Can Java CMS match the PHP ones?

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

Harshad Oak

Harshad Oak is the founder of Rightrix Solutions & IndicThreads. He is the author of 3 books and several articles on Java technology. For his contributions to technology and the community, he has been recognized as an Oracle ACE Director and a Sun Java Champion. Contact - harshad aT rightrix doT com & @HarshadOak

105 thoughts on “Can Java CMS match the PHP ones?

  • April 19, 2005 at 2:21 am
    Permalink

    PHP works and it is very simple. I agree.

    But simply saying that J2EE doesn’t work is not a fair sentence. You’re simply going against the entire industry, including commercial vendors and the open source community. Friend, it seems you like PHP so much. I like too, but don’t be so passionate. Life is bigger.

    Both PHP and J2EE have their places, like Python, Perl, etc. And they can live with each other.
    This is the kind of thing that place the open source initiative behind proprietary solutions.

    Please, let’s discuss the best use of each plataform/language to not berry J2EE and PHP in favor of MS .Net (even .Net has its territory).

    As a bottom line, there are good products written in J2EE, PHP and Python for the Portal/CMS arena. Their adoption depends mainly to the business requirements to address.

    Sincerely,

    Andre.

  • April 19, 2005 at 2:21 am
    Permalink

    PHP works and it is very simple. I agree.

    But simply saying that J2EE doesn’t work is not a fair sentence. You’re simply going against the entire industry, including commercial vendors and the open source community. Friend, it seems you like PHP so much. I like too, but don’t be so passionate. Life is bigger.

    Both PHP and J2EE have their places, like Python, Perl, etc. And they can live with each other.
    This is the kind of thing that place the open source initiative behind proprietary solutions.

    Please, let’s discuss the best use of each plataform/language to not berry J2EE and PHP in favor of MS .Net (even .Net has its territory).

    As a bottom line, there are good products written in J2EE, PHP and Python for the Portal/CMS arena. Their adoption depends mainly to the business requirements to address.

    Sincerely,

    Andre. 😉

  • April 19, 2005 at 2:21 am
    Permalink

    PHP works and it is very simple. I agree.

    But simply saying that J2EE doesn’t work is not a fair sentence. You’re simply going against the entire industry, including commercial vendors and the open source community. Friend, it seems you like PHP so much. I like too, but don’t be so passionate. Life is bigger.

    Both PHP and J2EE have their places, like Python, Perl, etc. And they can live with each other.
    This is the kind of thing that place the open source initiative behind proprietary solutions.

    Please, let’s discuss the best use of each plataform/language to not berry J2EE and PHP in favor of MS .Net (even .Net has its territory).

    As a bottom line, there are good products written in J2EE, PHP and Python for the Portal/CMS arena. Their adoption depends mainly to the business requirements to address.

    Sincerely,

    Andre.

  • April 15, 2005 at 7:47 pm
    Permalink

    Rather than relying on personal opinion, perhaps we should all watch the market. PHP based solutions are proliferating at an amazing rate. You have stated the reasons, and I agree with you. You gotta luv Java, but . . .

    Jim Cassidy
    http://jimcassidy.ca

  • April 15, 2005 at 7:47 pm
    Permalink

    Rather than relying on personal opinion, perhaps we should all watch the market. PHP based solutions are proliferating at an amazing rate. You have stated the reasons, and I agree with you. You gotta luv Java, but . . .

    Jim Cassidy
    http://jimcassidy.ca

  • April 11, 2005 at 8:29 pm
    Permalink

    Just perhaps try Jahia (www.jahia.org)… Looks like easy to install and quite ergonomic + includes both a portal and a CMS.

  • April 11, 2005 at 8:29 pm
    Permalink

    Just perhaps try Jahia (www.jahia.org)… Looks like easy to install and quite ergonomic + includes both a portal and a CMS.

  • April 8, 2005 at 11:00 pm
    Permalink

    With CMSes, it is either PHP CMS based site or no site.

    A very very minute number of software folk can manage to create and deploy a J2EE based site. While almost any software developer (even web designers) can create a PHP CMS based site, only a Java J2EE experienced person can create a J2EE based site. So the ratio might be 100:1 in favor of PHP.

    So PHP works. J2EE is super, amazing, awesome… but is doesn’t work 😉

  • April 8, 2005 at 11:00 pm
    Permalink

    With CMSes, it is either PHP CMS based site or no site.

    A very very minute number of software folk can manage to create and deploy a J2EE based site. While almost any software developer (even web designers) can create a PHP CMS based site, only a Java J2EE experienced person can create a J2EE based site. So the ratio might be 100:1 in favor of PHP.

    So PHP works. J2EE is super, amazing, awesome… but is doesn’t work 😉

  • April 7, 2005 at 10:00 pm
    Permalink

    I looked at PHP and Java, but found Plone to have much more flexibility and functionality

  • April 7, 2005 at 10:00 pm
    Permalink

    I looked at PHP and Java, but found Plone to have much more flexibility and functionality

  • March 24, 2005 at 1:30 am
    Permalink

    I have only looked cursory at Java CMS systems since there are so many PHP ones myself. I happen to be one of those small hosting companies you mention in my night job with my day job being a Java developer. It is interesting to note though that the company I work for is finalizing its selection of a commercial Java CMS to run on top of WebSphere and is JSR-170 compliant. I’ll let you know how it goes.

    Back to PHP, I have to agree completely about its ease. I started using it at first a bit reluctantly to build a dynamic site for a customer and I really like it now to the point that I almost wouldn’t mind building a ‘large’ app with it just to see it in action. With PHP’s growing support of OOP, template systems and such and the fact that it is just plain fast has me excited about it. It seems sometimes that the java community gets overly excited and into heated debates about frameworks and which is better and all that instead of just using what is appropriate for the job at hand. This is also happening with scripting in the java community.

    With IBM starting to support PHP via Zend and projects like SugarCRM coming along, maybe PHP will get a bigger piece of the pie.

    I personally like that you are using Mambo as I’m evaluating it also for building customer sites. I am working on one now that will be using IntegraMOD (built on phpBB), but I like Mambo’s potential.

    If you want to brag more about your use of Mambo, let me know as I would like to hear from real users.

    Robert
    [email protected]

  • March 24, 2005 at 1:30 am
    Permalink

    I have only looked cursory at Java CMS systems since there are so many PHP ones myself. I happen to be one of those small hosting companies you mention in my night job with my day job being a Java developer. It is interesting to note though that the company I work for is finalizing its selection of a commercial Java CMS to run on top of WebSphere and is JSR-170 compliant. I’ll let you know how it goes.

    Back to PHP, I have to agree completely about its ease. I started using it at first a bit reluctantly to build a dynamic site for a customer and I really like it now to the point that I almost wouldn’t mind building a ‘large’ app with it just to see it in action. With PHP’s growing support of OOP, template systems and such and the fact that it is just plain fast has me excited about it. It seems sometimes that the java community gets overly excited and into heated debates about frameworks and which is better and all that instead of just using what is appropriate for the job at hand. This is also happening with scripting in the java community.

    With IBM starting to support PHP via Zend and projects like SugarCRM coming along, maybe PHP will get a bigger piece of the pie.

    I personally like that you are using Mambo as I’m evaluating it also for building customer sites. I am working on one now that will be using IntegraMOD (built on phpBB), but I like Mambo’s potential.

    If you want to brag more about your use of Mambo, let me know as I would like to hear from real users.

    Robert
    [email protected]

  • March 23, 2005 at 3:21 pm
    Permalink

    Point taken. Yes, I have only discussed open source CMSs.

    Our experiments were pretty much restricted to the free and open-source options from both Java and PHP. If anybody wants to share some info about non open source CMSs, please do. U could ofcourse blog as part of the [URL=http://indicthreads.com/contest/140/Best_Java_Blogger.html]Best Java Blogger Contest[/URL].

    Also it would be good if you register and post your comment or at least state your name in the comment. Comments from real people instead of guests are more credible and fun.

  • March 23, 2005 at 3:21 pm
    Permalink

    Point taken. Yes, I have only discussed open source CMSs.

    Our experiments were pretty much restricted to the free and open-source options from both Java and PHP. If anybody wants to share some info about non open source CMSs, please do. U could ofcourse blog as part of the [URL=http://indicthreads.com/contest/140/Best_Java_Blogger.html]Best Java Blogger Contest[/URL].

    Also it would be good if you register and post your comment or at least state your name in the comment. Comments from real people instead of guests are more credible and fun.

  • March 23, 2005 at 2:37 pm
    Permalink

    I don’t agree with your statements.

    The deployment of a J2EE cms can be just as easy as a PHP one. All a user has to do is upload the war (tomcat) or ear (jboss) file to the webserver and the file is deployed by the Application Server.

    Installing a CMS on a database could work perfectly when it works with an XML file for the data.

    The argument that editing a PHP page is simpler isn’t true at all. In Java there are numerous template engines that are far superior to the ones in PHP. A template page in Java has the same structure as an XML document, so it’s editable with your favorite ascii editor.

  • March 23, 2005 at 2:37 pm
    Permalink

    I don’t agree with your statements.

    The deployment of a J2EE cms can be just as easy as a PHP one. All a user has to do is upload the war (tomcat) or ear (jboss) file to the webserver and the file is deployed by the Application Server.

    Installing a CMS on a database could work perfectly when it works with an XML file for the data.

    The argument that editing a PHP page is simpler isn’t true at all. In Java there are numerous template engines that are far superior to the ones in PHP. A template page in Java has the same structure as an XML document, so it’s editable with your favorite ascii editor.

  • March 23, 2005 at 2:25 pm
    Permalink

    You are not really talking about PHP vs Java CMS’s. You are talking about *OpenSource* CMS’s, and only that (it seems). Commercial Java CMS’s is a whole other story.

  • March 23, 2005 at 2:25 pm
    Permalink

    You are not really talking about PHP vs Java CMS’s. You are talking about *OpenSource* CMS’s, and only that (it seems). Commercial Java CMS’s is a whole other story.

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