Joomla! 3 Beginner's Guide电子书

Joomla! 3 Beginner's Guide Second Edition

Table of Contents

Joomla! 3 Beginner's Guide Second Edition

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Time for action – heading

What just happened?

Pop quiz – heading

Have a go hero – heading

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. A New and Easy Way to Build Websites

Join the CMS revolution

Why would you choose Joomla!?

What kind of sites can you build with Joomla!?

Learning to use Joomla!

The approach of this book

What's the current version of Joomla!?

About the example site

Summary

2. Getting Joomla! Up and Running

What do you need to start?

Hosting space

FTP software

More than one browser

Installing Joomla! on a web server

Time for action – downloading the Joomla! files

What just happened?

Time for action – placing the files on the web server

What just happened?

Time for action – creating a database

What just happened?

Time for action – running the Joomla! installation wizard

What just happened?

What are post-installation messages?

Installing Joomla! on your own computer

Downloading and installing a web server software

Time for action – installing XAMPP

What just happened?

Creating a database

Time for action – creating a MySQL database

What just happened?

Downloading and installing Joomla!

Time for action – downloading Joomla! and running the installation wizard

What just happened?

What if it the installation doesn't work?

Upgrading from previous versions of Joomla!

Updating Joomla! 1.5 to 3.x

Updating Joomla! 2.5 to 3.x

Got stuck? Get help!

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of installing Joomla

Summary

3. First Steps – Getting to Know Joomla!

Building websites the Joomla! way

Sorry, web pages have ceased to exist

The benefits of the CMS approach to websites

A website built of blocks

Introducing the frontend and backend – the Joomla! interface

Your workspace – the backend

What's the frontend?

Exploring the frontend – the website as the user sees it

Time for action – touring the example site

What just happened?

Exploring the example content

Have go hero – get familiar with the other example sites

Administering your site in the backend

Time for action – logging in to the backend

What just happened?

Taking a closer look at Control Panel

The top menu

The shortcut list (quick icons)

The information panels

The preview and info bar

Adjusting Control Panel to your needs

Understanding the backend tools and controls

What if you can't click on the top menu items?

Getting your feet wet – start administering your site

The three types of backend tasks

A content management example – let's create some content!

Time for action – publishing your first article

What just happened?

An extension management example – adding a module

Time for action – adding a module to the site

What just happened?

A site management example – configuring basic site settings

Time for action – setting Joomla! preferences

What just happened?

Have a go hero – explore the configuration options

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla basics

Summary

4. Web Building Basics – Creating a Site in an Hour

What you will be making

Meet your client

Removing the sample data

Step one – removing the sample content

Time for action – deleting articles and categories

Step two – deleting menus and other modules

Time for action – deleting menus

What just happened?

Have a go hero – clean out the list of modules

Building your new site in three steps

Step one – customizing the layout

Time for action – creating a copy of the current template

What just happened?

Time for action – preparing a new logo image

Time for action – tweaking the design details

What just happened?

CSS style sheets? Come again?

Have a go hero – exploring layout settings

Step two – adding content

Creating a foundation first – creating categories

Time for action – creating a news category

What just happened?

Creating articles and using the images and links fields

Time for action – creating an article

What just happened?

Have a go hero – add more images to articles

Making content visible on the site – creating a menu link

Time for action – adding a menu link

What just happened?

That's the all-important power of menus

Have a go hero – create more categories and articles

Creating menu links to the new content

Adding individual content pages – uncategorized articles

Time for action – adding uncategorized articles

What just happened?

Have a go hero – rearrange the main menu using drag-and-drop

Putting content on the home page – at last!

Adding items to the home page

Time for action – assigning articles to the home page

What just happened?

Step three – adding extras through extensions

Components and extensions – what's the difference?

Adding a contact form

Time for action – creating a contact

What just happened?

Time for action – creating a Contact Form menu link

What just happened?

Adding a special message block

Time for action – creating a message block

What just happened?

Wrapping up – changing site settings

Time for action – changing the site configuration

What just happened?

Pop quiz – test your basic Joomla knowledge

Summary

5. Small Sites, Big Sites – Organizing Your Content Effectively

Building on the example site

Grouping content – a crash course on site organization

Designing a site map

Time for action – creating a future-proof site map

What just happened?

Using tags as an additional means of organizing content

Transferring your site map to Joomla!

How do you turn a site map into a website?

Creating categories and subcategories

Time for action – creating a category and subcategories

What just happened?

In what case do you need more subcategory levels?

Have a go hero – rearrange existing categories

Adding content to new categories

Displaying main categories and subcategories on your site

Time for action – creating a link to point to a main category

Have a go hero – exploring the possibilities of category pages

Refining your site structure

Time for action – moving content from one category to another

What just happened?

Have a go hero – moving entire categories

Renaming categories

Time for action – renaming a category

What just happened?

Have a go hero – name and rename

Changing the category settings

Using tags to label and organize content

Adding tags to the example site

Time for action – creating a tag

What just happened?

Have a go hero – improve the tagged items page

Creating and managing tags using the Tags component

Using tags as an alternative to categories

Building a site without using categories or tags

How do you go about building a small site?

Have a go hero – organize a site!

Pop quiz – test your site organization knowledge

Summary

6. Creating Killer Content – Adding and Editing Articles

Articles and content pages – what's the difference?

Creating and editing articles – beyond the basics

Making your words look good – formatting article text

Time for action – adding styles to the article text

What just happened?

Have a go hero – change the formatting

Extending the text editor

Adding images to articles

Time for action – uploading images

What just happened?

Time for action – inserting and aligning images

What just happened?

Changing the way the article is displayed

Splitting the article into intro text and main text

Time for action – creating intro text

What just happened?

Creating multipage articles

Time for action – using page breaks to split up an article

What just happened?

Have a go hero – use sliders and tabs

Displaying images and links with articles

Time for action – adding images and links to an article

What just happened?

Have a go hero – tweak the article layout

Restoring a previous version of an article

What just happened?

Have a go hero – explore version control options

Tweaking the details – changing article settings

The Publishing tab

The Images and links tab

The Options tab

The Configure Edit Screen tab

The Permissions tab

Setting general preferences for all articles

The Articles tab

The Editing Layout tab

The Category tab

The Categories, Blog/Featured Layouts, List Layouts, and Shared Options tabs

The Integration tab

The Permissions tab

Archiving articles

Time for action – creating a News archive

What just happened?

Pop quiz – test your article expertise

Summary

7. Welcoming Your Visitors – Creating Attractive Home Pages and Overview Pages

Why do you need overview pages anyway?

Mastering the home page layout

Changing the way the home page is arranged

Time for action – rearranging the layout of articles on the home page

What just happened?

Have a go hero – tweak the home page layout options

Adding items to the home page

Controlling the order of the home page items manually

Creating a sticky article

Setting criteria to automatically order the home page items

Time for action – showing the most recent items first

What just happened?

The Featured Articles menu item type – an overview of all options

The Layout tab

The Options tab

The Integration Options tab

The Link Type Options tab

The Page Display Options tab

The Metadata Options tab

The Module Assignment tab

Creating more than one page that contains featured articles

Another type of home page – using a single article

Time for action – creating a different home page

What just happened?

Have a go hero – undo!

Creating category overview pages

Two main choices – Blog layout and List layout

The first type of overview page – creating Category Blog layouts

Time for action – creating a face book using the Blog layout

What just happened?

Have a go hero – add a category description

Showing full articles on a category overview page

Have a go hero – experiment with the Category Blog layout settings

Setting the options for the Category Blog menu item type

Category Options

The second type of overview page – lists

Time for action – adding a link to a Category List layout

What just happened?

Customizing lists – exploring the Category List options

Category Options

List Layouts

Options, Integration, Link Type, Page Display, and Metadata tabs

How are multi-level categories displayed in Lists?

Creating overview pages that show tagged articles

Time for action – creating a tagged items overview page

What just happened?

Have a go hero – experiment using tag pages

Pop Quiz – test your knowledge of home pages and overview pages

Summary

8. Helping Your Visitors Find What They Want – Managing Menus

How many menus can you have?

Creating user-friendly navigation – cleaning up Main Menu

Option one – changing the order of menu items

Time for action – changing the order of menu items

What just happened?

Option two – creating submenu items

Time for action – creating a secondary menu item

What just happened?

Option three – adding a separate new menu

Time for action – create a new, empty menu

What just happened?

Time for action – moving hyperlinks to the new menu

What just happened?

Time for action – telling Joomla! where to display the menu

What just happened?

Have a go hero – changing menu settings

Using the horizontal drop-down menu as the main menu

Time for action – displaying Main Menu links in Top Menu

Have a go hero – cleaning up menus and menu links

Creating split submenus

Have a go hero – arranging menus any way you like

Exploring menu module settings

Switching to the menu module screen

The Module tab

The Menu Assignment tab

The Module Permissions tab

The Advanced tab

What types of menu links are available?

Have a go hero – try out menu item types

Creating plain text links

Time for action – creating text links

What just happened?

Pop quiz – test your menu knowledge

Summary

9. Opening Up the Site – Enabling Users to Log in and Contribute

Working with the default set of user groups

An overview of the default user groups and their permissions

Public and Guest users – the site visitors

Registered users – the user group that can log in

Author, Editor, and Publisher – the frontend content contributors

Manager, administrator, and super user – the backend content contributors and administrators

Shop Suppliers and Customers – two example user groups

Enabling users to log in and contribute content

Time for action – adding a user with frontend authoring permissions

What just happened?

Enabling content contributors to log in to the frontend

Time for action – putting Login Form on the home page

What just happened?

Time for action – logging in as a frontend content contributor

What just happened?

Have a go hero – creating a frontend User Menu

Reviewing and publishing team content submissions

Time for action – reviewing and publishing submitted content

What just happened?

Have a go hero – explore different User Group permissions

Finding out what editors and publishers can do

Finding out what backend users can do

Enabling self-registration – allowing visitors to register

How do you enable users to create their own account?

Displaying a Login menu link

Time for action – registering yourself and logging in

What just happened?

Hiding content for nonregistered users

Time for action – hiding content for nonregistered users

What just happened?

Have a go hero – changing access level settings

Getting your visitors to register to read more

Time for action – partially hiding content from nonregistered users

What just happened?

Creating custom-made user groups

An overview of the permissions you can assign to user groups

An overview of all available Viewing Access Levels

Creating a custom user group to manage contacts

Time for action – creating a user group

What just happened?

Time for action – telling Joomla! what the group can see

What just happened?

Time for action – telling Joomla! what the group can do

What just happened?

Time for action – adding users to the new group

What just happened?

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla user management

Summary

10. Getting the Most out of Your Site – Extending Joomla!

Extensions in all shapes and sizes

The big ones – components

The medium ones – modules

The tiny ones – plugins

Where do you get extensions from?

Enhancing your site using core extensions

Highlighting articles using the Newsflash module

Time for action – adding the Newsflash module to the home page

What just happened?

Have a go hero – change the Newsflash module settings

Creating a list of contacts using the Contacts component

Time for action – adding a series of contacts

What just happened?

Have a go hero – try out the Contact component settings

What extensions are parts of the Joomla! core?

Enhancing your site using third-party extensions

Trying out a more powerful Newsflash module

Time for action – downloading and installing an extension

What just happened?

Time for action – putting the extension to work

What just happened?

Have a go hero – explore module options

Showing images in a lightbox gallery

Time for action – creating an image gallery

What just happened?

Have a go hero – add your own images

Do you need a more powerful photo gallery?

Using extensions to enhance your work space

Time for action – replacing the default text editor of Joomla!

What just happened?

Creating text links using JCE

Inserting images with JCE

Using JCE to create a link to a PDF or Word file

Customizing JCE

A selection of must-have extensions

Add to Menu – adding links directly from articles

Asikart RemoteImage – a much-enhanced image editor

B2J Contact – a feature-rich contact form

Finding the right extensions for your site

Updating extensions

Managing the site language

Changing default text strings

Time for action – removing or replacing default texts

What just happened?

Have a go hero – add default pieces of text that suit your needs

Using the Language Manager to create multilingual sites

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla! extensions

Summary

11. Creating an Attractive Design – Working with Templates

What do templates do?

Why are templates so much fun?

Changing the settings of the current template

The function of template styles

Customizing the current template using the built-in options

Time for action – changing the site color and layout options

What just happened?

Switching to a different template

The templates that come with Joomla!

Previewing the available templates

Setting a different template as the default

Time for action – activating a different template

What just happened?

Applying template styles to individual pages

Time for action – creating a template style for one specific page

What just happened?

Downloading and installing a new template

Time for action – downloading and activating a new template

What just happened?

Time for action – adding the logo file

What just happened?

Time for action – adding a menu module

What just happened?

Time for action – placing modules in new template positions

What just happened?

Have a go hero – changing the page and module layout

Customizing a template – tweaking CSS styles

Understanding the very basics of CSS

Time for action – customizing the background color using CSS

What just happened?

Diving deeper into Joomla! CSS – using developer tools

Expanding your CSS knowledge

Backing up and restoring a customized template

Where can you get a new template for your site?

Creating your own template

Template building resources

Using a template framework as the base for your own template

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla! templates

Summary

12. Attracting Search Engine Traffic – SEO Tips and Techniques

Working on search engine optimization

Why do you need to accommodate search engines?

Optimizing articles to make them easy to find

The article title – making it meaningful

The article structure – using clear formatting

Adding H1 heading

Adding H2 Headings

Adding H3 through H6 headings

Optimizing the use of H1 headings

The article body text – using relevant keywords

Updating articles regularly

The images – giving more information

Configuring HTML page titles

Time for action – setting the HTML page title

What just happened?

Adding the site name to the page title

Adding meaningful metadata

Time for action – personalizing the site metadata

What just happened?

Choosing what metadata to set

Have a go hero – find metadata to fit your site

Using search engine friendly URLs

Adding extra links to the site's content

Creating an automatically generated list of hyperlinks

Time for action – adding a list of links to popular articles

What just happened?

Have a go hero – adding link lists

Adding microdata to your content

Redirecting visitors after pages have been moved

Time for action – creating page redirects

Getting to know more about your site's traffic

More SEO resources

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla! search engine optimization

Summary

A. Keeping the Site Secure

Choosing a web host that meets your security requirements

Tip 1 – Download from reliable sources

Tip 2 – Update regularly

Tip 3 – Choose a safe administrator username

Tip 4 – Pick a strong password

Tip 5 – Use Two-Factor authentication

Enabling the Two-Factor authentication system of Joomla!

Tip 6 – Protect files and directories

Setting file permissions

Tip 7 – Use extensions to secure your site

Using the Joomla! Captcha plugin to avoid spam

Tip 8 – Have a backup ready

Creating a backup with Akeeba Backup

Restoring a backup file

Tip 9 – Stay informed!

B. Creating a Multilingual Site

Creating a new site with multilingual capabilities

Installing Joomla! with multilingual support

Exploring the frontend of the new multilingual site

Exploring the backend of the new multilingual site

Adding new multilingual content

Creating a translated version of an existing site

Adding a new language

Enabling Joomla! to switch between languages

Adding multilingual content

Creating menus for multilingual content

Connecting menu links to their translated counterparts

Finalizing the site menus

Enabling the visitor to select a language

Reading the step-by-step tutorial on multilingual sites

C. Pop Quiz Answers

Chapter 2, Getting Joomla! Up and Running

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of installing Joomla!

Chapter 3, First Steps – Getting to Know Joomla!

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla! basics

Chapter 4, Web Building Basics – Creating a Site in an Hour

Pop quiz – test your basic Joomla! knowledge

Chapter 5, Small Sites, Big Sites – Organizing Your Content Effectively

Pop quiz – test your site organization knowledge

Chapter 6, Creating Killer Content – Adding and Editing Articles

Pop quiz – test your article expertise

Chapter 7, Welcoming Your Visitors – Creating Attractive Home Pages and Overview Pages

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of home pages and overview pages

Chapter 8, Helping Your Visitors Find What They Want – Managing Menus

Pop quiz – test your menu knowledge

Chapter 9, Opening Up the Site – Enabling Users to Log in and Contribute

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla! user management

Chapter 10, Getting the Most out of Your Site – Extending Joomla!

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla! extensions

Chapter 11, Creating an Attractive Design – Working with Templates

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla! templates

Chapter 12, Attracting Search Engine Traffic – SEO Tips and Techniques

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla! search engine optimization

Index