Joomla! 1.6 First Look

Table of Contents

• Preface

• Chapter 1: Stepping Up to Joomla! 1.6
• Upgrading from 1.5
• Joomla! 1.5 extension compatibility
• Changes for templates
• When should you move to 1.6?
• Migrating content from Joomla! 1.5
• What's new? A quick overview
• 1 - Usability enhancements
• A friendlier interface
• The great new time-saving toolbar
• 2 - Working with content
• The endless joy of unlimited categories
• No more fiddling with menus
• 3 - New ways to manage user access
• Do you want it simple? Keep it simple
• 4 - Working with extensions and templates
• Updating extensions? Just lean back
• Templating to your taste
• SEO improvements
• Summary

• Chapter 2: Exploring your Enhanced Workspace
• Before you start: choosing a safe root user's name
• Changing the root user's name after installation
• Logging in to the backend
• What's changed in the backend?
• What's gone: no more sections
• What's been added: the Users menu
• What's been moved: some tools and odds and ends
• User Settings and Media Settings have been moved
• Five great new time-saving features
• Timesaver # 1: going home in one click
• Timesaver # 2: adding new items in one click
• Timesaver # 3: Save & New
• Using the new Save & New button
• Timesaver # 4: Save as Copy
• Creating dummy content using Save as Copy
• Timesaver # 5: tabbed screens
• One great life-saver: two-step deletion
• Deleting an item
• Exploring and restoring thrashed content
• Permanently deleting items
• Customizing the looks of the backend
• Selecting another backend template
• Setting the backend template to suit your taste
• Summary

• Chapter 3: Organizing and Managing Content
• Organizing content using nested categories
• Improvement #1: categories can now be one level deep
• Improvement #2: creating multiple category levels
• Creating a set of 'nested' categories
• Using nested categories in the sample data
• Exploring the sample data
• New category settings: notes and metadata
• Adding category metadata
• Fresh ways to display category contents on the frontend
• New category view # 1: List All Categories
• Creating a link to a site map
• Tweaking the site map display
• New Category View # 2: Articles Categories Module
• New Category View # 3: Articles (in) Category Module
• Working with the updated article editor
• Creating a link to an article
• Inserting an article title as a hyperlink
• Using the updated Media Manager
• Enabling the Flash image uploader
• Archiving articles
• Summary

• Chapter 4: Managing Menus and Menu Modules
• Goodbye to a spartan Menu Manager
• The all-new tabbed Menu Manager screen
• Exploring the new Menu Manager
• New ways to manage and edit menus
• A new shortcut to jump straight to selected menu items
• A new shortcut to jump to menu module settings
• New ways to manage and edit menu items
• Filtering the list of menu items
• Changes in the way you assign a menu item to the homepage
• New buttons to copy and move menu items
• Trashing menu items
• Creating or editing individual Menu Items
• Choosing from new Menu Item Types
• New Menu Link Item type # 1: List All Categories
• New Menu Link Item type # 2: List All Contact Categories
• Setting the template for an individual menu item
• An overview of Menu Item Options
• Layout Options
• Article Options
• Integration Options
• Page Display Options
• Metadata Options
• Module Assignment for this Menu Item
• Summary

• Chapter 5: Managing Site Users with Access Control
• What's new about the Access Control Levels system?
• What are the default user groups and permissions?
• The default site-wide settings
• Default user groups
• Public – the guest group
• Registered – the user group that can log in
• Author, Editor, Publisher – the frontend content team
• Manager, Administrator, Super User – the backend administrators
• Shop Suppliers and Customers – two sample user groups
• Are there also sample users available?
• Action Permissions: what users can do
• Permissions are inherited
• What do the available action permissions mean?
• Level 1 – site-wide permissions in Global Configuration
• Level 2 – permissions for components
• Level 3 – permissions for categories
• Level 4 – permissions for articles
• Viewing Access Levels: what users can see
• Wrapping up: the ingredients of ACL
• ACL at work: how to control user permissions
• ACL example 1: allow specific users to manage contacts
• Step 1: create a user group
• Step 2: tell Joomla! what the group can see and do
• Step 3: add users to the group
• Check if it works
• ACL example 2: allow users to edit one specific article
• Step 1: create a user group
• Step 2: tell Joomla! what the group can see and do
• Step 3: add users to the group
• Check if it works
• More on Access Control
• Summary

• Chapter 6: New Flexibility in Using Templates
• What's new? Finally, table-less templates
• What does that clean output look like?
• Why clean code is good for everybody
• Introducing the tabbed Template Manager
• The Styles tab: selecting templates and settings
• Selecting a template
• Template Styles
• The Templates tab: exploring templates and editing code
• Customizing templates using Template Styles
• Changing the site color and layout options
• Customizing the site logo
• Using a text logo
• Changing the header image file
• Creating Template Styles to style individual pages
• Creating and using a Template Style
• Assigning templates from the menu item itself
• Choosing a template from a menu item
• Exploring and editing installed templates
• What templates are available?
• atomic
• beez5
• beez2
• bluestork
• hathor
• Previewing templates
• Exploring available module positions
• Editing template code
• Installing and assigning a new template
• Summary

• Chapter 7: Unleashing the New Power of Extensions
• Changes in the extensions that come with Joomla!
• The new Redirect Manager
• New modules to display category contents
• Switching languages
• No more polls
• Exploring pre-installed extensions
• The new Extension Manager screen
• Tab 1: Install
• Tab 2: Update
• Tab 3: Manage
• Tab 4: Discover
• Tab 5: Warnings
• New module features
• Setting a time span for publishing modules
• Creating a scheduled module
• Making use of the new Note field
• Assigning a module to specific menu items
• Assigning a module to all pages except a few
• Assigning modules from the menu item settings
• Changing module settings via the Edit Menu Item screen
• Displaying available module positions
• Finding and downloading extensions for Joomla! 1.6
• Summary

• Chapter 8: SEO Improvements
• The SEO bonus of well structured layouts
• Proper use of HTML heading elements
• Adding H3 through H6 headings
• Adding an alternative H1 page heading
• Page Heading and Page Title – what's the difference?
• Configuring HTML page titles
• Setting the HTML page title
• Adding the Site Name to the page title
• Entering site metadata
• Entering metadata for menu items, categories, and articles
• Choosing what metadata to set
• Using search engine friendly URLs
• Adding a site map
• Using the Xmap site map extension
• Using the new Redirect Manager
• Creating page redirects
• Redirecting multiple old URLs in one go
• More on SEO
• Summary

• Index