Intro to Joomla!

What is Joomla?“Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone.”

~ Joomla.org

• First version (Joomla! 1.0) launched Sept. 2005 after core team split off from the Mambo CMS project. Current version = 1.5.14

• Runs on PHP 5.2 +, MySQL 4.1.x +, Apache 2.x +

• Web based login and administration• “Easy” to use once you understand a few key

concepts (i.e. menu and content structures, extensions, and modules)

More specifically…

Web based login

Control Panel

Article Manager

Global Parameters for Articles

Content (Article) Editor

HTML Content Editor

• Website content is organized in 3 levels– Sections (think Filing Cabinets)– Categories (think Drawers in Filing Cabinet)– Articles (think Files in Drawers of Filing Cabinet)

Key Concepts

• Articles (pages) must be created BEFORE the corresponding Menu items.

• When you create the Menu item, you have to select the Article (or Section or Category) to link it to.

• You can create Menu items that link to whole Sections (filing cabinet), whole Categories (drawers of the filing cabinet), or individual Articles (files in the drawers of filing cabinet)

Menu Manager

Create Menu Item

Media Manager

Template Manager

Template Editor

Extension Manager

Key Concept: Understanding 3 types of extensions

• Components - applications that operate within the backend control panel (ex. Article manager,

• Modules – add functions to front end of website (ex. Twitter status feed, menus, login, facebook widgets, etc.)

• Plugins – add functions within Articles (ex. Disqus comments, OnePixelOut Audio Player, Simple Image Gallery, etc.)

Module Manager

Module Edit

Module Positions

Module Positions

Global Configuration

User Manager

• Easy enough for non-technical people – Those with little or no web experience can quickly be taught how to manage their sites.

• Content Organization – The Section-Category-Article structure forces you to consider your site map before you start building your site.

• Extensibility – With over 3,000 extensions and counting, there is little you can’t do with a Joomla!-powered website.

• Community – Huge online community of people ready and willing to help you advance your Joomla! skills.

Strengths

• Blogging requires some tweaking – Joomla! doesn’t have blogging functionality built into the core. You have to add extensions for comments, tagging, etc.

• User Access Control – You can assign various levels of control, but you can’t specify sections of control. With so much control over organizing content, it would be nice to assign users to specific areas of the website.

Weaknesses

• Templates – I’m not a designer and I’ve found several great template clubs to fill this void

• Extensions – There are over 3,000 extensions in the Joomla! Extension Directory. If I need to add functionality to a website, I can find a solution there.

• No longer anchored to one computer – After building sites for 3 years with Dreamweaver on one computer, it is refreshing to have access wherever there is an internet connection.

Why I Like It…

• www.joomla.org (official Joomla! website)• www.joomtorial.com (Joomla! video tutorial)• www.joomlaworks.gr (Joomla! extensions)• www.joomlablogger.net (helpful blog)

Great Template Clubs• www.rockettheme.com • www.shape5.com • www.yootheme.com• www.templateplazza.com• www.joomlabamboo.com

Resources