Joomla 1.5 Primer: Configuration
Walk-Through for Most Popular Free CMS and Web Site Builder
Jun 19, 2008
This is the conclusion of the walk-through started in "Joomla 1.5 Primer: Basic Concepts," which discussed global configuration, sections and categories, plugins, modules and components.
Menus
There are 3 primary menus that are often used, but any number can be created. The "Main Menu" typically contains links of interest to general, non-registered users of the site. The "User Menu" contains links to sections of the site used by registers members. The "Top Menu" can also be used, and often is manifested as a horizontal row of links at the top of the web site. Access the "Menu Manager" in the "Menus" menu. Click on the icon in the "Menu Items" column to add and remove items to menus. When adding an item, the first step is specifying the "Menu Item Type." This defines the type of the menu link, such as an article, user management page like registration or profile, news feeds or other components.
Articles
The heart of Joomla is content, or Articles. They are created in the "Article Manager" under the "Content" menu. Articles can consist of text, pictures, even video and flash. "Article" does not just mean a literal article, though it is often used that way. It really can be viewed as any content page on the web site. Access the Article Manager and create a few sample articles. For example, "About Us" or "Site Features." Use the editor to create pages with a bit of content on them.
Front Page Manager
Also found in the "Content" menu is the Front Page Manager. Use this configuration page to set which Article or Articles should be on the front page of the site. A common misconception is that this is also where the layout of menus and modules is configured. Actually, that is controlled in the various "Managers" under the "Extensions" menu. The placement of each plugin and module can be set while configuring each specific item.
Extending and Customizing Joomla
Joomla templates control the "look and feel" of the web site. There are literally thousands of free user-created templates available for download on the web. There are also a great many free and commercially developed components, modules and plugins to be found. Perhaps the biggest strength of Joomla is this community-contributed functionality that can be added to a Joomla site. To install any of these items, use the "Install/Uninstall" function under the "Extensions" menu. Upload the compressed file archive that was downloaded and click the "Upload File & Install" button. Once installed, the component, module, plugin or template can be accessed and configured using the respective administration page.
Working through each of the steps above should provide a basic understanding of the different pieces that make up a Joomla site and how to get started configuring a web site. Explore the many components and templates that are available and be prepared to burn up some hours and have lots of fun working with Joomla.
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