Trailblazin Ministries Blog

Tech Stuff

Movable Type versus Joomla! (Again...)

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Sunday, 02 September 2007
Filed under: Ramblings, Tech Stuff

As I'm sitting here this labor day weekend, I've been taking a survey of my website, wondering what I can do to improve things from almost every aspect. I want to be able to have a proper means of integrating the content of the website with a forum so that things can be seamlessly intertwined from a user standpoint. Basically, I envision my members/visitors being able to have a single login for the website that allows them to comment on my blog, and entries on the website, as well as participate on the website forum; I would even go so far as to say that there would be levels of permissions to where some members can access certain areas of the site based upon their criteria (i.e. staff). With all of that, I have an adamant desire to have things be simple and usable from an administrative perspective. As a user, one of the things that I desire most is to have a simple and easy to use interface that just lets me get things done without excess bulk or annoying text editors. In other words, I just want things to work, and as simply as possible, which seems in itself to be in stark contrast to an individual with such a complex personality.

That is what has led me to this argument and dilemma yet again: Movable Type versus Joomla. After seeing all of the new website designs that have been popping up of late, and knowing that I needed to do some house cleaning on Trailblazin Ministries, I strongly felt the need to do something new with this site. I wanted a brand spankin' new design that would be both visually appealing, yet not take away from the simplicity of the site, and continue to provide a level of interactivity between the site and its users. With that, I've run into a few problems. First and foremost is the design. By trade, I'm not really a web designer (I'm no artist, I openly admit that), and would classify myself more as a programmer, even though I have worked quite a few jobs that forced me to rely heavily on design over application. That is to say, I don't think I could ever create a website that is as visually appealing as my colleagues, no matter how hard I try; instead, I am more adept at working with code and getting stuff working in say a language like PHP. The second problem that I run into is the way that I code things and how I make things work; sometimes it takes some pretty complex code, and it doesn't always play nice with the application I am running it on. For example, right now, I am unable to use the "live preview" feature that is built into Movable Type (when writing new entries, like this one) because the way I coded things is incompatible with how that feature works. I don't like that one bit, and it puts me in a bind with how I am able to code my websites. Also throw in the fact that I'm really at a point in life where I would rather spend less time working on web stuff (although I enjoy it as a hobby), and spend more time developing content for the website. So, with those three things in mind, let me explain why I'm so torn between these two systems.

Argument #1: Web design. This one is a biggie for me because I understand that this is the first thing that people see when they first get to my website. Things have to be visually appealing otherwise people won't stick around very long. The one benefit to Movable Type is that you can implement almost any design that you can dream up; it is just that extensible. It is just a matter of coding the templates and inserting the Movable Type code where necessary. After that, you're done! Herein lies the problem with that though; right now, there really isn't a community that is out there building templates and/or designs for Movable Type; just about everything that is out there is a completely customized job, simply because of the way Movable Type is structured and requires everything to be placed pretty precisely. If anything ever needs to be changed, you have to go back to the code and fix it, which falls more into argument #3, which we'll get to soon enough. On the one hand, this is great because it usually means that you end up with a design that is completely unique that no one else has, but it requires a lot more work when it comes time to changing things (say adding a new item to your menu).

Then there's Joomla and their community. Being that this is open source software, and built based upon templates, there is a large market of template makers for this product. There is a really great one that I have found, and they put out some pretty high quality templates. Shoot, this very design is courtesy of them; it was a Joomla template they created that I ported from their tabled layout to work with DIVs and CSS in Movable Type. But yeah, they create some awesome designs and many of them are very affordable (and customizable), plus it is easy enough to switch between them in the system. I can have multiple designs installed at one (including multiple color schemes), and even allow users to select which one they want to use at any given time. The only downfall there is that with it being a template, it leaves the chance for an infinite number of other people to be using the same template that you are. Having multiple designs like that in Movable Type would be an awesome feat, and the only possible means to do it would be to have a purely CSS driven site where a simple change of the stylesheet can give you a new design.

The winner here is clearly Joomla, although by a slim margin in my book.

Argument #2: Programming. One of the things I enjoy doing is programming, and this is one of the beauties of Movable Type, as well as Joomla. Now, I will say that I'm no plugin writer (I'll leave that to the big dogs), but I do like the flexibility of being able to run different code to make things happen the way I want them to. Like right now, in Movable Type, on the home page I have written a custom script that randomly pulls two music reviews & two book reviews from the database and displays them on the page. Then there is stuff like on the archive pages where I can use code to change the display based on whether its a review archive or any other type, and so on. I also enjoy the fact that in Movable Type I have full control over how everything is output, including filenames. Most of this is possible in Joomla through the use of modules and components, but not everything is as clearcut and dry as it is in MT. For example, in Joomla there is no easy way to have control over what URLs are output by the system (at least that's 100% effective and without jumping through several hoops). But even with that, considering it is written completely in PHP, it is much easier to make things such as plugins work, as well as write my own. It is also noteworthy that by default Joomla is 100% dynamic, which means that a lot of things I would code would work without any issues (considering PHP plays nice with PHP, instead of trying to make PHP play nice with CGI/Perl).

The winner on this hand would have to be Movable Type, but only by a slim margin. I enjoy the fact that Joomla is 100% PHP and is extensible in that area, but I really hate the fact that I have very little control over something as simple as the URL; I know that it doesn't matter in terms of SEO, but I am a stickler when it comes to things like that (shoot, I made a big fuss when MT changed their default basenames from underscores to hyphens). Even though I have problems @ times with MT playing nice with PHP, they still have the advantage.

Argument #3: Ease of use. Being that I want to get things done without having to spend so much time focusing on the administration of the site, this is probably the most important feature to me. Let's start with Joomla first. In terms of extensibility and the ability to add new things, Joomla is by far superior on this front. If I need to add a new menu item or section to the site, I can do it in just a few clicks and it's there. The downfall of Joomla comes in administering the content, as the editor they have is pretty messy and is only accessible via a web browser. It takes multiple clicks, has a pretty poor WYSIWYG editor, and so on. So, on the one hand, it is extremely easy to make changes to the website's look and feel, but it is a pain in the butt (at least for me) to deal with actually entering content. Overall, the administrative panel is bloated and pretty difficult to move around in.

As for Movable Type, it is basically the complete opposite. In terms of adding new things to the site, you really have to take the time to figure out what it is you want to do, and figure out how it's going to work/fit. Will you just make a new category, or do you need to build an entirely new blog, etc.? Once you figure all of that out, depending on how your site is coded, you will have to go back and change template files in order to add a link for it to appear on the website. Like for me, right now, in order to add a new item to my menu (the podcast), I had to completely redo the layout & structure of my menu because there was no room to simply add a new link to the menu bar. But where Movable Type may fail in that area, it more than makes up for it in the way that it allows you to manage and input your content, whether through the system itself of using it's API (i.e. I have an application that allows me to publish to my site via my mobile phone). When it comes to Movable Type's administrative panel, things just work and it's very easy to move around; within one or two clicks, I'm where I need to be and can easily do what I went in there to do.

If I had to pick a winner, I would have to say that it's a push. On the one hand, I really love what Joomla allows me to be able to do as far as the site's look & feel, with just a few clicks of the button, but I hate managing my content with it. On the other hand, Movable Type is lacking in being able to quickly and easily manage the site's look/feel, but it is far superior in terms of managing content. Because content is king, I would have to give MT the slight edge.

So yeah... I really don't know. I'll be honest in saying that I love Movable Type, but the community features are a bit lacking, other than allowing others to comment; whereas Joomla focuses quite a bit on this. Overall, I think I'll probably end up sticking with MT, but it is one of those things where you have to take the good with the bad and realize what your limitations are. I think that once I get a good design, whether I do it myself or pay someone to do it, TM will be able to go far with MT. Main thing for me is control in terms of running my site, and Movable Type offers me the most in that department. Okay, rant over... but it's definitely not an easy choice, and could go back & forth with, depending on what day of the week it is.