Joomla! 1.6: A User's Guide, Rough Cuts, 3rd Edition

Description

This is the Rough Cut version of the printed book.

“A complete guide to the powerful features of Joomla! 1.5, this book takes a holistic approach to building a Joomla!-powered website–from the CMS itself to its many extensions, search engine optimization, and even building your own tableless template. The novice reader is eased into the subject and confidently guided through the basic principles and on to the more advanced features. This guide empowers the user not only to build a professional website but to also to make it a success.”

–Russell Walker, CEO, Netshine Software Limited (Joomla! Development Consultancy)

“If you’ve been using or following Joomla! in the past years, you’ve most likely seen the name Barrie North or Joomlashack. Barrie has been a member of the community for a long time and, as such, my expectations for this book were pretty high. Besides explaining how Joomla! works from a usability point of view, there is valuable information for people who want to learn serious template building, and readers can stand out of the crowd by using Barrie’s steps to make their (X)HTML and CSS optimized for accessibility and SEO. All in all, this book is a great guide that comes at the right time for newcomers and more experienced Joomla! users and developers alike. Well done, Barrie!”

–Arno Zijlstra, Joomla! cofounder, custom template specialist, www.alvaana.com

“In a time when solid, real-life Joomla! 1.5 information is rarely available, this book is a thirst-quenching oasis of knowledge. The abundant and clear examples in the book make Joomla! 1.5 websites within anyone’s reach. I heartily recommend Joomla! 1.5: A User’s Guide by Barrie North.”

–Tom Canavan, author of Dodging the Bullets: A Disaster Preparation Guide for Joomla! Based Web Sites

“Refreshing! After reading many how-to books, this one is a step beyond the rest because of its focus on examples based on live sites. This book is well crafted for beginners to advanced users with a well-organized overview that walks you through the entire Joomla! CMS.”

–Steven Pignataro, corePHP, www.corephp.com

“As a long-time Joomla! end-user and developer, I had low expectations for anything new I might learn from this book. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find it a great refresher course, especially since the book is logically organized, leading beginners from the most basic Joomla! concepts and continuing through to more complex ones, such as tableless template design and how to write a template for Joomla! 1.5. In summary, Barrie North has produced the gold-standard print reference for Joomla! 1.5. I highly recommend this book for novice and intermediate users if you want to make the most of Joomla!”

–Vicor Drover, http://dev.anything-digital.com

The Best 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. Now there’s an easy-to-read, easy-to-use guide to Joomla for every site manager

Sample Content

Table of Contents

Preface     xvii

Acknowledgments     xxv

About the Author     xxvi

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     11

      Templates     13

      Modules     14

Summary     14

Chapter 2: Downloading and Installing Joomla!      17

How to Install Joomla!      18

Obtaining the Latest Joomla! File Package     18

      Joomla! Package Naming Conventions     20

Creating a MySQL Database     21

Unpacking the Joomla! Package     21

      Unpacking Joomla! on a Local Desktop Computer     21

      Unpacking Joomla! on a Hosting Account     25

Running the Joomla! Installation Wizard     26

      Getting to the Joomla! Installer     26

      Step 1: Language     26

      Step 2: Pre-Installation Check     27

      Step 3: License     28

      Step 4: Database Configuration     29

      Step 5: FTP Configuration     30

      Step 6: Main Configuration     30

      Step 7: Finish     33

Summary     34

Chapter 3: Joomla! Administration Basics     35

What Are the Frontend and Backend of a Joomla!-Powered Website?      36

      The Menu Bar     38

      The Toolbar     38

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