Drupal / Joomla / WordPress / etc - need to install on local PC?

[WhitePhantom]

Hi,

I want to learn an easy to use CMS - looking at Drupal at the moment - and going to design a test site to figure out how to use it.

I have a hosting account on Blacknight, and have set up my website and installed Drupal on it. I'm reading through the Drupal 'Cookbook', and it seems that I also have to download and install Drupal on my local machine - is that the case or am I picking it up wrong?

And if it is the case, does that also apply to Joomla and WordPress?

Many thanks,
WP.

 

[Kieran]

No the Drupal cookbook only recommends that you install Drupal locally to test out Drupal. Something that other CMS don't push but which you can also do. It's a nice to have/do

You can work away with it and modify as you need on your hosting system once you don't have live users on it. So don't worry about a local install if that is putting you off.

I wouldn't describe Drupal as an easy to use CMS. It is a powerful CMS but the learning curve is quite steep. There are easier one out there (Wordpress, Moveable Type) for instance.

However for a fully loaded CMS Drupal can deliver. Stick with it and it can be rewarding. Shout when you have questions (which you will - I know I did!)

All the best

 

[WhitePhantom]

Many thanks for your reply Kieran. I was starting to move away from Drupal thinking that I had to install it locally as well as remotely on my website. I'll keep at it and see how I get on. And I'll be back with loads of questions!

You mentioned Wordpress - I understood that was really only for blogging... am I wrong there? Can I create a full website using Wordpress?? And if so, what are the advantages of one over the other?

The questions have started!!

WP.

 

[Kieran]

The short and sweet answer is that Wordpress is a blogging platform but can still be used to create/present a quite workable web site. I have been using WP a lot lately but am working on some Drupal projects in the background as Drupal is more a pure CMS and I see it as what I develop more sites on in the future.

It is however outside the bounds of this post to do a comparison between them all. They all have some great advantages / great disadvantages over the other and to be honest I am only familiar with 6-7 and proficient in 2-3. You also have to think of free/open source versus paid.

The best method is to write down what you or the customer wants and then start reading the background to each and see if a CMS meets it.

To improve your knowledge I would suggest pick 3-4 and install them on a few sub domains. At any one time I have 2-3 sub domains on the go testing and playing with their features to learn something new. This is probably the best way to learn. It’s slow but builds knowledge as you screw things up redo tasks.

If you want to read some more on the topic have a look at the white paper located here

Idealware: Comparing WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Plone


Hope this helps...

 

[php.allstar]

Hi,

I'd suggest you go with Wordpress.

I was never into it when version one came out, didn't like the look or feel of it so stayed away from it.

Then I noticed more and more sites were starting to use it. I done a bit of digging around and found out why... version 2.7.1 - I was blown away!

The latest version (2.7.1) has so many toys built in, you'll just not want to stop using it.

Although it is predominantly a blogging system, with a few plugins thrown in here and there, you can build a really effective CMS from it.

The following article explains how you would use Wordpress as a CMS

 

[fantastvik]

Hi,

I want to learn an easy to use CMS - looking at Drupal at the moment - and going to design a test site to figure out how to use it.

I have a hosting account on Blacknight, and have set up my website and installed Drupal on it. I'm reading through the Drupal 'Cookbook', and it seems that I also have to download and install Drupal on my local machine - is that the case or am I picking it up wrong?

And if it is the case, does that also apply to Joomla and WordPress?

Many thanks,
WP.

Drupal and joomla indeed take the cake as far as CMSs are concerned but both of them are database driven and require lots of programming code to be written to integrate a website into the CMS.
These two are ideal for big web portals,but for smaller and private websites i could suggest a easiest to use CMS.It is called zimplit.
It does not require a database and you need write a single line of code for any thing.

 

[WhitePhantom]

Many thanks for the replies.

I read the comparisons / articles you suggested, and I'm going to try and get to grips with Word Press.

I'm after installing WordPress on one of my domains - version 2.7.1. (I haven't installed it on my own machine - do I need to?) When I logged in to the Admin page, there's a message at the top of the screen saying that version 2.8 is available and that I should upgrade - but how can I upgrade the version that has been installed on my site by my hosting company?

I've created a post and a page, just to get a feel for things. On the Dashboard Page, when I click on Appearance, there's a message at the bottom saying:

"You can find additional themes for your site in the WordPress theme directory. To install a theme you generally just need to upload the theme folder into your wp-content/themes directory. Once a theme is uploaded, you should see it on this page."

When I look at where WP is installed on my domain, there is no wp-content/themes directory - why is that?

I followed the link to the WordPress Theme Directory and downloaded a theme to have a look at what was involved. Then I noticed a "wordpress/wp-admin/theme-uploader.php" link in my domain where WP was installed, so I decided to click that to see could I upload this new theme, but that only gives an option to upload a single file at a time - and in the theme zip file I downloaded there are 137 files, so I'm obviously going astray somewhere.

Feeling really thick here.

Please help!

 

[Kieran]

Try and create a themes directory - the install may have been a very basic one. What theme are you currently using.

Dont worry about the upgrade for the moment.

 

[WhitePhantom]

Thanks, Kieran.

Turns out the upgrade was the easy part - there was an Upgrade link on the cp page!

I don't have access to create directories - I installed WP on my Blacknight Windows hosting package, and it just displays links to various Entry Points as follows:

Usage: http://myDomain.com/wordpress/
Blog: http://myDomain.com/wordpress/
Administrative interface: http://myDomain.com/wordpress/wp-admin/
Upload theme: http://myDomain.com/wordpress/wp-admin/theme-uploader.php
Upload plugin: http://myDomain.com/wordpress/wp-admin/plugin-uploader.php

Any idea where I go from here?

Many thanks,
J.

 

[mhortaliza@gmail.com]

I agree to Kieron, the best thing to do is, to decide which is the best CMS platform to use is trying it yourself by installing and tweeking and creating few test page to your existing hosting site.

It's also depend on user/ clients requirements, if it's suistainable or super dynamic site.

Ann

*****************************************
.....Knowledge is the new money

 

[neweb]

If you want to run a copy of any of the packages listed above on your local machine then get yourself a copy of WebServ.

Well worth installing.

 

[websitedesign]

Easiest CMS for beginners is Wordpress and it comes with many free themes...
Joomla for community driven sites
Magento for Ecommerce

if you plan on expanding in the future with new features then I would go with ModxCMS. I've tried them all and Modx is a fantastic CMS... just released version 1.0 and it's going to be taking off ... Ajax features, full control over page designs (no template restrictions), internal SEO built in....

To set up a local server on your computer for testing have a look at xampp

 

[Chris Clavel]

New SEO CMS out there - SEOTOASTER

There is a new advanced SEO CMS in town !
SEOTOASTER has just been launched a fortnight ago at PubCon Las Vegas.
Best of all, it's FREE ! Open-source and ready to download at seotoaster.com
Looks cool and enables to SEO your content and site from the get go.
No plug ins required, seem a great alternative to Wordpress and Yahoo! Store for SMBs.