joomla basics series: joomla overview - meetupfiles.meetup.com/787901/joomlaoverview25.pdf ·...
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Joomla Basics Series:
Joomla Overview
Presented By - Wilma Howell
http://www.gktsolutions.com
What is Joomla! Joomla! is a popular, free, award-winning Content Management
System (CMS) written in PHP and utilizing MySQL. It is free
because it is an open-source project where individuals and teams
contribute their skills to its development as well as its supporting
systems. Joomla! can be used for everything from simple individual
sites to large corporate sites.
Joomla! endeavors to separate more technical tasks from the non-
technical tasks making it easier for a non-technical person to
install, update and maintain the website. In addition, (as with
some other content management systems), multiple people can be
given permissions to provide content or support the site in other
ways.
Using this system can help you build and maintain your website
more quickly and easily with more features than you may have
thought possible.
Quick Facts
Joomla! has been downloaded over 25
million times.
It’s available in over 64 languages.
Joomla! is used on about 2.7% of all
internet websites in the world.
There are over 9,000 Extensions available
for various versions of Joomla!
The Advantages of A Database Driven Site
The content of the site is in a database completely
separate from the look and feel of the site. So it
becomes possible to redesign a site without re-entering
your content. This makes redesigns much simpler.
Information can be entered once, but displayed in a
variety of ways.
In a nutshell, pages are dynamically generated, making
design more dynamic as well.
The Core Joomla! system includes
Easy Administration
Menu Management
Organization Management
User Management
Content Management
Website contact formatting
Advertising Management
Layout and Design Management
Add-on (Extension) Management
And Much More
Joomla! Extensions Joomla! is a powerful core framework that speeds
developing a website and creating functionality, but
the real secret to Joomla’s power lies in the wealth of
extensions available to add capabilities and functions
to your website.
There are several kinds of extensions:
Templates – which provide the layout and look and feel of your site
Components – which are full applications
Modules - which fit into a position on a page
Plugins – which primarily add functionality behind the scenes
Visit http://extensions.joomla.org
The Joomla! Administrator Panel The Joomla! Administrator Panel is a powerful tool for
administration of a Joomla! Site.
Simply append “/administrator” to the end of your domain
name in order to access the administration panel:
http://www.yourdomain.com/administrator
The Administration Login will appear.
xxxxxxxx
Administrator Panel
Page Layout Basics for Joomla!
The content layout of your page is all about positions and modules.
Think of the page in terms of blocks of content rather than in terms of one continuous page. Much like a newspaper editor lays out a newspaper page in blocks, positioning each element of the page, the Joomla! designer publishes blocks or modules in defined positions on the page.
Templates define the number and placement of module positions. YOU determine whether or not you place something in a particular position.
Modules can be published on just certain “pages” (determined by menu items) or on all “pages”.
Module Positions
Some Templates have a lot
of positions defined. Some Templates have very
few positions defined
You can view the positions for a
particular site’s template by typing
http://www.sitedomain.com/?tp=1
as the browser url if the option is
set in the Template manager.
What Does That Mean?
While you have the advantages of a database
driven site with Joomla!, you also have the
capability of making each page on your site
have a slightly different layout or making various
content areas have different layouts.
You can change these layouts at any time
without affecting your core content.
Joomla! Menus You can define as many menus as you want for your
Joomla! site.
Menus are published in module positions. You decide where to place your menu on the page based on available positions.
Menus don’t have to be shown on every page or you can have different menus show on different pages.
Menu items can be based on: Content Categories (In a blog or list format)
Individual Content Articles
Components
External Links
Wrapped content (either from another site or another application)
You can define as many menus
as you want
Menu Manager
Menu items can be nested.
Categories And Articles Content items in Joomla! Are called
articles.
Content articles generally belong to
Categories
Categories can be “nested”
(subcategories)
Categories are used to create a logical
organization of content which can be
particularly useful on large sites.
Categories can also be used in the
Menu Manager to display your content
in different ways.
While it is not recommended to do so,
you are not required to create any
categories. You can just assign your
articles to the “Uncategorized”
category.
Category 2
Category A
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3
Article 4
Category B
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3
Article 4
Category 1
Article 1
Article 2
Content Editing Articles are generally written and edited using a WYSIWYG editor, so
that you don’t have to know any coding to get the fonts and styling you
want.
Articles can be submitted and edited from the administrator panel by
users with security levels of manager or above, but anyone with author
level permissions and above can submit content from the front end as
well.
Each content item has its own meta keywords and meta description
for SEO purpose and a click of the button determines whether a
particular item is published or not.
Joomla even offers the capability to write an article and set a future
date for publication. So you can store up lots of content and have it
served up periodically to keep your site content fresh for the search
engines.
Insert/Upload an image
Create Read More Break
Create Page Breaks
Etc
- Create Title
-Assign to Category
-Set Whether or not to Publish
Set article permissions or
Leave at default
Set Publish Dates
Set a number of other
article parameters
Configure which options
appear to users creating or
editing articles from the front
end (versus the administrator
panel).
While you can add images in the text area, the
images and links area gives you the option to
set one image to display when only the intro of
the article is showing and a different image to
show when the entire article is showing.
Any links you define here will display below the
title on the full article view.
Set MetaTag Information
Content Editing: Front End
Registered users with the proper permissions can submit
and edit articles from the front end of the website.
By default, you must have Author level permissions or
above to submit articles and Publisher level or above
permissions to publish them.
Once you are logged in from the front end, you typically
have permission to edit any article that shows a pencil
with a piece of paper next to the title
Published and editable by you
Un-Published and editable by you
Log In to your Joomla Site from
the Front End
Click the Submit Article Link.
The Administrator or Super User
may place this link on any menu
or on a specific user menu.
Complete the Article Submission
Form and Save
Some Terminology Hints Save – Save your edits to the current screen but
do not leave the screen
Save & Close – Save your edits to the current
screen and close the current screen
Save & New – Save your edits to the current
screen and open a new screen to create a new
item
Save as Copy – Save the edits to the current
screen as a copy of the original item.
Terminology Hints for WordPress Users
Modules are similar to WordPress Widgets
Positions are similar to WordPress Sidebars
Articles are similar to Posts
Access Permissions
Joomla! has access permissions built into the framework.
If you wish, you can give your site visitors the ability to
register and sign in from your Joomla website.
There are various permission levels that can be used to set
what each visitor can access and what functions they can
perform. For example, you can assign users author
permissions to allow them to submit and edit their own
content from the front end (without ever visiting the
administration panel).
Access Permissions: User Groups User Groups form sets of permissions
A user (registered site member) can belong to more than one
group
In 1.5, the administration permissions groups included
manager, administrator, and super administrator. The Front
end permissions groups included public, registered, author,
editor, and publisher.
These same groups still exist in 2.5, but new groups can be
added with specific permissions.
Groups are hierarchical and sub-groups can inherit
permissions from top level groups.
If deny is set for any action, you will be denied across the
board even if you are explicitly allowed to do something via
another group.
Access Permissions: Viewing
View permissions are linked to groups
There are several view access levels included
by default and most sites never need to add new
ones.
When you create a new view access level, you
select which user groups are included in that
level.
When you set up your articles, categories, menu
items, modules, etc, you can select the view
access level from a drop down box.
When creating a new Access Level, Specify the Title and select the groups
that are included.
Access Permissions:
Authoring, Editing and Administration
Most sites never need to modify the default permission assignments.
There are 10 Global permissions that can be set separately or inherited for
each group: Site Login, Admin Login, Offline Access, Super Admin, Access
Administration Interface, Create, Delete, Edit, Edit State, and Edit Own
Permissions are managed at four levels: Global Configuration, Component
Options, Category, Articles
If a specific permission is not explicitly allowed or denied at the global level,
then it will be implicitly denied at all levels unless specified otherwise.
If a specific permission is explicitly denied at the global level, it will be denied at
all levels whether specified otherwise or not.
If a specific permission is explicitly allowed at the global level, it will be allowed
at all lower levels unless explicitly denied.
If deny is set explicitly at one level, all lower levels will inherit the denial
regardless of setting.
Now For A
Demonstration
Dallas / Fort Worth User Group On the Web
Meetup.com - http://www.meetup.com/joomladallas/
Our website - http://www.joomladallas.org/
Linked In – Joomla Dallas/ Fort worth – http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2112645&trk=anet_ug_hm
Facebook – Joomla! North Texas - http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=14859698677&ref=mf
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/joomladallas
Become A Part Of The Joomla!® Community
Find your local user group at http://community.joomla.org/user-groups.html