Using a content management system is the modern way to create a website.
A content management system, or CMS, separates the content of a website from its presentation by using a collection of scripts.
The content is actually held in a database and used to populate the page when it is called by a browser.
Therefore there are two integrated parts to a CMS; the database itself and a system of extracting the information from it.
Several server technologies are capable of doing this, but Joomla, like many of the other open source CMS uses MySQL as its database and PHP to populate the pages and make the site visible.
Flexibility There are many reasons that CMS are popular, one of the most convincing being that anyone, even without any experience or specialist knowledge can create and edit a website by using one.
Different levels of permission can be granted by the administrator, giving some people access to add pages and others only access to edit them.
In addition, levels of access can be granted so that the editors only have access to certain parts of the site.
The other big advantage, of course, is cost -- or rather, the lack of it.
The drawback The one big drawback with content management systems is that they can be extremely complex, containing thousands of files working together with the database.
This usually means that a CMS has to be developed by technical people with specialised knowledge, but in the case of Joomla the setup is straightforward and the interface is simple enough for even non-technical people to use.
History Back in 1998, Netscape made its browser free for everyone to use, thereby going against the accepted business model and starting a trend.
As the web expanded other software was added to the public domain which came to be called "open source" -- this included LINUX, Apache, MySQL and PHP, collectively known as "LAMP".
In 2000 an Australian company called Miro developed a piece of software called Mambo, an open source CMS, and released it in 2001 under the GNU licence.
It was well received and hugely successful; by 2005, Mambo had won several awards such as "Best free software project" and "Best LINUX or open source software", but unfortunately a dispute between the members of the steering committee resulted in the core developers leaving the project and forming Open Source Matters.
Open Source Matters Later in 2005 the development team at Open Source Matters released a revised version of the original Mambo software and named it Joomla! Both Mambo and Joomla continued to win awards, and a large and active community began to build up around Joomla which now has possibly the largest forum on the Web.
Extensions As open source CMS continued to develop, external agencies and third-party developers began to write code that would extend the original functionality of the software.
Joomla's community, given its size and level of technical expertise has one of the largest collections of components and plug-ins available for any open source CMS.
Some of these are offered on a commercial basis, but many are provided free of charge and greatly contribute to the large scale adoption of Joomla.
Appearance One of Joomla's strengths is the range of templates available that can easily change the appearance of any website built with it.
Many of these are available for free, whilst others are commercial; however even these are usually offered at exceptionally reasonable prices compared to many commercial CMS.
Downloading and installing a template for Joomla is straightforward, and the downloaded zip file can be uploaded directly to an Apache web server; the Joomla software will then extract it so that it can be applied to either the whole site, or specific pages selected by the user.
Conclusion The open source movement has grown in stature in the last 10 years, and now offers a genuine alternative in many areas of technology.
Joomla is one of the finest examples of how making software publicly accessible can engage both developers and ordinary people, allowing it to develop into a product worthy of its reputation
A content management system, or CMS, separates the content of a website from its presentation by using a collection of scripts.
The content is actually held in a database and used to populate the page when it is called by a browser.
Therefore there are two integrated parts to a CMS; the database itself and a system of extracting the information from it.
Several server technologies are capable of doing this, but Joomla, like many of the other open source CMS uses MySQL as its database and PHP to populate the pages and make the site visible.
Flexibility There are many reasons that CMS are popular, one of the most convincing being that anyone, even without any experience or specialist knowledge can create and edit a website by using one.
Different levels of permission can be granted by the administrator, giving some people access to add pages and others only access to edit them.
In addition, levels of access can be granted so that the editors only have access to certain parts of the site.
The other big advantage, of course, is cost -- or rather, the lack of it.
The drawback The one big drawback with content management systems is that they can be extremely complex, containing thousands of files working together with the database.
This usually means that a CMS has to be developed by technical people with specialised knowledge, but in the case of Joomla the setup is straightforward and the interface is simple enough for even non-technical people to use.
History Back in 1998, Netscape made its browser free for everyone to use, thereby going against the accepted business model and starting a trend.
As the web expanded other software was added to the public domain which came to be called "open source" -- this included LINUX, Apache, MySQL and PHP, collectively known as "LAMP".
In 2000 an Australian company called Miro developed a piece of software called Mambo, an open source CMS, and released it in 2001 under the GNU licence.
It was well received and hugely successful; by 2005, Mambo had won several awards such as "Best free software project" and "Best LINUX or open source software", but unfortunately a dispute between the members of the steering committee resulted in the core developers leaving the project and forming Open Source Matters.
Open Source Matters Later in 2005 the development team at Open Source Matters released a revised version of the original Mambo software and named it Joomla! Both Mambo and Joomla continued to win awards, and a large and active community began to build up around Joomla which now has possibly the largest forum on the Web.
Extensions As open source CMS continued to develop, external agencies and third-party developers began to write code that would extend the original functionality of the software.
Joomla's community, given its size and level of technical expertise has one of the largest collections of components and plug-ins available for any open source CMS.
Some of these are offered on a commercial basis, but many are provided free of charge and greatly contribute to the large scale adoption of Joomla.
Appearance One of Joomla's strengths is the range of templates available that can easily change the appearance of any website built with it.
Many of these are available for free, whilst others are commercial; however even these are usually offered at exceptionally reasonable prices compared to many commercial CMS.
Downloading and installing a template for Joomla is straightforward, and the downloaded zip file can be uploaded directly to an Apache web server; the Joomla software will then extract it so that it can be applied to either the whole site, or specific pages selected by the user.
Conclusion The open source movement has grown in stature in the last 10 years, and now offers a genuine alternative in many areas of technology.
Joomla is one of the finest examples of how making software publicly accessible can engage both developers and ordinary people, allowing it to develop into a product worthy of its reputation
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