Joomla! in the press

[AmyStephen]

Open source CMSes prove well worth the price
We look at five free offerings boasting solid Web publishing features that challenge their commercial competitors
By Mike Heck
Infoworld - October 08, 2007

When last surveying open source Web CMSes (content management systems) I provided some common-sense advice. For example, it's important to look for not just functionality but also frequent updates, a healthy user community, and the availability of professional support. Some points are still true today, but new offerings may get you rethinking the role of these products in your enterprise.

That point is one of my takeaways in my most recent foray into the world of open source CMSes, during which I looked at the latest offerings from Alfresco, DotNetNuke, Drupal and Joomla, and Plone.

The one constant among these offerings, as with any open source area, is there's no such thing as free. You'll still need to budget for datacenter staff to install and maintain applications, consider costs for custom programming and commercial add-ons, and factor in training. Today's CMSes, however, are friendlier for IT staff to maintain and generally don't have the extreme end-user learning requirements of a few years ago.

Another positive is more standardization, which may translate to lower development costs. For example, Alfresco's based on a JSR-170 repository, integrates with JSR-168 portals, and can be extended by those with Java skills.

Still, think carefully about each product's nucleus,and how that fits with your existing infrastructure, commercial or open source. The other solutions in this roundup -- DotNetNuke, Drupal and Joomla, and Plone -- were respectively constructed with VB.Net, PHP, or Zope (Python). You can certainly find programmers and other support resources skilled in each technology.,You may find it more difficult, however, to integrate your PHP-based CMS with other systems compared to working with a .Net or Java foundation.

Another potential shortcoming of open source products – especially in high-performance environments -- is the underlying database. There's nothing inherently bad about MySQL (that Dupal, Joomla, and Plone use). But in certain situations (or even just an IT bias), a CMS's database may influence your selection. So remember that you may need to include the license and hardware cost for Microsoft SQL Server, which Alfresco and DotNetNuke support.

Still, across these products you'll probably discover overall cost savings compared to their commercial counterparts. That, and open source products' continuous feature and usability improvements, can make them a very good fit for particular enterprise Web or document management projects.



Open Source Matters Joomla 1.0.13

If there were celebrity breakups in the open source community, Mambo would provide great tabloid fodder. After disagreeing with Mambo Foundation management in 2005, the core developers jumped ship, forked development, and Joomla resulted. Technically, both systems continue to be enhanced, and modules created for one system generally work with the other.Joomla administration, though, is more improved and, based on discussion board activity, Joomla appears to have the momentum right now. There's also more tangible backup, where some hosting providers market Joomla as their site-building solution.

Joomla satisfies Web publishing needs that range from small business Web sites to corporate portals and extranets. The central package is relatively easy to install and those with basic skills can manage a Website. As delivered, this CMS includes fundamental components such as news articles, polls, blogs, calendars, search, and RSS feeds. Add-ons and extensions (some that require purchase), include document management and e-commerce engines.

Joomla lets registered front-end users enter content while back-end administrators change design templates, alter page layouts, add modules, and manage users. My administration testing started at the Web control panel, which has four areas for arranging content, installing features, and handling overall system maintenance. I understood how to use most functions, such as creating folders and uploading media, right away.

The harder part of this CMS is learning the menu system and also managing the various content containers. Still, I believe after a week of reading and experimentation that even relative newcomers could have a small production-ready site -- and that time that can be compressed if you're experienced with a commercial CMS, such as Ektron, Eprise or Red Dot. That's because Joomla Web sites follow common design and publishing methodologies used in the enterprise.

First I created sections, which represent an overall page. Similarly, I customized various individual modules, including RSS feeds, polls, contact lists, and mass mailings. Lastly, templates combine HTML and CSS to define the look of pages. After modifying the templates with built-in editors, I employed the Module Positions screen (that has 50 slots) to position objects until I had the look I wanted.

Additionally, the administration Web interface clearly lists all of your elements and when they were published, and provides access to other functions (such as user permissions, server, configuration, along with wizards to install new modules). Thus, I believe reasonably complex sites can be maintained by IT staff with modest training.

Yet I found a few places where I wondered what the developers were thinking. For example, your site's home page is managed from the Menu Manager, which is normally used to create menus that appear on the top and side of each page.

Supporting front-line users
For day-to-day tasks, Joomla is generally accessible. To mirror a typical enterprise workflow, I created roles for authors, editors, and publishers. Authors didn't have any trouble submitting content using a three-part Web form that has expected features to format text, insert links and images, and create tables; other parts of the forms let you define metadata and the time content should be published. Editors follow the same process to modify articles. Publishers may perform all the jobs done by the lower roles, in addition to pushing content to the live site.

There isn't any formal workflow or notifications in the basic system, but publishers can review a list of content and quickly see its state (such as unpublished). In addition, there's basic content control, such as check-in and check-out.

More sophisticated workflow was one of more than 1,000 extensions I spotted for Joomla -- with the majority available under GNU GPL or Creative Commons licenses. Hence, I think without much extra work or expense you can customize your installation for vertical markets or special needs.

Joomla developers quickly built on the legacy of Mambo, especially improving administration. What the basic system lacks in functionality can usually be fixed by installing a component. Version 1.5 (which was in Release Candidate 1 stage during testing) appears to address concerns about the complexity of the menu system while injecting more Web 2.0 functions (such as more design latitude in how pages appear).




Stepping back and looking ahead
After my intensive test schedule with these five products, there were a few surprises along with verification of what I generally suspected all along.

The lightweight Drupal has a decent following and special features, such as taxonomies, but comparatively weaker CMS functions (lacking rich-text editing, for example) and a somewhat unfriendly development environment mean Drupal is playing catch-up. Joomla, after breaking from Mambo, swept up many core developers and swayed community members to switch, too. Collectively, they've turned Joomla into a very relevant project. With improvements planned for Version 1.5, I'm optimistic about this CMS.

DotNetNuke (the .Net reincarnation of PHPnuke) wasn't originally on my short list, but I'm glad I reconsidered. Although it's Windows-only, this ASP.Net application proved scalable and has a real affinity for handling midrange commerce activities. Plone is a step above, combining multilingual features, workflow, and automated navigation.

With a strong organization behind it and a slew of features, Alfresco's Community Edition stood out in this comparison. That would be true solely considering its content management, but as these applications branch out into document and records management, Alfresco has already staked a claim in the extended ECM space.

[AmyStephen]

http://pubcomm-29.ucdavis.edu/cmssurvey/index.php

UC Davis reported a total of 129 survey submissions have been processed by Higher Education Institutions from the US.

81% of the 129 respondents reported their institution uses a CMS.

Custom built CMSs were in use by 18 respondents.

Of all external CMSs listed, the top three were open source solutions. Plone was used most frequently by 13 respondents, Followed by Drupal with 10 respondents, and then Joomla! with 8. Microsoft Sharepoint only had 4 respondents.

As would be expected, most campuses have many websites, with over 1/8th of the institutions managing well over 40 sites. At this point, using a CMS is mandatory for only 1/4 of the institutions.

Other survey questions included:

    * What are the top 3 features or criteria that led you to select your Web CMS?
    * If you had to do it again, would you choose the same Web CMS?
    * Comments and advice.

[Roman Blanty]

Poland Software Developers Joournal SDJ Extra!: Joomla! - starterkit.

Magazine just started to be shipped in Poland. It is over 70 pages magazine all about Joomla!
Stefan Wajda 'Zwiastun' (Polish Joomla! Community Leader) wrote most of it.
Mateusz Krzeszowiec (Core Team Member) wrote an article about developing extensions for J! 1.5.
and I wrote 2 articles about templates for 1.0.x. and one about GPL

Magazine except for Matt's article is all about 1.0.x since we didn't feel that non-stable version of Joomla! 1.5 should go so public.

[AmyStephen]

Alfresco + Joomla!: A case of community filling its own needs
Posted by Matt Asay
November 23, 2007 6:25 AM PST

One of the things that I love about open source is that it's a great way to let innovation and collaboration happen in the absence of lawyers dictating every jot and tittle of an integration. As a case in point, I woke up today to see that someone has integrated Joomla! with Alfresco (and dubbed the result "Joosco").

In a nutshell, Joosco is a front-end for Alfresco, in Joomla!. It works by creating a new entry in a menu in Joomla, called Documents, for example. The users can click on this link to go to a new page where they can browse through spaces and content of the Alfresco Repository. The plugin is used to authenticate users to the Alfresco repository. Alfresco users can now log in to Joomla, and their permissions in Alfresco are used to display only the content they have permission to access.

Alfresco, my company, didn't write that extension. To the best of my knowledge, the core Joomla! team didn't, either. Who did? The community. Why? Because they had that need and so filled it. What enabled it? Open source.

Open source lets code speak for itself. I'm a big fan of Joomla! but don't have the expertise to write this sort of integration. The community does. So it did. Because it can. That's open source.

[AmyStephen]

Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal Launches New Website

January 3, 2008 – Santa Clara, CA. The Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal, an independent scholarly law publication, has launched a new official website at http://www.chtlj.org.

The website, which features a bold new look for the journal, allows free access to the current issue of the journal for all who have an interest in the latest issues at the intersection of law and technology. “Currently, there are over four years worth of journal archives available on the website, and the entire archive of the journal dating back to the journal’s inception in 1984 will be available within the coming months,” stated Eli Edwards, the Journal’s archivist.

Allison Hendrix, editor-in-chief, stated: "The Journal is proud to announce the launch of its newly designed website and online publication. The new website will provide users with up-to-date information about issues in law and technology and will serve as a platform for interactive dialogue among practitioners, scholars, and policymakers from around the world. Users will have quick, easy access to the full content of our printed publication and will soon be able to comment on articles as they are posted online. Volume 24 is committed to building on the success and strength of the Journal and this new website will further solidify the Journal's position as a leading publication in technology and intellectual property law. I am especially thankful to Shane Lunceford, our Lead Business Development Editor, for creating such an incredible website for the legal community."

The journal chose Joomla!, an open source content management system, as the framework for the new website. “The journal has greatly benefited from the work of many developers around the world working on the open source Joomla! Project,” stated Shane Lunceford, lead business developer for the journal and lead architect for the new site. “Joomla! allows future web editors, even non-technical staff, to easily update and add new content to the website, while keeping the same overall look and feel,” he continued.

Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP (http://www.townsend.com) helped sponsor the creation of the new website. “We are grateful for the support of the legal community, and particularly the support of Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP in our efforts to make the journal more accessible,” said Shane Lunceford.

About Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal:

The Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal is an independent scholarly legal publication founded and managed by the students of Santa Clara University School of Law. Since its inception in 1984, the Journal has achieved national and international circulation and recognition as a leading forum for multidisciplinary discourse on emerging issues at the juncture of technology, the law and public policy. The Journal’s subscribers include leading law libraries, law firms and corporations worldwide. A significant number of federal courts and state supreme courts are also regular subscribers to the Journal, including the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Additional information about the Journal is available at http://www.chtlj.org.

Contact Information:

Shane T. Lunceford
Lead Business Development Editor
Tel: (408) 554-4197
Fax: (408) 554-4191
Email: [email protected]

[AmyStephen]

NPR: Top Web Gadgets of 2007
By Adam Davidson
NPR.org, January 10, 2008

If you wanted a shiny and expensive gadget last year, there were some obvious choices: the iPhone and the iPod touch, for example.

But in 2007, many of the coolest new gizmos don't cost a thing.

Joomla and Drupal are two free, open-source software platforms that let anybody create incredibly complex Internet sites on their own.

You can make your own powerful and sophisticated discussion group, auction site, wiki, online magazine — or whatever else you can dream up — using relatively simple tools. Both have been around a while but became far more mature and easy to use in 2007.

Probably the single coolest gadget this year is the Fab-at-Home. It's like a printer that makes 3-dimensional objects. You can make just about anything you want out of plastic or rubber — or even food. Create your own working rubber flashlight, a cheese castle or a chocolate plate that spells out your name.

These 3D fabrication machines are not entirely new, but until now they cost tens of thousands of dollars. The Fab-At-Home was designed by Cornell University researchers who put the plans up on the Internet for free. If you want to make one, you'll have to spend around $2,400 on parts. But then, perhaps, you can create the coolest gadget of 2008.

[ewel]

The only item resulting from a Google news search for Joomla today, the day of the release of 1.5 stable:
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35722/144/

Joomla 1.5 CMS released       
Software 
By Wolfgang Gruener 
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 13:27 
Joomla.org has released the download of version 1.5 of its open source content management system, previously code-named Khepri. The software, which had been in development for more than two years, is offered as a “stable” version, but the developers do not quite recommend switching from version 1.0x and noted that they “fully expect issues to arise”. 

“There is no immediate need for people to migrate existing Joomla! 1.0 sites to 1.5 so please be patient as we do our best to make the migration process as smooth as possible for the myriad of configurations possible,” the developers wrote on the Joomla.org website.

The new version brings a number of changes and improvements. There is now a single installer for all extension types, a new media manager as well as a new article manager, which includes simplified content configuration options. Web site designers also receive more possibilities to exploit their creativity and developers will be able to program applications faster, Joomla.org said.

Joomla 1.5.0 is offered as a free 5 MB download package. There is no direct upgrade path from versions 1.0x, as “a large number of changes” have made “data [such as parameters for menus and content items] slightly incompatible,” Joomla.org said. Upgrades are therefore handled as a two-step progress, one that exports the migration component for Joomla 1.0x and a second that imports the Joomla 1.5.0 installer.

[compass]

Joomla on techrepublic.com

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=166

[AmyStephen]

Joomla! and the latest trends in the open source revolution
Eddie and Baker at Sydney event
Sandra Rossi (Computerworld) 01/05/2008 16:17:28
Source: http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php? ... 61&rid=-50

Australia's Andrew Eddie and Brad Baker, two of the core team members of Joomla!, the free open-source Internet content management system (CMS) that in three years has grown into a global development community with more than three million downloads in a year, will be guest speakers at a special event in Sydney on May 19, 2008.

The content management system has grown into a global development community with more than three million downloads a year.

Eddie and Baker will talk about the latest trends in the open source revolution.

In a statement they said:"We will talk about the latest trends in the open-source revolution that has liberated online software from the proprietorial designs of companies like Microsoft and made feature-rich Web sites affordable for all businesses, not-for-profit groups and individuals."

Eddie and Baker are keynote speakers at the annual JoomlaDay Conference being held at the Sydney Conference and Exhbition Centre in Darling Harbour.

The Joomla! project has deep Australian roots.

It began in 2005 as an offshoot of the Sydney-based Mambo content management system, after members of the Mambo development team became concerned about protecting key open source principles they believed were being violated.

Andrew Eddy (aka "MasterChief") wrote an open letter that within a day had garnered the support of a thousand developers in the global free software community.

The name later chosen for the new open source project is derived from the Swahili "jumla", meaning "all together" or "as a whole".

Since then the community has grown exponentially.

As of February 2008, the official Joomla support forum, moderated by Brad Baker, has more than 260,000 threads and 1.2 million posts from more than 170,000 registered members in 40 languages.

Joomla! leverages much open source and Web 2.0 technology, and now offers more than 3,000 add-on features, from podcasts to calendars, wikis to social networking tools.

A live demonstration of the power of Joomla! will be held on May 20, 2008, with a team of developers building a fully functional Web site for a nominated charity in less than seven hours.

More information: sydney.joomladay.org.au

[AmyStephen]

Joomla!, Andrew, Brad and Joomla! Day Sydney are also featured in ComputerWorld and Tux Machines.

[LorenzoG]

PHP::Impact has listed 16 open-source PHP applications that has "changed the world", broken up by year and Joomla! is one of the great applications.
http://phpimpact.wordpress.com/2008/05/ ... the-world/

[Wendy]

Joomla! Day Vancouver and Joomla! event organization in general, featured on Linux.com

http://www.linux.com/feature/138501

[ghosty]

A bit late but I think never to late,
As Wilco has writin on jfoobar Blog there was a german magazine dedicated a special for and about joomla!
see more here: http://www.jfoobar.org/blog/139-a-germa ... oomla.html

Cheers
Pete