Looking into using Joomla! to convert a non-profit static-page website into one with deeper functionality for the volunteer workers and for the community being served.
So far I’ve read through some introductory screens, read up on site security and some other topics of interest, and installed XAMPP and Joomla 2.5 on my localhost server. I loaded their demo content and looked through all of that and the explanatory material.
I think this might be the way to go for us.
Next step: Back up the non-profit site, and load up a non-public branch with Joomla, do some testing, convert some pages, see how things go.
Draft Proposal: Content Management System (CMS) for nonprofit web site
Requirements
• Improve and standardize the look and feel of our site.
• Manage web content with a unified interface that is fairly simple to use by a skilled non-technical person.
• Each feature on each page should have built-in access and privilege controls, determined by user login.
• Individual persons or committees should be able to manage content in specific, limited areas of the site (firewalled areas).
• Specific views, reports, printouts, downloads, and Excel files should be straightforward to build by a technically competent person, and easy to use by non-technical people.
Candidate systems
WordPress
Popular blogging tool that has grown into a mature CMS. Very extensive market presence. Optimized for informational, personal or small-to-mid-size business sites. Many free plug-in enhancements available. Relatively easy to use. Native package does not have the security features we need, but it’s possible we could find a security plug-in that would give us what we need. Administration will require web developer skills.
Joomla!
Intentional, open-source CMS with built-in security features that are adequate for our needs. (Includes blogging features, but not oriented around a blog concept.) Optimized for commerce, security-conscious applications, small-to-large enterprise applications. Geekier than WordPress, may require a bit deeper skills to administer the system (as opposed to using the system). Extensive support and free plug-ins.
Both systems are free and well-supported. Both are based on PHP and mySQL data technologies.
What a CMS can do for us, that we have been wishing for …
• Intranet functions
• Blogging and easy uploading of photos, video, etc.
• Simplified, decentralized content management
• Database-oriented management of meeting information and other information
• Simple uploading and management of file archives