Integrate wordpress Blog In Joomla Website

Add Your Rating:

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

Loading ...

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Chris Burns

wordpress and joomla For many the choice between Joomla! and WordPress comes down to personal knowledge. Many people will be inclined to stick with one or the other when it comes to website design simply because they spent so much time learning and perfecting the software and don’t want to bother to learn the other. Joomla! in particular has a fairly steep learning curve for the novice or part time programmer. For those already well versed in WordPress and simple PHP Joomla! may not take quite as long to get the hang of.

We have been using Joomla! primarily for website developement because of the advantages it offers with regard to content display. The main problem we have run into is that it does not offer a robust blogging system that can come close to the speed, flexibility, and robustness of WordPress. To remedy the situation we have learned how to completely integrate WordPress into a Joomla! website installation so that you can get the best of both worlds!

Before getting into detail about how this is done it’s important to understand exactly what Joomla! and WordPress should are best at. For basic sites or Blogger only sites one may not even need to bother with Joomla! as WordPress has evolved into a fairly sophisticated CMS in it’s own right, however it still is not as complete in this regard as Joomla!

Joomla! is probably the best CMS (content management system) available to designers today. Because it is open source it has support from thousands of talented programmers that have added to the core functionality of Joomla! in what seems to be a never ending variety fo ways. Joomla! is a module based templated CMS platform. This is where it shines over WordPress as Content can be placed in any of the preset module positions that are designed for both static and dynamic content. There are many pre-made templates available for free that allow unbelievable flexibility in the way that content can be displayed through your web portal.

joomla administration Additional functionality such as community management, message boards, ecommerce, rating systems, twitter interations, facebook integrations, etc.. are all very simple upgrades for a Joomla! installation. Once one fully understands the incredible power of the CMS platform, the ease with which it is manipulated and added to is incredible. Designers are free to make custom templates and easily port WordPress or basic HTML websites into Joomla! templates. All of these features mentioned are free to anyone with the time and the talent to learn how to master Joomla!

Joomla!, for all it’s great flexibility still has some shortcomings. One of the most obvious shortcomings is it’s inability to produce a serious blogging platform that would rival WordPress. There are several plugins available that try to provide blogging integration for Joomla, but the only one that even attempts to rival WordPress is still in beta and is not free.

wordrpress blog WordPress has long been known to be the king of blogging software. Many people today use WordPress to manage their entire website. WordPress is complete capable of being used in this way. In the future we expect that WordPress will be developed to rival Joomla! in it’s ability to be used as a complete and fully functional CMS. For the time being WordPress is limited in it’s ability to fully function as a dynamic web portal in the way that Joomla! is. Today one can setup a complete website designed using wordpress software complete with static web pages and Blogging functionality, even ecommerce and more. WordPress is faster and more lightweight that Joomla! which is always a plus for a web design. When it comes to a fully functional Blogging system there is no match… WordPress is king.

If you are looking to build yourself a small site or one that is geared specifically toward being a Blog, then this article may not be for you since a pure WordPress installation will be just fine for your needs. If you require the full functionality of Joomla! for your website deign, but still want to have the power of WordPress Bloggings software integrated into your website design… then please read on!

The best part of both Joomla! and WordPress is that they are both free open source software. Anyone with the skills to master the software can design stunning websites completely free of charge. This is why both of these softwares are so popular around the world today.

wordpress administration

There are many plugins that will provide blogging features for a Joomla! website, but some people require more!

In order to install WordPress onto a Joomla! installation we recommend installing the software into a subdirectory such as yourwebsite.com/blog. This will ensure that none of your Joomla! files will be conflicting with the WordPress files.

Once the WordPress files are complety installed simply continue to setup the WordPress installation as you would any normal WordPress install.

Now you will have access to the WordPress blog by visiting your blog URL at mywebsite.com/blog. You can customize the WordPress template through your admin section of your WordPress installation. Customizing the WordPress installation to match your Joomla! website may be the most challenging part for people that are not well versed in PHP code and website design. You may need the assistance of a professional in order to exactly match the WordPress template to your Joomla! website template. For an experiened website designer however, this will only take a short while to complete. If you need assistance with this please contact us. We will write a tutorial on how to completely customize the default WordPress template to match ANY Joomla! template in the near future. In the meantime please contact us directly if you need asssistance.

Once the WordPress installation has been made to look like the rest of your website (by modifying the header.php,index.php,footer.php,single.php, and comments.php files in the WordPress themes folder) you simply have to link the mywebsite.com/blog URL as an external link in your Joomla! menu.

Now you have the best of both worlds. A Joomla! website that is completely integrated with a powerful WordPress blog.

You can customize the WordPress blog with your favorite widgets and plugins just as you would any other WordPress installation. We highly recommend submitting a second Sitemap to Google Webmaster tools for your Blog since you will already have one for your main Joomla! website content.

Sit back and start enjoying the benefits of a well optimized website and powerful Blogging software which will help you in your efforts of dominating your market!

Example Joomla/Wordpress Blog Integrations:

http://www.burnseo.com/blog
http://fivestarsmortgage.com/blog
http://www.nfmmortgage.com/blog
http://www.harddmoneyloans.com/blog

If you liked this Article, you might also like:

http://highrockmedia.com/ High Rock Media

For true Joomla – WordPress integration, I like using a Joomla 1.5 component from CorePHP http://tr.im/viBP which actually integrates users as well as look and feel with a one click install, it’s that simple. It’s well worth the 89 bucks, save yourself some time and effort.
http://highrockthemes.com Dan

For true Joomla – WordPress integration, I like using a Joomla 1.5 component from CorePHP http://tr.im/viBP which actually integrates users as well as look and feel with a one click install, it’s that simple. It’s well worth the 89 bucks, save yourself some time and effort.
http://www.burnseo.com/ admin

Dan,

There are a couple of pay modules for Joomla that will integrate WordPresss such as the one you mentioned. They all require customization to make them integrate with your Joomla website anyway. Why not just do it yourself for free!

From the site you linked: Note: Most themes will need some edits to work inside of Joomla!
http://www.burnseo.com admin

Dan,

There are a couple of pay modules for Joomla that will integrate WordPresss such as the one you mentioned. They all require customization to make them integrate with your Joomla website anyway. Why not just do it yourself for free!

From the site you linked: Note: Most themes will need some edits to work inside of Joomla!
http://highrockmedia.com/ High Rock Media

I actually use the CorePHP component on a few sites and it literally saves me hours of coding and customization. As I mentioned it’s a one click install that gives you a WordPress full install and theme which inherits the look and feel of your Joomla site.

For me the 89.00 is well worth it and it works great, you have the WordPress interface right inside the Joomla admin after a click of the mouse, you never need to leave Joomla to do anything in WordPress.

The Joomla admin user is immediately recognized as the WordPress admin right after installation.
http://highrockthemes.com Dan

I actually use the CorePHP component on a few sites and it literally saves me hours of coding and customization. As I mentioned it’s a one click install that gives you a WordPress full install and theme which inherits the look and feel of your Joomla site.

For me the 89.00 is well worth it and it works great, you have the WordPress interface right inside the Joomla admin after a click of the mouse, you never need to leave Joomla to do anything in WordPress.

The Joomla admin user is immediately recognized as the WordPress admin right after installation.
http://compareonlinetrading.net/ CityTrader

This is the first free method I’ve seen that integrates a WordPress Blog into Joomla.
http://compareonlinetrading.net/ CityTrader

This is the first free method I’ve seen that integrates a WordPress Blog into Joomla.
http://cmsthemer.com/ Joomla Template

nice template, good job.. i also doing template in joomla and its fun working with it..
http://cmsthemer.com Joomla Template

nice template, good job.. i also doing template in joomla and its fun working with it..
http://www.interchange-designs.com/ Cheap SEO

Nice job Chris. You are exactly right about the fact that Joomla is the ultimate website tool. It is really something that improves the user interaction with the website but can be difficult to work with if you aren’t quite advanced with its features and coding languages.

However, WordPress is mainly a blogging CMS but simplier to use. But when placed together, it can become a major player. Nice article. Passing it along.
http://www.interchange-designs.com Cheap SEO

Nice job Chris. You are exactly right about the fact that Joomla is the ultimate website tool. It is really something that improves the user interaction with the website but can be difficult to work with if you aren’t quite advanced with its features and coding languages.

However, WordPress is mainly a blogging CMS but simplier to use. But when placed together, it can become a major player. Nice article. Passing it along.
http://john.serra.us John Serra

I have been playing with the new K2 component (http://k2.joomlaworks.gr/) for joomla 1.5. It actually seems like a very promising alternative to having to embed wordpress into joomla. Being a joomla component, K2 will use the template that you have chosen for your site, so there are no extra modifications necessary.
.-= John Serra´s last blog ..Windows Dosya İndirme Penceresi =-.
http://www.johnwserra.com John Serra

I have been playing with the new K2 component (http://k2.joomlaworks.gr/) for joomla 1.5. It actually seems like a very promising alternative to having to embed wordpress into joomla. Being a joomla component, K2 will use the template that you have chosen for your site, so there are no extra modifications necessary.
.-= John Serra´s last blog ..Windows Dosya İndirme Penceresi =-.
Frudo

Hello Chris,

You have done nice job.I like you way to integrate WordPress Blog into Zoomla.I agree with your ideas.
Frudo

Hello Chris,

You have done nice job.I like you way to integrate WordPress Blog into Zoomla.I agree with your ideas.
http://highrockmedia.com/ High Rock Media

John, agreed, K2 is really nice I had tried a beta a while back and it wasn’t quite ready for prime time but I believe many of the bugs have been worked out. Also nice from JoomlaWorks is Super Blogger.
http://highrockthemes.com Dan

John, agreed, K2 is really nice I had tried a beta a while back and it wasn’t quite ready for prime time but I believe many of the bugs have been worked out. Also nice from JoomlaWorks is Super Blogger.
Zmurringo

Good work, it is much pleasure to read your interesting posts
regards zmurringo
Zmurringo

Good work, it is much pleasure to read your interesting posts
regards zmurringo
joomla themes

Really awesome post about joomla themes. A+ to this post. thanks for posting.ly awesome post about joomla themes. A+ to this post. thanks for posting.
joomla themes

Really awesome post about joomla themes. A+ to this post. thanks for posting.ly awesome post about joomla themes. A+ to this post. thanks for posting.
http://teeniac.info/ teinby

thank you! I really liked this post!
http://teeniac.info teinby

thank you! I really liked this post!
http://www.lacrews.com Mark Crews

Thanks for the post. I currently have a website that uses the corephp wordpress component. When I set joomla to SEO friendly URLs my wordpress blog no longer filters categories. Any idea why?
http://www.lacrews.com/ Mark Crews

Thanks for the post. I currently have a website that uses the corephp wordpress component. When I set joomla to SEO friendly URLs my wordpress blog no longer filters categories. Any idea why?
http://highrockmedia.com/ High Rock Media

Mark, this is a nice overview of SEF and CorePHP / WordPress for Joomla:

http://vimeo.com/5618897

Dan
http://www.highrockmedia.com/ Dan

Mark, this is a nice overview of SEF and CorePHP / WordPress for Joomla:

http://vimeo.com/5618897

Dan
Joomla Develpor

Really it is new for me. I never heard about this me. Thanks for such a post.
Joomla Develpor

Really it is new for me. I never heard about this me. Thanks for such a post.
Seth

Hello, I am currently working on a website for a friend and I’m almost done with the theme integration, but I hit a snag. The Main menu… It will be the only menu in the blog taken from Joomla and I don’t really know how to integrate it. Do I just install WordPress into the same MySQL database as Joomla so I can integrate the functionality of: ? Ineed this site up ASAP and that’s the last part.
Seth

Hello, I am currently working on a website for a friend and I’m almost done with the theme integration, but I hit a snag. The Main menu… It will be the only menu in the blog taken from Joomla and I don’t really know how to integrate it. Do I just install WordPress into the same MySQL database as Joomla so I can integrate the functionality of: ? Ineed this site up ASAP and that’s the last part.
http://www.videospark.com/ Charlie

A very nice niche blog, and a good design there sparks Simplicity yet complex algorithm of the internet. Thanks man You rock
http://www.videospark.com/ Charlie

A very nice niche blog, and a good design there sparks Simplicity yet complex algorithm of the internet. Thanks man You rock
http://www.burnseo.com/ admin

Seth,
you just have to put the code for the menu into the wordpress PHP files. You edit the header.php of your WordPress theme with the menu and other header details. Put the body of the website into the index.php of the wordpress theme. Put the footer info into the footer.php files of the wordpress theme. You can stick the sidebar call in the index.php file probably with the rest of the content.

If this is confusing please shoot me an email or his me up on chat and I’ll walk you through it.
http://www.burnseo.com admin

Seth,
you just have to put the code for the menu into the wordpress PHP files. You edit the header.php of your WordPress theme with the menu and other header details. Put the body of the website into the index.php of the wordpress theme. Put the footer info into the footer.php files of the wordpress theme. You can stick the sidebar call in the index.php file probably with the rest of the content.

If this is confusing please shoot me an email or his me up on chat and I’ll walk you through it.
Brian

I have to agree with Dan in regards to the CorePHP Joomla plug-in. While it’s fairly simple to theme out WP to match your joomla template, what this “free” method does not do is integrate the database tables for the “users” between the two platforms. So, if you have something on your joomla site that requires users to log-in before they can comment on something (i.e.: a photo gallery plug-in, etc…) they will have to register on your website twice – once for the joomla login and once for the wordpress blog. When you use the corephp plug-in all that goes away because they have already taken care to “hack” wordpress to work from your joomla user directory – which is very nice.

The downside to this however is that you loose the “speed” that wordpress is known for because it’s loading inside Joomla. But it’s not a huge difference on most systems.
Brian

I have to agree with Dan in regards to the CorePHP Joomla plug-in. While it’s fairly simple to theme out WP to match your joomla template, what this “free” method does not do is integrate the database tables for the “users” between the two platforms. So, if you have something on your joomla site that requires users to log-in before they can comment on something (i.e.: a photo gallery plug-in, etc…) they will have to register on your website twice – once for the joomla login and once for the wordpress blog. When you use the corephp plug-in all that goes away because they have already taken care to “hack” wordpress to work from your joomla user directory – which is very nice.

The downside to this however is that you loose the “speed” that wordpress is known for because it’s loading inside Joomla. But it’s not a huge difference on most systems.
Rafael Corral

To me it comes down to the quality of solution I would want to provide to my clients and to the users of my clients. As Brian points out, as a user you only want one login per site otherwise your site has a usability problem. With $79 bucks you can have WordPress integrated in Joomla, automatically applies the styles of your site, as well as the menu, modules, etc. Users are seamlessly integrated as well with the WordPress dashboard. You can then go as far as getting AdminPraise2 which will make you feel like you are truly using a solution that combines WordPress and Joomla.
Rafael Corral

To me it comes down to the quality of solution I would want to provide to my clients and to the users of my clients. As Brian points out, as a user you only want one login per site otherwise your site has a usability problem. With $79 bucks you can have WordPress integrated in Joomla, automatically applies the styles of your site, as well as the menu, modules, etc. Users are seamlessly integrated as well with the WordPress dashboard. You can then go as far as getting AdminPraise2 which will make you feel like you are truly using a solution that combines WordPress and Joomla.
http://www.zx-printing.com/ Jessica

thanks, I really liked the post!
http://www.zx-printing.com Jessica

thanks, I really liked the post!
http://www.thesearchenginepros.com/ Joomla SEO Guru

I love your articles, I have been checking out your site over the past few months, and I really like the content here. This is a great article. I think your design is excellent!!
http://www.thesearchenginepros.com Joomla SEO Guru

I love your articles, I have been checking out your site over the past few months, and I really like the content here. This is a great article. I think your design is excellent!!
http://www.pia.edu/ Sue

We used Joomla! for our site, and WordPress for the blog. Is there an easy way to get the blog content searchable on the main site?
.-= Sue´s last blog ..Job Opportunities in your Inbox =-.
http://www.pia.edu Sue

We used Joomla! for our site, and WordPress for the blog. Is there an easy way to get the blog content searchable on the main site?
.-= Sue´s last blog ..Job Opportunities in your Inbox =-.
http://www.burnseo.com/ admin

Did you use the same database for Joomla and WordPress?
http://www.burnseo.com admin

Did you use the same database for Joomla and WordPress?
Pingback: Content Management Systems | burnSEO Website Design SEO Tips Tactics Strategies
http://www.searchmarketinglife.com/ Charles

Good article. I also use joomla for client sites and integrate wordpress for the blog but as you will see by my own blog, I decided to use joomla mostly as an seo experiment. I will be interested to read more on the joomla/wordpress subject in your future posts. Cheers. C

Call Toll Free: 800-652-6919

blog Home

Integrate wordpress Blog In Joomla Website

If you liked this Article, you might also like:

BURN SEO Dealer Blog

Dealer Web Design

Dealer Marketing

Dealer Clients