Continuing with our movement to truly collaborate with as many Joomla developers as possible, we were sent a test copy of corePHP's WordPress MU for Joomla! For the unacquainted, this is a full version of WordPress INSIDE Joomla! for those who want the best blog software inside the most versatile CMS.
Installation
I tested on a local MAMP install and the install process was timing out, so I checked the filesize - 2.5mb :) That'll do it. This makes sense, since the component contains WordPress (duh). So I just unpacked in the tmp directory and installed from a directory and bam, the install worked in a snap.
At the end of the installed, you're instructed to move a couple of key files for WordPress to work properly. I wish there was a link, but that's just because I'm lazy. I like that it wasn't automated, because I like to know when files are being moved into these particular directories.
I think clicked the link to Start Blogging, and pow, I'm in the WordPress admin. I fully expected this, but it's still crazy at first. As a side note and time for a plug, using our AdminPraise2 Joomla! admin template with the WordPress inspired theme would really provide a seamless admin experience.
First Impressions
I clicked the link to preview my blog, and was taken to my Joomla! site, with a fully functional, fully integrated WordPress blog, and I'm severely impressed. I created a Joomla! menu item, where you can enter the ID of which blog you'd like displayed (since you can have multiple in WordPress MU), and there's my site's blog!
You can quickly add a new blog for a new user, as the Joomla! users are synced with WordPress.
Additional Extensions
corePHP gives you an entire slew of modules including tags, latest, and several others. They also included every native WordPress plugin you could possibly need. Lastly, they've included JomSocial plugins that will give your community the ability to have their own WordPress powered blog, sweet! I didn't get to test the JomSocial plugins, but I'm sure it shows latest blog activity on the users' JomSocial profile, and adds blog activity into the JomSocial activity stream.
Issues
I can't give a perfect review of anything, it's just not genuine (or in my nature). The only conflict I found was that the frontend layout for WordPress MU for Joomla! shares some common IDs used in Joomla! templates, such as "content" and "navigation". These are commonly used in any layout from any CMS, so I'm sure they're included as they would be in any WordPress layout, but to work well inside Joomla! they'd need names like "wp-content" and "wp-navigation". This would take 2 seconds for the end user to fix, so it's certainly not a show-stopper, but I could see a customer getting stumped and possibly confused for a moment.SuperBlog
With about 5 minutes of CSS love, I was able to get WordPress MU by corePHP working with our SuperBlog template. Not bad if I do say so myself.
Pricing
$79.95 for Single Blog, $99.95 for MU (as tested), $420.95 for 6 Site License
Rating
- Best blog software inside the best CMS
- Superb integration (frontend and backend)
- All the extensions you'll need
- Price point may be high for some
- Possible (tiny) template conflicts
Update - New WordPress MU Quick Icons Admin Module!
We enjoyed our testing so much, we've gone ahead and created a new WP Icons admin module, with quicklinks to all the pages in the WordPress admin. Just like the AP Icons in AdminPraise2, it contains all the links with the ability to hide, or display to Manager & above, Administrator & above, or only Super Admins. Look for lots more of these types of modules from us soon!
Here's a couple of screenshots of WP Icons in AdminPraise2 (WordPress theme) and the default admin template:
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