CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

We have a client who is uncertain about their CMS future. They are currently on Joomla with 2 sites and a third is something custom built. They have been looking at another option for all three - and yes are now being poked in the Drupal direction by yours truly.

They need a civicrm before their cms decision will be made and will be using it for a period with one of their Joomla sites. Any obvious lower risk paths to take?

Do we kick off in Joomla and move hopefully to Drupal down the track?

Do we start on Drupal and then if they stick with their Joomla/custom push it over to Joomla?

Or shall we start off Standalone?

Any obvious 'gotchas' we can avoid?

Here's my experience - I'm Drupal for all my sites but one which is Joomla (because the client was Joomla and they work with a Joomla web developer who is really good).

Don't want to be boring but as a Drupal developer, I've been really frustrated with the lack of acl on joomla and find it means that I can't offer these clients things that i offer others easily (like restrict access to complex intimidating screens and for permissions for things like financial data, etc.).  Maybe it is my lack of Joomla experience, but I keep on coming across things I can't do that would be easy to do in Drupal - so you need to be prepared for these things - if you are used to thinking in the Drupal way, you can find Joomla limiting (I'm being boring now).

If you have no choice then you have no choice.  The other side of the coin, which I have no experience in is teaching a Joomla Client a new CMS and the complexity that will arise from having one Joomla, one Drupal and one custom. Maybe that would be just as many headaches.

Another thing to bear in mind is your access to Joomla expertise - I'm really glad that on those Joomla sites, I work with a Joomla expert because I don't have to worry about that side of things.  Otherwise I would have a whole other administrating Joomla learning curve.