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Sunday, 18 February 2018 10:24

Create a blog - Part 2 (Blogging Systems)

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Step 10 - Research Software

Because I use Joomla I need to look at all of the different blogging systems available along with commenting systems. I will assess them to see shich is the best setup.

Joomla Only

Using Joomla as is can be an option for some.

Pros Cons
  • Free
  • Has basic blog features
  • Jcomments will work with it to provide a commenting system
  • Large community
  • Lots of extensions/plugins
  • Community writes lots of extensions because k2 content can be access easily
  • Not all in one solution out of the box
  • Not all features i.e. auto blog system with integrator tools etc...
  • will require plugins for a good blogging platform
  • cannot configure URLs except by the menu, category structure and article title/alias
  • no inbuilt RSS

Conclusion

Too basic and not enough control over URLs. This might be ok for a news section of a website.

K2

This is a Joomla CCK with lots of content features but has blogging abilities. It does not have things like autoposting to social media built in.

Pros

Pros Cons
  • Free
  • k2 is a basic blog with lots of content features
  • Jcomments will work with it to provide a commenting system
  • Large community
  • Lots of extensions
  • Community writes lots of extensions because k2 content can be access easily
  • Has its own commenting system
  • Not all in one solution out of the box
  • Not an all features i.e. auto blog system with integrator tools etc...
  • will require plugins for a good blogging platform
  • cannot configure URLs except by the menu, category structure and article title/alias
  • needs a plugin to handle RSS feeding correctly

Conclusion

Has more than standard Joomla such as image auto resizing and an inbuilt commenting system but is still too basic without plugins for a dedicated blog. Too basic and not enough control over URLs. This might be all right for a news section of a website.

Easyblog

Easyblog seems to be a blogging system with all the tools built in.

Pros Cons
  • commercial
  • Remote blogging integration
  • Has its own commenting system built in (I suspect a cut down version of komento)
  • Can integrate with many different commenting systems
  • Can auto post to Facebook and twitter
  • Can link to social profiles including google+
  • Easyblog has all tools for blogging built in
  • integrates with easy social /easy discuss/mighty touch/ jomsocial/ AUP/ PhocaPDF/ AdSense/ zemanta/ pingomatic/ Flickr
  • supports ‘Team Blogging’
  • can import/export settings
  • correctly handles pagination with canonical tags
  • inbuilt pingomatic support
  • inbuilt RSS feeding
  • can override RSS feed in place of a syndicated Feedburner feed
  • integrates with 3rd party Joomla software
  • Has its own media manager and can cause issue with keep images organised (investigate)
  • Image name management sucks
  • Does not use the Joomla template and you have to use its own template
  • Has its own login system with in the component
  • Not much documentation

Conclusion

Easyblog is basically trying to be a clone of WordPress running as a native component in Joomla. It has all the features of a dedicated blogging system and allows the use of Joomla content plugins. One of the selling factors of Easyblog is that you can, like WordPress, configure the URLs separate to articles and categories. Easyblog also has a lot of social integration making it an ideal choise. This is a must as you won’t lose SEO ranking or traffic because you have a reorganise.

Links

WordPress for Joomla

There are 2 WordPress integrations for Joomla. Both of which have slightly different reviews.  There are some bridges and post copier extensions but I would not count these as use for this project.

WordPress is the go to standalone blogging platform but I am looking at this whilst using Joomla as I want all the benefits of Joomla with a Blog. You could in theory run WordPress and Joomla side-by-side with the same themes but this is extra work and would take more configurations.

Pros Cons
  • gives you a streamlined blogging system that is WordPress, in Joomla
  • is an excellent rated blogging system that 17% of the websites are made off
  • inbuilt RSS feeding
  • WordPress has its own inbuilt commenting system
  • doesn’t fully support all WordPress plugins
  • to add functionality you need to start installing WordPress plugins
  • have to learn another system
  • have to run 2 systems

Conclusion

WordPress is without doubt an excellent blogging system but that is all it is. It is similar to Joomla in that you can use plugins to extend the platform but when you start doing this it is much easier to use Joomla. WordPress for Joomla does not allow you to use Joomla plugins for the content in WordPress and not all WordPress plugins will work. So basically if you want to use WordPress, use it but without the Joomla wrapper anything else seems pointless

Joomla Integration Plugins

Step 11 - Choose Software

Now you have read my research you can either can look at some of the other platforms on the internet or pick one and move to the next step.

Read 1184 times Last modified on Wednesday, 21 February 2018 09:49
Published in Blogging
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