most stable / useful way to blog in Magento

Question

Various approaches I am aware of:

• Theme to match (fake integration)
• Lazzymonk's Wordpress integration
• Make the Magento header and footer appear over WP blog.
• Mage Enabler
• and the AW alternative:

...any feedback on these in real world implementation and use is much appreciated.

Answer 1

Lazzymonk wordpress integration is basically an ugly hack. Keep as far away from that as possible. It was taken over by aheadworks and their free blog extension is the way to go. It is fully integrated with magento and has all the SEO control you might need.

Answer 2

I agree with @Silvo's answer. The AW_Blog extension is written using the preferred Magento approach. Posts, tags, comments and other Blog artifacts are all implemented using Magento models and collections, and accessed through regular Blocks and Views. The blog writing interface is integrated into the Magento back-end, so you have consistency of authentication and authorisation. All of which means that it is much less likely to break in future, unlike Mage_Enabler or other "faux" integrations.

I've used the AW_Blog extension and been very satisfied with it's functionality. IMHO, there's no need to integrate Wordpress (insert Blogging engine of choice) for the sake of it.

HTH, JD