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Out of the box CMS' - A Many and Varied World

By Richard Aspden

Added Wednesday 15/10/2008

It seems that every time I get to grips with a new content management system someone always comes along and says 'yeah but have you tried....'. They seem to be sprouting up everywhere, each offering new must-have features and simpler levels of use. It probably says everything about the web that no-one can really agree exactly the best way to build a CMS. Each one works a different way and despite all the claims of how easy they are to setup and use, I find it always takes at least a day of playing about with it before the site shows the first signs of any structure. Then there is always the momentary wondering of whether I could have spent the day building my own cruder user backend.

Out of the box CMS systems have become very popular with developers seeking a swift solution to handing over control of website content to their client. Yet despite reading up on the features and capabilities of many I had only really become used to Joomla. That is until recently when here at Totally we were asked to build a site in ModX. So therefore I thought I'd offer up my thoughts on the two systems which illustrate very well the many different approaches that developers take when building a CMS.

First off for those who like to get to grips with coding Joomla is not really built for you in mind, unless you want to build dedicated add-ons which can then be shared with the rest of the ever expanding Joomla community. The principle is simple with Joomla. The emphasis is on ease of use. Just plug things in, set a few parameters and it's good to go. This makes adding forums, directories, online shops, newsletters... in fact just about any web application you want, an absolute breeze. There is even a dedicated installer in the backend which installs the extension from the downloaded zip file. There are three types of these extensions: Component s -- which are the main web apps. Modules -- which often fit alongside components, and are placed in and around the site. And Plugins (Mambots in Joomla 1.0) which allow extra features to be added to content in order to include non-static content on certain pages.

ModX is not as fully-featured as Joomla but it's simplicity is to its advantage allowing developers the freedom to incorporate their own application code. It's simple to navigate via the backend as well and includes features such as SEO friendly urls built in, whereas with Joomla you have to install an external module. The use of CSS in menus is also more intuitive with ModX. Again a separate module is required in order to get DHTML operating effectively within Joomla. ModX uses different templates for each page while Joomla has one site template making sites with many different page layouts tricky to create. Heavy use of tables and lack of control over class and id names means Joomla isn't the most CSS friendly system either.

Further to this, AJAX integration with ModX is pretty painless, while in Joomla some users have reported it to have crashed their website. The fact that, through the use of scripts, snippets and chunks, ModX allows a developer to actually include their own PHP code might have something to do with this. In Joomla PHP code can be added (you guessed it) by installing a module. I have yet to try this but it's hard to imagine it being as pleasant an experience as it is with ModX.

Going into more detail ModX offers unlimited user types, Joomla is restricted to four. ModX allows searching of the whole website, Joomla requires a great degree of fiddling to acheive this and in order to search content from a component, use of an extra plugin is almost always required. The rigid site framework in Joomla does it no favours with just three levels -- Sections, Categories and Articles. In ModX you can easily define the site structure using the tree layout on the left-hand side. It also has its faults but still offers far greater flexibility than Joomla can.

There are similarities though. Both systems use TinyMCE as the default HTML editor. But yet again ModX adds greater functionality by allowing links to specific pages via a dropdown menu. In Joomla you have to copy and paste the links in which, when they are query strings by default, can be a frustrating experience.

Of course there is plenty to Joomla, and that's its main advantage. If you need a website to do something it's likely you can find what you looking for on the Joomla website. The shear wealth of resources available are something to behold. Don't like the photogallery you installed? No problem try another -- maybe one with Flash? ModX simply cannot compete. You'll probably have to start from scratch to achieve what you want.

So in conclusion it's not for the likes of me to laud one over the other. They are two very different beasts. The one conclusion I have come to having used both is that they will appear to different types of web builders. As with those who prefer design mode in Dreamweaver and those who prefer the code mode. Or perhaps more accurately for those who use still use Dreamweaver against those who junked it for Eclipse long ago. The web is a many and varied place and so it's perhaps right that there are CMS systems to cater for everyone.

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