A few months back I was tasked to find a CMS that was easy to use, easy to implement, and had a solid foundation. Initially I had push back to go with a “partner” CMS provider, but after dealing with that situation in the past, it was a no brainer for me to really stress the freedom adopting an opensource CMS would provide.

Initially I had Joomla! in my mind due to it’s success and popularity. I had followed the Joomla!/Mambo split and it seemed like they had a good thing going.

Upon installing Joomla! and getting my feet wet, I came to one blatent conclusion, the CMS is a mess for an advanced user. I definitely think Joomla! has it’s positives. Say I were a small business owner with a little bit of tech saavyness and I wanted to build my own website, Joomla! would be perfect. However, if I were a standards guy, which I am, I feel Joomla! strips the ability to write good clean XHTML. There is so much HTML dispersed throughout the application code that I spent more of my time stripping out code that writing new code. Joomla! is built in tables, and while tables work, no self-respecting CSS afficianado would feel comfortable working with it.

Enter CMS Made Simple. Where Joomla! provides all of the framework and makes flexibility in layout, design, and code impossible, CMS Made Simple lets you plug in the application code where it is necessary.

For instance, with Joomla!, after the initial install, one has to add a different stylesheet to apply to all of the CSS naming conventions they deem acceptable. For me, it wasn’t enough. I like building stuff in divs with classes and ids because it provides the hooks to really have flexibility in presentation. Obviously this isn’t a concern for the Joomla! team, however it is a concern for me.

The same initial setup scenario within CMS Made Simple works like this. Step one is to code your design with clean XHTML and CSS markup. Step Two is to put both the CSS and HTML into templates. Step three is to add the CMS Made Simple markup, which in its simplest form means adding a tag, {content} to the area your content goes. It is also possible to provide the depth of Joomla! through a plethora of modules provided by the CMS Made Simple community.

I have now developed enough sites in CMS Made Simple to have come to the conclusion that it’s much more flexible than Joomla! and the community behind it rocks.

I hope these guys keep doing that they do and I will continue to sing their praise.

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