Joomla! 1.5: Beginner's Guide. Build and maintain impressive user-friendly web sites the fast and easy way with Joomla! 1.5

Joomla! 1.5: Beginner's Guide. Build and maintain impressive user-friendly web sites the fast and easy way with Joomla! 1.5 - Opis

Joomla! is one of the most popular open-source Content Management Systems, actively developed and supported by a world-wide user community. Although it's a fun and feature-rich tool, it can be challenging to get beyond the basics and build a site that meets your needs perfectly. Using this book you can create dynamic, interactive web sites that perfectly fit your needs.This practical guide gives you a head start in using Joomla! 1.5, helping you to create professional and good-looking web sites, whether you want to create a full-featured company or club web site or build a personal blog site.The Joomla! 1.5 Beginner's Guide helps beginners to get started quickly and to get beyond the basics to take full advantage of Joomla!'s powerful features. Real-life examples and tutorials will spark your imagination and show you what kind of professional, contemporary, feature-rich web sites any developer can achieve with Joomla!. It gives you a head start and explains what's good and useful about Joomla! features and what's not. The focus is on clear instructions and easy-to-understand tutorials, with minimum of jargon. This book provides clear definitions, thoroughly covering the concepts behind the software and creating a coherent picture of how the software works. This book is not about what Joomla! can do‚Äîit's about what you can do using Joomla!. Spis treści:
Joomla! 1.5
Table of Contents
Joomla! 1.5
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is (...) więcej for
Conventions
Time for actionheading
What just happened?
Pop quiz - heading
Have a go heroheading
Reader feedback
Customer support
Errata
Piracy
Questions
1. Introduction: A New and Easy Way to Build Websites
Join the CMS revolution
Why would you choose Joomla!?
What kind of sites can you build with Joomla!?
Learning to use Joomla!
What youll learn using this book
About the example site
Summary
2. Installation: Getting Joomla! Up and Running
What do you need to start?
1. Hosting space
2. FTP software
3. A great browser (think Firefox)
Installing Joomla! in four steps
Time for actionstep 1: Download the Joomla! files
What just happened?
Time for actionstep 2: Place the files on the web server
What just happened?
Time for actionstep 3: Create a database
What just happened?
Time for actionstep 4: Run the Joomla! installation wizard
What just happened?
Got stuck? Get help!
Pop quiz - test your knowledge of installing Joomla!
Summary
3. First Steps: Getting to Know Joomla!
Making the switch: Building websites the Joomla! way
Sorry, web pages have ceased to exist
Why is this a good thing?
A website built of blocks
Introducing frontend and backend: The Joomla! interface
Your workspace: The backend
And what's that frontend thing, then?
The frontend: The website as the user sees it
Time for actiontour the example site
What just happened?
Have a go heroget familiar with the example site contents
Taking control: Administering your site in the backend
Time for actionlog in to the backend
What just happened?
Taking a closer look at the Control Panel
1. Menu bar
2. Shortcut buttons
3. Preview and Info Bar
4. Information panels
Understanding backend tools and controls
Getting your feet wet: Start administering your site
Three types of backend actions
Content actions example: Let's create some content!
Time for actionpublish your first article
What just happened?
Extension actions example: Managing modules
Time for actionrearranging page layout
What just happened?
Site actions example: Configuring basic site settings
Time for actionset Joomla! preferences
What just happened?
Have a go heroexplore the configuration options
Pop quiz - test your knowledge of the Joomla! way of web building
Summary
4. Web Building Basics: Creating a Site in an Hour
What you will be making
SRUP's the word
Cleaning up: Removing the sample data
Step 1: Hide the unnecessary stuff
Time for actionhiding modules
What just happened?
Step 2: Remove sample content
Time for actiondeleting articles, categories, and sections
What just happened?
Have a go heroclean up those menus
Building your site is a three step process
Step 1: Customize the layout
Customize the color scheme
Time for actionchoosing a color variation
What just happened?
Time for actionpreparing a new header file
What just happened?
Time for actiondisplay the new header image file
What just happened?
CSS ... stylesheets? Come again?
One last thing: Clean up a little whatchamacallit
Time for actionremove the whatsis
What just happened?
Have a go heroexplore layout settings
Step 2: Add content
Create a foundation first: Make sections and categories
Time for actioncreate a section and some categories
What just happened?
Add articles to the categories
Time for actioncreate an article
What just happened?
Have a go heroadd your own images to articles
Making content visible: Create a menu link
Time for actionadd a menu link
What just happened?
Have a go herocreate more articles
Now that's the all-important power of menus
Add some individual content pages: Uncategorized articles
Time for actionadd uncategorized articles
What just happened?
Have a go heroclean up the Main Menu
Put some content on the home pageat last!
Add items to the home page
Time for actionadding items to the home page
What just happened?
The Front Page is not the home page (or is it?)
Step 3: Add extras through components and extensions
Components and extensions, what's the difference?
Add a contact form
Time for actioncreate a contact
What just happened?
Time for actioncreate a Contact Form menu link
What just happened?
Add a Poll
Time for actioncreate a Poll
Time for actiondisplay the Poll
What just happened?
Wrapping up: Change site settings
Time for actionchange site configuration
What just happened?
Pop quiz - test your basic Joomla! knowledge
Summary
5. Small Sites, Big Sites: Organizing your Content Effectively
Building on the example site
Grouping content: A crash course in site organization
Designing a site map
Time for actioncreate a future proof site map
What just happened?
Transferring your site map to Joomla!
How do you turn a site map into a website?
Creating content containers: Sections and categories
Time for actioncreate a new section and a category
What just happened?
Have a go heroadd some articles
Displaying sections and categories on your website
Time for actioncreate a link to point to a section
How are sections and categories displayed?
Have a go herocreate some new sections and categories
Add sections and categories
Add links
Remove an unneeded article
Refining your site structure
Time for actionmove content from one category to another
What just happened?
Have a go heromoving entire categories
Renaming sections or categories
Time for actionrename a section
What just happened?
Have a go heroname and rename!
Changing section and category settings
Building a site without sections or categories
What sites can you build with uncategorized content only?
How do you go about building a small site?
Have a go heroorganize a site!
Pop quiz - test your site organization knowledge
Summary
6. Creating Killer Content: Adding and Editing Articles
Articles, content pages, what's the difference?
Creating and editing articles: Beyond the basics
Making it look good: Formatting article text
Time for actionadd styling to article text
What just happened?
Have a go herochange the formatting
Adding images to articles
Time for actionupload images
What just happened?
Time for actioninserting and aligning images
What just happened?
Have a go heroadjust the image settings
Changing the way the article displays
One lump or two? Split the article in an intro text and main text
Time for actioncreating an intro text
What just happened?
Creating multi-page articles
Time for actionusing page breaks to split up an article
What just happened?
Use it wisely
Tweaking the details: Changing article settings
Parameters (Article)
Parameters (Advanced)
Metadata Information
Archiving articles
Time for actioncreating a news archive
What just happened?
Pop quiz - test your site article expertise
Summary
7. Welcoming Your Visitors: Creating Attractive Home Pages and Overview Pages
Why do you need overview pages, anyway?
Creating the perfect home: Mastering home page layout
Changing the way your home page is arranged
Time for actionrearrange the layout of articles on the home page
What just happened?
Have a go herotweak the home page settings to your liking
Adding items to the Front Page
Controlling the order of Front Page items manually
Setting criteria to automatically order Front Page items
Time for actionshow the most recent items first
What just happened?
Have a go herotry out the Front Page settings
Parameters (Basic)
Parameters (Advanced)
Parameters (Component)
Parameters (System)
The alternative way: Creating a single article home page
Time for actioncreating a different home page
What just happened?
Have a go heroundo!
Creating section and category overview pages
Blog Layout or List Layout?
The first type of overview page: Creating Blog Layouts
Time for actioncreate a facebook using the Blog Layout
What just happened?
Have a go heroadd a category description
Showing full articles on a category overview page
Have a go heroexperiment with Blog Layout settings
The second type of overview page: Lists
Creating Section Lists
Time for actionchange a Blog Layout to a List Layout
What just happened?
Have a go heroundo!
Customizing lists: Exploring Section List Layout parameters
Parameters (Basic)
Parameters (Advanced)
Parameters (Component)
Parameters (System)
Using Category Lists
Parameters (Basic)
Parameters (Advanced)
Pop quiz - test your knowledge of home pages and overview pages
Summary
8. Helping Your Visitors Find What They Want: Managing Menus
How many menus can you have?
Creating user-friendly navigation: Cleaning up the Main Menu
Option 1: Change the order of menu items
Time for actionchange menu item order
What just happened?
Option 2: Add a separate new menu
Time for actionstep 1: Create a new, empty menu
What just happened?
Time for actionstep 2: Move hyperlinks to the new menu
What just happened?
Time for actionstep 3: Tell Joomla! where to display the menu
What just happened?
Tweaking the menu styling
Time for actiontweak the menu position and orientation
What just happened?
Option 3: Creating submenu items
Time for actioncreate a secondary menu item
What just happened?
Creating split submenus
Have a go heroarrange menus any way you like
Exploring menu module settings
Details
Menu Assignment
Module Parameters
Advanced Parameters
Other Parameters
Have a go herotry out available menu settings
Creating menu links
Have a go herotry out some Menu Item Types
Why do you have to create menu links manually, anyway?
Creating plain text links
Time for actioncreating text links
What just happened?
Pop quiz - test your menu knowledge
Summary
9. Opening Up the Site: Enabling Users to Contribute and Interact
Creating user accounts for team members
What different types of user accounts can you create?
1. Registered users
2. Frontend content contributors
3. Backend content contributors and administrators
Time for actiongiving a user frontend authoring permissions
What just happened?
Enabling team members to log in to the frontend
Time for actioncreate a Login Form
What just happened?
Time for actionlogging in as a frontend content contributor
What just happened?
Have a go herocreate a frontend User Menu
Reviewing and publishing team content submissions
Time for actionreviewing submitted content
What just happened?
Have a go heroexplore different User Group permissions
Find out what editors and publishers can do
Find out what backend users can do
Allowing visitors to register
How do you enable users to create an account?
Displaying a link to a Login Form
Time for actionregister yourself and log in
What just happened?
Hiding content for non-registered users
Time for actionhiding content for non-registered users
What just happened?
Have a go herochange access level settings
Getting your visitors to 'register to read more'
Time for actionpartially hiding content from non-registered users
What just happened?
Enabling users to rate articles or write comments
Pop quiz - test your knowledge of Joomla! user management
Summary
10. Getting the Most out of Your Site: Extending Joomla!
Extensions in all shapes and sizes
Where do you get them from?
Enhancing your site using core extensions
Time for actionadding a Newsflash to the home page
What just happened?
Have a go herochange the Newsflash settings
Creating a custom HTML block
Time for actionadd a short content block
What just happened?
What other extensions are part of the Joomla! core?
Enhancing your site using third-party extensions
Trying out an alternative News flash
Time for actiondownloading and installing an extension
Time for actionputting the extension to work
What just happened?
Have a go heroexperiment with News Show settings
Showing images in a gallery
Time for actioncreate an image gallery
What just happened?
Do you want more from your photo gallery?
Using extensions to enhance your work space
Time for actionreplace Joomla!'s default text editor
What just happened?
So much more to explore
Pop quiz - test your knowledge of Joomla! extensions
Summary
11. Creating an Attractive Design: Working with Templates
This is what templates do
This is why templates are so much fun
Where can you find templates?
Changing the default template
Time for actionactivating a different template
What just happened?
Have a go heroadjust the template settings
Downloading and installing a new template
Time for actionstep 1: Downloading and activating a new template
What just happened?
Time for actionstep 2: Getting the Main Menu module to display
What just happened?
Have a go herofill those module positions!
Find out which positions are available
Assign content to empty positions
Customizing a template: Tweaking CSS styles
Understanding the very basics of CSS
Tweaking template CSS, part one: Changing site colors
Time for actionadjusting the template colors
What just happened?
Tweaking template CSS, part two: Adding a graphic logo file
Creating an image file
Time for actionreplace the header text with an image
What just happened?
Have a go herotweak the layout to your taste
Diving deeper into Joomla! CSS tweaking
Time for actionediting CSS on the fly using Firebug
What just happened?
Expanding your CSS toolkit
Expanding your CSS knowledge
Editing the template HTML
Time for actionremoving the fixed footer text
What just happened?
Backing up and restoring a customized template
Creating your own template
Template building resources
Pop quiz - test your knowledge of Joomla! templates
Summary
12. Attracting Search Engine Traffic: Tips and Techniques
Why do you need to accommodate for search engines?
Optimize your articles
1. The article title: Make it meaningful
2. The article structure: Use clear formatting
3. The article body text: Use relevant keywords
4. The images: Explain what they're about
Update articles regularly
Add meaningful metadata
Time for actionpersonalize the site metadata
What just happened?
Have a go herofind metadata to fit your site
Entering metadata for individual articles
Time for actionadd metadata information for an article
What just happened?
Have a go heroexplore the art and science of metadata
Don't forget to choose the perfect site name
Use search engine friendly URLS
Time for actionenable search engine friendly URLs
What just happened?
Have a go heromake your URLs even prettier
Add extra links to your content
Time for actionturn article titles into hyperlinks
What just happened?
Creating an automatically generated list of hyperlinks
Time for actionadd a list of links to popular articles
What just happened?
Have a go heroadd link lists
Using a site map
Time for actionadding a site map component
What just happened?
Have a go herotweak that site map
Make it easier to discover new content: Using RSS
Time for actionenable RSS feeds
What just happened?
Have a go heroprovide a newsletter service
Getting to know more about your site traffic
More SEO resources
Pop quiz - test your knowledge of Joomla! search engine optimization
Summary
A. Keeping the Site Secure
Tip 1: Upgrade regularly
Tip 2: Change the default Administrator Username
Tip 3: Choose a strong password
Tip 4: Protect files and directories
Choosing file permissions
Tip 5: Use extensions to secure your site
Tip 6: Have a backup ready
Creating a Backup with JoomlaPack
Restoring a backup
Tip 7: Stay informed!
B. Pop quiz - Answers
Chapter 2
Installation: Getting Joomla! Up and Running
Chapter 3
First Steps: Getting to Know Joomla!
Chapter 4
Web Building Basics: Creating a Site in an Hour
Chapter 5
Small Sites, Big Sites: Organizing your Content Effectively
Chapter 6
Creating Killer Content: Adding and Editing Articles
Chapter 7
Welcoming Your Visitors: Creating Attractive Home Pages and Overview Pages
Chapter 8
Helping Your Visitors Find What They Want: Managing Menus
Chapter 9
Opening Up the Site: Enabling Users to Contribute and Interact
Chapter 10
Getting the Most out of Your Site: Extending Joomla!
Chapter 11
Creating an Attractive Design: Working with Templates
Chapter 12
Attracting Search Engine Traffic: Tips and Techniques
Index O autorze: Eric Tiggeler has authored several books on Joomla!, such as the highly successful Joomla! 2.5 Beginner's Guide and Joomla! 3 Beginner's Guide, both by Packt Publishing. He has also written several Joomla! guides in Dutch. His books have received excellent reader reviews. He also writes tutorials for several computer magazines and Joomla! community websites. Over the last ten years, he has developed numerous websites, big and small, using Joomla!. He is fascinated by the Web as a powerful, creative, and ever-changing means of communication, as well as by the revolutionary software Joomla!, which enables anybody to create beautiful and user-friendly websites. On a daily basis, he works as a consultant and copywriter at a communication consultancy company affiliated to the Free University of Amsterdam. Over the last few years, he has written more than 20 books in Dutch on writing and communication. His passion lies in making complex things easy to understand. He is married, has two daughters, and lives and works in Hilversum, the Netherlands. On the Web, you'll find him at www.joomla.erictiggeler.nl(in Dutch) and www.joomm.net(in English). mniej