By piplette on

Hello everyone!

I am a web designer in my free time and I now have a new project. I want to create a website that would be a community for wholesalers and retailers in a specific market to get in touch with each other.

The basis for the site would be paid ads from wholesalers. Retailers would visit the site primarily to find new products.

The format would most likely be a bunch of banners on each page - so I am not sure about the loading speed... I need to be able to accept most formats (gifs, jpegs, png, flash...)

Each banner needs to link somewhere and being able to print a contact sheet or to send an email directly to the wholesaler would be neat.

In addition, I would like to have a forum, some news, perhaps a newsletter, polls, pictures.

I first started thinking about a custom site with OpenAds running on it.

Then, I discovered CMS (no, I am not living in a cave - but one could wonder!).

I researched Joomla! (compatible with Open Ads), then read about Drupal (which also have a banner module).

Now, I am not sure which way to go and I don't want to try both - or worse, pick the wrong one and have to start over.

Your thoughts?

Comments

JasonMR’s picture

JasonMR commented

Hey piplette

As you describe yourself as a "web designer", contrary to "web developer", which indicates to me that you seem to lack PHP skills, I believe Joomla would be a better choice for you, as it seems to me to be developed with designers in mind.

You may want to visit this site [ http://www.opensourcecms.com/ ], where you can testdrive both systems. That should give you a basic feel for what to expect.

HTH

JasonMR

piplette’s picture

piplette commented

Thanks for your answer Jason.

I have read many posts all ovr the web (as well as on opensourcecms) and the reason I was drawn to Drupal is that many people said that it was easier (even for beginners) to use and to customize. Can you elaborate on your answer - do I really need to know PHP to use Drupal? I will go ahead ant try both online but I would appreciate more info.

Also, do you think that Joomla would offer better solutions for a banner-ad site or would Drupal have good mudules to develop such a site?

piplette

JasonMR’s picture

JasonMR commented

Hey piplette

Well, let me state first, what makes a good/easy CMS is not a science ;)

So, what is easy to use? Too often have I seen "non-coders" state, that they prefer the GUI of Joomla, as it is more like a desktop app (keywords: "intuitive", main toolbar, many icons).

Another point which might be of interest to you, is that Joomla has far more templates and themes available, which you can use as design framework (starting point). Hence I find you will get a site up quicker with Joomla they way you want it.

You don't "need" to know PHP to use Drupal, sorry for creating that impression. Though I feel that to understand many aspects of Drupal, it is helpful to have an understanding of coding.

Personally I don't like Joomla, as the code is messy (IMHO), and it feels to me too much like a "toy". But I will use it for quick and relative simple jobs. I'm saying this, to make it pretty clear, that it always comes down to personal preferences.

Hence my suggestion to give both a quick test drive, and see which system you feel more comfortable with.

HTH, Regards

JasonMR

EDIT
PS: Joomla has many more modules available for your kind of project, check out their extension section [ http://extensions.joomla.org/ ].

piplette’s picture

piplette commented

That was helpful. Now, back to stydying Joomla. I may still choose Drupal, or not, I'm not sure yet, but I will definitely do more research first. piplette

imgoel’s picture

imgoel commented

You should better use an adserver like OpenAds 2.3 formally known as phpAdsNew to manage your ads. its gr8 adserver pack, easy to use and manage the whole ads content and even channels. apart frm BannerAds it also manages multimedia ads and keeps a complete track of clicks...

Deepanshu Goel
always around