Building Websites with Joomla! 1.5

Hagen Graf

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Overview

Table of Contents

The Author

Reviews

Downloads

Learn Joomla! 1.5 features
Install and customize Joomla! 1.5
Configure Joomla! administration
Create your own Joomla! templates
Extend Joomla! with new components, modules, and plug-ins

Book Details

Language : English
Paperback : 384 pages [ 235mm x 191mm ]
Release Date : March 2008
ISBN : 184719530X
ISBN 13 : 978-1-847195-30-2
Author(s) : Hagen Graf
Topics and Technologies : All Books, Open Source

Preface
Chapter 1: Terms, Concepts, and Deliberations
Chapter 2: Installation
Chapter 3: A Tour of Your New Website
Chapter 4: Customizing Joomla!—Language and Templates
Chapter 5: Configuration of Joomla! Administration
Chapter 6: Site Menu
Chapter 7: The Menus Menu
Chapter 8: Content Menu
Chapter 9: Components Menu
Chapter 10: Extensions Menu
Chapter 11: Tools
Chapter 12: More on Extensions
Chapter 13: Writing Your Own Joomla! Templates
Chapter 14: Barrier Freedom and Joomla!
Chapter 15: Your Own Components, Modules, and Plug-ins
Chapter 16: A Website with Joomla!
Chapter 17: Bonus Templates
Appendix A: Online Resources
Appendix B: Template Modules
Appendix C: How Do I switch an Image (Logo) in the Template?
Appendix D: Joomla! API
Appendix E: Forgot the Admin Password
Appendix F: Migration from Joomla! 1.0.x to Joomla! 1.5
Appendix G: Security Without Global Variables
Index

Preface

Chapter 1: Terms, Concepts, and Deliberations
- Content Management System (CMS)
- A Quick Glance into History
  - Joomla!—How was it Developed?
- Structure of a Web Content Management System (WCMS)
  - Front End and Back End
  - Access Rights
  - Content
  - Extensions
    - Components
    - Templates
    - Plug-Ins
  - Workflow
  - Configuration Settings
  - API
- Is Joomla! a Piece of Real Estate?
  - Joomla! Versions
  - Numbering System of Joomla! Versions
  - Road Map
- Changes In Detail
  - Internationalization
  - User Plug-Ins
  - XML Remote Procedure Call Support
  - Support of Several Databases
  - FTP System
  - Overhaul of the Joomla! Framework
  - Barrier Freedom
  - Search Engine Friendliness
  - Google Summer of Code Projects
- Joomla! Features
- Examples of Joomla! Pages
  - Joomla.org
  - Travel Shop, Ireland
  - Frank Lüdtke, Germany
  - Hotel Schönruh, Austria
  - Urth.tv, USA
  - unric.org, Europe
  - porsche.com.br, Brazil
- Summary

Chapter 2: Installation
- Client-Server System
  - Accessing a Joomla! Website on the Internet
- Technical Requirements for Joomla!
- Necessary Elements for a Joomla! System Installation
  - Local Test Environment
    - Windows Operating System
    - Linux Operating System
    - Mac OS X Operating System
  - Production Environment
    - Rented Virtual Server
    - Your Own Server
- Setting Up the Local Server Environment
  - Windows
    - XAMPP for Windows
  - Linux
    - openSUSE > 10.x
    - Debian/Ubuntu
    - Your Own Server at a Provider (Root Server)
- Joomla! Installation on a Virtual Server on the Net
- Joomla! Installation
  - Selecting a Directory for Installation
    - An Example
    - Directory
    - Unpacking
  - Joomla! Web Installer
    - Step 1: Language Selection
    - Step 2: Pre-Installation Check
    - Step 3: Licence
    - Step 4: Database Configuration
    - Step 5: FTP Configuration
    - Step 6: Configuration
    - Step 7: Completion
- Summary

Chapter 3: A Tour of Your New Website
- Front End
  - Menus
    - Top Menu
    - Main Menu/Breadcrumbs
    - Other Menus
  - Content
    - What is Content?
    - First Page/Front Page
    - The Newest Information/The Most Often Read Messages
  - Advertising
    - Banner Area
  - Functions
    - Login Area
    - Polling
    - Who is Online?
    - Feeds
    - Search Field
  - Decorative Elements
  - Outlook
- Back end
- Summary

Chapter 4: Customizing Joomla!—Language and Templates
- A Different Language for the Website and the Administrator
  - Installation of a Different Language File
  - Translation of a Menu Entry
  - Modifying the Menu Name
- Changing the Template for Your Website
  - Changing Colors in the Template
- Summary

Chapter 5: Configuration of Joomla! Administration
- Screen Layout
  - Menu Bar
  - Tool Bar
  - Submenus
  - Filter Elements
  - Content Area
  - Lists
  - Dialogs
  - Miscellaneous
- Help
  - Help Icon
  - Help with Speech Balloons
- Help Menu
  - Joomla! Help
  - System Info
- Summary

Chapter 6: Site Menu
- Control Panel
- User Manager
  - Logout Users Icon
  - Delete Users Icon
  - Edit Users Icon
  - New User Icon
- Media Manager
  - Creating Directories
  - Uploading a File
- Global Configuration
  - Site Section
    - Site Settings
    - Metadata Settings
    - SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Settings
  - System Section
    - System Settings
    - Users Settings
    - Media Settings
    - Debug Settings
    - Cache Settings
    - Session Settings
  - Server Section
    - Server Settings
    - Locale Settings
    - FTP Settings
    - Database Settings
    - Mail Settings
- Logout
- Summary

Chapter 7: The Menus Menu
- Menus
- Customizing an Existing Menu
  - Menus Icon
  - Default Icon
  - Publish/Unpublish Icon
  - Move Icon
  - Copy Icon
  - Trash Icon
  - Edit Icon (Edit Menu Items)
  - New Icon
- Menu Trash
- Creating a New Menu
- Summary

Chapter 8: Content Menu
- Article Manager
  - Description of the Articles List
  - Editing Icons for an Article
    - Archive, Unarchive
    - Approve, Block
    - Move, Copy
    - Trash Basket
    - Parameters
- Creating a New Article
  - Parameters
- Images

Article Trash
Section Manager
- Editing Sections

Category Manager
Front Page Manager
- Editing Content from the Front End

Summary

Chapter 9: Components Menu
- Banner
  - Banners
  - Clients
  - Manage Banners
  - Graphic Banners
  - Text Links
- Contacts
  - Contact Manager
    - Details
    - Information
    - Parameters
- Creation of a Menu Link for the Website
  - Categories
- News Feeds
  - Feeds
  - Categories
- Polls
  - Search Statistics
- Web Links
  - Links
  - Categories
- Summary

Chapter 10: Extensions Menu
- Install/Uninstall
  - Install, Components, Modules, Plug-ins, Languages, and Templates
- Module Manager
  - Site Module
    - Breadcrumbs
    - Footer
    - Banner
    - Main Menus
    - Statistics
    - Login Form
    - Archive
    - Sections
    - Related Items
    - Wrapper
    - Feed Display
    - Who's Online
    - Polls
    - Advertisement
    - Random Image
    - Syndication
    - Newsflash
    - Latest News
    - Popular
    - Search
  - Administrator Module
    - Logged in Users
    - Popular
    - Recent added Articles
    - Menu Stats
    - Footer
    - Unread Messages
    - Online Users
    - Quick Icons
    - Login
    - Admin Menu
    - User Status
    - Admin Submenu
    - Title
    - Toolbar
    - CSS Admin Menu
- Plugins Manager
  - Authentication Plug-ins
    - Joomla!
    - LDAP
    - OpenID
    - Gmail
  - Content Plug-ins
    - Image
    - Page Navigation
    - SEF
    - Rating
    - Email Cloaking
    - GeSHi
    - Load Module
    - Pagebreak
  - Editors Plug-ins
    - No Editor
    - TinyMCE 2.0
  - Editors-xtd Plug-ins
  - Search Plug-ins
  - System Plug-ins
    - Log
    - Debug
    - Legacy
    - Cache
    - Remember Me
    - Backlink
  - User Plug-ins
    - Joomla!
  - XML-RPC Plug-ins
    - XML-RPC-Joomla
    - XML-RPC blogger API
- Template Manager
  - Site
    - Editing a Template
    - Preview Icon
    - Edit HTML Icon
    - Edit CSS Icon
  - Administrator
- Language Manager
- Summary

Chapter 11: Tools
- Private Messaging System
- Mass Mail
- Global Check-In
- Summary

Chapter 12: More on Extensions
- Fireboard (Forum)
  - Installation
  - Configuration
  - Setting Up a Forum
  - Integration into the Website
- DOCman (Download section, Document Management)
  - Installation
  - Configuration
  - Language
  - Integration into the Website
  - Preparing Content
  - Search Plug-in
  - Supplementary Module
- Exposé Flash Gallery
  - Installation
  - Integration into the Website
  - Album Manager in the Administration Section
  - Uninstallation
  - Album Manager as a Stand-Alone Program
- Integration into the Joomla! Framework
- Problems with Third-Party Components
  - Updates
  - Security
  - What should you Do?
- Summary

Chapter 13: Writing Your Own Joomla! Templates
- Corporate Identity
- HTML/XHTML, CSS, and XML
  - HTML/XHTML
  - CSS
  - XML
- Creating Your Own Templates
  - Concept
  - HTML Conversion
  - Directory Structures of the Template
  - First Trial Run
  - Integration of the Joomla! Module
  - Creating a Template Package
  - Installation with the Joomla! Template Installer
  - What Source Code Comes from Joomla?
- Summary

Chapter 14: Barrier Freedom and Joomla!
- Barrier Freedom—What is it Anyway?
  - The Legal Backround

Criteria for Accessible Sites at a Glance
- Separation of Content and Layout
- Demands on Design and Content
- Visual and Content-Wise Arrangement of Content
- Color Selection
- Contrasts
- Variable Font Sizes
- Scalable Layouts
- Graphics
- Sufficiently Large Navigation Elements
- Forms

Barrier Freedom in Joomla! 1.5—Possible with Beez
HTML
Jump Marks
- index.php
- Skip Links in Forms

Beez and Modules
com_content
Forms
Data Tables
Design and CSS
- Beez Internal CSS Files
- Positioning
- The Layout
- Miscellaneous

Joomla! Internal Accessibility Features
Additional Information about This Topic
- Assistive Technologies
- CheckerTools
- Book Tip
- Summary

Chapter 15: Your Own Components, Modules, and Plug-ins
- Model—View—Controller
  - What is the Advantage with MVC?
- The helloworld Sample Component
  - A Home for helloworld
- An Example Component
  - The MySQL Table
  - The Front End
  - The com_auto Administration
  - Test
  - Creating an Installation Package
- Modules
  - Source Code
  - Installation
  - View on the Website
- Plug-ins
- Summary

Chapter 16: A Website with Joomla!
- Idea
- Preparations
  - Logo and Appearance
    - Photographs
    - Texts
  - Technical Conversion
    - Local Installation
    - The First Few Articles
    - Masthead
  - Menu Structure
    - Structure of the Main Menu
    - Structure of the Top Menu
    - Structure of the User Menu
  - Setting up the Texts and the Menu Links in the Main Menu
    - Contact Link
    - Top Menu
    - Shop
    - The Impressions
  - The User Section
    - The User Menu
    - The Download Section
  - User Details
  - First Results
  - M Bertrand Learns CSS
    - Formatting Step by Step
- Changes for Joomla! Version 1.5
- Installation on the Webserver
  - How to Do the Installation
    - FTP
    - MySQL
  - Installation of Joomla! at the Provider
  - Importing the Data
  - File and Directory Rights
- Search Engines
  - Search Engine Friendly URLs
  - Metatags
- Design
  - Installation of the Template
  - The Template
- Happy End
  - How Does It Work in Reality?
- Summary

Chapter 17: Bonus Templates
- NGO
  - Tom Bohacek
  - The World Knowledge Template
  - Creative Approach
  - Structural Approach
- Business Establishment
  - Andy Miller
- Summary

Appendix A: Online Resources

Appendix B: Template Modules

Appendix C: How Do I switch an Image (Logo) in the Template?

Appendix D: Joomla! API

Appendix E: Forgot the Admin Password

Appendix F: Migration from Joomla! 1.0.x to Joomla! 1.5
- Backing Up Your Data
  - Backing Up the Files
  - The Migration Script
  - New Installation of Joomla! 1.5.0
  - Manual Method
    - Modifying the Joomla! 1.5 Database Scheme
    - Importing the Tables

Appendix G: Security Without Global Variables

Index

Hagen Graf

Hagen Graf was born in July 1964. Born and raised in Lower Saxony, Germany, his first contact with a computer was in the late seventies with a Radioshack TRS 80. As a salesperson, he organized his customers' data by programming suitable applications. This gave him a big advantage over other salesmen. With the intention of honing his skills, he joined evening courses in programming and became a programmer. Nowadays he works in his wife's consulting company as a trainer, consultant, and programmer (http://www.cocoate.com). Hagen Graf has published other books in German, about the Apache web server, about security problems in Windows XP, about Mambo, and about Drupal. Since 2001, he has been engaged in a nonprofit e-learning community called "machm-it.org e.V.", as well as in several national and international projects. All the projects are related to content management, community building, and harnessing the power of social software like wikis and weblogs. He chose Joomla! CMS because of its simplicity and easy-to-use administration. You can access and comment on his blog (http://www.bloghouse.org/en/hagen).

From a technical perspective, the book offers a lot of valuable information to new Joomla developers, and could easily become the preferred resource that they turn to when building their first Joomla Web sites. Michael J. Ross, Web Developer

It is a real beginning to end piece that has great instructional value.

Sample chapters

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In Detail

Joomla! started as a fork from Mambo in 2005, when many of the original developers of the Mambo CMS moved to working on Joomla! It has rapidly grown in popularity and, according to its own description, is a "Cutting Edge Content Management System and one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management systems in the world. It is used world-wide for anything from simple homepages to complicated corporate websites. It is easy to install, easy to manage and very reliable."

While the Joomla! CMS has the flexibility and power needed for complex, full-featured web applications, it is also simple to use to create basic websites. Its powerful, extensible template system can deal many different data types and control of user access, approval of content, scheduling of content display, and rich administrative controls are all included.

This book takes a practical step-by-step approach of teaching the installation and configuration of Joomla! 1.5, customizing it, creating your templates and extensions, and finally, building your own website.

Read chapter 7: The Menus Menu [1.7 MB]

Book Reviews

Slashdot: "...from a technical perspective, the book offers a lot of valuable information to new Joomla developers, and could easily become the preferred resource that they turn to when building their first Joomla Web sites." - Michael J. Ross, Web Developer, Slashdot.org

The Open Sourcery: this book is great for getting developers well-launched into using Joomla! managers will find it more than approachable and can use the book to give a sounding on the types of projects and extensions they may want to take with Joomla. Finally, basic users will get a clear idea of what Joomla can do for them - and a good gauge for how easy (or taxing) various configurations and customizations are going to be. In short, this is a book not just for getting started but also fully utilizing Joomla - top marks to Hagen Graf and Packt Publishing for this book.

dyndns.biz: The book is very complete. It is a real beginning to end piece that has great instructional value. I can see it easily implemented in workshops etc. Up to chapter 13 not much knowledge is needed. Chapter 13 to 15 require some experience with php/html to be completely understandable.

Approach

This book takes the reader through the tasks essential to create a Joomla! website as rapidly as possible. The necessary tasks are explained with clear step-by-step instructions. The authorâ€™s chatty and engaging style makes this book very readable.

Who this book is for

This book is suitable for web developers, designers, webmasters, content editors, and marketing professionals who want to develop a website in a simple and straightforward process. It does not require any detailed knowledge of programming or web development, and any IT-confident individual will be able to use the book to produce an impressive website.