- well-known content management sys- cessful install, the next screen offers the tems, such as Drupal, WordPress, eZ new button to remove the installation di- Publish, and Joomla? “As a website edit- rectory (Figure 3). ing tool, I think concrete5 compares ex- Clicking the Site button takes you to ceedingly well to everything you men- your new site with the sample data set tioned,” Embler says. “They all have (if you chose that option). The sample their strengths; ours is in-context editing: data set offers guides for beginners, up- you navigate your website as normal, graders, and professional users (Figure and change content right from the page 4). Clicking the beginners tab opens a on which it appears.” page with links to information about ex- Embler says that concrete5 is also tensions, components, modules, tem- great as a framework for building inter- plates, plugins, and more. The bottom, active websites with custom components left-hand corner of the sample page of- and evolving requirements. “If you’re Figure 4: Sample data offers beginners a fers the login and admin options (Figure certain your site will never be more than preview of Joomla in action. 5). After you log in, the fun begins be- a blog, a store, or a community news ar- cause you have finally found the admin chive and your design requirements panel. aren’t that exact, other software will The sample data already populated on probably meet those needs with less tin- the site allows you to play with all the kering,” he says, “But if you wish to add admin options and get a feel for Joomla some or all of these capabilities in an el- before you tweak the theme or add ex- egant way to a website that looks good, tensions (which is beyond the scope of concrete5 is a great choice.” this article). Clicking the Menus option Although concrete5’s e-commerce in the top tool bar opens up the sample add-on is full-featured and capable, Em- Figure 5: Click Login to dig into the menus, which I promptly deleted (with bler says that he’d probably choose a configuration fun. the exception of the Main Menu). To edit the sample articles, categories, or fea- tured articles, click on Content in the top menu (Figure 6). Banners under the Components tab show up in the bottom of the sample site as the three Support Joomla! boxes (Figure 4). Under Extensions, you can manage ex- tensions, add modules, and manage plu- gins, templates, and languages. The final option, Help, in the administration tool- Figure 6: Sample feature articles also offer handy, practical tips for using Joomla.
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different application if he were building Versions button to see page version ar- a large e-commerce website with tens of chives (Figure 8). thousands of products. “If I were build- Selecting Dashboard in the top-right ing a custom web application without a side of the screen opens a window with lot of content management, I’d choose a a file manager, reports, user and group dedicated framework like the Zend management, a scrapbook, pages and Framework or Symfony,” he says, “We’re themes, an option to add functionality, also not a good fit if you’re building a backup and update options, a sitewide site where every single page has a signif- settings option, and an overview of your icantly different design footprint, or if site activity (Figure 9). Clicking on ele- your site is built for Flash.” ments within your web pages opens up To try concrete5 without installing it, windows for editing (Figure 10). set up a demo install on the project site concrete5 version 5.5 should be re- [5]. If you would prefer to install it, you leased before the end of 2011. “It should can download concrete5 from the web- include a number of performance im- site, where you will also find documen- provements, improved role-based per- tation, forums, add-ons, themes, and in- missions, a significantly redesigned stallation help. dashboard and installation experience, My concrete5 install was pretty and a few things we’ll probably keep se- straightforward and any questions I had cret for a little while yet,” Embler says. were answered by searching the project I enjoyed the clean, minimalist design website. I chose to install with sample of concrete5 and the intuitive interface. content, which brings up a welcome If Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, and eZ page with helpful links, video, and a Publish are overkill for your needs and streamlined toolbar (Figure 7). you want something fresh and func- Clicking Edit Page in the top-left hand tional, try concrete5. nnn Figure 7: concrete5 installed and ready to roll. menu opens an expanded toolbar with Properties, Design, Permissions, Versions, Info and Move/Delete buttons. Properties [1] Joomla: http://www. joomla. org/ opens a window with fields for the site [2] Joomla demo: name and description. Design opens a http://demo. joomla. org/ window with options for page layout [3] Getting started: http://www. joomla. and theme selection, including a link to org/about‑joomla/getting‑started. get more themes; however, you’ll need html to connect your site to the concrete5 [4] concrete5: community site before you can access http://www. concrete5. org/ add-ons and themes. [5] concrete5 demo: http://www.concrete5.org/about/ Figure 8: See previous versions of your You can select the Permissions button trial/ website pages. to set user permission levels and use the
Figure 10: Editing content is easy when you can just click on it and Figure 9: This well-organized CMS won’t require a lot of head scratching. open a new window.
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