Foundation joomla!

489 Pages·2009·15.295 MB·English

by  Harwani, B M

Foundation
Joomla!
B.M. Harwani
Foundation Joomla!
Copyright © 2009 by B. M. Harwani
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval
system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4302-2375-7
ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4302-2376-4
Printed and bound in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or
indirectly by the information contained in this work.
The source code for this book is freely available to readers at www.friendsofed.com in the Downloads
section.
Credits
Lead Editor: Production Editor:
Ben Renow-Clarke Brigid Duffy
Technical Reviewer: Proofreader:
Ian Piper Patrick Vincent
Editorial Board: Indexers:
Clay Andres, Steve Anglin, Mark Beckner, Ewan Ann Rogers/Ron Strauss
Buckingham, Tony Campbell, Gary Cornell, Jonathan
Gennick, Michelle Lowman, Matthew Moodie, Jeffrey Cover Image Designer:
Corné van Dooren
Pepper, Frank Pohlmann, Ben Renow-Clarke, Dominic
Shakeshaft, Matt Wade, Tom Welsh Interior and Cover Designer:
Anna Ishchenko
Project Managers:
Beth Christmas and Candace English
Manufacturing Director
Tom Debolski
Copy Editor:
Damon Larsen
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Dedicated to my mother, Mrs. Nita Harwani, and Peter Norton, the producer of one of the most popular PC
tools, Norton Utilities.
My mother is next to God for me. Whatever I am today is just because of the moral values taught by her.
I have been highly impressed by Peter Norton ever since I took a computer engineering course. I was
fascinated by his amazing tool, Norton Utilities. He is also author of many successful books and a great
programmer, and he is an inspiration for me.
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Contents at a Glance
About the Author......................................................................................................................xii
About the Technical Reviewer................................................................................................xiii
About the Cover Image Designer............................................................................................xiv
Acknowledgments.....................................................................................................................xv
Introduction..............................................................................................................................xvi
Chapter 1: Introduction to Joomla!..........................................................................................1
Chapter 2: Installing Joomla!..................................................................................................11
Chapter 3: Your First Steps in Joomla!..................................................................................67
Chapter 4: Managing Images and Banners..........................................................................115
Chapter 5: Creating Users and Contacts..............................................................................155
Chapter 6: Creating Interaction............................................................................................187
Chapter 7: Dealing with Menus.............................................................................................205
Chapter 8: Modules.................................................................................................................295
Chapter 9: Adding Extensions...............................................................................................347
Chapter 10: Making It Global...............................................................................................413
Index.........................................................................................................................................473
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Contents
About the Author......................................................................................................................xii
About the Technical Reviewer................................................................................................xiii
About the Cover Image Designer............................................................................................xiv
Acknowledgments.....................................................................................................................xv
Introduction..............................................................................................................................xvi
Chapter 1: Introduction to Joomla!..........................................................................................1
What is a CMS?...............................................................................................................................................1
Why are CMSs so popular?.......................................................................................................................3
What is Joomla!?.............................................................................................................................................3
Structure of a Joomla website..................................................................................................................4
Characteristicsof Joomla!.............................................................................................................................5
Advantages of Joomla!...................................................................................................................................7
Summary........................................................................................................................................................8
Chapter 2: Installing Joomla!..................................................................................................11
Prerequisites to installing Joomla! on the local server..............................................................................11
Web request life cycle.............................................................................................................................12
XAMPP.....................................................................................................................................................13
XAMPP installation............................................................................................................................13
phpMyAdmin..........................................................................................................................................28
Creating a database...........................................................................................................................32
Requiring user authentication..........................................................................................................34
Installing Joomla! locally.............................................................................................................................39
Installing Joomla! on a remote server........................................................................................................55
Summary......................................................................................................................................................64
Chapter 3: Your First Steps in Joomla!..................................................................................67
The elements of the Administrator interface............................................................................................69
The Control Panel...................................................................................................................................70
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Using the Section, Category, Article, and Menu Item Managers.............................................................73
Creating a section (Section Manager)...................................................................................................75
Creating a category (Category Manager)..............................................................................................81
Creating an article (Article Manager) and publishing it in a category................................................84
Creating a menu item to access the section.........................................................................................89
Viewing the Contents.............................................................................................................................96
The Other Control Panel Managers..........................................................................................................101
Front Page Manager.............................................................................................................................101
Media Manager.....................................................................................................................................101
LanguageManager...............................................................................................................................103
User Manager........................................................................................................................................103
Global Configuration............................................................................................................................104
Working with the front page.....................................................................................................................105
Applying a different template...................................................................................................................108
Summary....................................................................................................................................................113
Chapter 4: Managing Images and Banners..........................................................................115
What is the Media Manager?.....................................................................................................................115
Creatinga folder...................................................................................................................................118
Uploading a file.....................................................................................................................................120
Displayinga banner ad........................................................................................................................122
Displaying a client’s banners....................................................................................................................123
Uploading the client’s banner image file............................................................................................123
Creating a category for the banner using the Banner Category Manager........................................125
Creating a banner client using the Banner Client Manager..............................................................130
Creating a banner using the Banner Manager...................................................................................133
Using the Banners module to display the banner on the website....................................................142
Details section..................................................................................................................................144
Menu Assignment section..............................................................................................................145
Parameters section..........................................................................................................................145
Displayingthe banner.....................................................................................................................146
Displaying banners on the basis of content............................................................................................146
Summary....................................................................................................................................................152
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Chapter 5: Creating Users and Contacts..............................................................................155
What is a contact?......................................................................................................................................156
Working with the User Manager...............................................................................................................156
Different types of user groups.............................................................................................................157
Creatingusers.......................................................................................................................................157
Creating a Contact category.....................................................................................................................163
Creating contacts.......................................................................................................................................167
Creating menu items to link to contacts..................................................................................................176
Summary....................................................................................................................................................184
Chapter 6: Creating Interaction............................................................................................187
News feeds.................................................................................................................................................187
Creating categories for news feeds......................................................................................................187
Creating news feeds...................................................................................................................................191
Creating polls.............................................................................................................................................195
Summary....................................................................................................................................................203
Chapter 7: Dealing with Menus.............................................................................................205
Creatinga menu........................................................................................................................................208
Creating menu items.................................................................................................................................210
Articles........................................................................................................................................................212
Archived ArticleList.............................................................................................................................213
Moving menu items........................................................................................................................217
Making menu items visible.............................................................................................................219
Doing the groundwork for the other menu item types.................................................................221
ArticleLayout........................................................................................................................................227
Article Submission Layout...................................................................................................................230
Category Blog Layout...........................................................................................................................234
Category List Layout.............................................................................................................................238
Front Page Blog Layout........................................................................................................................241
Section Blog Layout..............................................................................................................................245
Section Layout......................................................................................................................................248
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Explanation of Parameters sections (Advanced, Component, and System).........................................252
Parameters(Advanced)........................................................................................................................252
Parameters (Component)....................................................................................................................255
Parameters(System)............................................................................................................................257
Contacts.....................................................................................................................................................258
News Feeds................................................................................................................................................259
Category List Layout.............................................................................................................................261
CategoryLayout....................................................................................................................................264
Single Feed Layout...............................................................................................................................265
Poll..............................................................................................................................................................266
Search.........................................................................................................................................................269
User.............................................................................................................................................................271
Default Login Layout............................................................................................................................272
Default Registration Layout.................................................................................................................274
Default Remind.....................................................................................................................................275
Default Reset Layout............................................................................................................................276
Default User Layout..............................................................................................................................278
User Form Layout.................................................................................................................................278
Web Links...................................................................................................................................................279
Web Link Category List Layout............................................................................................................283
Category List Layout.............................................................................................................................283
Web Link Submission Layout..............................................................................................................284
Wrapper......................................................................................................................................................285
External Link..............................................................................................................................................288
Separator....................................................................................................................................................290
Alias............................................................................................................................................................291
Summary....................................................................................................................................................293
Chapter 8: Modules.................................................................................................................295
The Module Manager................................................................................................................................295
Details section.......................................................................................................................................300
Menu Assignment section...................................................................................................................302
Archive........................................................................................................................................................303
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Banners......................................................................................................................................................304
Breadcrumbs..............................................................................................................................................308
Feed Display...............................................................................................................................................309
Footer.........................................................................................................................................................313
LatestNews................................................................................................................................................313
Login Form.................................................................................................................................................315
Main Menu.................................................................................................................................................318
Popular.......................................................................................................................................................320
Newsflash...................................................................................................................................................322
Polls............................................................................................................................................................326
RandomImage..........................................................................................................................................327
Related Items.............................................................................................................................................328
Search.........................................................................................................................................................333
Sections......................................................................................................................................................336
Statistics.....................................................................................................................................................336
Syndication................................................................................................................................................338
Who’s Online.............................................................................................................................................340
Wrapper......................................................................................................................................................341
Summary....................................................................................................................................................344
Chapter 9: Adding Extensions...............................................................................................347
Extension Manager....................................................................................................................................348
Installingextensions.............................................................................................................................349
Package file.......................................................................................................................................350
Install directory................................................................................................................................350
Install URL........................................................................................................................................350
Installing new templates...........................................................................................................................350
Adding e-commerce..................................................................................................................................354
Installing an RSS feed reader....................................................................................................................383
Adding a chat feature to your Joomla! website........................................................................................390
Summary....................................................................................................................................................411
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