Joomla! 1.5: A User's Guide: Building a Successful Joomla! Powered Website, 2nd edition
Authors: Barrie M. North
Venue:  (2009)

The Best Easy-to-Use Guide to Joomla!TM--The Worlds #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!. Now theres 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. Youll find 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. Youll rapidly master Joomla!s power, even if you have no content management, scripting, or CSS expertise. Experienced with Joomla!? Youll turn to this book constantly for its authoritative, plain-English, example-rich Joomla! 1.5 reference content. Understand content management, what Joomla! does, and how its components fit together Build Joomla! sites from scratch and systematically customize them to your needs Organize content with sections, categories, blogs, and tables Create dynamic pages and effective navigation Work with Joomla! modules and components Learn how to optimize your Joomla! sites for search engines Follow three start-to-finish case studies: building a school website, a small business site, and a blog Identify the most valuable Joomla! extensions and add-ons: find them and use them Barrie M. North has more than 15 years of experience with the Internet, as a user, designer, and teacher. A certified teacher, he has spent more than eight years in the education field, becoming steadily more involved in web technology and teaching technology integration to teachers. Most recently he worked as an IT consultant for two new schools pioneering in the use of technology. As well as web design, he has provided web marketing/SEO and usability and runs training classes for Joomla! across the United States. He is currently a partner of Joomlashack.com, providing templates and custom services. He also maintains a blog about all things Joomla! at compassdesigns.net. In 2008 he launched a new company, Simplweb, which provides turnkey Joomla! websites for small businesses, schools, and other industries. He has written many free tutorials for using Joomla! and is a frequent speaker at Joomla! events. His combination of Joomla! expertise, educational skills, and engaging writing produces books accessible to everyone. About the Website The accompanying site, www.joomlabook.com, provides five fully functional Joomla! sites with live follow-along examples from the book and up-to-date information on Joomla!. Preface xxi Acknowledgments xxix About the Author xxxi Chapter 1: Content Management Systems and an Introduction to Joomla! 1 What Is a Content Management System? 2 Static Web Pages 2 Web Pages with CSS 3 Dynamic Web Pages 4 Open Source Software 7 History of Joomla! 8 The Joomla! Community 9 Third-Party Extensions Development 9 Joomla!s Features 9 Elements of a Joomla! Website 11 Content 13 Templates 14 Modules 15 Summary 15 Chapter 2: Downloading and Installing Joomla! 17 How to Install Joomla! 18 Obtaining the Latest Joomla! File Package 18 Joomla! Package Naming Conventions 19 Creating a MySQL Database 20 Unpacking the Joomla! Package 20 Unpacking Joomla! on a Local Desktop Computer 21 Unpacking Joomla! on a Hosting Account 24 Running the Joomla! Installation Wizard 26 Step 1: Language 26 Step 2: Pre-Installation Check 27 Step 3: License 27 Step 4: Database Configuration 28 Step 5: FTP Configuration 30 Step 6: Main Configuration 30 Step 7: Finish 32 Summary 33 Chapter 3: Joomla! Administration Basics 35 What Are the Frontend and Backend of a Joomla! Powered Website? 36 The Menu Bar 38 The Toolbar 39 The Workspace 39 Administrator Functions in the Menu Bar 40 The Site Submenu 40 The Menus Menu 48 The Content Menu 50 The Components Menu 52 The Extensions Menu 54 The Tools Menu 59 The Help Menu 60 Site Preview 60 Summary 62 Chapter 4: Content Is King: Organizing Your Content 63 How Does Joomla! Generate Web Pages? 64 How Joomla! Organizes Content Articles 66 Uncategorized Articles 66 Sections and Categories 67 A Sample Hierarchy 69 Creating the Widget Inc. Website with Uncategorized Content 70 Creating Content Articles 71 Creating Menu Items 75 The Front Page Component 81 Creating the Widget Inc. Website with Sections and Categories 85 Creating Sections 87 Creating Categories 88 Creating Content Articles 90 Creating Menu Items 92 Read More Links and Individual Page 99 Module Content 102 Summary 105 Chapter 5: Creating Menus and Navigation 107 How Menu Modules Work 108 What Menu Items Do 110 Creating a Menu Item 111 Where Does a Menu Item Link To? 113 What Does a Page Look Like After a Link Is Followed? 114 Blog Layout 116 Blog Layout Parameters 117 List Layout for a Section 122 Section List Layout Parameters 123 List Layout for a Blog 124 Category List Layout Parameters 124 Managing Menu Modules in the Module Manager 126 Show Ti...