Php Cms

[scrivener]

Re: Php Cms

I just installed it, set it up, and tested it out. It's not pretty, but I think it will do the job, at least for my purposes! The phpBB interface was going to be a headache -- users have to register through phpBB, which would register them in Joomla. It wasn't going to work the other way around, apparently. That sounds like a headache to me. The JoomlaBoard installation was quick and painless and it runs nicely as part of Joomla itself.

[scrivener]

Re: Php Cms

Feel free to ignore this. I just need a place to vent.

It seems that whenever I sit down to work on Joomla, I just automatically understand a lot more than I did the time before. That part is very encouraging.

The part that is discouraging: I always get to a point where I'm positively baffled. I go to the Joomla Forum, where I read the FAQ, do a search, scour the topics, and find little bits and pieces of info that help me with my task. On rare occasions, I find exactly what I'm looking for and just follow someone's answer to someone else's question.

Occasionally I'll throw a question out there, and it will be answered and I'll hit myself in the forehead and say, "Well, hot duh. What an idiot I am."

But you know, the problem is not that I am an idiot ('though I do not deny that I am). The problem is that the wonderful folks at Joomla (and Mambo before it) named EVERY SINGLE PIECE of the application something that is either misleading, confusing, or meaningless. "Static content" doesn't mean what it sounds like. "Blog" doesn't mean what you think it means. Even "front page" doesn't necessarily mean the stuff that appears on the front page. Tables, lists, blogs, categories, sections, and menus sorta mean what they say, but how they operate within the structure of the app seems completely bizarre, until you ask a stupid question in the forum and someone shows you. Then you think it all makes sense.

Almost everything I now know how to do with Joomla was hard-earned. Much TOO hard-earned. There isn't a thing that's intuitive about it -- not even the WYSIWYG editor. One very helpful document in the Joomla Forum cautions the user NOT to drag and drop images from their listing to the editing window, because while it may LOOK the way you intend, when you view the page, that's not at all what you get.

That's right. Even WYSIWYG doesn't really mean WYSIWYG with Joomla.

I still think it's a fabulous piece of work, and I love the Open Source concept to death. I have paid decent money for components and templates that really do a job for me that I am not smart enough to do myself, and I appreciate that. Joomla makes me look a lot sharper (to the general public) than I really am. I know guys like Ryan and Blaine can tell I'm stealing or paying for just about everything I do, but there aren't too many Ryans and Blaines in my audience, so I'm not worried about that. I'm saying this to emphasize the fact that I do like Joomla, and I think I'm hopelessly addicted (I now have Joomla running on five sites, only two of which anyone has seen yet), but this is beginning to feel like an abusive relationship.

You know what else burns me up (well, a little)? Ryan put up a LOST Joomla and seemed to have no problems with it whatsoever. Welcome to Chopped-Liverville. Population: Me.

*pant* *pant* *pant*

Okay. I think that about does it. For now.

[scrivener]

Re: Php Cms

I'm feeling a lot better, and have mostly got the new Joomla doing what I want. So once again, Joomla and I are an item. Back together again. Reunited and it feels so good.

Those of you who are Open Source whores like me might like the very nice bridges people have built for Joomla and WordPress, or Joomla and MediaWiki. I've got them both installed and running on my new Joomla site (it's a school project), and the Zen of it all is enough to send me bliss-ward.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Php Cms

Hey scrivener...it's summer break...give the old noggin' a retreat from all dat thinking. Relax...let them neuron's go...

[pzarquon]

Re: Php Cms

Glad to hear you and Joomla have made up, Scriv. And it sounds like you've got it integrated with a number of other great packages, doing far more with it than I'd ever been able to attempt.

Any chance we'll all get to see the fruits of your labor?

[scrivener]

Re: Php Cms

I'm planning to play around with Xaraya over the Christmas break. Anyone have any experience with it?

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Php Cms

Never heard of it. Let us know how well it works.

[jkpescador]

Re: Php Cms

Any updates on CMS's being used?
I just ran into Midgard. I'm not sure how they all measure up. Anyone still using Php Nuke?