Our company is aiming to build an eLearning Website, we are a team of developers and our boss is suggesting using WordPress for it. We are experienced in building web apps using Codeigniter and Laravel.
I already know that we can build any type of web app using WordPress, but my questions is that is it appropriate using WordPress for building it, in terms of ease in teamwork, time, customization, easiness or anything else which you may suggest compared to usign Codeigniter or Laravel?
Yes definitely Wordpress would be a great platform to work in. Since it has extended its wings from a normal CMS to ecommerce, social networking and much more to come.
And about developing the eLearning site yes it would be definitely magnificent to develop it in wordpress as there could be some plugins for it or else you can develop one with ease.
Benefits of Working in Wordpress:
Large number of community members around to help you.
Your website will be most search engine friendly with it.
Really takes less time to develop any application because most of things are in built and you can also modify them to match your requirements.
Installation and migration is effortless.
It absolutely is suitable. There's several advantages:
Prototype can be developed in a number of days
Great for SEO since it's also a blogging platform. You won't have to code SEO friendly CMS by hand.
Possible to have a website front end that can compliment the webapp front end
JSON API is already done for you.
Lots of people are proficient with wordpress so it's not difficult to find staff further down the track
It can use a responsive design straight out the box
The JSON API can work with HTML5 mobile app API's like cordova and jquerymobile and onsen.
Related
I’m looking for some advice when it comes to custom CMS development.
Wordpress has been perfect for me before a became a developer. I used to use page builders like Elementor & WPBakery.
When developing within WP, would I need to develop a page-builder for people (without coding knowledge) to edit their pages? I’m aware of Gutenberg, is that able to edit coded pages or would it not be able to read anything as it wasn’t built using Gutenberg?
If so, would it not be better to develop a Custom CMS similar to Wordpress? That way you are able to offer a blank canvas CMS that you can brand as your own?
Thanks in advance.
Interesting question! It will require some prior research on your part, as there is no obvious answer. Below are my thoughts on the matter, but it the decision is yours to make, as the project requirements are unique and also the time you can invest in it.
When developing within WP, would I need to develop a page-builder for people (without coding knowledge) to edit their pages?
A: No. Gutenberg is perfect for this.
I’m aware of Gutenberg, is that able to edit coded pages or would it not be able to read anything as it wasn’t built using Gutenberg?
A: It won't read anything that wasn't made with it, but you can try recreating those pages with it. Depends on the design, but it shouldn't be hard. If it is a site for a client, you can ask them to recreate one or two pages and see how they feel. They will answer this question for you :)
That way you are able to offer a blank canvas CMS that you can brand as your own?
A: You can "rebrand" the WordPress admin with such a plugin
If so, would it not be better to develop a Custom CMS similar to Wordpress?
A: It all depends on how comfortable you feel with WordPress and Gutenberg, code-wise. You can do pretty much anything, if you understand the PHP, React (Gutenberg is written in React) and logic behind WP, so you won't need a custom CMS. Again, it all depends on your skills with the technologies. If you rate yourself a 10/10, no need to think about it, but I guess you wouldn't be asking this question, if you were.
Pros of going with WordPress and Gutenberg:
You already have all the necessary tools.
A ton of supporting plugins, already developed by other people.
WordPress has one of the most well-maintained codebases out there, so you will have a great start, compared to building a CMS on your own. Even if you decide to create your own plugin, you have a set of rules and practices that you need to adhere to, which is great for starters. You also have all the necessary components - DB, back-end and front-end ready.
Gutenberg is pretty stable right now and you can install the plugin, because the code that is implemented in WP core is not the latest. It is great for building pages, when you don't know code. Look into all the different blocks it offers by default and think if they cover your requirements. There are also a lot of extra blocks you can add.
The popularity of Gutenberg is growing and the community is slowly, but surely moving in that direction, so making this project with Gutenberg would benefit your future career as a WP developer, if you are interested in building one.
On the point of growing community, you will find answers to a lot of the common issues.
Pros of building your own CMS:
You will see the whole process - DB design, connection and expanding. Back-end and front-end development, user authentication and administration. For me this is a con, because there are many unexpected problems, which WP has solved. It is also very time-consuming, so if you have limited time for this project, I would advise against this.
You can make a slim CMS, which covers only your requirements and you will know the ins and outs of the code, so any future changes and expansions will be easier for you to make.
As you said, it will be easier to brand as your own and you can build the Admin side of it however you want, even though there are defined UX standards, which won't allow you to go very wild. It will probably resemble the WP admin in one way or another. Check out these admin page designs, for reference.
Conclusion
Personally, I would go for WordPress and Gutenberg, because I have had mostly bad experiences with building everything on my own. I am not a good enough coder and that is OK, because I can use all of these tools, built by awesome developers before me. So please keep in mind that building your own CMS will take a lot of time, if you want to make it stable and secure. There are also alternatives to WordPress.
I need to create a blog for my student organization at my university, and we have access to a folder on the school's AFS system. We would like to install a CMS such as WordPress or Drupal and then interface with that via a blogging client to streamline updating the website. We can My only experience with any CMS is developing an Android app that connects to a Drupal powered blog, so I'm familiar with some of its features.
Any thoughts on the best way to go about creating this blog?
Drupal has 2 core modules that can help you with this, Blog and Blog API. Using both of these modules, you will be able to update blogs on your Drupal site through a blogging client.
Another Drupal user has created a video about blogging with Drupal's Blog and Blog API which you can see HERE.
"Best" is always super subjective.
If what you want is a standard, robust blog functionality quickly with minimal learning curve, you want Word Press. If what you want is a flexible, robust blog functionality with room to scale out and add more functionality over time you might want to make the larger and slower investment of going with Drupal.
Speaking as a Drupal Developer myself, I would reach for Drupal because I favor building with future flexibility in mind, but then I've already defeated the learning curve.
I have worked on websites before and always hand coded in each. But as the size of the website grew, it really became difficult to manage them. Our is a college fest website which has a number of online games (like online trading, woodstock , forex and several online quizzes ) . This year we are thinking of migrating to Drupal for this website. Would it be a good choice ?
Drupal will do a fine job of managing users and associated information about users. It will create a framework that you can leverage to integrate your games into the system.
However, the games themselves will likely need to be translated into using the Drupal API, which isn't trivial. Drupal's learning curve can be steep, particularly if you have your own style of doing things.
Having said that, Drupal is extremely flexible and is more aptly called a Web Framework than a Content Management System.
I suggest you create a test version of your site on a local install and see how it feels to try and integrate one of your existing games into the Drupal framework. You'll know quickly if you like it or not.
Drupal is flexible enough to be used for any kind of website, but it's primary focus is around content-centric social networking or community sites. It works great for content pages, blog posts, products, etc. If you are building more of an "application" (ie, a web email client, web-based games, etc),you will have more work to do, to work to customize it.
I only know Wordpress and have started to seek another alternative framework, Zend. I have heard hearsay that Zend is better than other frameworks. If you are "a serious coder", or try to act like one, you need to use it for building your web app.
Some say Zend is better but it is subjective. It is fast and secure but nobody has given a reason or at least compared it with with Wordpress.
Ultimate question : Does Zend have themes or plugins just like Wordpress ?
Any hint will be helpful
edit. maybe it's stupid, but it's a question. if you don't like it, or you feel it's offensive then down-vote. I don't mind ;). No hard feelings
You're comparing apples and oranges. Wordpress is not a framework, it's a publishing tool. The only thing you can do with Wordpress is make blogs.
A framework is a set of code that provides you with tools to build things. Zend Framework is a web framework that lets you build web applications. In fact, you could build Wordpress using Zend Framework (and it would probably be way better than its current sad design). You could build any other kind of site with Zend Framework. What Zend doesn't do is provide you with a bunch of pre-built web pages and templates and content management systems... those are all publishing tools (which you could build with a framework).
In short, you can't build a web app with Wordpress, since it's not a framework, and Zend doesn't have themes because it's a coding tool.
You are asking the difference between Ferrari and the tomato. Both are red, but…
Zend Framework is a Framework
Wordpress is a Blog software
You may write app like Wordpress using ZF, but not vice versa.
Wordpress is a content management system. It is much more specialized than Zend, which is a generic application framework.
You could build a cms with Zend for example. But you would have to build it from the ground.
I dissagree that Wordpress is not a framework. As a developer you can develop plugins into wordpress that can do some pretty neat things. Okay, you may say that wordpress is not a framework itself, but it does provide a development framework that allows developers to tap into. True it started life as blogging software, but to limit wordpress to only blogs is not doing wordpress the justice it deserves.
Zend_Framework on the other hand is completely different to wordpress. Zend_Framework will help your web development, but it wont do it for you. Where wordpress will work as a content management system/blog out of the box leaving the developer with a plugin framework to allow you to build custom modules and code that will run within wordpress, Zend_Framework will expect you to build everything from scratch. Sure it will provide some helper classes to help you along the way, but its up to the developer to pretty much write their entire application from scratch using Zend tools.
Personally speaking if you want complete and utter control over your entire application, and want to do everything from scratch with some help from Zend, then Zend_Framework is a tool you might want to investigate. If however you just want a website with a little customisation, then wordpress is a very good tool for that.
But the two dont compare side by side, they are different solutions for different problems.
Zend is an application framework. WordPress is a buggy blog manager. If you don't know the difference, then you probably have no reason to use Zend.
There appears to be a project called Zendpress to create a Wordpress-like blog platform built on Zend Framework. Strikes me as a great idea, though at present, there doesn't seem to be any significant activity there.
If you are a coder you can use Wordpress to build any web apps easily. Zend framework is the old fashion way to build web based apps. To this date, Wordpress is getting more powerful and flexible which you can use on any web developments. It is not only a CMS.
A friend of mine really likes using Joomla as a base for his websites. He also likes the power that Asp.Net has and can code in VB.Net.
He wants to use Joomla as the "Master Page" and Asp.Net/VB.Net/SQL Server to handle the main business logic of the application. He is planning on using the Joomla Wrapper Module (an IFrame, joomla modules) to integrate the ASP.Net into the Joomla website.
Joomla will be able to handle the security (users,roles,registration), menu (based on roles), static content (e.g. About Us page) and it will pass an Encrypted Username & Password to the Asp.Net web page (example here).
The goal of the website is to allow users to register & subscribe to a (free or paid) service where they will be able to customize content and download it as a file.
What disadvantages are there when doing this? Are there work arounds?
Some issues that I can think of are:
Links clicked in an IFrame won't change the browser's url which means that you can't bookmark pages and they aren't in the browsers history.
If Asp.Net has to know the users/roles (which is very likely) then it would have to access the Joomla database or keep its own user table which will have to be in sync with Joomla's users.
EDIT:
I would never build a new website this way, but I was looking for concrete points to convince my friend that using Joomla and Asp.Net together isn't a good idea.
I believe your friend's idea is fine. Both platforms have strong points. Joomla is a mature open source CMS platform that has an enormous amount of community contributed components and it is easy to use which makes it appealing. But I can also see instances where you may want to include ASP.Net functionality in certain scenarios. I have had clients who use Joomla but wanted an app I have written in .Net and it did not make sense to spend the time or money to rewrite it in PHP and MySql. The two can be integrated securely. I wish your friend luck in his endeavors.
I don't see what advantage you get from using Joomla when the app is ASP.net (nor the advantage of coding an ASP.net app when the framework uses PHP/MySQL).
I'm not convinced the security is tight because you can open iframes and bypass the Joomla security. Then you talk about passing username/password to the iframe - but now you need to validate this again through the ASP.net app.
I once coded an app in raw PHP and included it in a Joomla site using iframes. I realized fairly quickly that there was basically no security because the raw PHP had no knowledge of Joomla (although the app was not visible to site visitors and only known about by admin). I quickly recoded it into a built-in component.
To me, this sounds like you're reinventing the wheel on both sides of the app. If you want to use Joomla, either learn how to make components (it's pretty simple) and do it in PHP, or hire someone to do it for you ;).
If PHP is not your strong point, then use a full ASP.net site, perhaps with a CMS as GmonC suggested. Even creating your own basic CMS with some pre-built components (e.g. Telerik) would probably be quicker than integrating PHP and ASP.
Seriously, IMHO, if you're not going to integrate some legacy system or isn't doing this kind of "integration" development as an "experiment" to learn something - in a summarized way, if you just want to have your work done, I think the description you provided inserts a lot of complexity and overhead that aren't needed in the first place.
This added complexity of two completely different ecosystems is a disadvantage to what should be just simpler. I really believe you should try to use Joomla or other CMS written in .net like dotnetnuke (or build your own) instead of this configuration.
If you add more information about what are the goals and objectives of this project, my opinion may change. Until them, I keep my opinion of simplicity.
The time and effort you are going to go through to use Joomla is going to far outweight what it would take to just get some other CMS that was designed for .NET.
Stop over-engineering yourself into a midlife crisis.
Also, Joomla? Seriously? Joomla?
me too don't get any advantages for joomla, it's big system and it just as good as wordpress for regular projects, just wordpress is much simplier. joomla has no good documentation to learn and hard to extend.