Time for action-taking a test drive

  1. Open your web browser and go to http://www.opensourcecms.com/. opensourceCMS allows you to try content management systems before you install them.
  2. Locate Open Source Demos on the left bar. Click on Portal/CMS option.
    Time for action-taking a test drive
  3. This shows a page full of different Portal CMSs. Locate Joomla in the list and click on it. That will bring you to following page:
    Time for action-taking a test drive
  4. The page offers live demos for Main Page and Admin Page. The Main Page shows the end user view of a CMS. It includes some default modules and sample content. Here's what the Joomla! front page looks like.
    Time for action-taking a test drive
  5. We can see that Joomla! provides multiple navigation systems—tabbed links at top, menu bar on the left, and content links in the middle section. It even has a provision to show the latest news and popular items on the front page. This page also has a poll, user login form, multicolumn content layout, and a few ads. We can organize content on our Yoga site in a similar way, but we prefer a cleaner look with some photographs.
  6. Click on the About Joomla! link in top navigation to see what a content page looks like.
  7. Review a few links on the left to see how different types of content can be displayed. The following image shows the FAQs → General page. A lot of this can be useful for our Yoga site—the way FAQs show up, multipage articles, and so on. Go ahead and look at other links as well.
    Time for action-taking a test drive
  8. Now that we have familiarized ourselves with user pages, let's see how the administration interface looks. Go back to the Joomla! page on opensourceCMS and click on the Admin Page link. Username and Password are given right below the link; use them to log in. You may see a page like this:
    Time for action-taking a test drive
  9. Review the top menus, other administration options, and help and stats on the right side. Looking around at different menus is a great way to understand how Joomla! works.
  10. Look around to find out how we can organize our content. What are the ways to create a navigation structure? Can you understand the names of different links?
  11. We saw the web site's front page and different articles a while ago. Let's see how they are managed. Click on Article Manager from main screen (Control Panel) and study the page that comes up. Here's a screenshot:
    Time for action-taking a test drive
  12. As you see, you can easily mark articles to be published on the front page, change their order, set their access level, and also filter and sort the list. Top icons provide further actions. Seems understandable!

What just happened?

We dived in and tried out Joomla!—a leading open source content management system.

We could go to the Joomla! site at www.joomla.org and take a demo from there, But that requires us to create an account, verify our email, and then be granted access to live demo. That is a long process. Similarly, we can go to each different CMS we want to evaluate and try their live demos. We wanted something faster and simpler. Thankfully, opensourceCMS web site solves this problem. It hosts live demos of the most popular PHP/MySQL-based content management systems. To review both the user and administrator side of Joomla! we used their service.

We first saw the main page of a Joomla! demo site. We reviewed different components, the navigation system, and how articles appear. The default installation of a CMS typically showcases its best features, so we went to each link and reviewed how it looks. Our purpose is to evaluate whether this CMS will fit our needs. Reviewing different pages and options tells us whether or not this CMS is understandable and has all the features we need.

We then logged in to the administration interface. We saw different menus and options. We figured out how content is organized in different menus, sections, categories, and articles. We also reviewed the Article Manager screen to understand how easy it is to publish and re-order articles.

We looked at different administration options to familiarize ourselves. Again, the intention is to understand how easy the system is and whether it suits our needs.

Note

Be ready to live with some jargon

Many CMSs have a jargon of their own. The way they organize content and menu options may be difficult to understand at a first glance. Unless it's very weird, be patient with jargon. You will learn it over time.

Here are some guidelines for checking out a live demo of a CMS.

Checking out a live demo

Here is a checklist you can follow while going through a live demo:

  • Review overall layout and design.
  • Understand navigation structure and how you can create it.
  • Look at how a single article or a content page is displayed.
  • Is it easy to understand? Is the interface cryptic? Does it use jargon that you can't understand?
  • Go through the administration interface very carefully. That's what you (and whoever else is going to manage your site) will have to work through. Well-organized menus and options are good. Well-named links are a definitive plus point!

Pop quiz

  1. Why would you take live demo of a CMS?
    • To understand how it works and evaluate whether it's suitable to your needs
    • To compare its features with other CMSs
    • To mess around with sample content and advertise your site
    • To learn the CMS jargon
  2. What Joomla! features can we use on our Yoga site?
    • Hierarchical content organization
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Important content on homepage
    • Polls
    • All of the above and more

Have a go hero-test drive some more CMSs

We just looked at one CMS. How about test-driving a few more?

  1. Try out Wordpress from opensourceCMS for both main page and administration login page. Wordpress is the most popular blogging content management system.
  2. Also, try Magento from opensourceCMS. Magento is a leading e-commerce platform. It's especially useful if the main intention of your site is to sell things.
    Have a go hero-test drive some more CMSs
  3. Go to Alfresco.com and review product screenshots. Alfresco is an enterprise-grade open source CMS.
    Have a go hero-test drive some more CMSs
  4. Review the list of different CMS types on opensourceCMS—Portals, Blogs, e-Commerce, Groupware, Forums, e-Learning, Image Galleries, Wiki, Lite and Miscellaneous.
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