Getting started with Joomla

Submitted by kwang0274 on March 4, 2008 - 11:13am.

All About Joomla!

Hello all. I'm working on our church website and have decided to see if I want to use Drupal or if i want to use Joomla. So, I was able to create a basic site using Drupal with the help of the podcasts. So, now I'm trying to do the same with Joomla and haven't found a tutorial that basically will hold my hands in developing the site. I downloaded Joomla 1.5 and have it installed, now what do I do? Is there a Geeks & God like site for Joomla? I've found a lot of tutorials that talk about theming and stuff, but nothing that says do this, then this, and so forth. Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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I think we all want to have

Submitted by techmate on March 5, 2008 - 10:35am.

I think we all want to have some people here who are pretty knowledgeable about joomla. But since GeeksandGod grand pubas (Matt & Bob) use and are more familiar with Drupal thats what people tend to talk more about here.

Hopefully soon there will be some more joomla guys or girls in here to participate. Both are excellent CMS.

I have used it a bit, but not enough to offer any real detailed advice. If you don't get any replies back here check out the Joomla forums. If you find some good tips for please post them back here for us.
Many of us are interested in learning more also.

Why We Use Drupal

Submitted by Matt Farina on March 5, 2008 - 11:45am.

We chose drupal a couple years ago before either system was where it is today. Both systems have come along way and if I had to do it all over again I'd choose drupal. Not because it's better. Truthfully, it's easier to teach Rob new things in drupal than try to teach a whole new system plus there are the drupal permissions.

At this point we are not planning on becoming experts in Joomla because it would take too much time and we are overworked to begin with. We are looking for joomla experts to help out the church. People who will and can do it better than we can with joomla. It's something that's sorely needed for this powerful system.

Any takers?

Matt Farina
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.innovatingtomorrow.net
www.mattfarina.com

Joomla

Submitted by TheRockHobbit on March 7, 2008 - 12:07am.

I have used Joomla for quite a while. I built the following Church site in an afternoon. http://www.cornerstoneplano.or...
admitedly not the best site ever, but it works.
I am no longer at that church or working on their site. I rebuilt it for them just before I left to take a position at a different church. Anyhow, One thing I have found VERY useful about Joomla, and even wordpress is that with the way their templates work, I can create a blank template and use a php include statement to insert anything from either CMS into a static website layout. I have used this extensivley and it works VERY well. There are a whole multitude of Components and plugins for Joomla and Wordpress that I can use and insert them whereever I want to in any kind of site using this. An example is on my bands page. www.wwcband.com the upcoming Events block on the right side bar of the front page is being pulled from a Joomla Module. Also the Calendar Page is pulling from a pre-made Component called GigCalendar which makes it super easy. Then Our booking person just logs into the backend and posts new Gigs for us. I will admit that while Joomla is super easy to get started with a lot of features, there is a pretty huge learning curve to doing anything very cool with it. Also it is VERY limiting, which is why I resorting to basically hacking it to serve my needs.

Charlie (The Rock Hobbit) Holmes

Joomla vs Drupal

Submitted by Curtis G (not verified) on March 7, 2008 - 1:14pm.

I know this topic has been brought up a gazillion times on the web. But many of us are faced with having to choose between Joomla and Drupal and, no matter how much it is discussed, it is hard to find a clear answer.

I find it interesting that you say you need to hack Joomla to make it serve your needs. Its cool you can do that, but that seems to speak to some of the limitations of Joomla. It is one thing to write a custom module, which is not a bad thing. It is another thing to hack an existing module to make it work, which just shouldn't be needed in well-designed architecture.

How does Drupal compare in this respect? Is the same level of hacking required in Drupal to make it serve your needs?

No Hacking Required

Submitted by Matt Farina on March 7, 2008 - 1:51pm.

With drupal you should run into a no hacking required situation. If you need something you can create a module for it if one hasn't already been done.

I think, and am really hoping, that the new version of Joomla is the same way. They rewrote much of the codebase to make it better for developers.

You will not get a clear answer to which one is better between Joomla and Drupal. You might want to check out https://www.innovatingtomorrow... for some help making the decision.

If you have questions, please, feel free to ask. We are more drupal folks here but we are in support of good sites for churches and not necessarily one tool

Matt Farina
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.innovatingtomorrow.net
www.mattfarina.com

The Original Purpose

Submitted by kwang0274 on March 7, 2008 - 2:07pm.

I feel that the original purpose of this messsage has been lost. I wasn't interested in a Drupal vs. Joomla discussion. I just want to know where to find a good tutorial on Joomla. The fact of the matter is if it weren't for Geeks and God, I wouldn't be using Drupal and I'd still be lost about what to do with our church website. So, I was wondering if there was a similar site for Joomla.

Kwang