Joomla! 2.5 Beginner’s Guide

Book description

Joomla! is the free and easy way to create websites, and this book is written for absolute beginners who want to learn the basics and go beyond. Packed with helpful screenshots and crystal clear instructions.

  • Create a Joomla! website in an hour with the help of easy-to-follow steps and screenshots.
  • Go beyond a typical Joomla! site to make a website that meets your specific needs.
  • Learn how to secure, administrate, and fill your site with content.
  • Update to the popular Joomla! 1.5 Beginner's Guide by Eric Tiggeler.

In Detail

Joomla! is one of the most popular open-source Content Management Systems, actively developed and supported by a world-wide user community. Although it's a fun and feature-rich tool, it can be challenging to get beyond the basics and build a site that meets your needs perfectly. Using this book you can create dynamic, interactive web- sites that perfectly fit your needs.

Completely updated for Joomla! 2.5, this practical guide teaches you how to create professional, appealing and extendable websites, whether you want to create a full-featured company or club website or build a personal blog site.

The Joomla! Beginner's Guide helps beginners to get started quickly and to get beyond the basics to take full advantage of Joomla!'s powerful features. Completely updated from the first book, real-life examples and tutorials will spark your imagination and show you what kind of professional, contemporary, feature-rich websites any developer can achieve with Joomla!. This book thoroughly covers the concepts behind the software and creates a coherent picture of how the software works. This book is not about what Joomla! can do – it's about what you can do using Joomla!.

Table of contents

  1. Joomla! 2.5 Beginner's Guide
    1. Table of Contents
    2. Joomla! 2.5 Beginner's Guide
    3. Credits
    4. About the Author
    5. About the Reviewers
    6. www.PacktPub.com
      1. Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more
        1. Why Subscribe?
        2. Free Access for Packt account holders
    7. Preface
      1. What this book covers
      2. What you need for this book
      3. Who this book is for
      4. Conventions
      5. Time for action – heading
        1. What just happened?
        2. Pop quiz – heading
        3. Have a go hero – heading
      6. Reader feedback
      7. Customer support
        1. Downloading the color images of this book
        2. Errata
        3. Piracy
        4. Questions
    8. 1. Introduction: A New and Easy Way to Build Websites
      1. Join the CMS revolution
        1. Why would you choose Joomla?
        2. What kind of sites can you build with Joomla?
      2. Learning to use Joomla
        1. What you'll learn using this book
        2. About the example site
      3. Summary
    9. 2. Installation: Getting Joomla Up and Running
      1. What do you need to start?
        1. Hosting space
        2. FTP software
        3. A great browser (think Firefox)
      2. Installing Joomla in four steps
      3. Time for action – downloading the Joomla files
        1. What just happened?
      4. Time for action – placing the files on the web server
        1. What just happened?
      5. Time for action – creating a database
        1. What just happened?
      6. Time for action – running the Joomla installation wizard
        1. What just happened?
      7. Got stuck? Get help!
        1. Pop quiz – test your knowledge of installing Joomla
      8. Summary
    10. 3. First Step: Getting to Know Joomla
      1. Making the switch—building websites the Joomla way
        1. Sorry, web pages have ceased to exist
        2. Why is this a good thing?
        3. A website built of blocks
      2. Introducing frontend and backend: the Joomla interface
        1. Your workspace: the backend
        2. And what's the frontend?
      3. The frontend: the website as the user sees it
      4. Time for action – tour the example site
        1. What just happened?
        2. Exploring the example content
        3. Have a go hero – get familiar with other example sites
      5. Taking control: administering your site in the backend
      6. Time for action – log in to the backend
        1. What just happened?
        2. Taking a closer look at the Control Panel
          1. Top menu
          2. Shortcut buttons
          3. Preview and Info Bar
          4. Information panels
        3. Understanding backend tools and controls
      7. Getting your feet wet: start administering your site
        1. Three types of backend tasks
          1. Content management example: let's create some content!
      8. Time for action – publish your first article
        1. What just happened?
          1. Extension management example: adding a module
      9. Time for action – add a module to the site
        1. What just happened?
          1. Site management example: configuring basic site settings
      10. Time for action – set Joomla preferences
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – explore the configuration options
        3. Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla basics
      11. Summary
    11. 4. Web Building Basics: Creating a Site in an Hour
      1. What you will be making
        1. Meet your client
      2. Cleaning up: removing the sample data
        1. Step 1: remove sample content
      3. Time for action – deleting articles and categories
        1. Step 2: delete menus and other modules
      4. Time for action – deleting menus
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – clean out the list of modules
      5. Building your new site in three steps
      6. Step 1: customize the layout
      7. Time for action – preparing a new logo image
        1. Replacing the header image
      8. Time for action – replace the header image
      9. Time for action – tweak the design details
        1. What just happened?
          1. CSS stylesheets? Come again?
      10. Have a go hero – explore layout settings
      11. Step 2: add content
        1. Create a foundation first: make categories
      12. Time for action – create a News category
        1. What just happened?
        2. Add articles to the category
      13. Time for action – create an article
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – add your own images to articles
        3. Making content visible on the site: create a menu link
      14. Time for action – add a menu link
        1. What just happened?
          1. Now that's the all-important power of menus
        2. Have a go hero – create more categories and articles
        3. Create menu links to the new content
        4. Add individual content pages: uncategorized articles
      15. Time for action – add uncategorized articles
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – clean up the Main Menu
        3. Put some content on the home page—at last!
          1. Add items to the home page
      16. Time for action – adding items to the home page
        1. What just happened?
      17. Step 3: add extras through extensions
        1. Components and Extensions, what's the difference?
        2. Add a contact form
      18. Time for action – create a contact
        1. What just happened?
      19. Time for action – create a Contact Form menu link
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – clean up the Top menu
        3. Add a special message block
      20. Time for action – create a message block
        1. What just happened?
      21. Wrapping up: change site settings
      22. Time for action – change site configuration
        1. What just happened?
        2. Pop quiz – test your basic Joomla knowledge
      23. Summary
    12. 5. Small Sites, Big Sites: Organizing your Content Effectively
      1. Building on the example site
      2. Grouping content: a crash course in site organization
        1. Designing a site map
      3. Time for action – create a future proof site map
        1. What just happened?
        2. Transferring your site map to Joomla
        3. How do you turn a site map into a website?
      4. Creating categories and subcategories
      5. Time for action – create a category and subcategories
        1. What just happened?
        2. In what case do you need more subcategory levels?
        3. Have a go hero – rearrange existing categories
        4. Adding content to new categories
      6. Displaying main categories and subcategories on your site
      7. Time for action – create a link to point to a main category
        1. Have a go hero – explore the possibilities of category pages
      8. Refining your site structure
      9. Time for action – move content from one category to another
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero—moving entire categories
        3. Renaming categories
      10. Time for action – rename a category
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – name and rename!
        3. Changing category settings
      11. Building a site without using categories
        1. How do you go about building a small site?
        2. Have a go hero – organize a site!
        3. Pop quiz – test your site organization knowledge
      12. Summary
    13. 6. Creating Killer Content: Adding and Editing Articles
      1. Articles, content pages, what's the difference?
      2. Creating and editing articles: beyond the basics
      3. Making your words look good: formatting article text
      4. Time for action – add styling to article text
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – change the formatting
      5. Adding images to articles
      6. Time for action – upload images
        1. What just happened?
      7. Time for action – inserting and aligning images
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – adjust the image settings
        3. Extending the possibilities of the Media Manager
      8. Time for action – enabling the Flash image uploader
      9. Changing the way the article displays
        1. One lump or two? Split the article in an intro text and main text
      10. Time for action – creating an intro text
        1. What just happened?
        2. Creating multi-page articles
      11. Time for action – using page breaks to split up an article
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – use sliders and tabs
      12. Tweaking the details: changing article settings
        1. Article Permissions
        2. Setting general preferences for all articles
          1. Articles tab
          2. Category tab
          3. Categories, Blog/Featured Layouts, List Layouts, and Shared Options tabs
          4. Integration tab
          5. Text Filters tab
          6. Permissions tab
      13. Archiving articles
      14. Time for action – creating a news archive
        1. What just happened?
        2. Pop quiz – test your article expertise
      15. Summary
    14. 7. Welcoming your Visitors: Creating Attractive Home Pages and Overview Pages
      1. Why do you need overview pages, anyway?
      2. Creating the perfect home: mastering home page layout
        1. Changing the way the home page is arranged
      3. Time for action – rearrange the layout of articles on the home page
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – tweak home page layout options
        3. Adding items to the home page
        4. Controlling the order of home page items manually
        5. Setting criteria to automatically order home page items
      4. Time for action – show the most recent items first
        1. What just happened?
          1. The Featured Articles menu item type – an overview of all options
            1. Layout Options
            2. Article Options
            3. Integration Options
            4. Link Type Options
            5. Page Display Options
            6. Metadata Options
            7. Module assignment for this Menu Item
        2. Creating more than one page containing Featured Articles
        3. Another type of home page: using a single article
      5. Time for action – creating a different home page
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – undo!
      6. Creating category overview pages
        1. Two main choices: Blog layout and List layout
      7. The first type of overview page: creating Category Blog layouts
      8. Time for action – create a facebook using the Blog layout
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – add a category description
          1. Showing full articles on a category overview page
        3. Have a go hero – experiment with Category Blog layout settings
          1. Blog Layout Options, Article Options, Integration Options, Link Type Options, Page Display Options, and Metadata Options
          2. Category Options
      9. The second type of overview page: Lists
      10. Time for action – add a link to a Category List layout
        1. What just happened?
        2. Customizing lists: exploring Category List options
          1. Required Settings
          2. Category Options
          3. List Layouts
          4. Article Options, Integration Options, Link Type Options, Page Display Options, and Metadata Options
      11. How are multi-level categories displayed in Lists?
        1. Pop Quiz – test your knowledge of home pages and overview pages
      12. Summary
    15. 8. Helping your Visitors Find What they Want: Managing Menus
      1. How many menus can you have?
      2. Creating user-friendly navigation—cleaning up the Main Menu
        1. Option 1: Change the order of menu items
      3. Time for action – changing menu item order
        1. What just happened?
        2. Option 2: Create submenu items
      4. Time for action – creating a secondary menu item
        1. What just happened?
        2. Option 3: Add a separate new menu
      5. Time for action – creating a new, empty menu
        1. What just happened?
      6. Time for action – moving hyperlinks to the new menu
        1. What just happened?
      7. Time for action – telling Joomla where to display the menu
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – changing menu settings
        3. Creating split submenus
        4. Have a go hero – arrange menus any way you like
      8. Exploring menu module settings
        1. Two ways to switch to the menu module screen
          1. Details
          2. Menu Assignment
          3. Basic Options
          4. Advanced Options
        2. Have a go hero – try out the menu settings
      9. What types of menu links are available?
        1. Have a go hero – try out Menu Item Types
      10. Creating plain text links
      11. Time for action – creating text links
        1. What just happened?
        2. Pop quiz – test your knowledge on menus
      12. Summary
    16. 9. Opening up the Site: Enabling Users to Log in and Contribute
      1. What are the default user groups and their permissions?
        1. Public—the guest group
        2. Registered users—the user group that can log in
        3. Author, Editor, and Publisher—the frontend content contributors
        4. Manager, Administrator, and Super User—the backend content contributors and administrators
        5. Shop Suppliers and Customers—two example user groups
      2. Enabling users to log in and contribute content
      3. Time for action – adding a user with frontend authoring permissions
        1. What just happened?
        2. Enabling content contributors to log in to the frontend
      4. Time for action – put a Login Form on the home page
        1. What just happened?
      5. Time for action – logging in as a frontend content contributor
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – create a frontend User Menu
        3. Reviewing and publishing team content submissions
      6. Time for action – reviewing and publishing submitted content
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – explore different User Group permissions
          1. Find out what editors and publishers can do
          2. Find out what backend users can do
      7. Enabling self-registration—allowing visitors to register
        1. How do you enable users to create their own account?
          1. Displaying a Login menu link
      8. Time for action – register yourself and log in
        1. What just happened?
        2. Hiding content for non-registered users
      9. Time for action – hiding content for non-registered users
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – change access level settings
        3. Getting your visitors to 'register to read more'
      10. Time for action – partially hiding content from non-registered users
        1. What just happened?
      11. Creating custom-made user groups
        1. What are the permissions you can assign to user groups?
        2. What Viewing Access Levels are available?
        3. Creating a custom user group to manage contacts
      12. Time for action – create a user group
        1. What just happened?
      13. Time for action – tell Joomla what the group can see
        1. What just happened?
      14. Time for action – tell Joomla what the group can do
        1. What just happened?
      15. Time for action – add users to the new group
        1. What just happened?
        2. Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla user management
      16. Summary
    17. 10. Getting the Most out of your Site: Extending Joomla
      1. Extensions in all shapes and sizes
        1. The big ones—Components
        2. The medium ones—Modules
        3. The tiny ones—Plugins
        4. Where do you get extensions from?
      2. Enhancing your site using core extensions
        1. Highlighting articles using the Newsflash module
      3. Time for action – adding a Newsflash to the home page
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – change the Newsflash settings
        3. Creating a list of contacts using the Contacts component
      4. Time for action – add a series of contacts
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – try out contact component settings
        3. What extensions are part of the Joomla core?
      5. Enhancing your site using third-party extensions
        1. Trying out an alternative Newsflash module
      6. Time for action – downloading and installing an extension
      7. Time for action – putting the extension to work
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – explore module options
        3. Showing images in a lightbox gallery
      8. Time for action – create an image gallery
        1. What just happened?
          1. Do you want more from your photo gallery?
          2. Using extensions to enhance your work space
      9. Time for action – replace Joomla's default text editor
        1. What just happened?
        2. So much more to explore
        3. Updating extensions
        4. Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla extensions
      10. Summary
    18. 11. Creating an Attractive Design: Working with Templates
      1. This is what templates do
      2. And this is why templates are so much fun
        1. Where can you get a new template for your site?
      3. Changing the settings of the current template
        1. What are Template Styles?
        2. Customizing the current template using built-in options
      4. Time for action – changing the site color and layout options
        1. What just happened?
      5. Changing to a different template
        1. Previewing available templates
        2. Setting a different template as the default
      6. Time for action – activating a different template
      7. Time for action – changing the logo and header image
        1. What just happened?
      8. Applying Template Styles to individual pages
      9. Time for action – creating a Template Style for one specific page
      10. Downloading and installing a new template
      11. Time for action – downloading and activating a new template
      12. Time for action – place modules in new template positions
        1. What just happened?
      13. Time for action – replace the logo file
      14. Time for action – adding a banner module
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – change template settings
      15. Customizing a template: tweaking CSS styles
        1. Understanding the very basics of CSS
        2. Tweaking the banner image CSS
        3. Diving deeper into Joomla CSS: using Firebug
      16. Time for action – editing CSS on the fly using Firebug
        1. What just happened?
          1. Expanding your CSS toolkit
          2. Expanding your CSS knowledge
        2. Editing the template HTML
      17. Time for action – removing the fixed footer text
        1. What just happened?
      18. Backing up and restoring a customized template
      19. Creating your own template
        1. Template building resources
        2. Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla templates
      20. Summary
    19. 12. Attracting Search Engine Traffic: Tips and Techniques
      1. Why do you need to accommodate for search engines?
      2. Optimizing articles for findability
        1. The article title: Make it meaningful
        2. The article structure: Use clear formatting
          1. Adding H3 through H6 headings
          2. Adding an second H1 page heading
      3. Time for action – adding a page heading to an article
        1. What just happened?
          1. Page Heading and Page Title—what's the difference?
        2. The article body text: Use relevant keywords
          1. Update articles regularly
        3. The images: Explain what they're about
      4. Configuring HTML page titles
      5. Time for action – setting the HTML page title
        1. What just happened?
        2. Adding the Site Name to the page title
      6. Adding meaningful metadata
      7. Time for action – personalize the site metadata
        1. What just happened?
        2. Choosing what metadata to set
        3. Have a go hero – find metadata to fit your site
      8. Use search engine friendly URLS
      9. Adding extra links to site content
        1. Creating an automatically generated list of hyperlinks
      10. Time for action – add a list of links to popular articles
        1. What just happened?
        2. Have a go hero – add link lists
      11. Redirecting visitors to pages that have been moved
      12. Time for action – creating page redirects
        1. Redirecting multiple old URLs in one go
      13. Getting to know more about your site traffic
      14. More SEO resources
        1. Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla search engine optimization
      15. Summary
    20. A. Keeping the Site Secure
      1. Update regularly
      2. Choose a safe Administrator Username
      3. Choose a strong password
      4. Protect files and directories
        1. Setting File Permissions
      5. Using extensions to secure your site
      6. Have a backup ready
        1. Creating a Backup with Akeeba Backup
        2. Restoring a backup
      7. Stay informed!
    21. B. Pop Quiz Answers
      1. Chapter 2, Installation: Getting Joomla Up and Running
        1. Pop quiz – test Your Knowledge of Installing Joomla
      2. Chapter 3, First Step: Getting to Know Joomla
        1. Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla basics
      3. Chapter 4, Web Building Basics: Creating a Site in an Hour
        1. Pop quiz – test your basic Joomla knowledge
      4. Chapter 5, Small Sites, Big Sites: Organizing your Content Effectively
        1. Pop quiz – test your site organization knowledge
      5. Chapter 6, Creating Killer Content: Adding and Editing Articles
        1. Pop quiz – test your article expertise
      6. Chapter 7, Welcoming your Visitors: Creating Attractive Home Pages and Overview Pages
        1. Pop quiz – test your knowledge of home pages and overview pages
      7. Chapter 8, Helping your Visitors Find What they Want: Managing Menus
        1. Pop quiz – test your knowledge on menus
      8. Chapter 9, Opening up the Site: Enabling Users to Log in and Contribute
        1. Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla user management
      9. Chapter 10, Getting the Most out of your Site: Extending Joomla
        1. Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla extensions
      10. Chapter 11, Creating an Attractive Design: Working with Templates
        1. Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla templates
      11. Chapter 12, Attracting Search Engine Traffic: Tips and Techniques
        1. Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla search engine optimization
    22. Index

Product information

  • Title: Joomla! 2.5 Beginner’s Guide
  • Author(s): Eric Tiggeler
  • Release date: March 2012
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781849517904