By tingtong on

I am new to web design. I have few questions need designer reply.

1) When visit a site, how to define it is purely CSS driven?

2) When visit a site, how to define it is tabled or tableless design? Any tools that we can use to check it?

3) If my site is running Drupal with tableless theme, will it become tabled if I used TinyMCE and build table to type content?

4) Joomla is releasing 1.5 RC3 in which I think it is stable for my small site. I need a CMS to handle my ebook stuff for paid membership and recurrent billing. I think civicrm can handle this. I do not need a large community driven site. What is the advantage running Joomla 1.5 RC3 over Drupal 5.3 in term of membership control, page load and SEO?

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

vm’s picture

vm commented

1. view the source code of a rendered page.

2. view the source code of the rendered page. A tip off is the non use of the

tag

3. I don't know what advantages you have running joomla over Drupal. Ultimatley they both handle SEO & a user base.

_____________________________________________________________________
My posts & comments are usually dripping with sarcasm.
If you ask nicely I'll give you a towel : )

criznach’s picture

criznach commented

If you're going to be working on the site yourself, I'd recommend downloading and installing both Joomla and Drupal. Then you can see for yourself which one you like better.

http://www.trailheadinteractive.com

sherifmayika’s picture

sherifmayika commented

create afolder caleed 'mytheme', open the joomla tempate file, you have index.php, an xml file, template.css/php, image foder. copy the image folder, index.php and template.css to 'mythem'

Rename index.php to page.tpl.php and template.css to style.css.

Open the page.tpl.php in your favourite editor. replace as following

Step 1

joomla header 

defined( '_VALID_MOS' ) or die( 'Direct Access to this location is not allowed.' );
$iso = split( '=', _ISO ); echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="'. $iso[1] .'"?' .'>';


//

if ( $my->id ) { initEditor(); }
mosShowHead();

echo $mosConfig_live_site;/templates/bt_musemix/css/template_css.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

Druplal header 

// $Id: page.tpl.php,v 1.15 2007/11/04 15:01:39 goba Exp $

"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
print $language->language " lang=" print $language->language ">//.

print $head_title
print $head
print $styles
print $scripts

print phptemplate_get_ie_styles();

Step2

joomla

Drupal

print phptemplate_body_class($left, $right); >

..................

Step3

joomla

site name

echo $mosConfig_sitename;

Drupal

if ($site_name):

print $base_path " title=" print t('Home') ">
print $site_name

endif;

Step4

Joomla

Pathway

mospathway()

Drupal

Breadcrumb

print $breadcrumb;

Step5

joomla

main body

mosMainBody();

Drupal

Content

print $content

step6

Jomla

left block

if (mosCountModules('left')>0) mosLoadModules('left',-1);

Drupal

left sidebar

if ($sidebar_left):
print $sidebar_left
endif;

Step7

joomla

right block

if (mosCountModules('right')>0) mosLoadModules('right',-1);

Drupal rightside bar

if ($sidebar_right):
print $sidebar_right
endif;

Step8

Joomla user 3

if (mosCountModules('user3')>0) mosLoadModules('user3',-1);

Drupal primary links

if (isset($primary_links)) :
print theme('links', $primary_links, array('class' => 'links primary-links'))
endif;

step9

joomla

search

echo _SEARCH_BOX; " onblur="if(this.value=='') this.value=' echo _SEARCH_BOX; ';" onfocus="if(this.value==' echo _SEARCH_BOX; ') this.value='';" />

Drupal

search

print $search_box

Step10

Joomla

footer

mosLoadModules('bottom', 0);

Drupal

Footer

print $footer_message

Step11

joomla

body close


Drupal

body close

print $closure

http://dreamweaverdrupalthemeextension.blogspot.com/

ceejayoz’s picture

ceejayoz commented

I understand you're proud of your site and your tutorials, but there's no reason to spam them everywhere.

This thread isn't about how to convert a theme, it's about how to pick a CMS.

sherifmayika’s picture

sherifmayika commented

Hi,
I would only be happy if you request the admin delete my post.

thanks

tingtong’s picture

tingtong commented

Leave it here. At least I can check back when I plan to convert Joomla template to Drupal theme.

sherifmayika’s picture

sherifmayika commented

If the person started the thread is interested in my aticle why delete the same.

http://dreamweaverdrupalthemeextension.blogspot.com/

soundsational’s picture

soundsational commented

Careful, i'll wait for the stable release before using Joomla 1.5, as a Joomla user and now a Drupal user. There are still some major changes from Joomla 1.5 RC3 to RC4 so i believe there will still be some changes until stable version. already there are DB changes from Rc3 to RC4.

If you want to use HTML strict doctype use Drupal. Even though Joomla 1.5 can use override template settings you still can't achieve strict doctype. There is also more work to do to get a tableless design in J1.5 since you will be to rewrite each component's views (this is how you override the template to remove tables and will have to beo done for every default components and modules).

Whereas in Drupal you just build it as you go along creating your theme. However, some PHP is required for theme building in Drupal, not so friendly for Designers i'm afraid but you have all the power in your hands to customise it anyway you want and restrict pages and users the way you want which to me, makes it more appealing and advance over Joomla.

Sorry to post but couldn't help myself when you're really enjoying using Drupal right now. It rocks...

pharma’s picture

pharma commented

If you are a user with basic requirements ( adjust whatever you get), Joomla is the best. No need it strain (use) brain much. If you are looking for flexibility and more creative options, drupal is the best. We were with joomla (moved from mambo) from the begining and liked very much. Just moved to Drupal becuase site grown up and needed more flexibility.

In short,

Joomla: Convinient but not flexible. Still evolving to reach Drupal. I know most people liked it because of simplicity in configuration and using it (convinient). Usually when (if) they get seriously involved in their project, slowly they realize the loop holes.

Drupal : Very flexible but flexible only if you clearly know what you want (are doing). Most of the times you need to have patience to learn (so much documentation availble or great support in forums) or hire someone to get the things done. But at the end you will get exactly what YOU want.

1) members control : It is a joke in Joomla. You really don't have options there (admin, author and special user). In drupal you can create "n" number of user roles and set up authority like acess certain pages (nodes) etc etc,. Basically you can do what ever based on your requirements.

2) SEO is just started with Joomla 1.5 . Before you need to "BUY" third part components (like SEF advance by Emir) to get machine readable urls etc.Although some free options availble they all have one or other negatives. Drupal already have stable SEO solution. You may need to install ceratin modules ofcourse .(Path , Pathauto , Nodewords).

3)Page loads : If you are not expecting high volume of traffic, really this should not some thing you need to worry. In my opinion, both are comparable , may be drupal may be better. There are so many factors needed to make this comparision though

tingtong’s picture

tingtong commented

Many thanks to soundsational and pharma advises. I like Drupal flexibility very much but I am not a php programmer nor html/css designer. I am just a web application user. Thus, I may use ready themes from Drupal site repository and learn theming time to time.

Here are several features I like from using Drupal 5.5 compare to Joomla 1.0.13:-

1. Page loading speed; cache, load balance.
2. SEO; clean URL.
3. Member management.
4. Taxonomy.
5. UTF-8.
6. Build in forum and tracker.

pharma’s picture

pharma commented

Great! You made a right choice.

tingtong’s picture

tingtong commented

I hope so! Since I am planning to run a blogging site and add more features in future, I may start using Drupal 6 RC1. I am happy that it released today. I think not much problem running a live blogging site because I did not commit any business deal.

soundsational’s picture

soundsational commented

Running your own personal blog site is always the best way to learn a new system as it can become your own digital playground to test things out.

Just a quick note on theming:

Drupal allows for template overrides settings and now Joomla 1.5 can do the same, so there is catchup time for Joomla. However, you will still need to know some PHP to do this in both system. Therefore, it isn't really true that theming can be easier in Joomla (especially if you want to get rid of all HTML tables and have a complete CSS design because by default - Joomla still uses HTML tables. This was the reason why the template override settings was introduced). I do feel sorry for the Joomla core devs, as they had to work with such an outdated codebase and progess from there to try and put things right. This is one of the reason for a lot of re-write in the core files.

--- Off topic ---

I some times get really frustrated with a lot of Joomla extensions that requires users to register before they can download.

tingtong’s picture

tingtong commented

As site visitor, I really don't know what is the different html table designed compare to CSS.

soundsational’s picture

soundsational commented

Difference between using HTML Tables or CSS isn't just about a visual design difference. It's about optimising your code and separating the document structure and presentation, including other means of accessing your site.

It also becomes easier to manage when your sites begin to grow.

A good and fair explanation can be found here: http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2007/08/tables-or-css-layout/

Your site visitors may not know or don't care but nevertheless they gain from browsing a site that is build to W3C standards (and so does the website itself).

Furthermore, there are SEO benefits in using CSS since search engines do not like nested tables.