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Can Java CMS match the PHP ones?

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One question that keeps being asked about IndicThreads.com is that how
come you are running on PHP when you are supposed to be a Java J2EE
portal?

Honestly, we would have loved to be on Java and be able to experiment on the site using Java software and also keep generating in house articles about how we manage IndicThreads using X component and how we upgraded to Y server and so on.

However going with a Java Content Management
System (CMS) wasn’t the best option for us at the time we launched and I am not sure if it still is.? While creating IndicThreads, we tried out and compared several CMSs from the Java as well as the PHP stable. Based on those learnings, below is an attempt to list some of the points that I think make PHP CMSs a better choice than the Java ones:

  • Evolved:
    The PHP CMSs seemed far more evolved. Mambo, PostNuke, Drupal all have huge communities and have been around for quite some time. They are also running on thousands of sites and so are very well tested.
  • Ease of Use:
    PHP CMSs are remarkably easy to use. In 15 minutes time, even a PHP illiterate person can get a site going . I doubt if that can be done with a Java CMS.
  • Hosting:
    Java hosting is not only costly but it is also a specialized segment. Not many hosting providers understand how Java J2EE web applications are deployed. Apache + PHP is so common that even the small hosting companies are good at it and can fix issues in no time.
  • Sleek:
    Some Java CMSs are 10 times bigger and more complex than the popular PHP ones. If you know HTML, you can more or less figure out how a PHP CMS is working. That also makes tweaking the CMS a fairly simple task.
  • Community:
    The community? around Java is one of its strong points but PHP CMS also have huge community bases and so getting help from fellow users is simple.
  • Non Issues:
    Even if we presume that PHP cannot match Java in terms of scalability, object orientation…. it wouldn’t matter much to most website creators. Having a good, simple, feature rich, easy to host and maintain site, are the things that matter most.

As of today, the PHP CMSs seem to have convincingly beaten the Java ones.

Maybe while the Java world was engaged in talking of high end, super techie stuff, with the words ‘enterprise’, ‘transactions’ and ‘SOA ‘embedded in every sentence, the PHP guys actually went out and created a lot of simple yet very useful software.

>> PHP CMS: http://www.opensourcecms.com/
>> Java CMS: http://java-source.net/open-source/content-managment-systems

Written by Content Team on March 21, 2005     Print Print
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  • Kishantha Nanayakkara
    Now Liferay Portal has improved a lot and does a better job as a Java CMS/WCM. The beauty is you can write
    the plugins and extension to the portal in other languages like PHP or Ruby.

    Contact me:
  • Anonymous
    Hello,

    I'm a java developer, but i am actually using php cms. In my opinion, no language can beat PHP CMS.
  • info@melenti.org
    Hello to everybody, we have been working for few months on the core for a new JAVA JEE CMS a copy of joomla in functionality, we have been using PHP cms Joomla for a long time , but when it comes to high traffic and scalability php its no good. We decided to port this EASY TO USE of PHP into a GWT CMS with a simple ADMINISTRATION and installation, we already have code available in Source forge and we would like you to help us build this simple CMS, AND WCM , hope you can join and help us , bye Adrian Cadena , www.melenti.org
  • GUEST
    I recommend you using a real Perl CMS portal. WebAPP is open source and written in the original Perl language (CGI) easy to maintain and develop. You can download it here: http://www.web-app.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi

    my2cents
    www.web-app.net
  • GUEST
    Check out javacms.com
    It has the list of all companies that have cms built on Java platform
  • 'Guest'
    Check out www.rimuhosting.com quite cheap
  • SamuelElliot
    Let's start looking at the picture up close. PHP vs. Java is like asking do you want a hamburger or a hot dog. Both will feed your appetite, some people just proffer one over the other, no matter what you do to convince them that the other is better their opinion is their opinion.

    If you read the majority of the postings, you will see ~ the same stance. One is better than the other in different areas. Be it that one is more advertised and marketed to large scale companies, and most companies think that no-cost solutions fail; and that a lot of the IT departments out there are looking for job security, you can't look a solution in the face and spit! Or can you?

    Java has been marketed for just about as long as the Internet has been, in one way or another. PHP on the other hand is still in it's infancy, but not really!! It's age vs. it's maturity is the question. Java and PHP together is a really beautiful thing. PHP has functionality for incorporation of Java!

    Let's look at the other problem, blind statements made by people that just don't know for themselves - mainly because they are just ignorant of the facts! Just as Java is extensible so is PHP. PHP is beautiful but so is Java, the Yen & the Yang!

    The lack of variable constraints is a good thing.... less code and faster processing. If you need to do a variant comparison... do it.

    How many people that have used M$ Front Page have you heard state 'I know how to write HTML!' That is exactly the same reason you see a lot of poorly implemented PHP applications... it's cheep, readily available, and you don't need to study for months to be a novice. PHP is defiantly a mix of both worlds simplicity and power... SIMPLICITY AND POWER!!! Sorry just trying to get my point across.

    Instead of bashing the other guy, try to understand (and of course I don't know what I'm talking about) they are both great, girls just do everything better than guys do! Duh. That was taught in grade school.

    --- Just take the two week challenge. If after two weeks you don't like the results, contact us for a full money back guarantee...

    Sarcasm Extra!
  • 'GuestProgrammer'
    My little opinion
    Java must be huge(A LOT) & complex (not so much) cause a lot of software & hardware industry have to 'dig money' from it. But most times this is not the right solution for simple problems (in this case, simple = a norma ecommerce site, complex = bank systems, integrated with crm and other thinks like this :) ) Php works great in this cases.
    Bye
  • 'Guest'
    PHP lacks simple things like namespaces, basic error checking
    How do you deal with php when it comes to namespace ?
    Do you include your SS or secret code in front of every class to make sure none of the other class you are sharing with your co-workers or open source libraries have the same name as yours?

    What happens when by accident you mistype a variable and php just creates it at the spot?
    How do you deal with not having variable types? That makes your comparisons hard to spot for errors.
    Not to mention, how do you deal with huge volume and the need for true clustering and object synchronization. Try to achieve that with PHP.
    PHP is fast but the amount of coding time you save you spent it on debugging it stupid error that the language does not provide for you.
    I deal with large PHP projects but every time I switch to JAVA for some other project it makes it hard to switch back to PHP.
  • 'Guest'
    Hello all,

    I have been looking around recently for a decent content management system and to be honest there is nothing that matches what I consider to be a true CMS.

    For me a CMS basically a database for storing content. I want to keep images in there, I want to associate word documents with them that describe the design brief for that document, I want to store contracts (with versioning), PDFs I want it all in there.

    Then I want different applications that allow access to this content. An internal application for adding and updating content (providing the user has correct permissions). Plugins to word, photoshop etc that allow me to save directly into the CMS. A web site with dynamic that can take the the content, latest approved articles etc and display them on the public web site.

    From what I have seen most system are based on managing web content. Building web page templates and fillinf them with the managed content.

    I want something bigger and I'm not sure that this can be provided by a php solution. For me this needs to be done in an Enterprise Enironment, i.e. J2EE.

    Having said that I now wait to be shot down ;-)

    regards
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