silk and spinach

This summer I spent some time learning about and using Joomla, so that I could maintain AgileNorth’s new website. I took a long time to get my head around the structure and concepts, and I don’t know whether that’s due to my lack of exposure to content management systems, or to Joomla itself. I think it has mostly clicked for me now, and one little thing has helped more than any other: a “mambot” called rdlc. This little plug-in allows you to type

{rdlc My Page Title}

anywhere in a content item, and it replaces itself with a link to the page with that title. No more fiddling and faffing with cumbersome links; no more trying to remember which item ID refers to which page. I’ve been using rdlc so much, in fact, that it almost feels as if I’m working in a wiki. This little macro has caused my productivity to rocket, because now I’m in familiar territory. I work with wikis every day, and so I no longer feel I’m lost in a strange CMS. rdlc is a must.