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PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 2:26 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:54 pm
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Location: Driggs, Idaho
Can't answer your question about security, but here are my observations. Both programs and great, but I'd say Joomla is a more mature CMS while WordPress is a GREAT blog that has been "stretched" into a CMS, meaning that rather than rewrite wordpress as a full blown CMS, it's been modified to make it accomodate more and more CMS functions.

As a result, both apps will more or less do the same thing. However, wordpress requires what I call hacks to that require adding code to several files just to add "sidebars" to an area outside the normal sidebar area or the add a second menu.

The sidebars are a perfect example of wordpress stretching. Rather than change wordpress so it can have positions in a template where you can add things like menus, custom html code blocks, login, search, etc, they modified sidebar so you can have more than one and it can go in multiple places, but it's still called "sidebar" even though it may be in the footer or the header or anywhere.

Joomla, on the other hand, makes it very simple to add positions to a template and then you can add calendars, logins, search boxes, custom html code, etc.

Here are a few more things that keep me from using WordPress for anything other than a blog:

#1: The editor in wordpress sucks and it strips out html code. Joomla's JCE content editor extension is years ahead of the WP editor.
2: When you add a custom html widget in WP, there is NO wysiwyg editor. WTF?
3. Image management: wordpress does not allow you to create a folder structure to organize your images. Instead, you have no control. As a result, when you are looking for an exisiting image, you're screwed unless you can remember the name of it. You have to browse through all images. Same with all media.
3. WordPress does not let you store your articles in categories. Only posts can be stored in categories. If you have 100s of articles, it's a real pain finding them in wordpress. Same for linking to articles. A big pain since there is no organization to it. You have to wade through all of them or search. In Joomla, you can filter them by category.
4. Adding menus in wordpress is a pain. You have to write code to include it. In Joomla, you simply create a new menu, add items to it, and then create and publish a menu module to any position in your template.
5. Since wordpress is still a long way from being a full-blown CMS, it seems that almost EVERYTHING you want to do other than blog requires searching for and installing plugins. Don't get me wrong, the plugin system is great. But a LOT of the things that require a plugin should be part of the core.
6. Wordpress does not have a permission system that allows different users different access to the program. Joomla 1.6 introduced native functions to do this.
7. WordPress has no front end editor, and I find the word around for it a big pain. All it is is a menu system that takes you back to the admin.

On the other hand...

1. Joomla has no built in comment system so you can turn a cateogry into a blog. Yes, there are many Joomla extensions (think WordPress plugins) that can create a blog in Joomla or add ability for a comment system.
2. Joomla is probably more difficult to learn from a developer standpoint, but that's also what makes it more powerful.
3. Wordpress is easier to maintain because their plugin system updates are easier to manage. Joomla 1.7 added updates so you can now update Joomla and some extensions through the update extension function, but it's not as easy as wordpress. What's more, wordpress allows you to seach for and install plugins right from the wordpress admin screen. A very nice feature. With Joomla, you have to search the entensions directory (on the joomla.org site) for the extension, then download it to your machine, and then install it in Joomla. This is not a problem for me, but if you have someone with limited experience, it might be a problem.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:31 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:54 pm
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not completely true. If wordpress template is not configured for you to add a menu, you can't even add one. In Joomla, you can add a menu to ANY module position.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 11:34 pm 
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Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 4:15 am
Posts: 21
For CMS Joomla is way better than Wordpress. Wordpress needs to many hacks to customize it for a decent blog/website. Now there are some nice templates that do all the work for us, but it´s just templates.
Joomla is more powerfull as a CMS, has a lot to improve also.

I remember once I had a wordpress website, and installed a few plugins, some of them I pay for them. Guess what happened, memory problems, and my hosting provider said there was nothing they can do.
So to give it a try, I removed wordpress and send it to the nearest trash I found and installed joomla and installed as many components, plugins, modules, just to see what happens, and it always worked great! Never go errors related to memory and the such.

Overall wordpress is for first timers. Joomla rocks! :D


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PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2012 10:07 pm 
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Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 3:51 am
Posts: 21
Location: Dallas, TX
Wordpress is great for blogging. Can't be beat. Outside of that use case it really starts to fall apart though. Joomla on the other hand can do blogging, but not nearly as well.

The solution to this dilemma I usually go with is to use both. It took some experimenting to get the integration working exactly how I wanted it to, but I was very happy with the end result. Wordpress uses Joomla's CSS so it looks exactly the same, has module positions, dynamic menus, etc.

If anyone wants details just let me know, I'll be happy to lay out the details of how to do this. Send me a PM

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My name is Hassan Bawab and I am the CEO of Magic Logix a digital marketing agency that focuses on driving business growth by merging web design, development and online marketing. To learn more about Magic Logix visit http://www.magiclogix.com


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PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2012 3:18 pm 
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Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 3:51 am
Posts: 21
Location: Dallas, TX
Per request, here's more info on how to do it. The steps are very similar to a blog post I made some time back about integrating Joomla & Magento. The link is here: http://www.magiclogix.com/blog/web-deve ... o-magento/

Basically follow those steps, and download the joomla-integration.php from http://www.magentoadvisor.com/download/joomla_integration.zip

Then at the top of wp-config.php, place these lines:
Code:
// Joomla directory
define( 'JPATH_BASE', realpath(dirname(__FILE__).'/../html' ));

// only the BASE url (no subdirectory). must have slash at the end
define('JOOMLA_URL','http://www.yoursitehere.com/'); 

// For active menu highlighting and correctly loading module positions in Wordpress
define('JOOMLA_ACTIVE_MENU_ID', 166); // where 166 is the Menu ID

// Joomla integration
require_once('joomla-integration.php');


The joomla-integration that is linked is currently confirmed to work for magento only, but I've used similar techniques for wordpress in the past. It's been a while since I've done Joomla&Wordpress and the old joomla-integration.php's are sloppy and not really suitable for sharing. It should work though, but may need minor modifications.

An example of this integration in action: http://blogs.actian.com

_________________
My name is Hassan Bawab and I am the CEO of Magic Logix a digital marketing agency that focuses on driving business growth by merging web design, development and online marketing. To learn more about Magic Logix visit http://www.magiclogix.com


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