Joomla is an open source cms (content management system) that I have been using for a while. The development team is releasing Joomla 1.5 beta for testing. Joomla 1.5 promises to be a real upgrade and adds new features that were suggested by users, particularly more SEO stuff.

Read more about Joomla 1.5

I haven't installed the 1.5 and I am curious if anyone is familiar with the new version.

I always thought Joomla was a nice concept for people that don't have a lot of programming experience. It can be a bit overwhelming to install, but once it's up and running, it's a very nice content management system.

I installed the 1.5 beta, and so far I like it.
I'm having some troubles with the Feed feature
and with the SEO friendly links ... both could be
a matter of my server settings though.

I didn't have issues with the install except that it
insisted I install the example stuff. I would have
prefered a clean install ... they might change that
to more of a choice ... I hope.

Will be interesting to see which extensions get
modified for the 1.5. In the meantime, I'll probably
try and install a few older ones and see wha t works.

Waiting for production release to install. Using v1.0... and I like it. And speaking about programming experience, why it should not be a choice for people with programming skills? Easy to install, included in Fantastico-painless installation. And simple to maintain after you'll get some sense of it's structure. One disadvantage-it is not very easy to SEO it, you should use some addons.

Fantastico-painless installation ... that's true if you use Fantastico for version 1.0. I was talking about 1.5 ... different animal at this point.

I'm pretty sure most people will agree that version 1.0 is nice to use.

And speaking about programming experience, why it should not be a choice for people with programming skills? I keep re-reading my post to try and figure out where you got this idea from what I had to say????

I think you got confused with what will eventually be push a button and it installs version and my developers comments about the current beta version in testing.

We definatley agree on the SEO issues. Just out of curiousity, how are you handling that? what plugins are you using?

He was responding to my post where I said, "Joomla was good for people who didn't have a lot of programming experience." What I meant by my comment was that it can be a bit daunting to install and configure properly, but it's a good CMS for anyone who wants a versatile site and doesn't have an extensive programming background. I am a bit confused by your post -- I think it goes with out saying that if you do have programming skills you can still use Joomla.

Joomla itself is relatively bug-free and simple to install, but when you want to SEO it or add in functionaliy, you have to resort to compontents. From my experience (and I could just have a bad experience), often times these components are poorly written, difficult to install, or just plain don't work. My major complaint is that you go to install something and either it works or it doesn't... you're kinda helpless to do anything if there's a bug somewhere in the component.

Being a programmer myself, I am afraid to edit any of the PHP code in Joomla just because I would have to go back and redo those edits any time I wanted to update Joomla.

LOL ... banging head on keyboards ...
I think I'll stop while I'm still ahead on
this thread ... I have no idea anymore.

:mooning: Moonlight ...
Not the light I need to illuminate me,
but it's all I've got!