Joomla startup

[Caliban]

Greetings.

A family member has tasked me to write a website with Joomla, which I've never used.

I'm fairly conversant with HTML (have written a few sites from scratch) and have administered a vBulletin forum before (although it's been several years).

My questions: do any of you Joomla users/writers think that learning Joomla quickly might be too steep a curve to climb for a "spare time/help a son-in-law" kind of task? And, do you have any recommendations for any good online Joomla training videos and/or tutorials?

Thanks in advance - any opinions, suggestions, tips etc. will be welcomed.

 

[satrow]

From a non Joomla user/writer: "too steep a curve to climb" <-- this was my feeling when I was asked about helping out with a friends Joomla site a few years ago; as I never made that jump, I'm still of the same opinion but I too would be happy to see some tutorial suggestions listed in case he asks me again :thumbsup2:.

 

[AceInfinity]

Joomla I found to always be one of the weirdest CMS' out there from my perspective... It's popular though, and probably because it's easier than others. I can't see it being too difficult, but I guess that's just me...

 

[Will]

It's not hugely more difficult than building a website in WordPress or any other CMS. I'm not personally that keen on it, but as long as you find a template you like it should be fine. I tend to make any new websites in WordPress at the moment, but I've used Joomla a fair amount before.

 

[AceInfinity]

WordPress is probably my preference as well. I've been meaning to do something with my development site for a while, but I have little to no time nowadays. I've been handed work from my boss to do up their website, and for what they are asking, I'll be heavily underpaid, but I don't mind because in the end it's about my reputation with my employers really. Something that would have cost them roughly $2000 minimum, I'm probably doing for less than $300-500; a mix of Javascript, PHP, HTML, CSS, and MySQL integration for a dynamic multi-user login and calendar display system. I've also got Windows Store apps to make, certifications to finish that have been waiting for 3 weeks, software and equipment to learn, blogs to write, etc...

If you've got the time though, my recommendation is pretty solidly directed towards WordPress however. I just don't find that much enjoyment in web-content related stuff.

 

[Caliban]

Thanks for the input. I've decided to decline the project - just don't have the time (or the cojones) to attempt to learn a whole new system. If he wants to build a site using HTML I can sling that code in a couple of days, but if he's wanting a fancy Joomla/WordPress/CMS type, he'll have to do the grunt work himself.

Again - thanks.

 

[wmorri]

I should mention that learning at least one of the "big 3" CMS programs would be a good thing. Yes we all like to make websites with pure code and all the jazz, but realistically there are a lot of people out there that find the simplicity of the control panel of any CMS a great help if they ever want to update a site on their own. It will take a little work on your part and maybe that isn't something that you want to take on right this second. but I can garuntee you that in the long run it will help you both from a coding standpoint and from a monetary stand point, if you want to go down that route.

 

[Caliban]

Thanks, wmorri - well put. Now that I've had a chance to look at Joomla some more it doesn't look too complicated. Son-in-law has given me some space on his site with admin privileges, so as time permits I'll build a couple of test sites, see how it goes. Cheers.