It’s time to update my interactions with some of the software that I may have mentioned here. Most of it I was evaluating or testing for others who had indicated a desire to do some particular something on the Internet and were in need of an application that would make this possible. Some of the software I have looked at just out of curiosity, and some of it has been for my own use. Now seems like a good time to update everyone on what I’ve finished looking at, what I am still desirous to look at and what I intend to continue to use, research, play with or whatever you may call it.
To start with, I have removed the following applications
: Moodle, Gallery, and Zen Cart. None of these have I removed due to a problem with the software, rather a lack of need.
Moodle: I was evaluating for another person who indicated they wanted to be able to hold classes online. They have changed their focus and are no longer interested in this idea. I am not inclined to host online classes and thus have no need of the application.
Gallery: quite frankly, I don’t entirely remember why I installed this. I think it had to do with a group whose site I was supporting and they had expressed a desire to be able to share photos and such. Beyond installing the software and looking at it, I never did anything with it. I’m not inclined to share a lot of pics with people. I don’t even have a personal picture up on the social networking site I frequent. So there is little use for this particular application for me.
Zen Cart: Again, I was evaluating this software for someone else, who was expecting to need a way to sell products online. They have chosen to do something else so they no longer have a need for this software. I do not currently sell any products. I host advertisements for others and beg for donations, however, I don’t currently have anything to sell. So I have no real use for this application. Additionally, not in favor of this application, one of the other applications that I do continue to use has the capability of adding a module to handle sales, including download sales and so this becomes somewhat redundant for my purposes.
I have one application installed that is sort of in limbo and that is, Simple Machines Forum. The site that I initially needed it for has not been active for sometime and will soon be disbanding. I will not need to continue to do anything for it on that site. I have it installed on my site however, I do not currently have a use for it. I am ambivalent about removing it as it is still possible that I will have a use for it. I have discovered that there had been an issue with one of the upgrades that I have not looked into. I just had to recover the application this weekend and have not looked into what the problem was, or even the state of the environment. I suppose I should add that to my “To Do List”. So, alas, Simple Machines Forum remains in limbo for me.
There are a few applications that I continue to use, work with, evaluate, tweak or whatever. I am either actively using them myself at the moment or someone I help is actively using them and so I have it installed for reference. Those happy, active applications would be: Joomla!, Drupal, and WordPress. Yes, all of those.
Joomla!: I actively use this application. It is currently the primary application I use for my site and the one I have used longest. I’ve recently come across a need to make some serious adjustments and need to either learn to tweak a template or two or to write my own. As a result I’m spending a lot of time with this one. I am still trying to figure out how to embed a flash animation in the header. To be fair, I haven’t spent any real time scouring the Joomla! forums so the answer is probably there and I’m trying to reinvent the wheel. So this remains at the fore of things that I am working with and working on. It will continue to be a potential topic for discussion.
Drupal: Ok, initially I did not like this software. I thought it was too difficult to get started with. With more experience with a CMS program in general, I find this less of a challenge. It still takes some work to get my head around the difference in concepts, however, I am making progress with it. Part of what has caused me to revisit the software has been it’s publicity lately with regards to some of the sites that are using it. So I am learning how to setup a Drupal site. What I have decided to do for this is to essentially duplicate everything or at least all the articles and features that I have at the Joomla! version of my site within Drupal. I think this is the best way to get a reasonable comparison of the look and feel of the differences and similarities of the applications. It also gives me content to work with and not requiring me to come up with lots of new content. I can post the same articles on each site and then determine how easy it is to do and such and report back on that.
WordPress: I am not yet actively using this. I have someone who is and I assist them with their site and changes they want and the like. Because of this, I have WordPress installed. I don’t have anything in it at the moment though I do have a theme other than the default installed on the site. In addition to helping this other person with the application, it is my intention to actually use this myself. I have an idea that I think the WordPress software might be ideally suited for, as a start. And I eventually intend to do with it what I am doing with Drupal. The key here on this is the eventually part. I do not anticipate getting that deeply involved with it for a while. Of course if the other idea takes off all that could change. However, sooner or later I’ll have a report on this one as well.
There is still at least one application that I would like to “play” with. I changed one of my hosting accounts over to Windows from Linux so I could install and look at DotNetNuke. The only problem I have run into so far is that the version of Asp.Net on that new server is not compatible with DotNetNuke. I haven’t really decided what to do about this yet. I’m not going to switch the hosting back yet though because I may still play with Silverlight from Microsoft as an alternative to Flash and I have a feeling I may want that on a Windows site. Not sure yet. Then again, I may have to find a way to get convert my Flash animation into HTML 5. So many things to think about.
A final note: The application X7 Chat is falling by the wayside as well. I do not expect to be continuing with this program since it was researched and implemented strictly as a tool for the site that is expected to disband soon. They never made any use of the application anyway so I have not kept up with it.
That about covers things as they stand for the moment. As you can see I have quite a bit of work that I still need/want to do and there is still a learning curve to address with different aspects of each bit of software I am using. My goal is to find the one that is easiest to learn and get up and running and to keep up to date.
Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.
