The document discusses using the content management system (CMS) Joomla in the Army hosting environment. It argues that Joomla is well-suited for Army use because it is popular, has a strong community, is easy to deploy and use, and is cost-efficient. It considers other CMS options like Drupal, WordPress, Movable Type, and SharePoint but concludes they are not as appropriate. The document provides details on what Joomla is and considerations for using it in the Army, such as security, staffing and training needs. It outlines steps to roll out an Army Joomla site, including getting started, security best practices, and templating guidelines.

1. Enlisting Joomla!
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Using the Joomla CMS in the Army Hosting Environment
by Kane McLean
Military Open Source Working Group
OSFA | MIL-OSS WG2 | 03 AUG 2010

2. Why Joomla!
● Immensely popular
● Strong, Well Organized Community
● Thoughtful, forward-thinking leadership
● Easy to Deploy, Use and Train Users
● Easily Repeatable = Cost Efficient
Why Not Something Else
● Why Not Drupal?
○ Strong CMS, but very complex
○ Designed for high number of back-end users
○ Not yet in use in the Army
○ Smaller, less active community
● Why Not Wordpress?
○ Great, User-Friendly CMS, but very simple
○ Designed for limited back-end users
○ Conditionally CoN'd in the Army
○ Very active community built around blogging paradigm
● Why Not Movable Type?
○ Strong in high-traffic
○ Poor Documentation
○ Not at use in the Army
○ Very Weak community
● Why Not SharePoint?
○ Wrong Tool for the Job. Collaboration is NOT Publishing
○ Potential of Mixing public information with private collaboration information
○ SP is slow, unwieldy and unfriendly
● Why Not Use PowerPoint?
○ BECAUSE POWERPOINT'S "PUBLISH TO WEB" ISN'T EVEN GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOUR
KID'S KINDERGARTEN CLASS PAGE NOW ADAYS.
○ Need Clarification? Re-Read the above statement.
What is Joomla!
● One of the most popular Content Management Systems in the World.
● Downloaded over 15 million times (now averaging 20,000 per day).
● Approx 2 million sites openly using Joomla.
● Used more often than Drupal (which runs whitehouse.gov) and Movable Type
● Garden industry built around theming -- The Template Club
● Over 200,000 contributors at joomla.org
Project has been around over a decade
OSFA | MIL-OSS WG2 | 03 AUG 2010

3. Considerations for Using Joomla
● DoD Security
○ Approval to Use Joomla
○ Waiver? (CIO-G6 has assumed initial risk for running Joomla, so in some hosting environments
a waiver is all that is needed.)
○ CoN? (Certificate of Networthiness)
● Staffing and Training
○ Do you have Administrators?
○ Do you have Editors?
○ Do you have Content Contributors?
○ Are you prepared to train, support, and trust them.
Enlisting Joomla! in the Army
● Is Joomla Right for the Job?
○ Need for true timely publishing?
○ Need for non-technical administration
○ Need to manage a lot of content
● What Environment
○ Open environment or behind AKO?
○ Completely public (Open-Gov or CAC protected?)
* Milforge - currently working to get Joomla checked into milforge so that all of DoD can use it.
Rolling-Out an Army Joomla! Site
● Getting Started:
○ Right Environment = LAMP
○ Get appropriate approval (CoN, Waiver, etc.)
○ Information Architecture (Organize your site’s content and menus WELL)
● Security
○ Security: FOLLOW THE JOOMLA SEC CHECKLIST (docs.joomla.org/
Category:Security_Checklist).
○ Never Use the Default Database Prefix
○ You will NOT be able to install all the latest patches as they come out
● Templating
○ Templating should be well written and cross-browser comlpiant (yes, IE6 too).
○ Handle All Presentation Layer Items IN THE TEMPLATE. (Use template overrides)
○ Validate you theme (CSS, XHTML, etc.) to verify that you’re 508 compliant.
○ Train admins, authors, etc. on 508 issues they WILL encounter. THEY CAN RUIN 508
compliance.
OSFA | MIL-OSS WG2 | 03 AUG 2010