Hello all,

Just wondering if there are any joomla experts here. I'm basically a web content man and an aspiring web designer. So, well, I heard about joomla, heard it was a great tool to easily design and manage a website, decided to try it out.

And now I'm hopelessly stuck. This whole business with html, CSS and the other assorted programming languages is getting me all confused in the head. Joomla experts, please share your knowledge here.

Thanks.

Wonderful sites can be done in Joomla, but if you, like me, are a Joomla "expert", you will recognize Joomla jobs ASAP

e.g. www.clubdrivelocity.com was a lovely Nigerian site I visited yesterday. It was hard to tell, but I found out it was a Joomla job.

Joomla makes your work faster, but at the expense of site load speed, and some restrictions in the layout.

I said some things about Joomla in the past:

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-344739.0.html#msg4837692
The truth is that Wordpress enjoys so much support, but Joomla is much easier to use, and with the Joomla extensions directory, you can get almost any plugin to do anything with.

Also, Joomla sites are basically the same in the backend, your template is what makes the site worth looking at. With wordpress, you need to hack PHP files to get your template to do what you want, but at the end of some long nights with cups of coffee, you'll be just fine!

The major problem with Joomla so far is that it isnt as fast loading as might be preferred. Wordpress beats it hands down there.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-344739.0.html#msg4839955"
@DHTML: True. But that is d least problem, i think, cos it can be solved using javascript packers. I usually use Dean Edward's online packer, gives 30 to 40% compression, on ALL d Joomla js files b4 using d Joomla installer package.

The 2 other issues, for me, are
1. Joomla core framework outputs table-based layout instead of lean, tableless layouts using Divs & Css. We all know tables are far, far heavier than Divs. The solution is to rework &recode the framework for urself, and its not a small task. I guess this may be solved in Joomla 1.6

2. Plugins/Mambots. The richer &more functional your site is, the more the plugins &modules u av used. Good for modules, u can select d pages that u want each module to appear on. But with plugins, ALL of them are loaded into every page, most often into the head of the page. E.g. U av a 130 page site but only 8 pages need a heavy set of plugins, yet all d 130 pages will suffer for it. There's yet no lazy loading controller that one can use to decide which pages will use what plugins, except i have time to code one.

I av used Joomla actively for 3 yrs & i think there are other issues but these 3 are the most serious, as easy as it is to use Joomla.

If you have more questions, let's hear em. 

Before settling on joomla, i did some research. Based on my readings and playing with it, I strongly recommend it, based on the awards it has gotten and most especially if you have a client (as I had a few months ago) with no technical knowledge (joomla has a very low learning curve, as far as the backend and managing content is concerned).

As to how to recognize a joomla site? I typically don't visit a site trying to pin down what was used but dead give-aways are the search module with that unique magnifying lens, existence of the login module, and if you are like me and always love viewing source to see how someone did something, a search for "joomla" or "/template" often does the trick too

Joomla is as yawa says. . .

Joomla is usually best for article based sites.