We have been working with a client who has been using an ecommerce website that was originally using an Open Source script. That script was modified by their previous developer and the script is unrecognizable due to the functionality not being added according to how the script views modules and other additions.

We took on this client and are currently working with them to create a better site from it. The problem is that their website is a bigger maze than we originally though. Because of this we have had to adjust the deadline time and the launch date for the new website.

Keeping this situation in mind, any future issues of this sort would be handled differently. When you are dealing with a customized Open Source script you have no way of telling what work will need to be done. It is better to start from scratch, import the old database after making it compatible, and integrating the new design into it that way. By doing this you are working with an Open Source script that your developers know pretty well and do not have to “learn” new functions from foreign code. It would reduce the timeline for completion and the price of the project as well.

Joomla is a well known cms (content management system) and it is GPL licensed. If you are not familiar with GPL then you can read more at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

The GPL license means basically that the software is free to use and distribute as-is. It is used by many developers because the cms is already coded. It just needs to be customized to look like the client’s company brand.

The Joomla system uses what you call modules. These modules add to the functionality of the website. In Joomla, the modules allow you to add content on the website where you want it to display. Sometimes you come across an issue with a module where you would need to change the way it looks, or functions. For example, there is a module called ds-syndicate that provides advanced rss feed functionality to the Joomla system. Unfortunately it displays the dynamic url of the Joomla feed. We recently has a customer who needed that feed link to point to the rss from the integrated wordpress blog design that we created for them. In order to change that feed url we had to change the hard-coding of that module because the url is hard-coded as the standard Joomla rss url. The module admin would not allow us to change that dynamically. To do that we would have had to provide additional programming to customize that module.

To add new static content to the sidebar of Joomla we had to install an additional module which allows you to post any html code and place it where we wanted it. It is still called dynamically but it was not a standard module in the release of Joomla.

Joomla offers many modules that you can download and use. You just have to look for them sometimes. If you are a web developer then this will save you costs without sacrificing quality and allow you to pass the savings to the customer.

Comments

• October 16, 2008, Web designer writes: You have share good knowledge, i will tray it!
• November 11, 2008, Joomla Videos writes: We’ ve been doing a large number of custom Joomla development projects this year. Most of which seem to have a custom component that“ normal” developers just do not know how to develop for them.