Brief Drupal Review

Today we were asked to go online to http://www.opensourcecms.com and try out a demo of the Drupal CMS.  I’m going to try and keep this brief.

For starters in comparison to Joomla! it has a different look and a far more different feel.  In Joomla! there is an obvious front-end and back-end to the site, seperating the average user from the administrator.  Drupal isn’t quite as segregated.  Instead they went for a more seamless and streamlined approach, which can be quite confusing and overwhelming at first.  The two ends are integrated and you navigate everything (depending on the template being used) via the left navigation bar.  The more you use it, the easier it becomes.  One last thing about the navigation that I liked was the clear categorization of functions and options that are under the administrators menu list.  Everything is broken down into just a few categories and it was very easy to find where things are located.

Another perk that Drupal offers is the long list of included modules in the default install.  Unlike Joomla, Drupal offers simple Blogging and Forum capabilities, among many other components.  Another PLUS is the built in user management functionality, which allows the creation of custom user groups and permissions.  One thing Joomla! is lacking a bit.

Lastly, I’d like to include one minor beef with the CMS.  There isn’t a default WYSIWYG enabled for content creation.  There is probably an option somewhere in the administrators menu which allows the enabling of this feature, but it is not activated by default, which is surprising.

Overall a fairly easy to use CMS once you become accustomed to the navigation system and the integration of both the front and back-end of the site.

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