6
Well I'm trying to put together a website and a forum. Ive already decided to use smf as the forum software, but I'm wondering what to use as the cms for the rest of the website? I've checked out joomla, e107 and a few others but I'm wondering what everyone else uses? joomla seems to have a massive userbase with more add-on's etc. is there anything better than joomla?
Welcome to Webmaster Forum
Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. If you already have an account, login here - otherwise create an account for free today!
Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. If you already have an account, login here - otherwise create an account for free today!
Back to top
#2
Posted 21 January 2012 - 01:23 AM
-
- Members
-
- 17 posts
and I just noticed that there is a add-on that gives a joomla installation its own forum without having to login to two different systems, would this be better than using a joomla and smf together?
#3
Posted 22 January 2012 - 02:00 PM
-
- New Members
-
- 8 posts
It depends on what type of site you need - if you want simple site, which aims to provide information without fancy features, I'd wholeheartedly recommend Wordpress.
It's also free, and can be learned very fast, in matter of hours, as its interface is very intuitive and user-friendly. Joomla maybe offers better possibilities, but ratio between efforts you need to put into learning and results you get is much, much better with Wordpress.
I said "Joomla maybe offers better possibilities", as it depends on your coding knowledge and imagination - you can create a stunning site with Wordpress, too!
You are correct that Joomla has extensive community and a lot of themes and plugins available, but so does the Wordpress, maybe even bigger! And variety of themes was exactly the cause of main thing I disliked in Joomla. Joomla puts everything in modules, and various themes have different position for modules, there's no rule at all; so, you create a site, then change theme, and you see half of your content dissapeared, or changed its position! In Wordpress, you have header, footer, sidebars, etc., and once you place something in sidebar, it remains in sidebar!
You can install Wordpress from your Control Panel; if you have Softaculous, you will surely have the latest version; if you have only Fantastico De Luxe, chances are it will be outdated, but you can update it from Dashboard later. In any case, it's easier than to download package, then upload it and set database.
If you don't have neither Softacuolous nor Fantastico (or some other equivalent; look for "Script Installer", or something like that), well, then ask your hosting provider to enable it for you - any decent hosting provider includes it in all packages nowadays.
Once you have installed Wordpress, look for a theme called WP Weaver (you can install it from Dashboard, too, you don't need to download it to PC and then upload to site; main site is at www.wpweaver.info); it's also free, and allows you immense control over your site using simple checkboxes for hundred of options.
And in fact it's not a simple theme - it contains some 20 sub-themes with different colors and sidebars placement, so you can change entire look of your site with a single click.
Naturally, WPWeaver is just my personal favourite; if you don't like it, just google for "Free Wordpress themes", and there are literally thousands!
Dashboard, i.e., control panel of your site is pretty intuitive, so I believe you will have no problems to learn how things work; Wordpress also has extensive documentation, so you can easily find an answer.
As for forum, Wordpress, just like Joomla, has several forum plugins; the most popular one being bbPress. WPWeaver also uses it for their support forum, you can see example here: http://weavertheme.com/forum
If you want to stick with SMF, search both Wordpress and SMF sites for "SMF and Wordpress integration", and you will find planty of articles how to do it; I have never tried to integrate them, but it seems to be feasible.
It's also free, and can be learned very fast, in matter of hours, as its interface is very intuitive and user-friendly. Joomla maybe offers better possibilities, but ratio between efforts you need to put into learning and results you get is much, much better with Wordpress.
I said "Joomla maybe offers better possibilities", as it depends on your coding knowledge and imagination - you can create a stunning site with Wordpress, too!
You are correct that Joomla has extensive community and a lot of themes and plugins available, but so does the Wordpress, maybe even bigger! And variety of themes was exactly the cause of main thing I disliked in Joomla. Joomla puts everything in modules, and various themes have different position for modules, there's no rule at all; so, you create a site, then change theme, and you see half of your content dissapeared, or changed its position! In Wordpress, you have header, footer, sidebars, etc., and once you place something in sidebar, it remains in sidebar!
You can install Wordpress from your Control Panel; if you have Softaculous, you will surely have the latest version; if you have only Fantastico De Luxe, chances are it will be outdated, but you can update it from Dashboard later. In any case, it's easier than to download package, then upload it and set database.
If you don't have neither Softacuolous nor Fantastico (or some other equivalent; look for "Script Installer", or something like that), well, then ask your hosting provider to enable it for you - any decent hosting provider includes it in all packages nowadays.
Once you have installed Wordpress, look for a theme called WP Weaver (you can install it from Dashboard, too, you don't need to download it to PC and then upload to site; main site is at www.wpweaver.info); it's also free, and allows you immense control over your site using simple checkboxes for hundred of options.
And in fact it's not a simple theme - it contains some 20 sub-themes with different colors and sidebars placement, so you can change entire look of your site with a single click.
Naturally, WPWeaver is just my personal favourite; if you don't like it, just google for "Free Wordpress themes", and there are literally thousands!
Dashboard, i.e., control panel of your site is pretty intuitive, so I believe you will have no problems to learn how things work; Wordpress also has extensive documentation, so you can easily find an answer.
As for forum, Wordpress, just like Joomla, has several forum plugins; the most popular one being bbPress. WPWeaver also uses it for their support forum, you can see example here: http://weavertheme.com/forum
If you want to stick with SMF, search both Wordpress and SMF sites for "SMF and Wordpress integration", and you will find planty of articles how to do it; I have never tried to integrate them, but it seems to be feasible.
Edited by froment, 22 January 2012 - 02:02 PM.
#4
Posted 22 January 2012 - 03:09 PM
-
- Members
-
- 14 posts
You may want to check out Drupal as well. drupal.org/
#5
Posted 22 January 2012 - 09:53 PM
-
- Members
-
- 17 posts
froment, on 22 January 2012 - 02:00 PM, said:
It depends on what type of site you need - if you want simple site, which aims to provide information without fancy features, I'd wholeheartedly recommend Wordpress.
It's also free, and can be learned very fast, in matter of hours, as its interface is very intuitive and user-friendly. Joomla maybe offers better possibilities, but ratio between efforts you need to put into learning and results you get is much, much better with Wordpress.
I said "Joomla maybe offers better possibilities", as it depends on your coding knowledge and imagination - you can create a stunning site with Wordpress, too!
You are correct that Joomla has extensive community and a lot of themes and plugins available, but so does the Wordpress, maybe even bigger! And variety of themes was exactly the cause of main thing I disliked in Joomla. Joomla puts everything in modules, and various themes have different position for modules, there's no rule at all; so, you create a site, then change theme, and you see half of your content dissapeared, or changed its position! In Wordpress, you have header, footer, sidebars, etc., and once you place something in sidebar, it remains in sidebar!
You can install Wordpress from your Control Panel; if you have Softaculous, you will surely have the latest version; if you have only Fantastico De Luxe, chances are it will be outdated, but you can update it from Dashboard later. In any case, it's easier than to download package, then upload it and set database.
If you don't have neither Softacuolous nor Fantastico (or some other equivalent; look for "Script Installer", or something like that), well, then ask your hosting provider to enable it for you - any decent hosting provider includes it in all packages nowadays.
Once you have installed Wordpress, look for a theme called WP Weaver (you can install it from Dashboard, too, you don't need to download it to PC and then upload to site; main site is at www.wpweaver.info); it's also free, and allows you immense control over your site using simple checkboxes for hundred of options.
And in fact it's not a simple theme - it contains some 20 sub-themes with different colors and sidebars placement, so you can change entire look of your site with a single click.
Naturally, WPWeaver is just my personal favourite; if you don't like it, just google for "Free Wordpress themes", and there are literally thousands!
Dashboard, i.e., control panel of your site is pretty intuitive, so I believe you will have no problems to learn how things work; Wordpress also has extensive documentation, so you can easily find an answer.
As for forum, Wordpress, just like Joomla, has several forum plugins; the most popular one being bbPress. WPWeaver also uses it for their support forum, you can see example here: http://weavertheme.com/forum
If you want to stick with SMF, search both Wordpress and SMF sites for "SMF and Wordpress integration", and you will find planty of articles how to do it; I have never tried to integrate them, but it seems to be feasible.
It's also free, and can be learned very fast, in matter of hours, as its interface is very intuitive and user-friendly. Joomla maybe offers better possibilities, but ratio between efforts you need to put into learning and results you get is much, much better with Wordpress.
I said "Joomla maybe offers better possibilities", as it depends on your coding knowledge and imagination - you can create a stunning site with Wordpress, too!
You are correct that Joomla has extensive community and a lot of themes and plugins available, but so does the Wordpress, maybe even bigger! And variety of themes was exactly the cause of main thing I disliked in Joomla. Joomla puts everything in modules, and various themes have different position for modules, there's no rule at all; so, you create a site, then change theme, and you see half of your content dissapeared, or changed its position! In Wordpress, you have header, footer, sidebars, etc., and once you place something in sidebar, it remains in sidebar!
You can install Wordpress from your Control Panel; if you have Softaculous, you will surely have the latest version; if you have only Fantastico De Luxe, chances are it will be outdated, but you can update it from Dashboard later. In any case, it's easier than to download package, then upload it and set database.
If you don't have neither Softacuolous nor Fantastico (or some other equivalent; look for "Script Installer", or something like that), well, then ask your hosting provider to enable it for you - any decent hosting provider includes it in all packages nowadays.
Once you have installed Wordpress, look for a theme called WP Weaver (you can install it from Dashboard, too, you don't need to download it to PC and then upload to site; main site is at www.wpweaver.info); it's also free, and allows you immense control over your site using simple checkboxes for hundred of options.
And in fact it's not a simple theme - it contains some 20 sub-themes with different colors and sidebars placement, so you can change entire look of your site with a single click.
Naturally, WPWeaver is just my personal favourite; if you don't like it, just google for "Free Wordpress themes", and there are literally thousands!
Dashboard, i.e., control panel of your site is pretty intuitive, so I believe you will have no problems to learn how things work; Wordpress also has extensive documentation, so you can easily find an answer.
As for forum, Wordpress, just like Joomla, has several forum plugins; the most popular one being bbPress. WPWeaver also uses it for their support forum, you can see example here: http://weavertheme.com/forum
If you want to stick with SMF, search both Wordpress and SMF sites for "SMF and Wordpress integration", and you will find planty of articles how to do it; I have never tried to integrate them, but it seems to be feasible.
Wow! Thanks for that awesome info! Having wordpress and smf integrated together certainly sounds like a good idea. i wasn't actually aware that that was possible. i'll certainly be checking that out! Thanks again for the info!
megabytehosting, on 22 January 2012 - 03:09 PM, said:
You may want to check out Drupal as well. drupal.org/
i certainly jump onto their website and check it out. have you got a link to a demo? there is no link to a demo on their website?
#6
Posted 23 January 2012 - 06:48 PM
-
- New Members
-
- 5 posts
I haven't tried the others but I would second the idea of using Wordpress. It has a huge userbase, too, and many ways to customize it. It has the added advantage in that it doesn't have a huge learning curve. Joomla and Drupal seem to be harder to learn, at least to me.
#7
Posted 25 January 2012 - 05:02 AM
-
- Members
-
- 13 posts
WordPress is the best and I use WP for all of my sites.
#8
Posted 25 January 2012 - 10:08 PM
-
- Members
-
- 17 posts
sadek, on 25 January 2012 - 05:02 AM, said:
WordPress is the best and I use WP for all of my sites.
I've decided to go with WordPress. Thanks for the advice!
Edited by Arcade Master, 25 January 2012 - 10:08 PM.
#9
Posted 26 January 2012 - 11:40 AM
-
- Administrators
-
- 60 posts
Arcade Master, on 25 January 2012 - 10:08 PM, said:
I've decided to go with WordPress. Thanks for the advice!
Best of luck with your website!
█ Webmaster Forum - The Webmaster's Community
█ Unleash the potential of your website with the knowledge of our community!
█ Free advertising opportunities, free step-by-step tutorials, free guides and more!
█ Click here to join our community of Webmaster's today! It's quick, free and easy!
█ Unleash the potential of your website with the knowledge of our community!
█ Free advertising opportunities, free step-by-step tutorials, free guides and more!
█ Click here to join our community of Webmaster's today! It's quick, free and easy!
#10
Posted 26 January 2012 - 02:10 PM
-
- New Members
-
- 8 posts
Given that you may want to give a chance to some other software/CMS in the future, I'd have another advice, if you don't mind, from my own experience...
It works if your hosting provider offers CPanel; if it's some other control panel, advice is still applicable, but bit more complicated.
Let's say you create your site in root directorium; that means your site is available at address, let's say, www.mysite.com.
One day you may decide to change design of your site, or to test another software, or whatever; that means you need to remove all files of old site from root folder, and place there files of new site. That may be a hassle, so this is my workaround:
I never create site content in the root directorium; I always create a subdirectorium and place entire content there. So, if I were you, I'd install Wordpress in a subdirectorium, let's say, www.mysite.com/wordpress (but choose more suitable title than "wordpress", it would be awkward; the shorter word, the better, in my opinion), and then from CPanel create permanent redirection from www.mysite.com to www.mysite.com/wordpress. Address of your site remains www.mysite.com, but visitors are seamlessly redirected to www.mysite.com/wordpress, where your site actually resides.
I said permanent redirection, not temporary, as it tells search engines to consider content of subdirectorium as content of main site, so your site will be listed for related searches anyway.
One day you're not satisfied with Wordpress features, and want to explore Joomla or whatever else; so you create another subdirectorium, let's say www.mysite.com/joomla, and work and test it without impacts to existing site. Once you've done and want to switch to new design, you just change redirection in CPanel, and new site is in place, without any downtime at all (otherwise, you'd have either to launch new site without testing, either to close it down for maintenance, either to move files from testing directorium to root directorium, which requires adjustments in database and Wordpress / Joomla / etc. installation itself).
Naturally, you can have as many subdirectoriums as you want, so that gives you endless possibilities of developing and testing various versions and content of the site, without interfering with each other at all. You can add photo gallery as I mentioned earlier, forum, ticket system, etc., all in different subdirectoriums, and once you're satisfied how they perform, just insert link from main site to them, and they're live.
I said in the beginning this works easily with CPanel (at Linux hosting), since it offers redirection possibility (in fact, it edits .htaccess file in root directorium; you can open that file before and after redirection, to see the difference). Windows hosting usually comes with Plesk control panel, which does not offer redirection, and does not have .htaccess either; so you would have to create one manually, to add redirection code, and then to upload it to server and check if it works...
It works if your hosting provider offers CPanel; if it's some other control panel, advice is still applicable, but bit more complicated.
Let's say you create your site in root directorium; that means your site is available at address, let's say, www.mysite.com.
One day you may decide to change design of your site, or to test another software, or whatever; that means you need to remove all files of old site from root folder, and place there files of new site. That may be a hassle, so this is my workaround:
I never create site content in the root directorium; I always create a subdirectorium and place entire content there. So, if I were you, I'd install Wordpress in a subdirectorium, let's say, www.mysite.com/wordpress (but choose more suitable title than "wordpress", it would be awkward; the shorter word, the better, in my opinion), and then from CPanel create permanent redirection from www.mysite.com to www.mysite.com/wordpress. Address of your site remains www.mysite.com, but visitors are seamlessly redirected to www.mysite.com/wordpress, where your site actually resides.
I said permanent redirection, not temporary, as it tells search engines to consider content of subdirectorium as content of main site, so your site will be listed for related searches anyway.
One day you're not satisfied with Wordpress features, and want to explore Joomla or whatever else; so you create another subdirectorium, let's say www.mysite.com/joomla, and work and test it without impacts to existing site. Once you've done and want to switch to new design, you just change redirection in CPanel, and new site is in place, without any downtime at all (otherwise, you'd have either to launch new site without testing, either to close it down for maintenance, either to move files from testing directorium to root directorium, which requires adjustments in database and Wordpress / Joomla / etc. installation itself).
Naturally, you can have as many subdirectoriums as you want, so that gives you endless possibilities of developing and testing various versions and content of the site, without interfering with each other at all. You can add photo gallery as I mentioned earlier, forum, ticket system, etc., all in different subdirectoriums, and once you're satisfied how they perform, just insert link from main site to them, and they're live.
I said in the beginning this works easily with CPanel (at Linux hosting), since it offers redirection possibility (in fact, it edits .htaccess file in root directorium; you can open that file before and after redirection, to see the difference). Windows hosting usually comes with Plesk control panel, which does not offer redirection, and does not have .htaccess either; so you would have to create one manually, to add redirection code, and then to upload it to server and check if it works...
1 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users
