Simplifying Joomla!

Tutorials January 11, 2009

Joomla! is a powerful CMS solution, but can be daunting to anyone new to it or anyone who works only seldom with it. The books I have seen so far are good at repeating a lot of text but not really at conveying workflow for anyone who understands concepts better visually - one of these days I’ll create a small flow chart to illustrate some of the intertwining that goes on in Joomla! to set it up, but for now here are 4 small lists as a simplifier when after 6 months of not using Joomla! you are suddenly faced with setting up a new site and no matter how hard you are trying, you can’t recall the flow of it.

Quick rundown on how to setup a Joomla! site:

1. setup the ROOT folder for the site
2. download the latest Joomla! version from http://www.joomla.org
3. upload the unzipped Joomla! folder to the root directory on the server and rename to something memorable.
4. go to the site in the web browser - if it’s working right, the root will then pull up /installation/index.php and guide you through the setup.
5. delete the INSTALLATION directory
6. go to the site/administrator page and login
7. fine-tune
8. —
9. set up GLOBAL settings with .htaccess file and nice URL’s
10. create additional USERS
11. —
12. …take it from here to gusto.
13. install the TEMPLATE - blank, default, own or bought/freebee
14. Install PLUGINS
15. Install MODULES

FLOW creation:

1. Create the MENU (top, local, secondary etc.) in the MENU MANAGER
   ? remember to fill in the last line if you want automatically a link-module to be created (you can always delete later if you decide against it).
2. Create the ARTICLES
3. Create menu LINKS in the MENU MANAGER within the menus you created under 1) and by doing so you link to corresponding ARTICLE.
4. In the MODULE MANAGER you will assign where each of the created menus will SHOW.

MENU with SUB-MENU:

1. Create the SECTIONS and CATEGORIES as needed
2. Create the ARTICLES which will make up the sub-menu
3. Assign the SECTIONS and CATEGORIES to the ARTICLES during creation.
4. Go into the MENU MANAGER
5. Select the menu item which will receive a link with sub-links.
6. Create the NEW MENU LINKS and during creation ASSIGN PARENT - do not use ALIAS but ARTICLE LAYOUT if you want to create interwoven links.
7. optional: if it is a SHARED MENU ITEM you first need to create the MENU LINKS in the SHARED MENU (to have a MENU LINK available…)
8. Remember to go into MODULES and ensure that all LOCAL navigation menus will show as needed in the new sub-links.

HOWTO create a SHARED PAGE for DIFFERENT SECTIONS which will keep the LOCAL NAVIGATION in the various sections.

1. This will work with or without assigned Section / Category but then on a search will return of course “Uncategorized / Uncategorized” for those. For this reason lets put them into something:
   
   create a SECTION called e.g. SHARED
2. create a CATEGORY called e.g. COMMON (just for distinction of the Section).
3. create the needed ARTICLE(s) and assign them the SHARED - COMMON Section and Category
4. go into the MENU MANAGER and create a new menu, called e.g. SHARED ITEMS
5. within that MENU create new items and name them like the shared articles, e.g. TESTIMONIALS (title and id = testimonials / assigned to SHARED / link to testimonials ARTICLE) for example as ARTICLE LAYOUT
6. go into a LOCAL MENU (e.g. Patients), create a new menu item with the same name, e.g. TESTIMONIALS, and assign it the same title as in 5) but give it a DISTINCTIVE alias, e.g. testimonials-patients and ensure it is assigned to the local section (navigation) and that it is linked to the shared article.
7. treat all shared articles like that: have them in the shared navigation and with unique names in their local navigation
8. this will show in the QUICK LINK box under PATIENTS the same FAQ as in the QUICK LINK box under DOCTORS… shared.
9. NOTE: you can also link a single article which is part of a section/category to another one… as long as you create a menu-link with a unique link so that the URL will display 2 different URLs even though it displays the same page and you do that in the menu section where you assign the article to a specific menu item.