Joomla 1.5 CMS (Content Management System)

Joomla is an Open Source, open project, content management system for administering websites.

The whole concept of open source content management is to provide a safe, stable and effective platform for building websites, allowing the owner or administrator to maintain and develop the website with little knowledge of HTML or code.

There are various options to Joomla on the market, including Drupal and other programs developed around a blog interface, such as Wordpress. But in my opinion Joomla offers the right blend of sophistication, functionality and ease of use. The core Joomla component offers pretty much everything one might need to put together a 'basic' website out of the box. However, there are many Joomla 'Modules' and 'Components' which can be installed as needed to scale the application into a full-featured website builder.

For example, if you plan to have eCommerce functions on your website, you can add free components such as VirtueMart shopping cart. VirtueMart has been designed and built upon the Joomla platform, so it simply installs via the Joomla interface and sits within your Joomla template.

Joomla supports Open Source Community Builders, Forums, Blogs, Calendars, Reservation Systems and much more. For a complete list of 'approved' modules and components visit Joomla here

So what are the basic steps to installing and working with Joomla?

Joomla Hosting

Firstly it's necessary to find compatible hosting for a Joomla website. This is relatively straightforward, the majority of web hosts have support for PHP and many come with Joomla pre-installed, or installable through a CP interface.

Joomla Installation

Once you have your host selected, the software can be installed by FTP, where you basically FTP a compressed (packed) file to the root directory of the host and unpack the file through the Host cpanel.

Our hosting packages all come pre-configured with Joomla. The software can be installed through our user CP into any directory, but is most commonly installed into the root directory.

If you are starting a web design project from scratch, you would always install it into the root directory. However, if you have an existing website that you wish to maintain outside of Joomla, you can install Joomla into a subdirectory and simply link to it from the existing website. We have created a few projects like this, where the client doesn't want to touch the old web pages, but wants a CMS for adding new content. This is useful where for example you might wish to add an article database to an existing website, using Joomla to manage only the new article database.

So installing Joomla through a hosting account where the software is already pre-configured is a breeze. You'll simply be asked what directory to install into and to provide a username and password for the Admin area.

Joomla Configuration

Once you have Joomla installed you'll login to the Admin area using the username/password you set during installation.

The first place to start is to go into 'Global Configuration', where you'll setup your master email address, time zones and a couple easy parameters that take just a few minutes to set.

After which you'll need to decide on a Joomla style or 'Template'.

Joomla Templates

Joomla comes pre-installed with several basic templates to get you started. Switching between the different templates to view their 'styles' is simply a case of going to template manager and setting the chosen template as 'default'. So you can quickly look at how your new website will appear to the world be selecting a default template then opening a new browser tab and navigating to www.your-site.com/index.php

Now what if you try all of the pre-installed templates and none of them are suitable? - You can edit the HTML and the CSS to make basic changes to the designs and color schemes. You'll want to locate the Templates folder on your website, either through FTP or user CP, and find the 'images' folder. There you can see the default logo, which you'll want to download and customize with PhotoShop or something similar.

So you can see that once you get into customization, there are some basic tools and skills that you will require.

If you feel you cannot work with the stock Joomla templates, you have a couple options. There are many websites offering free downloads of Joomla templates and many more offering more attractive templates for fees ranging from around $25 up to several $100's for a one-time use template. A word of warning here. There are some websites offering free templates that have been 'stolen' from a reputable source and the copyright links removed. If you find these offered freely, it might be because they have hidden links embedded into the code that link to other websites in a 'hidden' fashion. There might also be worms, Trojans and other viruses present inside the code. So be sure to use more reputable websites for your templates.

Downloading the template is simple, mostly they'll be packed into a zip file, and you simply 'install' the template within Joomla using the 'Extensions' Install feature. Then you set your newly installed template as the 'default' and you can view it live online. You now have a more attractive template than the stock Joomla offering but it still needs to be customized with your logo and perhaps some CSS changes to the color scheme. If you can acquire the tools necessary and learn how to do these things yourself, you'll save a lot of money. After all, the idea behind CMS is to self-administer the designs rather than pay someone else to do it. If you can't tackle the customization then you'll need to find a designer who can. Basic template customization to include a logo and color scheme shouldn't be too expensive, perhaps $100-$200 if you already have a logo designed.

Once you have the appearance of your website set with a satisfactory template, you're ready to begin adding content and setting up the site navigation.

Part II