Joomla! Start to Finish. How to Plan, Execute, and Maintain Your Web Site. Jen Kramer. Join the p2p.wrox.com

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1 Join the p2p.wrox.com Wrox Programmer to Programmer Joomla! Start to Finish How to Plan, Execute, and Maintain Your Web Site Jen Kramer

2 Programmer to Programmer Get more out of wrox.com Interact Take an active role online by participating in our P2P p2p.wrox.com Wrox Online Library Hundreds of our books are available online through Books24x7.com Wrox Blox Download short informational pieces and code to keep you up to date and out of trouble! Join the Community Sign up for our free monthly newsletter at newsletter.wrox.com Browse Ready for more Wrox? We have books and e-books available on.net, SQL Server, Java, XML, Visual Basic, C#/ C++, and much more! Contact Us. We always like to get feedback from our readers. Have a book idea? Need community support? Let us know by ing wrox-partnerwithus@wrox.com

3 CONTENTS AT A GLANCE INTRODUCTION xxi CHAPTER 1 I Want a Web Site and I Want It Blue How Much Will That Cost? CHAPTER 2 Choosing the Right Technologies to Solve the Business Problem CHAPTER 3 Downloading and Installing Joomla! CHAPTER 4 A Brief Tour of the Joomla! Administration Interface CHAPTER 5 In the Beginning There Was Content CHAPTER 6 Creating and Confi guring Menus CHAPTER 7 Installing and Configuring Templates CHAPTER 8 Modules That Come with Joomla! CHAPTER 9 Components That Come with Joomla! CHAPTER 10 Plug-Ins That Come with Joomla! CHAPTER 11 Adding Extensions to Joomla! CHAPTER 12 Home Page Tips and Tricks CHAPTER 13 Custom Templates CHAPTER 14 Advanced Template and CSS Tricks CHAPTER 15 Site Maintenance and Training APPENDIX Jen s Favorite Joomla! Extensions INDEX

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5 Joomla! Start to Finish

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7 Joomla! Start to Finish HOW TO PLAN, EXECUTE, AND MAINTAIN YOUR WEB SITE Jen Kramer

8 Joomla! Start to Finish Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN Copyright 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: Manufactured in the United States of America No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) , fax (978) Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) , fax (201) , or online at Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. For general information on our other products and services please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (877) , outside the United States at (317) or fax (317) Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control Number: Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, Wrox, the Wrox logo, Wrox Programmer to Programmer, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Joomla! is a registered trademark of Open Source Matters, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

9 For all my students: It depends. Done is better than perfect. Just because you can, doesn t mean you should. You know more than you think you do.

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11 ABOUT THE AUTHOR JEN KRAMER has been educating clients, colleagues, friends, and students about the meaning of a quality web site for more than nine years. She is the president of 4Web, Inc., a web design and development firm creating highly customized Joomla web sites. Jen is a senior faculty member at the Marlboro College Graduate School, teaching courses and workshops in web site design and management, including Joomla. She is the Program Director for the Master s of Science in Internet Technologies program (MSIT), advising students and overseeing courses and faculty pertaining to the degree. She also teaches Joomla at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University. She has also previously taught at Champlain College and the Community College of Vermont. Jen is a Lynda.com author for the titles Joomla! Creating and Editing Custom Templates, Joomla! Advanced CSS, Website Strategy and Planning, and Preparing CMS Web Graphics and Layouts Using Open Source Tools. Jen earned a BS in biology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MS in Internet Strategy Management at the Marlboro College Graduate School. She is the manager for the Joomla! User Group New England and a past manager of the New England Adobe User Group. ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR BILL TOMCZAK wrote his first FORTRAN program in Since then, he has worked with computers and technology in a wide-ranging variety of roles. He was introduced to Joomla in 2006, and now works almost entirely on writing custom extensions and providing technical support for Joomla.

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13 CREDITS EXECUTIVE EDITOR Carol Long PROJECT EDITOR John Sleeva TECHNICAL EDITOR Bill Tomczak PRODUCTION EDITOR Rebecca Anderson COPY EDITOR Paula Lowell EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Robyn B. Siesky EDITORIAL MANAGER Mary Beth Wakefi eld ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING David Mayhew PRODUCTION MANAGER Tim Tate VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE GROUP PUBLISHER Richard Swadley VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Barry Pruett ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Jim Minatel PROJECT COORDINATOR, COVER Lynsey Stanford COMPOSITOR Craig J. Woods, Happenstance Type-O-Rama PROOFREADERS Sheilah Ledwidge and Jen Larsen, Word One INDEXER Robert Swanson COVER IMAGE Allan Baxter/Photographer s Choice RF/Getty COVER DESIGNER Michael E. Trent

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15 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to John Sleeva and Paula Lowell for their tireless editing of the manuscript. You did so much to improve it! Thanks to Carol Long and everyone at Wrox and Wiley for giving me the opportunity to write the book I wanted. Thanks to the Marlboro College Graduate School in Brattleboro, Vermont, for teaching me to think strategically about web sites and teaching how to learn new technologies effectively. Thanks to the Joomla! User Group New England for all their support. We now have two authors in our group! How cool is that? Most of all, many thanks to my longtime friend and engineer Bill Tomczak, for technically editing the book, learning Joomla with me over these last four years, and for generally putting up with my need to be in charge. Designers and developers can indeed be friends!