Contribute Fridays: Web Platforms
Which web platform do you prefer to use and why? My choice is obviously…WordPress!
About the author
Amber Weinberg specializes in clean and semantic XHTML, CSS and WordPress development. She has over 10 years of coding experience and is pretty cool to work with. Amber is available for freelance work, so why not hire her for your next project?
I like CodeIgniter, which lends itself nicely to ExpressionEngine and MojoMotor
I’ve been digging WordPress for a while. I started http://www.mesmerlab.com as my own live test of the platform about 2 years ago. Since then, I’ve used it with most of my clients.
Recently, I’ve been looking into other packages to suit particular needs. For ecommerce, I’ve tried Magento, Shopify and Bigcommerce. They each have their own pros and cons, but I’d have to go with Bigcommerce as the winner. Having the ability to create a Facebook app with your products is pretty sweet.
On the PHP framework side, I’ve been investigating CodeIgniter, PyroCMS, and for the past month, MODx. Since I straddle the line between designer and developer, I’m gonna have to go with MODx on this one. The other two are definitely geared more towards developer minds.
Depends what your definition of a web platform
I’d have to go with jQuery, it just saves soo many headaches!
jQuery is a good one!
No matter how you define it, jQuery isn’t a platform…it’s simply a JavaScript library.
It’s definitely a very handy library though : )
It could be argued what is and isn’t a web platform ’till the cows come home
Is WordPress not just a library of functions to publish stuff on the web?
I was just arguing for the sake of argument. : ) I know it’s hard to define a word that encompasses so many different things.
That being said though, I wouldn’t say that WordPress is a library of functions. I would says it’s a web platform for publishing that utilizes a number of different libraries and functions. jQuery is just one of the libraries that is built into the default install for us developers to take advantage of. : )
I use WordPress mostly because it is a very popular CMS and a lot of clients are familiar with it so they ask for it. I’ve used Textpattern as well, which is very flexible. I’m also in the middle of learning Avactis at a client’s request, which is an eCommerce solution.
MODxCMS all the way. It’s fantastic.
I think it depends on the project. WordPress is great, and it’s becoming very flexible and trustable, but it might not be the right choice for every project.
If it’s going to be very big I’d definitely consider Drupal, although it has to be worth the effort because it’s much trickier than WP, and if the project is small, a brochure kind of website were the client wants to be able to update content once in a while, I’m sure Perch would be my choice, it’s so easy to use, that makes you wish every other CMS had it’s logic.
I use WordPress for blogs and for websites I use Joomla.
I find WordPress is alot better for blogs due to the excellent comment system thats built into it.
For websites I find Joomla the answer as it is very easy to build a custom design for it, and the admin section is fairly easy for clients to understand too.
It’s interesting many devs still don’t realize how awesome WP is for non-blog sites. I’ve used it on a lot of very large sites and it’s been faster to implement that any other platform.
For PHP custom systems ZendFramework, for a CMS WordPress all the way, unless you’re going to have a big journal logic with authors, editors, revisors etc. jQuery of course is essential.
I use Drupal. My target market is local small businesses, and Drupal provides a very reliable and scalable platform for them. I have not run into anything that can’t be done, yet. In fact, many things can be done with only two modules: CCK and Views.
Many businesses in my target market have big plans, but need to implement them incrementally due to budget constraints. For example, I am working for a tattoo shop right now that also does T-shirts that are for sale in their storefront. They don’t have the resources to properly manage e-commerce at this time, but would like to showcase their T-shirt designs on their website. When they are ready for e-commerce in the future, there is very little that has to be done to convert those image nodes into product nodes.
I concede that the admin side could use a little work. It took me a couple of weeks to realize that Core and most modules make logical sense. However, there are a few modules that stray from the intended design. And yes, logical sense doesn’t always make sense in the real world (well, unless you’re a Vulcan).
Hard to call WordPress a Web Platform but let’s not argue
To me it’s Joomla as it’s built in a powerful framework.
I have a big respect for Drupal as well.
For frameworks, Kohana (php) and Django (python) all the way.
WordPress is definitely a web platform, how is it not? This whole site is run from it.
Joomla is a big piece of crap. It’s impossible to do nearly anything in it in good time. I can do the most complicated web sites ever in WordPress that would take months to do in Joomla.
Yeah, I tottally agree Amber, Joomla sucks!!
I agree about Joomla.
However, I’ve watched tweets from WP devs about complicated projects, and it’s taken a lot of effort to not respond “shoulda done it in Drupal” on quite a few of them.
I don’t think the complicated sites would’ve been any less complicated in Drupal. Complicated is complicated.
“Complicated is complicated.”
But some tools are better suited for complicated situations.
“I can do the most complicated web sites ever in WordPress that would take months to do in Joomla.”
Haha yeah right. You clearly know a lot about Joomla
Sorry if that made you upset, but to me WordPress wasn’t even a CMS until 3.0
We all have our tastes! Which is fine
Um WordPress 3.0 did nothing to make it more or less of a CMS. Not sure where you’ve been getting your WP info. I’ve been using it as a CMS for well over a year now, and it’s interface and backend has been much more friendly for both devs and clients. Clients take one look at Joomla’s backend and then proceed to puke all of the computer. It’s completely un-user friendly.
Amber, this open source CMS discussion is unnecessary. The good thing is that we use Open Source in the first place.
Instead I’ll just give you a few links for your questioning about my opinion (it’s interesting reading anyway):
- “WP is starting to cross over into web content management system territory,” Bloem said
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/199170/wordpress_30_blogging_software_released.html
- “However, with the official release of version 3.0, set to drop this month, the platform will be much closer, if not well within the territory of a content management system (CMS).”
- http://mashable.com/2010/05/10/new-features-wordpress-3/
- “(…) Either way, for me, WP just doesn’t pass the WCMS sniff test.”
- http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/wordpress-30-on-the-horizon-whats-notable-007178.php
It is a necessary discussion. I don’t think you’ve tried to use it as a CMS, so I suggest your try before discounting it.
The thing that turned me off about Joomla was that you had to purchase the plugins. This was a few years ago so I’m not sure this still holds true.
Depends on the extension – there are tons of free one’s out there too. It’s also very easy to write your own extensions once you learn how it all works. I find it to be more powerful and flexible than WordPress, but I haven’t tried wordpress 3 out yet. We’ve been using Joomla for our website (major US university) for several years now – and while it has it’s limitations it will be really good once 1.6 is released – it addresses everything that it missing for me (nested categories, extensive ACL, module on all pages ‘except these’ option, etc…) except for versioning and multisites. I will admit that WordPress kicks joomla’s ass when it comes to multisites.
As of current, I have built a custom framework that has been working for me for the past 3 years
But other than that, I looooooove CodeIgniter and ExpressionEngine 
Otherwise, if it is quick solutions, I go for WordPress or Joomla (before the whole Joomla debate starts – how many sites have you *really* tried coding via Joomla? If it isn’t more than 5, then go be a troll somewhere else
)
I’m developing a small framework for simple and quick solutions, I expect it to grow and become a little monster.
And of course, no framework, platform, whatever you want to call it… discussion would be complete without praising the magic and wonders of jQuery. It’s the number one tool for coding JS.
I’ll be honest – I don’t use WordPress at all. I’m always building a custom platform, catered for a client’s needs.
But back to your question: jQuery and Tumblr. I haven’t spent too much time with the latter yet, but I can already say it’s really great. Small, fast, easy to use. And oh, coding themes is a real fun. WP’s syntax is such a mess.
Amen.
And Tumblr is amazing. Really like their simplicity.
Yup, that’s what I’m talking about.
And sure, you can’t use it in medium/bigger projects, but it’s great for the small ones.
Plus, it’s just perfect for your own stuff; like travel, photography or even every-day blog.
Totally agree with you Michal, we also don’t use WP at all (nor Drupal or Joomla) but build our own custom platforms (mostly PHP + MySQL) depending on the client’s needs.
I think this let us with much more freedom in customizing and creating new functions and keeps the whole site structure much more simple and clean.
WordPress and Drupal for regular sites and Magento for e-commerce. However the problem I have with most CMS platforms is that you cannot truly control every section of a website without having some knowledge of basic html. If you want to give your client fine grained control while taking into consideration that your client has no knowledge of html then you’re in for a treat.
As soon as your client starts using that built in wysiwyg editor, you know that site is going to be blown to bits…
WYSIWYG editors are why everyone thinks they can be a web editor… until you tell them that their code doesn’t comply with section 508 and they freak out and give up (we’re required to meet s-508 by law where I work – government site).
Some of them will skip the 508 stuff anyway. (I know from personal employment experience.)
This is why I like to create a separate role for content editors. Their input must pass through a filter. The HTML that is not allowed through the filter is stripped on display unless someone with access to the administrator role overrides it (it’s still stored in the database). Yes, the client does have access to the administrator role, but separating out admin duties from content duties does fix a lot of issues that come up out of curiosity.
Drupal. Been using it for three years now, and my one and only beef with it is in the aesthetics department. Making a Drupal site that looks really, really good is still kind of a pain. Otherwise, it’s the best CMS+framework on the planet, IMO.
I’ve read this looks-aesthethics complaint about Drupal a lot, and I must say that I don’t get it. If drupal is a CMS isn’t it supossed to be a modular system with some kind of separation layer between logic (DBaccess, storage) and view (Presentation, HTML, CSS, JS)? Something like MVC. I’ve never used Drupal, it’s just a doubt I have because people always complain about this. The way people talks about this issue makes it look as if Drupal has no abstraction layers at all.
PS: I guess I’ll have to start working on drupal to finally get it.
The aesthetics issue is that the default themes packaged with Drupal absolutely suck. But those defaults are meant to function perfectly, not look stunning.
It’s a standard practice to enable one of the defaults for the administrator role so that you’re guaranteed something will work if the theme developer screwed something up.
However, there are a variety of themes available that are tailored specifically for the administration side of Drupal.
I think the definition of platform is somewhat ambiguous here considering it can apply to so many different things. In terms of web platforms that I like and use…I think facebook and twitter could fit into the category of web platforms that I like and use. However it seems that most of the discussion here is about cms platforms. If you were to ask me what my favorite cms platform was a year and a half ago I would have definitely said Drupal but I think I’m going to have to go with WordPress. It’s definitely grown on me. And I agree with Antonio on the e-commerce. I’ve used most of the popular e-commerce solutions and I’ve found Magento to be the best.
I usually work with WordPress and Zend Framework.
Sometimes I throw in some JQuery too.
I have recently used WordPress instead of Joomla for 2 of my projects: my personal web log and a parenthood portal with advices on how to care for babies.
It is a good environment to work on. More pros and cons after more projects.
WordPress, definitely, and Joomla for e-commerce integration.