Joomla Content Management

Factual Questions
1

Due to some weird personal drama my companies web designer has vanished. We might be able to get his wife to to help us out but she is overall pretty clueless. We really just need to run routine monthly content updates. No major redesign is in the works. I noticed a link on the bottom of our homepage for Joomla. Looks to be GNU content management software.

-Is this something that will reside on the server or will we need access to the designers workstation?

-If we can access whatever this guy set up with Joomla is it something that is
A) Simple (non techie with some coaching)
B) Moderate
C) Difficult
D) Depends on how the original designer set it up

Our website is relatively simple. It’s really only text and photos/graphics that need to be changed. If it was absolutely necessary, I could get in there with a text editor and get it updated but I would rather not. I’m hoping the content management software will allow me to quickly teach the marketing woman how to do it so I can wash my hands of the whole thing. I would do a little googling on my own but we’re having a meeting on the problems with the site first thing in the morning. I’m hoping someone here can give me a quick answer especially to the first question. I’ll keep looking on my own in the meantime. Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to reply.

2

It resides on the server.

It’s moderate to difficult, depending on whether the original web guy modified the system much.

Edit: In my opinion, it CAN be taught to non-techies, but Wordpress et al. are definitely simpler. Joomla is powerful and more complicated.

3

This. I’ve done Joomla sites in the past.

The 2 first issues in a case like this:

1 - Do you have the username/password for the host account where the web site is served from

2 - Is the domain in your name of his at the registrar.

If the answers are not good on this, and you have drama, you could have some non-technical problems indeed getting to the starting point and/or staying there.

I do the sort of web support you are looking at, I always make sure those 2 things are in place for my clients just to assure them there will not be drama. It is well worth the 100 dollars a year or less that such services cost to have in your own name just to avoid being held hostage if something like this happens.

Joomla is probably OK for what you are describing, but a matter of preference. For really simple (and lately, less simple sites) I have been using Wordpress instead, for more complex sites, Drupal instead. But Joomla is fine too if that is what he was into.

I can certainly get it back to the point where the marketing person can handle updates for you. Contact me via PM if you like.

4

Domain is registered to the company. That is all squared away. I’m concerned about the login for the host. I’m hoping his wife will be able to help us with that. I take it the interface is through a browser. Will joomla have its own login independent of the hosts? At least with the host we could try to negotiate a transfer or something. I’m assuming that if this guy ran off with the login for joomla there is no way we’ll be able to get at it.

Thanks everyone. I knew the Dope would work out better than me looking through the docs.

5

I think the default is http://(domain)/administrator to log in to the Joomla interface, but that could be changed. The login would be independent of (but possibly the same as) the host. It’s possible there are multiple users set up as well – if anyone at the company was previously able to log in to the site in any way, you might have them try to log in to that interface – if the person gave them sufficient permissions, that could work. I’d say it’s unlikely though – even if there were other users, it’s unnecessary (and not smart, anyhow) to give them that access level.

Joomla content is contained in a database and has lots of moving parts working together – it would be incredibly difficult if not impossible to update with a text editor.

6

I suppose I’m seeing the output when I view the source with a browser. Duh… Hadn’t considered that. Sounds like we might be OK if we can get all the login information.

Thanks again everyone.

7

Content Management Systems were invented to make it easy to update without knowing the technical stuff. I’ve installed Joomla, but lost interest quickly. Since it’s all set up and running already, you just need the login info and basic navigation (which should be pretty intuitive). If you can talk to the hosting company and secure yourself as the site admin, it should be easy for someone with Google-Fu to overwrite or reset the Joomla admin password.