The Best CMS: Joomla 1.6 vs Drupal 7.0

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Just a few days after the launch of the long-awaited Drupal 7.0 version, arch-rival Joomla launched its latest 1.6 release…

It’s interesting to note that, apart from some significant interface improvements, 1.6’s two main additions are specifically designed to meet Drupal head-on.

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Drupal 7.0 goes live

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

In case you missed the announcement, the latest 7.0 release of Drupal has finally come out of beta.

Of the big three open-source content management systems (along with WordPress and Joomla), Drupal is generally recognised to be the most powerful and, as it’s been a full three years since the launch of 6.0, expectations are naturally high.

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Building a business website: why you should (mostly) avoid the DIY option

Monday, October 25th, 2010

Creating a business website requires specialist design skills and technical knowledge: neither of which are necessarily in the toolkit of the average business owner. And yet having a professional website is increasingly a matter of necessity rather than choice. Stir in a measure of financial restraint and the traditional choice of hiring a web design firm for a four-figure fee is simply not a viable option.

So what are we left with? PC Pro reader Grahame Berney got in touch regarding this very dilemma. As a designer himself, Grahame is constantly being asked by small businesses how they can have a professional web presence without breaking the bank. (more…)

WordPress.com: from dream to nightmare

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

I’m regularly asked about the best way to go about building a modern website and recently I’ve been recommending those looking for the simplest/cheapest route to check out WordPress by signing up to WordPress.com. WordPress.com has been running the latest 3.0 release (see my WordPress 3.0 review) for some time now complete with new default theme and custom menu handling, which makes it far better suited to creating traditional page-based websites as well as post-based blogs.

The beauty of WordPress.com is that it makes exploring what WordPress has to offer so painless. Essentially all you need is an email address and, within a couple of minutes, you can be creating your first posts and pages, changing your theme, monitoring your stats and so on. If you like what you see, you can either stick with WordPress.com’s default free hosting package, upgrade to get your own domain name ($15 a year), redirect an existing domain ($10 a year) or, most powerfully, switch to an independent WordPress host where you’ll be able to extend the framework’s capabilities via third-party plug-ins.

Generally the response has been amazingly enthusiastic – “the difference is night and day” – especially from those owners of existing sites who had previously been paying a fortune to traditional web designers whenever they’d needed to update existing pages.

Recently, however, for one correspondent the dream descended into a nightmare…

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Dreamweaver CS5: back from the dead?

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

A year or so ago I created a mini-storm of controversy with my “I’m sorry but Dreamweaver is dying” blog in which I suggested that Dreamweaver’s dominance is fading and that web designers starting out today would do better getting to grips with a content management systems (CMS).

The post obviously hit home, as I realised when the Adobe evangelist demonstrating Dreamweaver CS5 at the press launch began his talk by referring to it and, when he discovered that I was in the audience, suggested that I might want to “eat crow”.

Well I’m delighted to say that he was right… largely.

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What’s happened to Adobe CS5 Web Standard?

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

After digesting the various standalone CS5 reviews, most designers will tend to stick to one of the themed CS5 editions that reflect today’s cross-application workflows and offer considerably better value. However traditional web designers are in for a shock as Adobe has ditched the most popular entry-level suite, Web Standard.

Adobe is playing down the significance of its decision and seems to be hoping that no-one will notice and will simply upgrade to CS5 Web Premium. However it’s not just a fundamental repositioning, it’s the end of an era: effectively it’s the end of the veteran Macromedia Studio combination – Dreamweaver / Fireworks / Flash (and to a lesser extent Contribute) – which has played such a crucial role in building the web as we know it today.

So what is Adobe up to? Is it right? And what should end users do?

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Mollom: What’s in a Name?

Friday, October 16th, 2009

Regular readers will know that I am a major fan of Belgian developer Dries Buytaert,  the man behind Drupal. Drupal is the most powerful open source content management system and IMHO deserves to replace Dreamweaver as the web designer’s tool of choice. In fact, as far I am concerned, the major factor holding it back from world domination, apart from its precipitous learning curve, is its name. Let’s face it “Drupal” (pronounced “droople”) sounds old, ugly, gloomy and deflating. It’s almost perversely uninspiring. “Dreamweaver” it ain’t.

Now I’ve come across a brand name that’s possibly even worse… (more…)

CMS and CSS: Problem Solved

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

A while back I wrote about my belief that the future for web authoring lies beyond static web pages with Web 2.0 and with the big three content management systems (CMS): Joomla, Wordpress and Drupal. I also wrote that one of the major stumbling blocks to this happening was the appalling state of CMS-based design.

I’m glad to say that I think I’ve come across a near-perfect solution…

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The Fantastico route to Web 2.0

Friday, April 10th, 2009

Recently I upset a lot of web designers by saying that Dreamweaver is reaching the end of its dominance and that the future for website production (complete with essential web 2.0 functionality such as in-built commenting, RSS feeds and end user content contribution) belongs to the big three content management systems (cms): WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. 

Admittedly I’m biased on this, but I couldn’t help feeling that the responses were divided into two camps: those who had actually tried both approaches who largely agreed and those who hadn’t, who didn’t and who felt threatened by the suggestion and who wanted to close down the debate. 

Between these two extremes I hope that there were plenty of more open-minded designers who were intrigued and ideally excited about the possibilities. After all, the cms approach doesn’t just offer more power, each of the cms solutions is open source and so free. That should mean that there’s nothing to stop you exploring both approaches and then making your mind up…

Unfortunately it’s not quite as simple as this. However, with a little help, it can be…

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A nice chat with Adobe about Dreamweaver

Monday, March 16th, 2009

Following my recent post, I’m Sorry but Dreamweaver is Dying and the ensuing online discussions/abuse, I was summoned for a chat with the headmaster – Devin Fernandez, senior product manager for the web products at Adobe.

Based on my core argument – that the future of web design lies with content management systems (cms) rather than Dreamweaver – I was expecting an uncomfortable time. Thankfully Devin is far too nice for that. More than that he seemed genuinely pleased to have had a debate opened up and a chance to hear what the community is thinking about Dreamweaver and the future of web design…

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