9780132487061

The Best Easy-to-Use Guide to Joomla! TM --The Worldrs"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 therers"s an easy-to-read, easy-to-use guide to Joomla! for every site manager, administrator, and developer. Leading Joomla! consultant Barrie North covers all you need to get results: installation, administration, site organization, template development, content updates, and a whole lot more. Yours"ll find tips, tricks, and troubleshooting solutions, as well as three start-to-finish case studies. New to Joomla!? No problem! This book starts with the simplest design and system concepts and builds your expertise step-by-step. Yours"ll rapidly master Joomla!rs"s power, even if you have no content management, scripting, or CSS expertise. Experienced with Joomla!? Yours"ll turn to this book constantly for its authoritative, plain-English, example-rich Joomla! 1.5 reference content. Understand content management, what Joomla! does, and how its components fit together Build Joomla! sites from scratch and systematically customize them to your needs Organize content with sections, categories, blogs, and tables Create dynamic pages and effective navigation Work with Joomla! modules and components Learn how to optimize your Joomla! sites for search engines Follow three start-to-finish case studies: building a school website, a small business site, and a blog Identify the most valuable Joomla! extensions and add-ons: find them and use them Barrie M. North has more than 15 years of experience with the Internet, as a user, designer, and teacher. A certified teacher, he has spent more than eight years in the education field, becoming steadily more involved in web technology and teaching 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 and usability and runs training classes for Joomla! across the United States. He is currently a partner of Joomlashack.com, providing templates and custom services. He also maintains a blog about all things Joomla! at compassdesigns.net. In 2008 he launched a new company, Simplweb, which provides turnkey Joomla! websites for small businesses, schools, and other industries. He has written many free tutorials for using Joomla! and is a frequent speaker at Joomla! events. His combination of Joomla! expertise, educational skills, and engaging writing produces books accessible to everyone. About the Website The accompanying site, www.joomlabook.com, provides five fully functional Joomla! sites with live follow-along examples from the book and up-to-date information on Joomla!. Preface xxi Acknowledgments xxix About the Author xxxi Chapter 1: Content Management Systems and an Introduction to Joomla! 1 What Is a Content Management System? 2 Static Web Pages 2 Web Page

Barrie M. North has more than 20 years of experience with the Internet as a user, designer, and teacher. He has spent more than 8 years in the education field, becoming steadily more involved in web technology, teaching web design classes to students and technology integration to teachers. Most recently, he worked as an IT consultant for two new schools pioneering 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 founder of Joomlashack.com, one of the oldest and most popular Joomla template providers, and a founder of SimplWeb.com, a service that provides easy-to-use, turnkey Joomla hosting for those new to Joomla. 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.

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

The Workspace 40

Administrator Functions in the Menu Bar 40

The Site Submenu 41

Users Menu 45

The Menus Menu 48

The Content Menu 49

The Components Submenu 53

The Extensions Menu 54

The Help Menu 58

View Site 59

Summary 60

Chapter 4: Content Is King: Organizing Your Content 63

How Does Joomla! Generate Web Pages? 64

How Joomla! Organizes Content Articles 66

Uncategorized Articles 67

Categories 67

A Sample Hierarchy 69

Creating the Widget Inc. Website with Uncategorized Content 70

Creating Content Articles 72

Creating Menu Items 75

The Featured Article Component 80

Creating the Widget Inc. Website with Categories 85

Creating Categories 86

Creating Content Article 86

Creating Menu Items 90

Linking to Components 92

“Read More” Links and Individual Pages 95

Module Content 97

Summary 100

Chapter 5: Creating Menus and Navigation 103

How Menu Modules Work 104

What Menu Items Do 105

Creating a Menu Item 106

Where Does a Menu Item Link? 107

What Does a Page Look Like After a Link Is Followed? 108

Blog Layout 109

Blog Layout Parameters 110

List Layout for a Blog 114

Category List Advanced Options 114

Managing Menu Modules in the Module Manager . 116

Show Title 116

Position 118

Access 118

Menu and Module Class Suffixes (Advanced Options) 118

Menu Assignment 118

Summary 119

Chapter 6: Extending Joomla! 121

Extensions 122

Installing Extensions 123

Managing Extensions 125

Components 126

Core Component 127

Third-Party Components 128

Modules 128

Module Display 128

Core Modules 130

Third-Party Modules 132

Plug-ins 133

Core Plug-ins 133

Third-Party Plug-ins 134

Templates 134

Core Templates 134

Third-Party Templates 134

Summary 135

Chapter 7: Expanding Your Content: Articles and Editors 137

WYSIWYG Editors 138

Managing WYSIWYG Editors 139

Other Third-Party Editors 142

Creating and Managing Articles 143

Managing Content Through the Backend 144

Adding Content from the Backend 146

Inserting Images into Content 153

Category Descriptions 156

Managing Content Through the Frontend 159

Creating a Frontend User Menu 159

Limiting Access to Menus by User Level 163

Authors 165

Editors 167

Publishers 169

Article Checkin

Summary 171

Chapter 8: Getting Traffic to Your Site 175

Start at the Beginning: Site Goals 176

Organic Traffic (SEO) 177

Introduction to Google 180

Creating Keywords 181

Keywords and Domain Name 184

Designing Your Site for Organic Traffic 184

Advanced SEO Techniques 192

Referral Traffic 196

Google PageRank 196

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Joomla! 1.6 A User's Guide: Building a Successful Joomla! Powered Website

0132487063

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