How Open Source Software is Democratizing the Web: My Joomla Adventures.
Read on if you want to know how a web designer with no programming experience was able to create the RSS-fed news supersite ANewRelevance.com.
While you’re in the shower, lightning strikes and you have a great idea for a website (my best inspiration always seems to reveal itself in the shower). The problem is: 1) you don’t have the skills or don’t know how to create it and/or 2) you don’t have the budget to build it. What a family conundrum, your brilliant website idea is in disguise and you have nowhere to go. This summer I ran into the same situation.
First, a little history.
I am a self-proclaimed news, information and knowledge addict. I always want to know what is going on in the world and I always want to learn. In the past, that meant a lot of time hammering away at my keyboard with the TV on in the background. This was essentially hour upon hour of alternating Olberman, Maddow, Matthews, O’Reily, Hannity, Colbert, Stewart, SportsCenter… you get the picture.
I got married. That’s how this whole adventure started. I used to be single with plenty of time on my hands for my guy to channel surf. When I got married, I had to leave these friends behind, not to mention most of my stuff that didn’t make the cut from my old apartment. The interesting thing is that my wife watches more television than I do. The problem is that it’s a completely different line of programming: Bones, House, CSI you name it, and a LOT of reality shows. That’s when the challenge came: How am I supposed to know what’s going on in the world if I can’t watch my shows? Taking away my programming is like asking Derek Jeter to hit a game-winning home run with no thumbs. They were dark times.
I went to the internet.
I figured all the information I wanted is out there, it just won’t be wrapped up in the pretty little package I’ve known for all my years of being single. Every day would start the same way: start the ‘pute, log in, start Firefox and start the search. I would go site by site, trying to collect as much as I could about what was going on in the world around me: Drudge, Espn, TMZ, Fark, TechCrunch, etc.
Then came the idea:
What if I could put all the top headlines from my favorite sites on one page? Or better yet, put all the news you want in one place?
Then came the problem:
I’m a web designer but I’m not a programmer. That’s some serious functionality.
Then came the reality:
I can put together a beautiful site, but I’ve always dreaded the day when I have to learn how to access the backend and make things happen. Static site, of course. Dynamic site, well… serious times call for serious action.
The investigation began.
And the focus was primarily two-fold: 1) How is news delivered on the Internet? and 2) What are the best platforms to deliver it? I needed to find a way to create a dynamic site that would not only collect the news, but present it in a way that was easy to use, easy to navigate, and gave me direct access to the sites I included. Of course, I had no idea how this would be done, but after a considerable amount of searching, I discovered that there were numerous options, including open source software, that would meet my needs.
Some information about open source.
Open source software, simply put, is software that offers out-of-the-box ease of use, is almost fully customizable, and best of all, is free. You may have heard of a few: Ruby on Rails, Drupal, WordPress, Joomla. They offer functionality-rich features for things like site development, content management, and online publishing. If you care about aesthetics, there are thousands of themes (how the site looks) available to download or purchase for free. When it comes to functionality, hundreds of plugins and modules are also available. If you can think of it, there is probably a module or plugin for it. These downloads are also available at no cost. Basically you can build on the site on your own which would cost you thousands if you hired a developer.
With so many options, how do I do it?
It totally depends on what purpose you want your site to serve. What do you want your site to do? Who is your audience? If you want to build a community, you probably want to go the Drupal or Joomla route. Looking to do some eCommerce? Both offer solid options for eCommerce integration. You want to publish your work online, WordPress is a great solution. The bottom line is that you should take the time to do your research, find references, and determine which options will best fit your needs. For my needs, what Joomla.
Joomla
Currently, there is considerable debate about which software is better: Joomla or Drupal. Honestly, I say “six of a half dozen of the other”. They both “can skin the cat”, they just do it a little differently. In my experience, Joomla has been a good solution for me for many reasons:
– With no experience, the learning curve wasn’t too bad.
– Installation (remote server) relatively simple.
– The administrator/user interface is accessible and easy to use.
– The support community is strong.
– Available plugins and modules are plentiful and well documented.
If you choose Joomla, you can be sure that you will not be left out in the cold. The community of users and developers is large and continues to grow. It’s relevant software, and from everything I’ve read, it should be for quite some time.
The next step.
So I had decided on the software. I installed it, chose a theme, configured the database and backend, and chose a few modules and plugins that gave me the functionality I needed… except what’s new. This was the next big step. The reason I got into this mess in the first place. It needed news to be delivered, updated and published in real time. With some more searching I found my answer.
RSS Feeds
RSS, more commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”, are web feeds used to publish frequently updated works such as blogs, news headlines, audio, and video. Sites provide these feeds so that instead of having to check in frequently, updates are sent to you automatically. Basically, “they keep you informed”. There are numerous applications available that will deliver these fonts to your desktop. In my case, I needed to find a way to deliver them through my website. This was challenging because most of the options I found only supported a small number of fonts (1-3). Other than that, they weren’t open source, which meant that even if I did get the feeds running on my site, I wasn’t going to be able to configure them. hmff! More searching led me to…
Google AJAX Fonts API
At first, it seemed intimidating. The name just made me go “Hun?”. Basically, AJAX (short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) helps to create interactive web applications. This service, provided by Google, allows the user to easily create a set of custom feeds and integrate them into their site by simply copying and pasting the code generated by Google. This was the perfect solution. And again, it was free. After some more searching, I discovered that there was a module available for Joomla that would easily translate this service to my site’s pages. So I installed the module, fixed it (remember, you can do it open source), and achieved the desired results. My site was getting the news it wanted, but instead of the default 3 feeds per page, I got 12. My simple news site became a super news site. Aahhhh… success at last.
Now looking down from the top of the mountain…
I have to say it feels good. It would be handed to me not to give fair warning when warning is due. This project was a considerable challenge and required extreme patience, hard work, and MANY hours. But in the end, a small-town kid with no programming experience was able to create the site he dreamed of one morning in the shower. There is currently a revolution taking place on the world wide web: if you can dream it, you can make it happen. All the tools are available and all it will cost is your time. Open source software is definitely democratizing the web. Be brave and good luck.