Choosing Between Drupal, Joomla and WordPress For Your CMS

What are the differences between Drupal, Joomla and WordPress when choosing to use a Content Management System (CMS)? Given all the differences between the three, what is the best one to choose?

A CMS will generally come with the ability to assist with user accounts (which may involve a variety of roles e.g. admin, editor, basic user etc.), it makes and preserves menus, and it manages the content of the website and the overall system. A CMS is essential for the easy running of large, content rich sites.

Drupal is a highly sophisticated programming interface for web developers. This CMS will work on any platform that has a web server able to run PHP and a database, it needs these so that it can store the website's content and settings. There are many themes that can customize the way a website looks and feels, all an administrator needs to do is choose the required theme from a menu. Drupal is a very powerful tool that is best suited to advanced PHP developers, it is often accused of making sites that are not very pretty though anyone with a good understanding of it's templates system will not have a problem with this.

Joomla is another popular CMS. This CMS is also written in PHP, it stores all necessary data in a MySQL database and also includes features such as RSS feeds, page caching, blogs, news flashes, and so on. It can be uploaded onto any web server that supports applications for PHP. There are many different hosting sites that provide a control panel that allows the deployment of a Joomla web site. Joomla is not as complicated to use as Drupal, but if a site needs to go beyond the standard setup it might prove too much for the novice programmer.

WordPress is often used as a blog publishing application that can be powered or operated by PHP and MySQL. This has many different features that include a plug in design and a framework for templates. Three hundred of the worlds biggest websites use WordPress as their CMS. This is the most popular blog software used today.

It has features such as templates and widgets that can be positioned without needing to know any PHP or any form of HTML code. It also features links that use integrated link management, a helpful search engine and supports the posting of non-blog articles hence its use as a CMS. WordPress allows users and developers alike to go beyond the features that come pre-installed by adding many more features via freely available plugins. It is the ideal solution for anyone who wants a feature rich site that is easy to setup.

In making your choice of CMS, it is best to understand the full scope of the website that you are creating. Choosing the wrong CMS at the start can cause no end of problems as transferring to a new system may not be so easy. For complex sites with unique features Drupal is recommended. For simpler sites it's best to go with WordPress. Joomla lies somewhere in between.

Moving A Drupal Site From One Host To Another - How To

Here are the detailed steps how to successfully move a complete Drupal installation from one host to another.

The documentation on drupal.org is not necessarily clear, here are the exact steps how to move a complete site including your drupal mysql database.

Migrating Drupal On your OLD host:

1) Backup your whole home directory from your ftp access using an ftp client like filezilla.

Make a folder on your local harddisk and download the complete directory to that local folder.

2) Backup your mysql database on your old host using phpadmin, select your mysql database, usually something like "name_drpl1". Select all fields, click "export" and save the database to your local harddisk. Leave default options enabled. You will receive a file similar to "name_drpl1.sql".

This is your mysql database

On your NEW host:

1) Upload your folder with the complete drupal installation to your home-directory.

2) Once done, go to phpadmin on the new host, create a new mysql database, example "name_drpl1" and create a new mysql user. Create a password for this new mysql user, click "assign all privileges" to this user and assign the user to the new database.

You now should have a new mysql database on the new host with a mysql user, eg. "name_drpl1" as database name and "name_username" as database user name.

3) Import (upload) the database (which you exported from the old host earlier) with phpadmin to the new database. This might take a minute.

4) If needed edit the file [drupal home]/sites/default/settings.php and edit at the section where you enter the database, location, username and password. You CAN enter the password either encrypted or not encrypted there.

5) Chmod your "files" folder so it is writeable using your ftp client (filezilla), chmod to 777

6) Double check your .htaccess and [drupal home] /sites/default/settings.php and make changes in case they are needed.

Change nameserves on your domain host and let them point to your new host's nameservers.

Enter the new nameservers in your control panel where your domain names are hosted, overwriting the old ones.

After some time (sometimes a day or two) your domain should point to the new host and drupal should be up and running on the new host.

Joomla! Vs Drupal - Difference Between Joomla! & Drupal

Since the advent of open source content management systems, Joomla! and Drupal have always been the choice of not only the website owners, but also the web developers. Being the platform to provide a framework to the websites, with ready to use modules in a minimal amount of time, Joomla! and Drupal have continued to sustain their place in the industry.

No doubt that the world of websites is increasing day by day and so is the demand. And, to be able to make it easier for the owners to make a wise choice between these two CMSs to be able to come up with a website keeping in consideration the requirements of the business project. Therefore, we would be incorporating some of the basic and the most important differences that lie between the two i.e., Joomla! and Drupal-

1. Drupal is much more flexible when it comes to the development and setting up the theme and layout of the website. Joomla! is known to be surrounded by the paradigms set by itself, and offers less scope to be flexible.

2. Joomla! is easy and fast to operate and implement. On the other hand, Drupal is quite a tough nut and have always been the choice of comprehensive businesses and enterprises.

3. If we put it in a precise manner then, Joomla! offers a nice, professional looking website with a slow, categorised, and limited options, while its actually vice versa with Drupal.

4. Backend admin functionality with the Drupal is not that good, while Joomla! is comparatively better.

5. The Drupal codes are more professional and skilled and of a quality, while it lacks in the case of Joomla!.

6. With Drupal, you are able to use the same log-in-details for every different site.

7. SEO has always and will always remain the key concern of these open source software. Therefore, this point should be of utmost importance that Drupal has SEO friendly URLs, while with Joomla!, one needs a commercial component.

8. While Joomla! makes use of the plug-ins for the additional functionality, but Drupal uses modules.

These differences, I think would surely help you to make a choice between the two according to your website requirements. A good web design and development agency can make the work easier for you and make a choice.

Hire Drupal Developer For Custom Drupal Development

In the era of internet savvy generation, a website is considered most interactive way of communication. Now-a-days, every hour a new web portal comes into existence. In such a highly competitive online market, maintaining website position is not too easy. 

There are various open source applications like Zen Cart, osCommerce, Magento etc. through which one can give life to his web portal. Drupal is another name in list of these user friendly applications. This fully fledged application is extremely shapeable platform. in fact, it is considered best option for custom Drupal development.

Drupal - an emerging open source content management system (CMS) and web development application well used for the back end system. This highly appreciated is required for the purpose of powerful template system, maintaining user accounts, customization of RSS feeds, creating and handling menus, online forum, single or multi user blog and lots more.

An individual requires a well skilled Drupal programmer in order to customise his website and make it more interactive. A web developer is the only person who can deploy best applications into a web portal. A dedicated coder can add interactivity. There are certain key points which should be taken into consideration while hiring a web developer. Index of a leading outsourcing firm dealing in PSD to Drupal conversion services must include following features:

• Well experienced work force 

• Transparent working style 

• Working hours 

• 24/7 quality customer support 

• Flexible payment plans 

• Low development costs 

• Drupal custom theme development service 

• Custom module development 

• Drupal theme modifications and customization 

• Portals maintenance work 

• Extensions development 

• Project management system tracking

There are various outsourcing firms through which you can hire a web developer on full time, part time and hourly basis. In fact, a well-honed skilled and experienced Drupal developer is proficient in building highly interactive and dynamic websites. They can customize site appearance by simply adding perfection into it along with the little touch of professionalism and creativity. Make your online visitors feel more empowered.

How to Do Effective SEO for Drupal Websites

Drupal is one of the most downloaded and user friendly open source website builders, among with WordPress and Joomla. Since its first version released, it gained a rapid popularity due to its flexibility and ecommerce capabilities.

Drupal is a very good tool to start your own dynamic website in lesser pains. Hence, after installation and layout setting, it is necessary that you know how to do right SEO activities for your Drupal websites.

SEO for Drupal websites is indeed easier due to readily available SEO modules developed by programming geniuses who are generous enough to share their knowledge and contribute to the growth of Drupal. The support community is also active for any SEO advices or module technical assistance.

In connection, below is a list of some modules that might help you in doing SEO for your Drupal website:

1. Taxonomy - Enables content categorization via setting vocabularies and adding tags to contents.

2. Pathauto - Enables automatic generation of URL alias based on the settings you want. With this, it is effective that you set the URL alias to term nodes base on your page title.

3. Global Redirect Module - One of the most common errors in Drupal is duplicate contents. You may receive penalty if search engines tag several pages in your website with the same contents. Global Redirect Module redirects node alias to prevent duplicate contents.

4. Nodewords - Enable Meta tags and other SEO inputs. Meta tags such as title, description and keywords are still vital in search engine visibility. Nodewords module in Drupal also allows more advanced settings such as canonical URL and Robots settings.

5. XML Sitemap - Sitemaps give hints to crawlers on which pages should be indexed. XML Sitemap module automatically generates sitemap for your website and ping major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and Alexa for new updates.

6. Google Analytics - Analytics track your page visits, page views and traffics. By monitoring this, you will have clues on which activities help your site to have more visibility in search engines.

7. Boost Module - Although Page Rank does not really determine the visibility of your website, it does help you create a good reputation only and open your website to possible monetization in advertising, this is especially if you are running a blog site.

In some ways yet little effect on many, slow page speed can lower your ranking. Boost Module can speed up your Drupal website.

Above are just some of those amazing modules that you may use to promote your Drupal website. Yet, because Drupal is continuously being updated, several modules are still being developed everyday providing us more convenience to do SEO in easier way.

WordPress Joomla Or Drupal - Which Content Management System Should One Choose?

Content Management System (CMS) websites with dynamic content that can be updated with ease are increasingly becoming a popular choice to build websites. When scouting for CMSs there are a plenty of out-of-the-box solutions out there. So, once you decide to use a CMS to build your website, which one do you choose? 

In this article I will focus on - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. These three are the most widely talked about and used open source CMS packages. Also, all the above three CMS are pretty stable, have extensive support and large user groups, and they are all feature rich with access to number of readymade templates and plugins.

The rule of thumb when choosing between the three is that you choose WordPress if you are only interested in blogging. Also, WordPress is great if the number of content contributors to the website ranges from one to few people. If you need a website which can do much more than blogging and have multiple content contributors then you choose Joomla or Drupal.

 If you are looking for a feature rich website with minimal development work then look no further than Joomla. If you are looking for a fully functional dynamic website and you require extensive customization Drupal is a better option. But, with Drupal be prepared to roll up your sleeves and do some heavy development work or set aside a budget of at least $5000 for the development work.

Very simply put WordPress is very user friendly to install and have it running as a blog. Any blogger with little or no technical know how can set WordPress up pointing to his domain name and have it up and running in a flash. But, the downside is that WordPress allows no real flexibility in accommodating anything more than blogging. It is not very developer friendly either.

Joomla on the other hand can be used to develop a robust dynamic website. It goes beyond blogging and can be the ideal solution for building an e-commerce websites. The one serious drawback with Joomla is that it is not easy to customize. So if you are looking to customize the look and feel, the functionality and the operability of the website it may not be easy to accomplish.

Drupal is a highly customizable CMS. A web developer with background in PHP can modify and customize Drupal like putty clay. The downside is that if you have little PHP knowledge then you will have to rely heavily on a developer or a development team and it might end up becoming an expensive proposition. But, if your website requires content contributions from many people and has a wide audience Drupal would be the ideal solution.

All That You Need to Know About Drupal Development

Drupal is an open source content management system. It is one of the open source CMS among the various CMS tool used for development of websites. Drupal development used in website is essential for data management, versioning, control, publication and distribution.

At present there are many CMS development open source systems that are used to develop websites like 1. Joomla CMS 2. Drupal CMS 3. PHP Nuke 4. osCommerce CMS 5. Zen Cart /X-Cart 6. Ruby on Rails 7. Gallery CMS 8. WordPress CMS The answer to the question of why use CMS to develop website and since Drupal development has become so popular that most of the website are designed with Drupal CMS.

The Drupal development services for web content management (web CMS) include: 

1. Software development 

2. Installation 

3. Integration and design 

4. Applications modification 

5. Custom CMS modules and templates development 

6. Customization services 

7. Quality Assurance and IT consulting The key features for using Drupal development are it is ease-of-use and large selection of modules and themes. It allows excellent categorization of content through taxonomy system.

It has a very good input filter system that allows you to choose the format style e.g. HTML or Textile for each entry. It has a clean URLs and it is written in PHP language. There are commercial Content management systems in the market besides the open source content management system like Drupal they are Sitefinity CMS, CoreMedia CMS, Lotus Web Content Management, Brunner CMS. Drupal developed website is more and more in demand.

The Drupal offshore has proven to be more cost effective and one can have more features developed in their website at a lesser cost. The Drupal content management system can be used to power many types of websites developed for small business, resource, portal, educational and e-commerce websites.

Drupal development that is being done offshore is reliable and offer robust solution besides being cost effective. development companies offer customized solution and flexibility to fit individual needs.