Helping someone move from Joomla to Django

Hello,

I have a friend who is doing website design, not any backend
programming tasks. He actually would like me to do the backend
coding. The unfortunate case is that he is currently using Joomla,
which I know almost nothing about, and the apps/plugins for it are not
reusable in other website frameworks, not even other PHP frameworks,
icky! I really enjoy Django because if you create a reusable app, and
say use Pinax, it will most likely work as well in say Django-CMS or
another CMS build on top of Django and Python.

This question is really for anyone who has previously used Joomla
and knows how the editor works for web designers and content
managers. I have seen and used it's site manager only a few times. I
took a look at both Pinax and Django-CMS. After looking at Django-
CMS, it has a similar feel to that of Joomla with in page editing and
is overall very simple for a content manager/web designer. It's also
very straight forward and supports a lot right out of the box.

My current task with my friend is to create a music player, I have
been working with jPlayer recently and finding out how I can integrate
it with Joomla, haven't took too much time yet. I'm quiet happy about
that choice now, since Django-CMS actually has a plugin just for this
player.

How would you recommend I go about this task of moving my friend
over to a Django/Python based system over a Joomla/PHP based system?
How easy will it be to say convert a Joomla template to a Django
compatible one? This will be another issue, is template management.
Since there is really no standard for website templates, every CMS/
framework uses it's own system. I believe Joomla's templates even
embed PHP code directly into the template itself, another icky.

I am going to pitch the idea and use the jPlayer plugin for Django-
CMS as a sweet spot. I'm also tempted on copying over all the
existing content to a Django-CMS site to show him how it will look and
feel.

He is requesting some other interesting features, which apparently
someone else is working on implementing, and it's actually taking this
other person a few days, or maybe weeks to add. Where I know I can
implement it in Django in a matter of hours. If the other person is a
PHP programmer, me pitching this idea may scare the other person. PHP
programmers are sometimes very proud and are hard to turn. I, myself
used to be like this, that is until I found myself getting byte by a
huge Python, it's venom changed my life entirely. I saw the light.

What is everyone elses opinions on development in Django verses a
rival CMS such as Joomla? Just looking at how the Joomla source tree
is scares me from even looking at how to code anything in it. After
using Django for awhile, I like how nicely everything is organized.

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