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How the Joomla CMS evolved

Most people that need to create a website these days use a content management system. Content Management Systems use computer scripts to separate web content from web presentation. The Web content, which could consist of text, images or multimedia files, is held in a database until it is needed. Two separate but integrated parts are therefore required to make a CMS or work; a database and some method of getting content from it. Several server technologies are capable of doing this, but Joomla, like many of the other open source CMS uses MySQL as its database and PHP to populate the pages and make the site visible.

Versatility

The popularity of CMS can be treated to many factors, but one of the most compelling is that anyone, even without any experience, can use and edit them. Different levels of permission can be granted by the administrator, giving some people access to add pages and others only access to edit them. Access can also be restricted to certain categories or areas of the site. Another major contributing factor in the popularity of Joomla is the fact that it is offered free of charge.

The disadvantage

The one big drawback with content management systems is that they can be extremely complex, containing thousands of files working together with the database. Consequently most CMS are developed by technicians with specialised knowledge; Joomla's set up, however, is straightforward and painless, and its interface is user friendly allowing anyone to quickly become familiar with it.

How joomla was developed

In 1998, Netscape gave its Navigator browser away for free; this went against every principle of the accepted business model of the day, but started a trend that was to grow beyond all expectation. As the web expanded other software was added to the public domain which came to be called "open source” -- this included LINUX, Apache, MySQL and PHP, collectively known as “LAMP”. By the turn-of-the-century Miro, an Australian software house, had developed an open source CMS called Mambo. It was well received and hugely successful; by 2005, Mambo had won several awards such as "Best free software project" and "Best LINUX or open source software", but unfortunately a dispute between the members of the steering committee resulted in the core developers leaving the project and forming Open Source Matters.

Open Source Matters

This new company released a new and revised version of Mambo at the end of 2005 and called it Joomla! Both Mambo and Joomla continued to win awards, and a large and active community began to build up around Joomla which now has possibly the largest forum on the Web.

Adding extensions

During the next few years, other components and modules were written that would extend Joomla's original functionality considerably. These modules, plug-ins, and components are now so numerous that Joomla has become one of the best supported CMS in the world. Because they are part of the open source movement, many of these plug-ins and extensions are also available free of charge.

Appearance

Part of the appeal of Joomla is the ease with which its appearance can be changed due to the many templates available. Many of these are available for free, whilst others are commercial; however even these are usually offered at exceptionally reasonable prices compared to many commercial CMS. As with most things in Joomla, installing a new template is very simple; a zip file is downloaded and then uploaded in its entirety to the server where the Joomla software will extract the necessary files and install them.

Conclusion

The open source movement has grown in stature in the last 10 years, and now offers a genuine alternative in many areas of technology. Joomla is one of the finest examples of how making software publicly accessible can engage both developers and ordinary people, allowing it to develop into a product worthy of its reputation.

Article Source: http://www.ezinearticles.mk

Dave Millard is a web designer and author from England and the owner of Netresult Ltd. Check out his free Article Marketing course here.

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