Joomla! 1.6 First Look
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About this ebook
Eric Tiggeler
Eric Tiggeler is the author of the Joomla! 3 Beginner's Guide and has written several Dutch guides on Joomla! and other content management systems, all of which got excellent reviews. Eric writes tutorials for several computer magazines and Joomla! community websites. Over the last ten years, Eric has developed numerous websites, big and small, many of them using Joomla! Eric is fascinated by the Web as a powerful and creative means of communication, and by revolutionary software such as Joomla!, which enables anyone to create beautiful and user-friendly websites. His passion is making complex things easy to understand.
Read more from Eric Tiggeler
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Joomla! 1.6 First Look - Eric Tiggeler
Table of Contents
Joomla! 1.6 First Look
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Support files, e-Books, 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
Reader feedback
Customer support
Errata
Piracy
Questions
1. Stepping Up to Joomla! 1.6
Upgrading from 1.5
Joomla! 1.5 extension compatibility
Changes for templates
When should you move to 1.6?
Migrating content from Joomla! 1.5
What's new? A quick overview
1 - Usability enhancements
A friendlier interface
The great new time-saving toolbar
2 - Working with content
The endless joy of unlimited categories
No more fiddling with menus
3 - New ways to manage user access
Do you want it simple? Keep it simple
4 - Working with extensions and templates
Updating extensions? Just lean back
Templating to your taste
SEO improvements
Summary
2. Exploring your Enhanced Workspace
Before you start: choosing a safe root user's name
Changing the root user's name after installation
Logging in to the backend
What's changed in the backend?
What's gone: no more sections
What's been added: the Users menu
What's been moved: some tools and odds and ends
User Settings and Media Settings have been moved
Five great new time-saving features
Timesaver # 1: going home in one click
Timesaver # 2: adding new items in one click
Timesaver # 3: Save & New
Using the new Save & New button
Timesaver # 4: Save as Copy
Creating dummy content using Save as Copy
Timesaver # 5: tabbed screens
One great life-saver: two-step deletion
Deleting an item
Exploring and restoring thrashed content
Permanently deleting items
Customizing the looks of the backend
Selecting another backend template
Setting the backend template to suit your taste
Summary
3. Organizing and Managing Content
Organizing content using nested categories
Improvement #1: categories can now be one level deep
Improvement #2: creating multiple category levels
Creating a set of 'nested' categories
Using nested categories in the sample data
Exploring the sample data
How can different categories look like different sites?
New category settings: notes and metadata
Adding category metadata
Fresh ways to display category contents on the frontend
New category view # 1: List All Categories
Creating a link to a site map
Tweaking the site map display
New Category View # 2: Articles Categories Module
Creating an Articles Categories module
Adding some more category listings
New Category View # 3: Articles (in) Category Module
Using the new Articles Category Module
Working with the updated article editor
Creating a link to an article
Inserting an article title as a hyperlink
Using the updated Media Manager
Enabling the Flash image uploader
Archiving articles
Summary
4. Managing Menus and Menu Modules
Goodbye to a spartan Menu Manager
The all-new tabbed Menu Manager screen
Exploring the new Menu Manager
New ways to manage and edit menus
A new shortcut to jump straight to selected menu items
A new shortcut to jump to menu module settings
Changing the menu module settings in the Menu Manager
New ways to manage and edit menu items
Filtering the list of menu items
Menu selection filter (About Joomla!)
Select Max Levels filter
Select State, Access, or Language filter
Changes in the way you assign a menu item to the homepage
New buttons to copy and move menu items
Trashing menu items
Creating or editing individual Menu Items
Choosing from new Menu Item Types
New Menu Link Item type # 1: List All Categories
New Menu Link Item type # 2: List All Contact Categories
Exploring the use of Contact Categories in the sample site
Creating a database overview using the List All Contact Categories Menu Item Type
Setting the template for an individual menu item
An overview of Menu Item Options
Layout Options
Article Options
Integration Options
Page Display Options
Metadata Options
Module Assignment for this Menu Item
Changing the module settings from the menu item
Summary
5. Managing Site Users with Access Control
What's new about the Access Control Levels system?
What are the default user groups and permissions?
The default site-wide settings
Default user groups
Public—the guest group
Registered—the user group that can log in
Author, Editor, Publisher—the frontend content team
Manager, Administrator, Super User—the backend administrators
Shop Suppliers and Customers—two sample user groups
Are there also sample users available?
Action Permissions: what users can do
Permissions are inherited
What do the available action permissions mean?
Level 1—site-wide permissions in Global Configuration
Level 2—permissions for components
Level 3—permissions for categories
Level 4—permissions for articles
Viewing Access Levels: what users can see
Wrapping up: the ingredients of ACL
ACL at work: how to control user permissions
ACL example 1: allow specific users to manage contacts
Step 1: create a user group
Step 2: tell Joomla! what the group can see and do
Step 3: add users to the group
Check if it works
ACL example 2: allow users to edit one specific article
Step 1: create a user group
Step 2: tell Joomla! what the group can see and do
Step 3: add users to the group
Check if it works
More on Access Control
Summary
6. New Flexibility in Using Templates
What's new? Finally, table-less templates
What does that clean output look like?
Why clean code is good for everybody
Introducing the tabbed Template Manager
The Styles tab: selecting templates and settings
Selecting a template
Template Styles
The Templates tab: exploring templates and editing code
Customizing templates using Template Styles
Changing the site color and layout options
Customizing the site logo
Using a text logo
Changing the header image file
Creating Template Styles to style individual pages
Creating and using a Template Style
Assigning templates from the menu item itself
Choosing a template from a menu item
Exploring and editing installed templates
What templates are available?
atomic
beez5
beez2
bluestork
hathor
Previewing templates
Exploring available module positions
Editing template code
Removing the Powered by Joomla!
text
Installing and assigning a new template
Summary
7. Unleashing the New Power of Extensions
Changes in the extensions that come with Joomla!
The new Redirect Manager
New modules to display category contents
Switching languages
No more polls
Exploring pre-installed extensions
The new Extension Manager screen
Tab 1: Install
Tab 2: Update
Tab 3: Manage
Tab 4: Discover
Tab 5: Warnings
New module features
Setting a time span for publishing modules
Creating a scheduled module
Making use of the new Note field
Assigning a module to specific menu items
Assigning a module to all pages except a few
Assigning modules from the menu item settings
Changing module settings via the Edit Menu Item screen
Displaying available module positions
Finding and downloading extensions for Joomla! 1.6
Summary
8. SEO Improvements
The SEO bonus of well structured layouts
Proper use of HTML heading elements
Adding H3 through H6 headings
Adding an alternative H1 page heading
Page Heading and Page Title—what's the difference?
Configuring HTML page titles
Setting the HTML page title
Adding the Site Name to the page title
Entering site metadata
Entering metadata for menu items, categories, and articles
Choosing what metadata to set
Using search engine friendly URLs
Adding a site map
Using the Xmap site map extension
Using the new Redirect Manager
Creating page redirects
Redirecting multiple old URLs in one go
More on SEO
Summary
Index
Joomla! 1.6 First Look
Joomla! 1.6 First Look
Copyright © 2011 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: March 2011
Production Reference: 1090311
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
32 Lincoln Road
Olton
Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.
ISBN 978-1-849513-42-5
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Duraid (<duraidfatouhi@yahoo.com>)
Credits
Author
Eric Tiggeler
Reviewers
Eric Brown
Mark Kielar
Rita Lewis
Peter Martin
Oleg Nesterov
Acquisition Editor
Dilip Venkatesh
Development Editor
Roger D'Souza
Technical Editor
Dayan Hyames
Indexers
Tejal Daruwale
Monica Ajmera Mehta
Editorial Team Leader
Aanchal Kumar
Project Team Leader
Ashwin Shetty
Project Coordinator
Michelle Quadros
Proofreader
Aaron Nash
Graphics
Nilesh R. Mohite
Production Coordinator
Melwyn D'sa
Cover Work
Melwyn D'sa
About the Author
Eric Tiggeler is the author of Joomla! 1.5 Beginner's Guide! and has written two Dutch Joomla! guides, both of which got excellent reviews. He writes tutorials for several computer magazines and for the Dutch Joomla! community website. Over the last 10 years, Eric has developed numerous websites, big and small, many of them using Joomla!.
Eric is fascinated by the Web as a powerful and creative means of communication; and by revolutionary software such as Joomla!, enabling anybody to create beautiful and user-friendly websites.
On a daily basis, Eric works as a consultant and copywriter at a communication consultancy company affiliated with the Free University of Amsterdam. Over the last few years, he has written more than 10 Dutch books on writing and communication. His passion is making complex things easy to understand.
Eric Tiggeler is married and has two daughters. He lives and works in Hilversum (the Netherlands). On the Web, you'll find him on http://www.schrijfgids.nl (in Dutch) and on http://www.joomm.net (in English).
Any book is a team effort, so I'd like to thank everyone at Packt Publishing for their encouragement and commitment to this project. Thanks also to all reviewers for testing the alpha version of this book and helping me create a thoroughly reliable final release!
About the Reviewers
Eric Brown was born and raised in California. He joined the U.S. Navy at 17 and became a Preventive Medicine Technician. Upon exiting military service, he left the medical field behind and moved to Nebraska and entered college to study art and design, which resulted in a Bachelor's of Science in Graphic Design from Wayne State College in Nebraska. Eric has since branched out by teaching himself (or learning from others) various aspects of HTML, CSS, and PHP as well as a variety of other coding languages and web marketing strategies and tools. He currently owns his own media business located in Manhattan, KS, where he lives with his wife and pets.
Over the years Eric has worked for a local design and development firm in Nebraska on such projects as the Golden Spike Tower website aimed at tourist traffic centered on the Union Pacific's Bailey Yard and with a premier pet industry design and development firm as a project manager. He has also written for such prestigious publications as Trafficology (a purchased print publication on web marketing read by over 80,000 people world-wide), CMSWire.com (a leader in content management news), ReveNews (a highly rated site on various aspects of marketing), and Gadgetell (a well-known gadget news site).
Eric was a reviewer for Joomla! 1.5 JavaScript jQuery by Packt Publishing. He has also been involved in other books as well providing editing, image touch-up, and custom hand-drawn maps for Tagging Along (a Neville Family retrospective) and editing, layout, cover art, and image touch-up on My Life and Community (Biography of Ken Huebner).
I would like to thank all those who have helped to bring my career to this point, but most of all I would like to thank my wife Jaime and my two children, Ariel and Autumn, for all their patience and understanding during the development stages of my career and business.
Mark Kielar brings over 25 years of experience in design, photography, commercial art, analysis, and computing to his understanding of open source content management systems such as Joomla! 1.6. He has applied his expertise in web design and development, writing, and editing to projects for organizations as diverse as the Oakland California Charter Schools and Mark Brand Architecture. Mark currently operates his own web design and content management business, Sparkling Finish, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I'd like to thank my good friends and Joomla! Mentor Rita Lewis at wordstoweb.net and Mark Brand at Mark Brand Architecture for their support in my work in website design and creation. A special thank you goes out to a special friend, Lynne Wardell, who has supported me for many years in all my endeavors.
Rita Lewis has been creating and managing the content of websites for small businesses and creative organizations for the past 20 years working under the name, Words To Web, Inc. During that time she has created and managed Joomla! sites for independent movies for Shayanne Productions and non-profits such as the Interfaith Community Against Domestic Violence. Rita is a regular blogger on Freelance Switch as well as the author of 15 books on Macintosh computing and the Internet, including titles for O'Reilly & Associates, Peachpit Press, and SAMs. Rita has been awarded by the Computer Book Club and The Society For Technical Communications for her efforts.
Peter Martin has a keen interest in computers, programming,