We’ve always used Joomla as our blog platform of choice here at Alledia. People are always surprised by that, which is pleasing … it took a lot of work. We needed a whole variety of different extensions to create the normal features of a blog.
Because it requires quite a bit of effort, Joomla developers have long looked enviously at WordPress and the default blogging features it has. Several have tried to bridge WordPress into Joomla including MojoBlog. The latest and perhaps the most comprehensive is WordPress for Joomla by corePHP.com.
Installation
This was surprisingly easy. WordPress has been turned into com_wordpress and it installs directly from Joomla’s installer. Its a large file but installation simply consists of uploading the component – no extra plugins or uploads needed.
Comparing the Original WordPress to WordPress for Joomla
I haven’t done a full review of all the features of WordPress for Joomla – that really would be reinventing the wheel.
What I have done is carefully compare the original WordPress to the Joomla version. Essentially the differences are few:
- WordPress plugins and themes: they need modifications – often substantial – to work with WforJ..
- Widgets: All the default widgets are available. They’re placed into special “Sidebar modules” for Joomla. Sidebar1 is one module, Sidebar2 is another, Sidebar 3 is a fourth and so on. That means you can use all of WordPress’ normal widgets.
Those were the only two meaningful changes I found. Otherwise, WordPress have been moved into Joomla untouched – there’s been no Joomla-fication of the system. Here’s a comparison of the admin options in the two versions:
| Original |
W. for Joomla | Original |
W. for Joomla |
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Is it Worth Putting WordPress into Joomla?
This is a question that has been asked and you may be wondering about. My answer is … it depends.
- Cons – Plenty of Joomla template clubs make matching WordPress and Joomla so its easy to get a integrated design without this product.
- Pros – By integrating WordPress into Joomla people only need a single login to comment on posts.
- Cons – As with any bridge, you are essentially relying not only the developers of the two original products, but also the developer of the bridge.
- Pros – corePHP have done a great job with regular updates so far and the code is unecrypted should that change.
- Cons – The WordPress categories, tags, comments and RSS don’t integrate with Joomla so if you’re already tagging articles or allowing comments, this won’t work with your existing set-up.
- Pros – I’ve no real answer to that one. Just know in advance that you’re getting WordPress inside Joomla, not WordPress integrated into Joomla. However, content plugins can be enabled inside the blog.
A Better Blog Than Joomla Itself or a Native Extension?
We use default Joomla for this blog. How does WordPress for Joomla compare?
- Better: We’ve had to cobble our blog together using a variety of extensions. WordPress for Joomla ships with tags, multiple-categories, comments, RSS feeds, blog calendars … you name it, its an all-in-one package.
- Worse: Its simply more to learn. If you’re using this for a client, you need to teach them Joomla and then WordPress as well.
How about MyBlog from Azrul.com, which is a popular Joomla blogging extension?
- Better: As above, its just a more complete solution. It has multiple-categories, comments, blog calendars … you name it, its an all-in-one package.
- Worse: I definitely prefer the multi-user blogging capabilities of MyBlog as it visually much more closely integrated into Joomla and so easier for non-technical people. Each person can also have their own blog page. Finally there’s also more support for social networking extensions such as Community Builder and JomSocial (from the same developer).
Would I use WordPress for Joomla? Yes, absolutely. It has more features and options than any other blogging option for Joomla. I’d mainly use it on sites where:
- The blogger(s) don’t mind learning, or already know, both Joomla and WordPress.
- A single login is important.
- You’d like a lot more features than are available with default Joomla or other blog extensions.
This was a sponsored review. The developers were not paying for an opinion, only for our time to give the product a thorough testing. For more information about sponsored reviews, please click here.