I switched to WordPress

After about a month of effort, I've finally converted all the 120+ guides I wrote on the Joomla version of CommonDocs.org into the right format for WordPress! I hope it was the right decision.

Here are some reasons I made the change:

• Much larger collection of extension/plugin options available
• Block editor is better than TinyMCE for adding dynamic / interactive content to guides
• Ability to (relatively) easily create and edit blocks for dynamic content
• Better to show off to potential employers (0 people hiring for Joomla in USA)

As a web designer, content writer, and software developer, I've got some feedback on my experience making the switch!

How I Switched

CommonDocs.org is a relatively complex project. The Joomla! version of the site was built with a custom template and dozens of custom plugins and extensions I developed over the years. I had to replace or create equivalent alternatives for the new site in WordPress. Specifically, I was switching from Joomla 5.1 to WordPress 6.6.

Some of the custom guide features I had to redesign for WordPress include:

• Popup image boxes
• Accordion dropdown sections
• Image comparison sliders
• Interactive image / label diagrams
• Timelines
• Display Cards
• Math Equations / MathJax
• Slideshows, Image/Content Carousels
• Article Footnotes

Since most of the website's 1000+ images were formatted with descriptions and captions using a custom solution, I had to implement a similar system using WordPress blocks. The image box system features the ability to add an image, the ability to show a larger popup version of the image, links to the source, download, and full-size image, along with saving the title, caption, author, and license of each image. Handling all of this was one of the most tedious parts of the switch.

Thankfully, I was able to create an equivalent version of the image box using WordPress blocks. I had to do similar things for all the other interactive features on the old site!

I was able to manually export the users from the Joomla! site and import them into WordPress's user table with no issue. Since they both use the same standard password hashing tech, passwords and usernames created with Joomla work fine in WordPress.

To copy the content of each guide over (hundreds of thousands of words and over a thousand images and videos...) I needed to take a more manual approach. If the content was simpler, I could have simply used a migration tool or exported and imported the HTML of each article. Since I wanted to make future content with WordPress's block editor, I wound up doing everything more manually.

• I opened my old site and the new development site side by side
• I selected and dragged large portions of text directly from my old site over to the block editor
• I created layouts using columns as needed, similar to how they were structured on the old site
• I added image boxes every time I needed to insert an image
• • I could not directly drag the images over like I could with text. But I didn't have to manually save or search for them all either.
  • I opened a file browser on my computer and dragged the images from my old site onto my computer. Then I could immediately drag them into the WordPress media manager and select them. This made moving each image over take about 5 seconds, maybe slightly longer if I needed to copy the captions and titles over.
• Repeat process for all other forms of special content, like code, math equations, image comparisons, information cards, etc.

Most of the guides in this website are comprehensive and are several thousand words long each. So each guide took an average of 10-15 minutes to move over. This was the most painful part of the process!

I was able to use WordPress's URL config tool to get my post links to exactly match the old site. So links to every guide remain exactly the same! No need to overhaul the link structure. Phew.

I set up the membership and comments systems using free WordPress plugins. They provide a similar functionality to the paid plugins I used to use with Joomla.

I manually copied over the membership settings for member users and some of the more relevant comments. There were only a few members and a couple dozen comments of note.

Wrapped up by styling all the pages and layouts using custom block theme, colors, and even more custom blocks for the post layouts, search, and menu system.

Finally, once everything was ready and mostly tested, I deleted the old site and used the WordPress plugin UpdraftPlus to backup and restore the new site. Thankfully, this part only took about ten minutes. So the site wasn't down for long. Yay!

Comparison - Administrator Perspective

As an administrator, I can clearly point out some major differences between how Joomla and WordPress handle content.

In conclusion, both WordPress and Joomla! have advantages and disadvantages. But Joomla! just seems dated compared to WordPress and is losing popularity each year. I'll continue using Joomla! in some of my projects, but moving forward I think WordPress might be the better option for this site and my future projects.