Joomla - Ha! Um no.
I’m probably going to get a lot of something for posting this but I feel I need to rant. Joomla is way over hyped. Yeah sure it can build skyscrapers, bring about world peace and end world wide hunger but it seems to struggle with it’s primary job, Content Management.
My major gripe with Joomla (if you have a solution for any of these that doesn’t require an advanced degree in biophysics, please let me know):
- User access levels - Yeah there are the default levels of Editor, publisher and so forth, but what about being able to customize per user or setting up custom groups. phpBB and Drupal have this. I want to be able to have the the option of creating custom templates for different user groups. I would also like to limit the content different users/groups can see. Joomla is a Content Management System and I see access levels as part of content management.
- Forms - I haven’t seen a default option for easily creating and managing forms. Yeah there are plugins but why not by default?
- Menus - Creating menu items is somewhat easy but the choices are daunting. I think maybe better documentation in terms of the tooltips. Some of the options need to be cleaned up and simplified also. Why are there multiple levels for wrapper when there is only one choice? And I hate how menus aren’t really the pages or the content but rather a sort of holder for the content. It’s confusing at times and frustrating at others.
- Why are there 5 million files for the install? I understand it makes things easier separating some stuff out but at some point you have to limit it. When it takes 3 hours to upload on some servers there is a problem.
Ok that’s all I got for now. Sorry, just needed to vent a bit on my recent Joomla excursions. That’s why I like being a web developer: I can make my own CMS that fits my needs exactly.