Joomla! A User's Guide: Building a Successful Joomla! Powered Website

Description

The First Easy-to-Use Guide to Joomla!-The World’s #1 Open Source Content Management System

 

If you want to build sophisticated websites that can be easily edited and updated, you need to master Joomla!-the world’s #1 open source content management system. Now there’s an easy-to-read, easy-to-use guide to Joomla! for every site manager, administrator, and developer. Leading Joomla! consultant Barrie North covers all you need to get results: installation, administration, site organization, template development, content updates, and a whole lot more. You’ll find never-before-published tips, tricks, and troubleshooting solutions, as well as three start-to-finish case studies.

 

New to Joomla? No problem! This book starts with the simplest design and system concepts, and builds your expertise step-by-step. You’ll rapidly master Joomla!’s power, even if you have no content management, scripting, or CSS expertise. Experienced with Joomla!? You’ll turn to this book constantly for its authoritative, plain-English, example-rich Joomla! 1.0 and 1.5 reference content.

 

·   Understanding content management, what Joomla! does, and how its components fit together

·   Building Joomla! sites from scratch, and systematically customizing them to your needs

·   Organizing content with sections, categories, blogs, and tables

·   Creating dynamic pages and effective navigation

·   Working with Joomla! modules and components

·   Search engine optimization for Joomla! sites

·   Start-to-finish case studies: building a school website, an e-commerce site, and a blog

·   The most valuable Joomla! extensions and add-ons: finding them, and using them

·   Key differences between Joomla! 1.0 and 1.5, and what they mean to you

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Preface xix

Chapter 1: Content Management Systems and an Introduction to Joomla! 1

What Is a Content Management System? 2

Static Web Pages 2

Cascading Style Sheet Web Pages 3

Dynamic Web Pages 4

Open Source  7

History of Joomla!   8

Joomla! Community  9

Third-party Extensions Development  9

Joomla!’s Features  10

Elements of a Joomla! Website  11

Content 13

Modules 14

Templates  14

Summary  15Chapter 2: Downloading and Installing Joomla!  17

How Do I Install Joomla!?  18

Where Can I Find the Most Current Joomla! Files?  18

Unpacking Joomla! on a Local Desktop Computer  23

Unpacking on a Hosting Account  26

Running the Joomla! Installation Wizard  28

Summary  35Chapter 3: Joomla! Administration Basics 37

What Is the Frontend and Backend of a Joomla!-powered Website?  38

Menu Bar 40

Toolbar  41

Workspace  41

Administrator Functions in the Menu Bar  42

Site Submenu  42

Menus  50

Content  52

The Component Menu  53

Extensions 55

Tools 60

Global Checkin  61

Help  61

Site Preview 62

Summary  63Chapter 4: Content Is King: Organizing Your Content 65

How Does Joomla! Generate Web Pages?  66

How Does Joomla! Organize Content Articles? 68

Uncategorized Articles 68

Sections and Categories 69

Sample Hierarchy 71

Creating the Widget Inc. Website with Uncategorized Content  72

Creating Content Articles   74

Creating Menu Items 77

Page Coponent 82

Creating Widget Inc. with Sections and Categories 86

Creating Sections  89

Creating Categories 91

Creating Content Articles 93

Creating Menu Items  95

“Read More” Links and Individual Pages  102

Module Content 104

Summary  107Chapter 5: Creating Menus and Navigation 109

How Do Menus and Modules Work Together?  110

What Do Menu Items Do?  112

Creating a Menu Item  113

Where Does a Menu Item Link To?  116

What Does a Page Look Like After Following a Link? 116

Blog Layout  118

Blog Layout Parameters  119

List/Standard Layout for a Section  123

Section List/Standard Layout Parameters  125

List/Standard Layout for a Blog  125

Category List/Standard Layout Parameters 127

Module Manager 127

Module Parameters  130

Submenus  132

Summary  133

Chapter 6: Extending Joomla! 135

What Are Extensions?  136

Installing Extensions 137

Managing Extensions  139

Components 140

Core Components140

Third-party Components141

Modules144

Module Display  144

Core Modules 145

Third-party Modules 148

Plugins 149

Core Plugins 149

Third-party Plugins 150

Templates 150

Core Templates 151

Third-party Templates 151

Summary 151Chapter 7: Expanding Your Content: Articles and Editors 153

WYSIWYG Editors 154

Managing WYSIWYG Editors  155

Other Third-party Editors  158

Creating and Managing Articles 160

Managing Content Through the Backend 161

Adding Content from the Backend 163

Inserting Images into Content 169

Creating an Article Table of Contents 172

Section and Category Descriptions  174

Article Content Preferences 176

Managing Content Through The Frontend  178

Creating a Frontend User Menu 178

Limiting Access to Menus by User Level 182

Authors  183

Editors  187

Publishers 189

Article Checkin 189

Summary 190Chapter 8: Getting Traffic to Your Site 193

Start at the Beginning: Site Goals  194

Organic Traffic (SEO) 196

Introduction to Google 198

Creating Keywords 199

Keywords and Domain Name  202

Designing Your Site for Organic Traffic  203

Advanced SEO Techniques 209

Referral Traffic 215

Google PageRank  215

Using WebFerret to Find Websites  217

Other Link-Building Strategies  220

Internal Linking. 221

Pay-Per-Click Traffic  225

How Google Adwords Works 226

Joomla! and Adwords  228

Email Traffic  230

Joomla! Email Newsletter Extensions  232

Third-Party Hosted Email Solutions  232

Joomla! SEF Extensions 235

Summary  236Chapter 9: Creating a Pure CSS Template 239

What Is a Joomla! Template? 240

Localhost Design Process  241

Localhost Server Options 242

W3C and Tableless Design  243

Semantically Correct Code 244

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 244

Creating a Simple Template 245

The Template File Components  245

index.php   249

Blank Joomla! Template Body  253

CSSTemplateTutorialStep1 256

Using CSS to Create a Tableless Layout 256

Default CSS 261

Joomla!-Specific CSS  263

Modules in Templates 265

Menus in Templates 271

Hiding Columns 275

CSSTemplateTutorialStep2  280

Making a Real Joomla! 1.5 Template  280

Slicing and Dicing 280

Setting Up Module Locations  281

Header  282

Column Backgrounds  283

Flexible Modules 285

Typography 286

CSSTemplateTutorialStep3 291

Advanced Templating Features  291

Template Parameters  291

Template Overrides  293

Tableless Joomla! 297

CSSTemplateTutorialStep4  297

Summary  298Chapter 10: Creating a School Site with Joomla! 301

Why Do We Need a School Website? 302

Students  302

Teachers and Administrators 303

Parents 303

What Features Do We Need on a School Site? 303

Downloading and Installing a School Template 304

Education Template Features and Positions  306

Configuring the Search Box  306

Configuring the Main Horizontal Drop-down Menu 308

Organizing Content on a School Website  310

Creating the Menus 314

Building Out Content  318

Creating Subnavigation  319

Academics Submenu 320

Creating News Links for a Section  322

Setting Up the Footer 324

Setting Up the Home Page 325

Adding Basic Functionality to a School Website 327

User Registration 328

Events Calendar 329

Downloadable Documents 330

Polls 331

Staff Directory  331

Email Newsletter 332

RSS  333

Random Image  334

Sitemap  334

Extending the School Website Beyond the Basics  336

Summary 337Chapter 11: Creating a Restaurant Site with Joomla!  339

Why Does a Restaurant Need a Website? 340

What Features Does a Restaurant Website Need? 340

Downloading and Installing a Restaurant Template 342

Organizing the Content on a Restaurant Website 344

Building Content Articles with Lorem Ipsum 347

Creating Menus 349

Setting Up the Home Page 354

Home Page Alternative to the Front Page Manager  354

Creating Footer Content  356

Creating Module Teaser Blocks  358

Using Stock Imagery  362

Extending a Restaurant Website   364

Image Gallery: JPG Flash Rotator 2  365

Calendar: JCal Pro  365

Email Marketing  365

Google Maps 366

Summary 367Chapter 12: Creating a Blog Site with Joomla! 369

What Is a Blog?  370

Why Have a Blog?  371

What Options Are There for Blogging?  372

What Features Are Needed on a Blog Site? . 373

Downloading and Installing a Blog Template  374

Aqualine Template Features and Positions 376

Configuring the Logo 377

Configuring the Main Horizontal Drop-down Menu 378

Organizing Content on a Blog 

Organizing a Blog Within a Larger Site  379

Organizing a Standalone Blog  380

About Tagging   382

Creating the Menus 382

Adding Dynamic Modules  386

Adding Static Modules 388

Adding Basic Functionality to a Blog  390

Flexible Layout  390

Browser-based Editing  390

Automated Publishing 390

Categories  391

Search Engine Optimized URLs  391

Comment Systems 391

Syndication Feeds  392

Email Notification 395

Search  396

Trackback 396

Extending a Blog Website Beyond the Basics 397

Forums 398

Ecommerce 398

Summary  398Appendix A: Getting Help  399

Community Forums  399

Help Sites   399

Getting Help from Google 400Appendix B: Joomla! Case Studies 401

Six Case Studies for Organizations That Use Joomla! 401

www.yourwedding.com.au (MP Media)   402

www.longwoodfl.org (City of Longwood, Florida)  404

www.ropl.org (Royal Oak Public Library–Michigan) 407

www.telx.com (The Telx Group, Inc.)  409

www.nzmac.com (NZMac.com)   411

www.everythingtreo.com (Everything Treo) 414

Summary  417

Appendix C: A Quick Start to SEO  4191. Keyword Use in Title Tag  419

2. Anchor Text of Inbound Link  419

3. Global Link Popularity of Site (PageRank 419

4. Age of Site 420

5. Link Popularity Within the Site  420

6. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links and Popularity of Linking Site 420

7. Link Popularity of Site in Topic Community  420

8. Keyword Use in Body Text  421

9. File Size 421

10. Clean URL  421

11. Utilize Your Error Pages 421

What’s Not Here? 422Appendix D: Installing WAMP5  423

Index  431