User's Manual

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Version 0.01 5/15/2006

Joomla! User Manual

5/15/2006 11:16:52 PM

Version 0.01

Joomla! User Manual............................................................................................1

Chapter 1 - Welcome to Joomla!...........................................................................4

Introduction.................................................................................................4

What is a Content Management System?............................................................4

Joomla!! for End Users .................................................................................4

Taking Joomla! to the Next Level ....................................................................4

Joomla!! for Developers................................................................................5

So what’s the catch?....................................................................................5

Objectives of the User Manual...........................................................................6

How to use the User Manual .............................................................................6

Chapter 2 – Getting Started.................................................................................7

Introduction.................................................................................................7

System Requirements .....................................................................................7

Installing Joomla! ..........................................................................................7

Getting the files .........................................................................................7

Installing Locally.........................................................................................8

Installing Remotely......................................................................................8

Browser Installation.....................................................................................8

Overview of the installed elements of a Joomla! Web site....................................... 18

Introduction ............................................................................................ 18

Templates .............................................................................................. 18

Components ............................................................................................ 18

Modules ................................................................................................. 19

Mambots ................................................................................................ 19

Quick Start Guide ........................................................................................ 19

Introduction ............................................................................................ 19

Add a Section .......................................................................................... 19

Add a Category......................................................................................... 20

Add a Content Item ................................................................................... 20

Add a Static Item...................................................................................... 20

Add a Menu Item....................................................................................... 20

Chapter 3 - Joomla! Users................................................................................. 21

Types of Users and access permissions............................................................... 21

Registration ............................................................................................... 22

Recovering a lost password............................................................................. 23

Logging in and out ....................................................................................... 23

Account Details........................................................................................... 24

Chapter 4 - Accessing functions from the Frontend .................................................. 25

Managing content ........................................................................................ 25

Author ................................................................................................... 25

Editor.................................................................................................... 31

Publisher ................................................................................................ 31

Submitting Weblinks..................................................................................... 32

Check-In My Items........................................................................................ 34

Chapter 5 - Accessing functions from the Backend - Manager ...................................... 35

Managing Media........................................................................................... 35

Site Preview............................................................................................... 35

Summary of content (47 pages)

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Joomla! User Manual 5/15/2006 11:16:52 PM Version 0.01 Joomla! User Manual ............................................................................................1 Chapter 1 - Welcome to Joomla!...........................................................................4 Introduction .................................................................................................4 What is a Content Management System? ............................................................4 Joomla!! for End Users ..
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Statistics ................................................................................................... 35 Managing Menus Items................................................................................... 35 Add a New Menu Item ................................................................................ 35 Publishing and Unpublishing a Menu Item......................................................... 35 Creating Sub-Menus ....................................................................
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Email Cloaking ......................................................................................... 42 GeSHi .................................................................................................... 42 Load Module Positions ................................................................................ 42 MOS Pagination ........................................................................................ 42 No WYSIWYG Editor ...............................................................
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Chapter 1 - Welcome to Joomla! Introduction Thank you for choosing Joomla!! Content Management System (CMS) software! You have made a great choice by selecting one of the most powerful and versatile Open Source Content Management Systems available. Joomla!! is an award-winning Content Management System that will help you build websites and other powerful online applications. Best of all, Joomla! is an open source solution that is freely available to everybody.
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• • • • • • • • Forums and chat software Calendars Blogging software Directory services Email newsletters Data collection and reporting tools Banner advertising systems Subscription services and many, many more… You can find more examples over at our growing Joomla!! Extensions Directory at http://extensions.joomla.org/.
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features with each release, and, with the help and advice of our incredible user community, we plan on delivering award-winning software for years to come. Objectives of the User Manual The objectives of this User Manual are to: • Help you to install and configure Joomla! • Describe the various types of Users and what their access permissions are. • Provide detailed instructions for both Front End and Back End inputting and site management.
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Chapter 2 – Getting Started Introduction Before we start, it is important to understand that a Joomla!! User has a predefined set of permissions, i.e. tasks that he can do. Therefore, in the context of managing a web site, it will depend on the way that the site’s owner wants delegate responsibilities as to what types of Joomla!! users should be set up. For example, an owner may have only one person to manage all aspects of the web site. In which case, a Super Administrator should be created.
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The files are contained in a compressed Archive so you will need a utility program, either locally or on your host server that can "unzip" the file. Installing Locally Unzip the distribution file into a directory under your web server root. If you are using the Apache web server, this is typically c:apache groupapachehtdocs on Windows and /usr/local/apache/htdocs on a POSIX system but it may vary.
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If you don't see the Check page please verify the following: • • • Was everything uploaded to your web site? Did you remove (and back up) your old web site? Do you really have an Apache / MySQL / PHP Web server? If everything checks out ok, and you still don't see the Check page, try using http://www.yourpage.com/installation/index.php. This is the direct address for the Check page.
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The second part is some PHP settings: The third part checks several file and directory permissions: Version 0.
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If everything checks out ok click the "Next button". If there are some items highlighted in red, either change the relevant folders’ permission using your FTP program or ask your host service provider to correct them for you. If it is not possible to correct them, you can still click "Next", and see what happens. The next page displays the license for Joomla!. Version 0.
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Click Next to agree the GNU/GPL Licence. The next page configures the MySQL database which Step 1 of the installation process. Version 0.
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Enter the configuration of your MySQL Database. The hostname of your database is usually localhost. This means the database server is running on the same computer as your web server. On occasions, where localhost is not a usable database server, you will need to contact your Database Administrator. You are given the option to delete the existing tables in the nominated database and also to backup the tables. You may also install come sample data.
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Click OK if you are satisfied that you can proceed. The database will be populated between this and the next step. Any errors that occurred during initialisation of the database will be displayed on the next page. Step 2 is simply a page where you enter the name of your site. Version 0.
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Enter a name for your site and click the "Next" button. Please note that special characters are usable in this information area. Step 3 is a page to confirm the installation directory, the URL to the Joomla! site, your email address and the administrator password. Version 0.
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The email address is for your Super Administrator. This user account is automatically created for you. The password you enter will be used for your "admin" account. The username for the Super Administrator is "admin". You may change the randomly generated password if you desire. The permission settings will be used while installing Joomla! itself, by the Joomla! add-on installers and by the Media Manager. If you are unsure what flags shall be set, leave the default settings at the moment.
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Copy the configuration file data. You can either paste it directly into the configuration.php-dts file on the server and rename that file configuration.php, or create a separate configuration.php file and upload it to the Joomla! root directory. Notes: Ensure that the configuration.php has write permissions. Do not forget your Super Administrator login name and password, as it is not possible to enter the Admin Control Panel without this.
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When you are ready, click the "Administrator" link in the Main Menu. Enter the user name and password as you saw them on the Step 4 page. If this is not your first time then you will know what to do next. If not. Read on! Your set up has now been completed, and you are ready to JOOMLA!! Overview of the installed elements of a Joomla! Web site Introduction Now that you have your Joomla! installation up and running, a word about the different elements that make up your web site.
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this is often in the center of the web page. A typical Joomla! installation comes with Banners, Contacts, News Feeds, Polls and Web Links components. Members of the Joomla! community produce third party Joomla! components on a continuous basis. Take a look at http://extensions.joomla.org/ or http://developer.joomla!.org for a listing of available components downloads.
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If you installed the Joomla!! software with sample data you will already have a Section, Category and Content Items created. Let’s create a Section whether you have one or not. Make sure you have logged on to the Administrator Backend using the www.yourdomainname.com/administrator link. Use the Content>Section Manager menu option or click on the Section Manager icon from the Control Panel. This will display the Section Manager screen. Click the New button.
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Chapter 3 - Joomla! Users Types of Users and access permissions Users of Joomla web sites can be broken down into two broad categories; • • Guests Registered Users Guests are simply users of your Joomla web site who managed to navigate their way to your site. Depending on how the site administrator has configured the site, users may be free to browse all the content or restricted to a subset of the content available with some content been reserved for registered users.
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Manager Administrator Super Administrator A manager can be thought of as a publisher with access to the backend administrator’s panel. Managers have access to all the content associated controls in the administrator panel but are not able to change templates, alter page layouts, or add or delete extensions to Joomla. Managers also have no authority to add users or alter existing user profiles Administrators have a broader range of access than managers.
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When this option is enabled, the user will receive an email containing a validation link that must be followed in order to complete the registration process. Recovering a lost password If you’re like most people these days, you have too many passwords and it’s inevitable that you’re going to forget one sooner or later. Joomla!, like most systems today allows you to automatically reset your password should you forget it.
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The Following table gives s short description of each menu item. Your Details Submit News Submit Web Link Check-In My Items Logout Used to view Modify your account details Used to Submit news articles (Author and Above) Used to Submit new weblinks Global Checkin of any items the user may have checked out Logout the current Frontend user. Account Details To view your account details you can click on the ‘Your Details’ menus link, which will present you with the following, dialog.
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may also choose no WYSIWYG editor if you wish to input your content without the use of the WYSIWYG editor. Submitting news, Web Links and Check In Items are dealt with in more detail in the next Chapter. Chapter 4 - Accessing functions from the Frontend As you saw in the last chapter, once you have registered with a Joomla! web site you are presented with a special ‘User Menu’ when you log in. Regardless of your specific role, e.g. Registered, Author, Editor, Publisher; you will see the same User Menu.
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With this editor you can type in and format content without having to know HTML. Just some of the features of this editor are; • • • • • choose font size style and color insert bulleted or numbered lists justify text with either left, center or right attributes insert hyperlinks create and edit tables for inserting tabular content You'll notice that there are two WYSIWYG editor boxes. The reason for this is that the first one allows you to type some intro text for your article.
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where pictures should go; the pictures are inserted by the system run time when called up by users of the web site. Just below the WYSIWYG editor display you'll see two icons, one labeled “Insert Image”. You may insert images anywhere into your text by clicking on the insert image button at the spot in the text where you wish the image to be inserted. When you do this you’ll notice that the editor simply inserts the tag {mosimage} into the text.
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The right hand column contains various attributes that you can assign or adjust for the image that you've picked. These include things such as the alignment of the picture, any alternate text that you would like to have displayed when the user’s mouse is over the picture and a caption for the picture and the position that you would like the caption to appear.
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In the upper left-hand corner of the images tab you will see a Sub-folder drop-down list. You can use this list to select sub-folders underneath the stories folder. In the directory illustration above you will see there are two folders, called food and fruit. Administrators can create additional folders and are encouraged to do so to provide some logical structuring to the images folder. The next tab in this window is called the Publishing tab.
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This calendar allows you to browse forward or backward by month or year, searching for the appropriate date. Select a date by double clicking on it. If you single click on a date, the date will be highlighted and immediately show up in the associated text field. Clicking anywhere on the page outside the calendar will close the calendar, whatever date you had selected will remain in the text field.
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Editor In Joomla, authors may edit their own content once it has been published. Additionally editors and publishers may also edit the content submitted by any author on the site. Editing is the same process that was just used to submit new content, all of the screens are the same and they perform the same function. The only slight difference that you need to understand is how to access the article to be able to edited.
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content are also available to publishers. Publishers may author their own content, edit the content of other authors or editors and cause articles to be published on the web site. The most noticeable difference that a publisher will see when logging in to the web site is the additions of a new field in the publishing tab when authoring new content or editing existing content.
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As you can see from the picture below, when you click on the submit Web link menu item you are presented with a dialog box that allows you to enter the name, section, URL, and description of the Web link. You'll notice that immediately after submitting a new Web link that the system will return you to the home page with a small, often overlooked message thanking you for your submission and indicating that it must be reviewed before being posted to the web site.
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This will bring you to a page that displays the category of links available. Picking one of the categories will produce a page like the one below where we see our new link is now available for use. Check-In My Items When working in one of the edit windows, such as when an Author is creating new content, you should always click on the cancel or save icons to exit the page.
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Chapter 5 - Accessing functions from the Backend - Manager Managing Media Site Preview Statistics Managing Menus Items Add a New Menu Item Publishing and Unpublishing a Menu Item Creating Sub-Menus Organising the look of the Frontpage Managing Content Managing Sections Managing Categories Managing Items Managing Static Content Frontpage Manager Archive Manager Chapter 6 - Accessing functions from the Backend – Administrator Version 0.
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Trash Manager Managing Users Managing Menus Creating New Menus Managing Components Banners Contacts Mass Mail News Feeds Polls Syndicate Web Links Managing Modules Introduction This section deals with: • • • Explaining what Modules are. Introducing the Module Manager and the functions associated with it. Providing an explanation of how to configure installed Site Modules and helpful Tips & Tricks to show how to customise them. The Module Manager Screen Version 0.
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You access the Module Manager from the menu option Modules > Site Modules. The Module Manager Screen displays a list of the installed Site Modules. Publish Unpublish Copy Delete Edit New Help The Site Module Screen You access the Site Module screen by either clicking on the Module Name or by checking the box to the left of the Module Name and clicking the Edit button.
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Title – This is the title of the module as you wish it to appear in its header. Show title – Select whether you wish the module title to appear or not. Position – Select the module position in which you wish it to appear. Module Order – Select the order you wish the module to appear. Access Level – Select the Access Level, which is able to view the module. Published – Yes or No. ID: The ID for this module. Description – A description of the functionality of the module.
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Show Menu Icons Menu Icon Alignment Expand Menu Activate parent Indent Image Indent Image 1 Indent Image 2 Indent Image 3 Indent Image 4 Indent Image 5 Indent Image 6 Spacer End Spacer Version 0.
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Who’s Online User Menu Other Menu Login Form Syndicate Statistics Template Chooser Archive Sections Wrapper Polls Random Image Newsflash Related Items Definition This module displays the title of other Content Items, as a hyperlink, that are related to the Item currently displayed. Related items are based on the keywords used in the Meta Info Keywords field. Parameters Enable Cache – Select whether to cache the content of this module. Module Class Suffix – An extension to the table.
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Latest News Definition The Latest News Module shows a defined number of the most recently published Items, which are still current, as hyperlinks. The default selection is all Sections and Categories. Alternatively, you can define a selection of Sections and or Categories. Parameters Module Class Suffix – An extension to the table.moduletable css class that allows individual customisation of the module. Enable Cache – Select whether to cache the content of this module.
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Search Popular Top Menu Managing Mambots MOS Image Legacy Mambot Includer Code Support SEF MOS Rating Email Cloaking GeSHi Load Module Positions MOS Pagination No WYSIWYG Editor TinyMCE WYSIWYG Editor MOS Image Editor Button MOS Pagebreak Editor Button Search Content Version 0.
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Search Weblinks Search Contacts Search Categories Search Sections Search Newsfeeds Installing new Components, Modules and Mambots Chapter 7 - Accessing functions from the Backend – Super Administrator Global Configuration Language Manager Managing Templates Site Templates Administrator Templates Module Positions Messages System Info Global Checkin Version 0.
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Index Version 0.
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Table of Figures Version 0.
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Appendix A – Further Reading Version 0.
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Appendix B – GNU/GPL Licence Version 0.