Joomla vs Drupal: Part 3 (Modules/Extensions/Third-Party Stuff)

Both Joomla 1.5 and Drupal 6.2 have nice stable cores as content management systems, congratulation to both the communities that have made this the case, but what can really make you CMS based websites explode (in a good way) with functionality are add-on modules (in Drupalese) and extensions (in Joomlan) that can do anything from add a gallery feature to create all you need for a whole social networking-based website and everything in between and beyond.

An argument could be made that it is these modules and the communities that make them are what really make these two platforms worth using for the non-programmer type. Without these modules these CMS would be nothing more than blogging software at the most and fancy website making tools at the least.

For both Platforms there are communities of developers who make the add-ons, some are free (many are) some are modestly priced.
So which platform, Joomla 1.5 or Drupal 6.x, is going to get you where you want to go.

Availability of Modules/Extensions - Winner: Joomla
Drupal: 2 Joomla: 4.5

As of this writing Joomla wins hands down. Why? Three main reasons:

1) Joomla apparently has a larger and more active third-party development community
2) More more more to choose from,
3) More to choose from because of the “Legacy Mode” Plug-in that allows Joomla 1.5 to run some Joomla 1.x extensions.

Joomla extensions are very well organized on Joomla.org and very well labeled for their compatibility with Joomla 1.5, Joomla 1.x, or both.

For Joomla 1.5 extension can be either “1.5 Native” which means it runs and is build for Joomla 1.5 or it can be “1.5 Legacy.” What this means is that the extensions was originally created for Joomla 1.x but will (or SHOULD) run on Joomla 1.5 with the Legacy Plug-in enabled.

Huh, gobbledygook. In plain English there is a setting in Joomla 1.5 that can turn on Legacy Mode which I guess is just the activation of code to make 1.5 properly run extension made for Joomla 1.x THAT have been modified by the developer enough to be compatible (i.e. don’t think that you can just turn on legacy mode and all extension made for Joomla 1.x will work on you site, save yourself the headache and don’t try that).

Legacy mode is a tricky and precarious thing but from what I read on the boards it causes the most problems for people and extensions when people are upgrading from 1.x to 1.5 and have several extensions added on to their Joomla site that need to be supported on 1.5.

You shouldn’t have many problems if you have to run legacy mode on a new installation of 1.5. I have installed the community builder module which is legacy mode compatible with out significant problems.

Drupal has some great modules but at this time you will find yourself reading through the list on drupal.org going “Sweet module…aw damn it’s not for 6.x”

Installation of Modules/Extensions - Winner: Joomla (barely)
Drupal: 3.7 Joomla: 4

So this speaks more to the quality of the extensions available and the many variables that may cause of a module to have installation issues. I’ll speak more on those variable in the next section but for now I’ll concentrate on the actual installation.

The actual installation of Joomla Extension is easier only because you can directly install them through the back-end admin interface and you don’t even have to unzip/uncompress them after you download them (this is very nice).

Drupal modules (as far as I have experienced) have to be unzip/uncompressed and then installed into the directory structure of your site. It is easy enough to do over an ftp connection (the folder is called “modules”) it is just extra steps that the novices may not be comfortable with.

Basically it is pretty easy to install modules on both platforms. It really is not that bad.

Getting Modules/Extension to Work Right- Winner: Drupal
Drupal: 4 Joomla: 3

Once installed getting them module/extension to work is another game all together.

I highly recommend with Joomla extensions reading the reveiws of the extensions on Joomla.org. This will give a good idea of what kind of problems people are having and how widespread the the issue is and how easy it is to fix. These reviews will also give you an idea of how responsive the third-party developer is to making changes in the extension code to make it more usable if people are having problems. This goes for free and extension that may cost you $$.

And again don’t forget to look at the “Joomla 1.5 Native” and Joomla 1.5 Legacy” compatibility before you download and try to install. Don’t be afraid to read reviews for Joomla 1.x extension, something might catch your eye and maybe a 1.5 version is in development.

Now comes the reason for the low score on Joomla extensions, they can be fickle things. You may get module installed, turn it on (”enable” it) and it might hum great. Then you find a great new template and mysteriously you extension (or parts thereof) doesn’t work on that template. Then you are in a situation where you’re having to hunt down the solution and try and figure out is it the template or is it the module. Most of the time I resign myself the fact that is a just like a bad relationship, both are great, they just don’t work together, so I have to chose…template or module.

With Drupal I have yet to have a problem with getting a module to work as advertised but again, do your research on the front-end don’t just install modules because they sound cool and say they do what you want.
Drupal modules are more scarce but those that are compatible with 6.x are pretty stable and of higher quality ON AVERAGE. Please don’t misinterpret that, there are many many high quality Joomla extension but there are also many more crappy and buggy ones. Do your research!
I have also found that if you have problem 95% of the time someone else has had the same problem and it is on a forum, either on the joomla and druapl websites or on the forum of the developer.
The take home message are these:

1) Do your research before you install. If you see a lot of people have had a lot of problems and are trying to do what you are trying to do, you might want to steer clear of that module/extension or at least prepare yourself for the fact that it might not work or require some tweaking.
2) Be aware that your favorite extension in Joomla and your new favorite template may not play as well together as Hannity and Combs (and that is saying a lot). And for the none political minded, they may not play as well together as Duke and UNC (or the Yankees and Boston or the Israelis and Palestinians, you get the idea).

Summary

Joomla 1.5 is going to give a greater variety and availability of extensions and add-ons AND the pipeline looks better too with an active community and lots of Joomla 1.x extension that hopefully will make the jumps to 1.5. However, woe be unto the Joomla user that installs modules willy-nilly without reading the reviews first.
Drupal 6.2 is has fewer modules available and the pipeline seems a bit slower to get 5.x modules ready for 6.x. However, what does make it to 6.2 is probably going to give you fewer headaches and be very stable.