Should I use joomla to build a dynamic website or just code it with regular php?

T

Tedflip

New member
Question says it all. I know a bit of basic php. I'm trying to build a home-business website (can't really say what it is to prevent my ideas from theft).

A lot of people recommend joomla for creating a dynamic website. I hear its good for forums, comment-chats/guestbooks, posting, email, registration, user-accounts, and much more. But is it more reliable then coding with regular plain php scripts? I really need a basic understanding of CSM...

I have a book on joomla, And I plan to start reading it soon (as soon as I finish getting the down basics of php).

To keep the question short, I just want to know if I should just use joomla to build my website. And I'd like to know if there are any popular websites currently using joomla (if anyone knows any, please send me a link/source).
 
The answer to your question depends on a lot of variables.

First... is how complex and unique is the functionality of your site. Does it just require a basic e-Commerce functionality or is there some sort of uniqueue customer interaction required. A system like Joomla is made for the masses, for most sites joomla or the extensions available for it can provide the functionality they need but if you have something truluniqueue you'll have program some functionality yourself at that point you may want to program it all.


Second.. Your skill level, you say you're pretty new to PHP, if you've been programing complex applications in other languages for years and are comfortable with HTML and css then programing yourself is probably morpracticalal. If you've never done anything of this scale regardless of the programing language then joomla can provide some valuable structure that will prevent some critical mistakes.


Also consider a third mid range option-- if you don't think Joomla can do what you need but you want some structure to make your code easier and more readable consider using a framework like zen or cakphp. Frameworks provide some extra methodlogy and functions that help you code complext sites.
 
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