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Westyfield2

Westyfield2

Westyfield2

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Joined
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I've just installed Joomla on one of my sites to play around with and test it out; so far with the sample content it looks good.

Are there any top-tips any of you guys already using it can give? Any useful extensions?

Also; I know HTML, a fair bit of CSS and a little bit of PHP (and no Photoshop), but doubt I've got the skillz to make my own template.... which sites are good for templates? and what is it I'm actually looking for in a template? and which bits of the template can I then tweak to how I want it?

TY
 
well there are thousands of extensions out there. Ones I most commonly use are the

- BCA RSS sydicator cause it's better than the built in one.
- Autogen menu, for updating blog menus etc
- Rokbox for light box style effects
- Jumi for executing custom code
- ccNewsletter Module for easy newsletter sign up
- The Ultimate Social Bookmarking Plugin for social links at the bottom of your blog etc
- !JoomlaComment OR yvcomment (leaning towards !Joomla Comment) for blog comments
- ALF contact for contact forms
- JTweet for displaying twitter

I am presently building a link shortener module that gets is.gd or (links from that other famous link shortener site as it seems to be on the word filter list) links as there doesn't seem to be one which surprised me.


As for templates, if you know HTML and CSS you can build a Joomla template in your sleep. Basically design the HTML framework, add some code for where you want the Joomla modules to go and the style. I'm writing a tutorial on it for my blog at the moment as it is remarkably easy to do but poorly documented. For a quick tutorial see this thread

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18035312


that should keep you busy for a while.
 
Edward01 said:
well there are thousands of extensions out there. Ones I most commonly use are the

- BCA RSS sydicator cause it's better than the built in one.
- Autogen menu, for updating blog menus etc
- Rokbox for light box style effects
- Jumi for executing custom code
- ccNewsletter Module for easy newsletter sign up
- The Ultimate Social Bookmarking Plugin for social links at the bottom of your blog etc
- !JoomlaComment OR yvcomment (leaning towards !Joomla Comment) for blog comments
- ALF contact for contact forms
- JTweet for displaying twitter

I am presently building a link shortener module that gets is.gd or (links from that other famous link shortener site as it seems to be on the word filter list) links as there doesn't seem to be one which surprised me.


As for templates, if you know HTML and CSS you can build a Joomla template in your sleep. Basically design the HTML framework, add some code for where you want the Joomla modules to go and the style. I'm writing a tutorial on it for my blog at the moment as it is remarkably easy to do but poorly documented. For a quick tutorial see this thread

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18035312


that should keep you busy for a while.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's great :)

Just knocked up a second site without using the sample content so I think I'm getting somewhere :D

How do I add in my own PHP to an "article" page? It looks to me like Joomla's made them as HTML pages :(
 
Westyfield2 said:
Thanks, that's great :)

Just knocked up a second site without using the sample content so I think I'm getting somewhere :D

How do I add in my own PHP to an "article" page? It looks to me like Joomla's made them as HTML pages :(
Click to expand...

As in having custom php executing inside an article?? Thats what jumi is for :) see list above ;)
 
Right; I've had a bit more playing around and Joomla's starting to make sense :D

Bit I don't get is this whole Categories, Sections, and Articles thing.

The site layout I'm aiming for is below:



With each box being a page. So the green pages are off of the red (top-level) pages. And the numbered articles are off of the green pages.

So what's a "section" and what's a "category"?

I *think* what I want is the Red pages to be the "sections" and the green pages the "categories" and the numbers the "articles"? But I want the "sections" and "categories" pages to have content on them rather than just showing the list of pages underneath that section.

Anyone know what I'm getting at?
 
Last edited:
Have your main menu pointing to the red pages.

Create 3 more menus, e.g. Red 1, Red 2, Red 3 and point them at the appropriate articles, go to your module manager and set them so they only appear on the correct Red pages.

Repeat process over for your numbered pages.

Sections and categories are useful really as an organisational tool. For example, I use the blog layout view quite a lot for blogs, news pages etc. With that you just tell it to display all the pages in a certain category.

Same with some plugins. You tell then to work only on certain sections. etc etc

It is good practice to divide your articles up into separate sections and categories. Helps keeps more organised and makes integrating plugins, modules, components easier.
 
Your best bet is to visit the Joomla forums.. There are plenty of resources, useful tips on and plenty of knowledgeable guys on there that can help.

The best extension I've added is the JCE Editor, which is far better than those supplied.
 
Thanks both of you :)

I've managed to:
Get the menu's how I want them (main menu and 3 red menus), get the written content I want on the homepage, get the content I want on the Green pages and get the articles underneath the Green pages.

Bit I now don't get:
The red pages.

I've got it set so that the Red pages are the Sections and the Green pages are the Categories.

How do I add written content to the Red Sections? Right now they just show their name (correct) and have the menu for the Green Section underneath it (correct). But I can't add any written content to the Red Section.
e.g. I want the first red page to say "Welcome to the XYZ section. Here's a picture of XYZ. XYZ is all about blah blah. For more information on cateogory X of XYZ click on the X link from the XYZ menu to your left. Once you are then in the aspect X category you can view the articles X1 through X5."
 
No no no no

To put written content out you need to have it in an article. So your menu links need to point to articles you have created within those sections/ categorys. Also every article needs to be assigned to a section and category. So if I was you i'd do the following

Sections Red 1 Red 2 Red 3

Catagorys Red 1 & Grn 1 Red 2 / Grn 2 Red 3 / Grn 3


Say you wanted an article in the 1st red position. Go to your article manager and create said article and assign it to Section: Red 1 Cat: Red 1.

Now in your menu manager go to main menu an create a new menu item with an article layout pointing to the article you've just created. Repeat process for the other reds.

Now you want to create some grns. Go to your article manager and create said grns and assign them to the appropriate section and category. e.g. Section: Rd1 Cat: grn 1.

Now go to your menu manager an create a whole NEW menu. Call it Red1 or something. In that create a link to the green article you've just created. Now go to your Module manager and you'll see a new item called Red1 or what ever you called it. Go into it and at the bottom of the left hand column there will be options of which pages you wish it to appear on. Select the red1 menu link.

Now you should have a link to your grn 1 article on your red 1 article link

Repeat for other reds/grns

I hope that makes some sense.
 
Westyfield2 said:
Makes perfect sense, thanks for your patience! :)
Click to expand...

No problem, glad to have been of assistance :) Spent enough bloody time working with it. Am experiemnting with expression engine and WP at the moment though cause i've never been overly happy with the front end editing, can be quite complicated, especially for computer illiterate clients!!
 
Edward01 said:
No problem, glad to have been of assistance :) Spent enough bloody time working with it. Am experiemnting with expression engine and WP at the moment though cause i've never been overly happy with the front end editing, can be quite complicated, especially for computer illiterate clients!!
Click to expand...

Worked perfectly, thanks :D


One last thing though... the breadcrumbs aren't showing how I want them :(

They're showing: Home >> Green 1

What I was wanting: Home >> Red 1 >> Green 1

The URLs are doing the same thing: not
Ideas anyone?
 
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