[Asterisk-Users] Open Source Content Management System - Joomla

[Paul]

Kanuri, Seshu (Company IT) wrote:

>There was some discussion in the past about which one is the best
>Content Management System that can be used in conjunction with Asterisk.
>Mambo was supposed to be the best out there under GPL. The guys who
>developed Mambo have a new product now - Joomla. I am using this and it
>appears to be better than Mambo in many respects. Read the gist about
>Joomla below.
>
>-------------
>If you've read anything at all about Content Management Systems (CMS),
>you'll probably know at least three things: CMS are the most exciting
>way to do business, CMS can be really, I mean really, complicated and
>lastly Portals are absolutely, outrageously, often unaffordably
>expensive. 
>
>Joomla! is set to change all that ... Joomla! is different from the
>normal models for portal software. For a start, it's not complicated.
>Joomla! has been developed for the masses. It's licensed under the
>GNU/GPL license, easy to install and administer and reliable. Joomla!
>doesn't even require the user or administrator of the system to know
>HTML to operate it once it's up and running.
>
>http://www.joomla.org/
>
>  
>
I spent a few days installing and test-driving several CMS and mambo won 
out. I was looking for one that would work well at least as a temporary 
solution for new small biz websites. So far the only upgrade has been 
the installation of an alternative WYSIWYG editor which I found via the 
mamboforge site. I downloaded lots of templates before I found one I 
liked. One must-have feature for me is a simple "contact us" page. mambo 
has that out of the box. I also like the pdf, print and email buttons 
being there. I found it easy enough to login as admin and quickly 
disable things not needed by the typical starter SOHO website. I 
definitely will be trying joomla soon.

Note that my evaluations were oriented towards a specific audience. Some 
of the other CMS packages probably are better for blogging, wikis, 
forums and so on. I just wanted to select a good CMS that will work on 
low cost self-service hosting. It worked on the $3.95/month starter 
account and works fine on everything I use above that including in-house 
servers.

Final note is that none of these packages and none of the commercial 
website builder tools I have tried look like they are noob-friendly 
enough. many of them will need an affordable startup support option or 
they will get too frustrated.