Displaying items by tag: Content Management Systems

Developing a new website triggers many questions for those seeking to develop a successful website. Perhaps the first and most important question is: which website software or platform should be used? This article compares the two leading content management systems: Wordpress and Joomla. While also offering criteria to adequately determine which web design software is right for you. 

Before proceeding into a side by side comparison, you must first understand all of your website's needs which may reveal which option best suits your needs.

Whether, you are a web design professional or a person with zero web development experience, or an experienced web developer, the information shared in this article and criteria to consider are pertinent to both perspectives.

Therefore, this article will explore the following criteria: 

A. Understanding all your options when selecting a web development platform for a web development project:

1.   Web builders provided by hosting companies

2.  Open Source Solutions (Wordpress and Joomla)

3.  Custom Developed Proprietary Software

B.  Criteria for basing your selection

1.  Function ability required by project objective

2.  Ease of use

3.  The future of your website and the website software you are leaning towards.

C. Comparing Wordpress versus Joomla

1.  Popularity

2.  Origins

3.  Core Features

This video tutorial demonstrates how to implement lightbox galleries within Joomla Articles, as well as with in the k2 Article component.  

As with any function ability, there are various 3rd party components that will provide any given function ability. 

This article documents the step-by-step process and provides links to the plugin and module utilized in this video tutorial. 

Continue reading to view all the steps required to achieve image gallerie lightbox gallery within your Joomla articles.

This article provides a brief video tutorial which demonstrates how to create and/or clone items using the Virtuemart eCommerce Solution in your Joomla Website. 

AdverGroup Web Design specializes in installing and configuring Virtuemart for clients seeking an out of the box Shopping Cart solution for eCommerce Websites. We often recommend the use of Virtuemart as it provides an easy-to-use eCommerce Solution for the Joomla CMS.

VirtueMart is an Open Source E-Commerce solution (a Component or Plug-in) for the Joomla! Content Management System. It can be run as a Shopping Cart, or in Catalog mode. In order to utilize Virtuemart you need to install Joomla! first (as the "Framework"), and then install & configure VirtueMart. This component provides a total shopping cart and invoicing eCommerce extension to the Joomla CMS.

Here at AdverGroup Web Design in Arlington Heights, IL we teach our clients how to be good content managers. So we have produced a series of basic training video demonstrating Joomla and many Joomla 3rd Party Components.

In this tutorial you will learn how to create and/or clone products using the Virtuemart eCommerce component for the Joomla Content Management System.

Welcome to the basic training video tutorial for Joomla 2.5

Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables users to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone.

Joomla is the most expandable and easy to use open source content management system available today! One of the most important facets of Search Engine Optimization is maintaining a fresh updated website. The easy-to-use content management tools provided by Joomla make this easy for any business owner/website owner that is not a professional web designer.Therefore, AdverGroup recommends Joomla as our number one choice in open source Content Management Systems.

Here at AdverGroup teach our clients how to be good content managers. So we have produced a series of basic training video demonstrating Joomla and many Joomla 3rd Party Components.

In this tutorial you will learn how to update your websites articles and menu items.

There are a variety of Joomla modules that can achieve a sliding or rotating image effect on your website. This module can be useful in displaying a number of photos or images along with text within your Joomla website. The S5 Image Fader is a great way to display banner ads and rotate through the images on your website with a nice fade effect plus many other options.

This article provides a tutorial on how to update the S5 Image Fader using the Joomla Content Management System. *The steps provided below are assuming that this module has been installed and has been created to exist in your module manager. 

As reported on the Joomla Website, Lenoardo Di Caprio uses Joomla on his new site LeonardoDiCaprio.com.

Leonardo Di Caprio is one of the most famous actors in the world. Leonardo has shown the ability to choose great roles, starring in movies from Inception and Gangs of New York to Titanic and Catch Me if You Can. It seems he can also choose great software. His new site LeonardoDiCaprio.com runs Joomla. This is a particularly interesting site in its design and its navigation.

Who else uses Joomla? Leo joins the ranks of numerous other big names that use Joomla. Other big names that use the Joomla platform include Major Television Networks, Retailers, Car Manufacturers and even Government Agencies. Names such as McDonalds, Jaguar,  Pizza Hut, MTV, Sony Pictures, Mexico City and even the United Kingdoms Ministry of Defense.

As many business owners have come to realize, having a quality web site for your business is no longer an option, it is a requirement. Where many business owners have gone wrong, is in thinking that just a having a simple info page satisfies the “web site requirement”. The key word is quality, not just in regards to design but in regards to SEO!

I will get straight to the bottom line in saying: Using a FREE WEB SITE BUILDER such as Wix, GoDaddy’s Website Builder, Jimdo and Zenfolio provide only one true benefit to businesses on a budget, it is FREE.   That single benefit of providing a “free website builder” is actually costing you more in lost revenues due to its weakness in Search Engine Optimization. Additionally, sites like Wix and Zenfolio cost much more on annual term to host. So your FREE WEB BUILDER is not exactly free. Compare Wix hosting with website at over $200 annually, to GoDaddy which will cost roughly $80 per year using Joomla or Wordpress.

This article includes a brief video tutorial that demonstrates the function ability provided by the K2 blog component for Joomla.

Blogging is an important factor in regards to Search Engine Optimization.  As Google and other search engines seek content rich websites that are frequantly updated and visited by unique visitors. Therefore, utilizing ablog on your website is important.

When it comes to blogging on your Joomla website, AdverGroup Web Design in Chicago recomends using the K2 Blog Component developed by JoomlaWorks. Using K2, you can transform your Joomla! website to a news/magazine site with author blogs, product catalogs, work portfolio, knowledge base, download/document manager, directory listing, event listing & more, all this bundled under one package!

Continue reading to view the video tutorial:

This video tutorial demonstrates how to create a PDF that can turn pages. In order to achieve this function we have employed the use a component that was developed by http://www.joomplace.com. The Flash Magazine Deluxe Joomla Component provides an attractive page peeling effect for PDF viewing.

This Joomla! Flash Magazine component helps you to set off your online flash book, magazine or sales catalogue with special flipping pages effect. Users can manually list online magazine pages with the mouse cursor and navigate the content using user-friendly controls. There is a possibility to flip the book's pages in automated mode too.

Continue reading to view the video tutorial:

With the advent of Web Content Management Systems, began an era where a regular person could easily update, edit, publish and modify a web sites content using a web based control panel. This means a person without web design training or expensive software programs could update their website as easy as posting status, text and images on social networking sites such as FaceBook or LinkedIN. A much added bonus is that, those who have developed their sites in a CMS no longer suffer from paying expensive hourly maintenance fees as they manage to keep their site up to date.

Features and function abilities of the various Content Management Systems differ from system to system; many simpler systems showcase only a handful of features, while others are much more complex and powerful. The industry offers “Open Source” (Free & Community Driven) and “Proprietary” (PAID and Custom Developed) systems. Both Open Source and Proprietary Options offer pros and cons. Whereas Open Source options, such as Wordpress and Joomla have proven to be a more cost effective solution for many small business owners. While Proprietary Systems are custom developed resources that are built to achieve special function ability, security features and compatibility to offline systems. However in current times, it is a safe assumption that Proprietary software's role as the primary innovator in the global market is most certainly over. As I often say myself, “Why try to rebuild the wheel, this has been done before”. Being that Open Source solutions are community drivin, the envelope is constantly being pushed!