My first attempt at moving some static website to Joomla, a Content Management System (CMS).
I started this project in December 2016 and abandoned it a few months later. For details on the 2020 project – see this post: Migrating to WordPress.
The goal was to convert two existing website from static pages to a dynamic site. The two sites are the World Wide Foreign Travel Club and My Village Club. Currently the two sites are made up of static pages and are maintained using Web Page Maker. This software was last updated in 2014.
I choose Joomla for a variety of reasons. But mainly because it is free and there are numerous extensions and plug-ins. I felt more comfortable with it than with WordPress, the largest Free platform.
To get started quickly, and to test out some features I created a free website on joomla.com. This blog is an example of what you can do. I created two websites, both of which have been deleted.
• paluszak.joomla.com – a personal blog which contains real data and my articles.
• paluszakdemo.joomla.com – a demo site that was loaded with sample data. This allows me try try out changes and features and to see how sample features were configured.
Using Joomla.com – A Free 3rd Party Web Host
Joomla.com has been replaced with https://launch.joomla.org/ – so some of the comments may no longer apply.
For the two websites I created on joomla.com I used the Blue Blog template. I did run across a few problems. Using the free accounts, the email feature won’t work. So you can’t use the contact page. I disabled Contact on the menu.
Installing extensions on Joomla.com
Also the installation of 3rd party templates and extensions is NOT allowed on the free Joomla.com infrastructure. However, a number of pre-installed extensions are provided.
The provider has a Google Maps plug-in. But I don’t have a need to embed any maps into my blog. Will revisit if I ever do. Using this hosting service does allow some playing with design and templates, but is limited, but a great place to get started before having a self-hosted website.
Other posts on this project (I did not migrate these posts to this WordPress Site)
- Google Analytics on a Joomla Website
- Disqus in a Joomla Framework
- Social Media Buttons in a Joomla Framework – failed on joomla.com hosting service
- Linking my other Social Media accounts to this blog – Joomla Framework
- Learning the Joomla Framework
Revision History
- February 1, 2017, original post
- July 4, 2020, updated with migration to WordPress