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As we have mentioned in the past, Jom Comment is our favourite comment plugin for Joomla 1.0.x and Joomla 1.5.
Today we are going to discuss what we consider to be the strengths and weaknesses of the Jom Comment plugin and we will explain why we use it here at Good Web Practices.
Jom Comment is a comment system plugin for Joomla
Jom Comment makes it possible for website visitors and members to add
comments to articles in Joomla. Jom Comment can be installed on Joomla
1.0.x and runs natively on Joomla 1.5.
Getting Jom Comment up and running
The installation of Jom Comment is very easy; it's simply a matter
of installing the Jom Comment plugin like any other. Once you have
installed it, there are lots of settings you can change. Here are 4
screenshots from the Jom Comment general settings control panel:
Customising the look of Jom Comment
You can make Jom Comment look different to other Joomla websites by
selecting one of the 8 themes that Jom Comment comes installed with. If
one of the templates doesn't fit exactly what you are looking for, you
can edit the template files located in
/components/com_jomcomment/templates/. Here at Good Web Practices we
use the Breeze template and after editing comment.tpl.html,
index.tpl.html, comment_style.css and changing some of the image files
we got the Jom Comment plugin to look just how we wanted it to!
Updating Jom Comment
When you buy Jom Comment you have access to updates to the plugin
from the Azrul for a whole year. To install the update you simply need
to uninstall the previous version of Jom Comment and install the new
plugin. We have tried this out and it works without any problems - just
make sure you backup your customised templates because the templates
get deleted in the upgrade.
Jom Comment and page load time
One of the downsides of Jom Comment is that it adds a few seconds to page load times. The image below (taken from the Octagate SiteTimer)
shows that the Jom Comment CSS, Javascript and images adds about 2 to 3
seconds to page load times here at Good Web Practices. Click on the
image below to see the details:
Strengths of this plugin
- Very easy to get the plugin up and running.
- Ajax-based so comments are added on the fly without reloading the whole page.
- Email alerts when a new comment is added.
- Support for importing comments from other comment extensions.
- Integrates with Community Builder and Fireboard.
- Great anti spam control.
- Can take control of the "Read more" button and add a "Comments" button.
- Upgrading the Jom Comment plugin when new versions are released is very easy.
- Choice of numerous themes helps Jom Comment fit in with your site's template.
- With some CSS and HTML editing knowledge, you can customise the look and feel of your Jom Comment extension.
- Documentation accompanying the plugin is thorough.
- Support from Azrul for Jom Comment is excellent.
Drawbacks of this plugin
- Jom Comment costs $30 (some see this low price as a strength - see comments below).
- Jom Comment CSS, JavaScript and images increase page load times notably.
- When
3rd party component integration is enabled, the Jom Comment CSS and JS
is added to every page on the website even pages where Jom Comment
doesn't appear - this increases page load time.
- Not all the HTML output produced by Jom Comment meets w3c standards.
- When users post comments quoting HTML code, the code just disappears - this can be really frustrating on technical articles: see this for an example.
- We weren't convinced by usability of the trackback function.
Conclusion
Although Jom Comment will set you back $30 and might add a couple
seconds on to page load times, we use it here at Good Web Practices and
it is our favourite comment system for Joomla. It is fair to say that
the strengths of this plugin heavily outweigh the drawbacks.
We recommend Jom Comment to people looking for an attractive comment
system with all the functions you'll need. It's worth noting that we're
not alone in recommending Jom Comment, this page shows the extent to which Jom Comment owners are happy!
It's fair to say that Azrul have done a fantastic job with this plugin,
and with the 30 days money back guarantee, it's certainly worth trying
Jom Comment out!
Buy Jom Comment now from Azrul for $30
What do you think of Jom Comment? Have you used it on your Joomla website?
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June 25, 2008
Votes: +3