Authoritative guide to the #1 content management system that lets you create sophisticated yet easily editable websites
* Teaches readers how to create a Joomla! website and how to customize it to their needs
* Covers the 'tips and tricks' along with common troubleshooting issues
* Compare common extensions and add-ons available -- there are over 600
* First book to address differences between Joomla! 1.0 and 1.5
* Joomla! won the Best Linux Open Source Project award of 2005
Table of Contents
Preface xix
Chapter 1: Content Management Systems and an Introduction to Joomla! 1
What Is a Content Management System? 2
Static Web Pages 2
Cascading Style Sheet Web Pages 3
Dynamic Web Pages 4
Open Source
7
History of Joomla!
8
Joomla! Community
9
Third-party Extensions Development
9
Joomla!'s Features
10
Elements of a Joomla! Website
11
Content 13
Modules 14
Templates
14
Summary
15
Chapter 2: Downloading and Installing Joomla!
17
How Do I Install Joomla!?
18
Where Can I Find the Most Current Joomla! Files?
18
Unpacking Joomla! on a Local Desktop Computer
23
Unpacking on a Hosting Account
26
Running the Joomla! Installation Wizard
28
Summary
35
Chapter 3: Joomla! Administration Basics 37
What Is the Frontend and Backend of a Joomla!-powered Website?
38
Menu Bar 40
Toolbar
41
Workspace
41
Administrator Functions in the Menu Bar
42
Site Submenu
42
Menus
50
Content
52
The Component Menu
53
Extensions 55
Tools 60
Global Checkin
61
Help
61
Site Preview 62
Summary
63
Chapter 4: Content Is King: Organizing Your Content 65
How Does Joomla! Generate Web Pages?
66
How Does Joomla! Organize Content Articles? 68
Uncategorized Articles 68
Sections and Categories 69
Sample Hierarchy 71
Creating the Widget Inc. Website with Uncategorized Content
72
Creating Content Articles
74
Creating Menu Items 77
Page Coponent 82
Creating Widget Inc. with Sections and Categories 86
Creating Sections
89
Creating Categories 91
Creating Content Articles 93
Creating Menu Items
95
"Read More" Links and Individual Pages
102
Module Content 104
Summary
107
Chapter 5: Creating Menus and Navigation 109
How Do Menus and Modules Work Together?
110
What Do Menu Items Do?
112
Creating a Menu Item
113
Where Does a Menu Item Link To?
116
What Does a Page Look Like After Following a Link? 116
Blog Layout
118
Blog Layout Parameters
119
List/Standard Layout for a Section
123
Section List/Standard Layout Parameters
125
List/Standard Layout for a Blog
125
Category List/Standard Layout Parameters 127
Module Manager 127
Module Parameters
130
Submenus
132
Summary
133
Chapter 6: Extending Joomla! 135
What Are Extensions?
136
Installing Extensions 137
Managing Extensions
139
Components 140
Core Components140
Third-party Components141
Modules144
Module Display
144
Core Modules 145
Third-party Modules 148
Plugins 149
Core Plugins 149
Third-party Plugins 150
Templates 150
Core Templates 151
Third-party Templates 151
Summary 151
Chapter 7: Expanding Your Content: Articles and Editors 153
WYSIWYG Editors 154
Managing WYSIWYG Editors
155
Other Third-party Editors
158
Creating and Managing Articles 160
Managing Content Through the Backend 161
Adding Content from the Backend 163
Inserting Images into Content 169
Creating an Article Table of Contents 172
Section and Category Descriptions
174
Article Content Preferences 176
Managing Content Through The Frontend
178
Creating a Frontend User Menu 178
Limiting Access to Menus by User Level 182
Authors
183
Editors
187
Publishers 189
Article Checkin 189
Summary 190
Chapter 8: Getting Traffic to Your Site 193
Start at the Beginning: Site Goals
194
Organic Traffic (SEO) 196
Introduction to Google 198
Creating Keywords 199
Keywords and Domain Name
202
Designing Your Site for Organic Traffic
203
Advanced SEO Techniques 209
Referral Traffic 215
Google PageRank
215
Using WebFerret to Find Websites
217
Other Link-Building Strategies
220
Internal Linking. 221
Pay-Per-Click Traffic
225
How Google Adwords Works 226
Joomla! and Adwords
228
Email Traffic
230
Joomla! Email Newsletter Extensions
232
Third-Party Hosted Email Solutions
232
Joomla! SEF Extensions 235
Summary
236
Chapter 9: Creating a Pure CSS Template 239
What Is a Joomla! Template? 240
Localhost Design Process
241
Localhost Server Options 242
W3C and Tableless Design
243
Semantically Correct Code 244
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 244
Creating a Simple Template 245
The Template File Components
245
index.php
249
Blank Joomla! Template Body
253
CSSTemplateTutorialStep1 256
Using CSS to Create a Tableless Layout 256
Default CSS 261
Joomla!-Specific CSS
263
Modules in Templates 265
Menus in Templates 271
Hiding Columns 275
CSSTemplateTutorialStep2
280
Making a Real Joomla! 1.5 Template
280
Slicing and Dicing 280
Setting Up Module Locations
281
Header
282
Column Backgrounds
283
Flexible Modules 285
Typography 286
CSSTemplateTutorialStep3 291
Advanced Templating Features
291
Template Parameters
291
Template Overrides
293
Tableless Joomla! 297
CSSTemplateTutorialStep4
297
Summary
298
Chapter 10: Creating a School Site with Joomla! 301
Why Do We Need a School Website? 302
Students
302
Teachers and Administrators 303
Parents 303
What Features Do We Need on a School Site? 303
Downloading and Installing a School Template 304
Education Template Features and Positions
306
Configuring the Search Box
306
Configuring the Main Horizontal Drop-down Menu 308
Organizing Content on a School Website
310
Creating the Menus 314
Building Out Content
318
Creating Subnavigation
319
Academics Submenu 320
Creating News Links for a Section
322
Setting Up the Footer 324
Setting Up the Home Page 325
Adding Basic Functionality to a School Website 327
User Registration 328
Events Calendar 329
Downloadable Documents 330
Polls 331
Staff Directory
331
Email Newsletter 332
RSS
333
Random Image
334
Sitemap
334
Extending the School Website Beyond the Basics
336
Summary 337
Chapter 11: Creating a Restaurant Site with Joomla!
339
Why Does a Restaurant Need a Website? 340
What Features Does a Restaurant Website Need? 340
Downloading and Installing a Restaurant Template 342
Organizing the Content on a Restaurant Website 344
Building Content Articles with Lorem Ipsum 347
Creating Menus 349
Setting Up the Home Page 354
Home Page Alternative to the Front Page Manager
354
Creating Footer Content
356
Creating Module Teaser Blocks
358
Using Stock Imagery
362
Extending a Restaurant Website
364
Image Gallery: JPG Flash Rotator 2
365
Calendar: JCal Pro
365
Email Marketing
365
Google Maps 366
Summary 367
Chapter 12: Creating a Blog Site with Joomla! 369
What Is a Blog?
370
Why Have a Blog?
371
What Options Are There for Blogging?
372
What Features Are Needed on a Blog Site? . 373
Downloading and Installing a Blog Template
374
Aqualine Template Features and Positions 376
Configuring the Logo 377
Configuring the Main Horizontal Drop-down Menu 378
Organizing Content on a Blog
Organizing a Blog Within a Larger Site
379
Organizing a Standalone Blog
380
About Tagging
382
Creating the Menus 382
Adding Dynamic Modules
386
Adding Static Modules 388
Adding Basic Functionality to a Blog
390
Flexible Layout
390
Browser-based Editing
390
Automated Publishing 390
Categories
391
Search Engine Optimized URLs
391
Comment Systems 391
Syndication Feeds
392
Email Notification 395
Search
396
Trackback 396
Extending a Blog Website Beyond the Basics 397
Forums 398
Ecommerce 398
Summary
398
Appendix A: Getting Help
399
Community Forums
399
Help Sites
399
Getting Help from Google 400
Appendix B: Joomla! Case Studies 401
Six Case Studies for Organizations That Use Joomla! 401
www.yourwedding.com.au (MP Media)
402
www.longwoodfl.org (City of Longwood, Florida)
404
www.ropl.org (Royal Oak Public Library-Michigan) 407
www.telx.com (The Telx Group, Inc.)
409
www.nzmac.com (NZMac.com)
411
www.everythingtreo.com (Everything Treo) 414
Summary
417
Appendix C: A Quick Start to SEO
419
1. Keyword Use in Title Tag
419
2. Anchor Text of Inbound Link
419
3. Global Link Popularity of Site (PageRank 419
4. Age of Site 420
5. Link Popularity Within the Site
420
6. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links and Popularity of Linking Site 420
7. Link Popularity of Site in Topic Community
420
8. Keyword Use in Body Text
421
9. File Size 421
10. Clean URL
421
11. Utilize Your Error Pages 421
What's Not Here? 422
Appendix D: Installing WAMP5
423
Index
431
About the Authors
Barrie North has over 15 years of experience with the Internet, as a user, designer, and teacher. He has spent over eight years in the education fi eld, becoming steadily more involved in web technology and teaching web design classes to students and
technology integration to teachers. Most recently he worked as an IT consultant for two new schools pioneering in the use of technology. As well as web design, he has provided web marketing/SEO, usability, and standards compliance expertise to his clients.
He is a partner of Joomla!shack.com, providing templates and custom services. He also maintains a blog about all things Joomla! at compassdesigns.net. When not working, he can frequently be found on the Joomla! community boards, and he has written many free tutorials for using Joomla!. His combination of Joomla! expertise, educational skills, and engaging writing has produced a book accessible to everyone.
