Compare Drupal,VS Joomla! or Vs WordPress - the battle for the best publishing platform

[Tanha Karim]

Compare Drupal,VS Joomla! or Vs WordPress - the battle for the best publishing platform continues

Gone are the days when basic w HTML knowledge was a — requirement for publishing user content online. The advent of Web 2.0 revolutionised the way Web publishing platforms were built. However, in a highly competitive market, popular content management systems (CMSs) have raised the bar in terms of functionality, features, compatibility, user experience and online support. Depending on a user's needs, Drupal, Joomla! and WordPress are considered the three most popular (open-source, free, PHP-based) CMS platforms for publishing content on the internet. This article will provide a concise rundown of their common capabilities and

differences, because although WordPress, Drupal and Joomla! offer some similar publishing features, they do not

necessarily do it equally well.

While all three are great systems, choosing the best CMS for your next website comes down to your needs and skills. There is no replacement for a hands-on experience, but the side-by-side

comparisons of features of the three content management systems [Page 61] may help you choose which CMS suits you best.

WordPress

If you are a blogger, the chances are that you spend a good amount of time downloading new WordPress (WP) plugins, applying new themes, replying to comments and checking the number of hits on your blog each day. You know why? Because it's so darn easy! This singular attribute makes WordPress the most admired platform among bloggers. Extremely easy to setup and use, WordPress is known for its out-of-the-box functionalities, which work

seamlessly - at times, even without any basic customisation.

Despite its simplicity, customisation is not WP's strong point. That is why it is less popular among developers, whoprefer using WP only in projects that

TECHIE TRAITS
require few modifications to the original CMS structure. Otherwise, WordPress is extremely suitable for blogging or sequential content-sharing. A majority of local and international news websites (with a blogging section) are powered by WordPress (some examples include The Express Tribune, Global Voices and the Dawn blog).

Drupal

With key attributes like customisability, functionality and scalability, Drupal is the developer's preferred choice. Users who favour coding over a WYSIWYG editor to set up a content page or are more comfortable with an environment that resembles a
developer platform tend to go for Drupal instead of Joomla! or WordPress. Drupal offers a greater number of functions and tags that can be used for development than any other CMS.

Even so, all of these properties have a trade-off when it comes to aesthetics and usability. A website powered by Drupal might have the most powerful functionality and feature set, but content managers with little knowledge of CMSs may find it hard to use. Features such as advanced URL control, in which each content item can be assigned a custom URL or alias, are some of the extras in Drupal, which systems like WordPress fail to offer. Popular websites and blogs powered by Drupal includeYahoo.com, Aol.com, The Onion, and Forbes, among many others.

Joomlal

The name Joomla! (which sounds just like the Urdu word, denoting 'sentence' or 'phrase'), is the English spelling for the Swahili word, 'jumla', which means 'all together' or 'as a whole". As the name specifies, this powerful CMS is a jack of all trades (design, development and user experience). Primarily, designers prefer Joomla! because it facilitates in the design of fantastic looking websites. Developers enjoy working on this CMS as it allows them to code and customise to a large extent, with over 5,000 free and commercial plug-ins available. Due to the rapid development of tools that have had great commercial significance, Joomla! is quite easy to work with, which is a bonus for end-users and newcomers.

Despite all of the mentioned plus points, Joomla! is nowhere close to being the perfect PHP-based CMS. While it allows developers to override its original code and customise it for end-user needs, from a developer's point of view, Joomla! is limited when compared with Drupal.


Features Drupal Joomla! WordPress |
PUBLISHING
WYSIWYG rich text edrtor (allows users to enter content without getting into the hassle (X HTML and related CSS) No Extensile The basic installation does not offer a rich text editor, but users can install several options, including TinyMCE and FCKedltor Yes Extensible JCE Is Joomla's most popular edtor extension With JCE, users can upload and manage files, resize and crop graphics, etcotera Yes Extensible Packaged with a basic rich text editor User can mstall popular extensions including TnyMCE and FCKedrtor
Content catalogue Any content Hem is a node Story (introductory articles with mam body text fields); Book (a collection of related pages geared toward coUaboratrve authonng); and Page (static content) Static content (Pages) and Articles (can include Introductory text and paginated divisions that provides an automatically generated table of contents) Pages and Posts (or articles). WP offers Excerpts and custom fields tor posts and pages Pages can also be nested In parent-child relations
Revision tracking Basic Extenstole No. Extensile, but limited Yes
LAYOUT AND DESIGN
Availability of ready-made and quality templates Compared to Joomla' and WordPress. few templates, in terms of both quality and quantity, are available Great numbers of free and paid, commercially viable templates are available. The best Joomla! templates are highly custom isa be and Inexpensive, but not free Large quantity of free and paid templates. Many of high quality, customisation, and standards compliance.
Assigning widgets/blocks/ modules to sites from the admin interlace Yes. but managing block assignments on large websites can become difficult Yes. but with somo imitations Modules don't appear on every page unless specified Modules can be assigned to aH pages and menu options Yes, lots of useful and appealing widgets are available But placemont and usabWy refies on theme/template structure Themes can be Vridgetised"
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION
RSS syndication Yes Extensible. RSS feeds can be generated for any index page (page. term, etcetera) Yes. Extensile Symftcation tor section and category index pages. Custom foeds are possible by using various extensions Yes Must be coded into template. Can be used tor post, comments and ping backs
Tagging No Extensible No. Extensible Yes Extensible
URLs with aliases, slugs, or user readable URLs Yes Advanced URL management that provides user preose control over the URL of each item (node) Yes. but In comparison to Drupal and WordPress. the results are not pretty, without the use of extensions. Yes WP URLs can be very user-friendly, but are generally limited to one type tor al posts
OTHER TRAITS
Permissions Community-based, granular level of permissions for prectse control over features tor user types Lacking. Extensions allow more ftaabrtlty, but add great complexity to the site Yes. But limited in comparison with Drupal
Scalability Based on existing code base, it is very scalable Quite scalable Limited scalaWtty. Not easy to add new section, elements, etcetera
Learning curve Easy. H you know how to code your way out Otherwise, steep Pretty easy, lots of useful and easy-to-leam features are available By tar. the easiest of the three

Updated information based on and adapted from "A Comparison of Capabilities and Features on Drupal. Joomla! And WordPress" (2008) by Dan Knauss on newlocalmedia.com

[Tanha Karim]

[STR@NG3R]

Great sharing

[Pr3c!ous Be@uty]

Fantastic sharing