dP's Joomla! on a Mac

Templates for Joomla

mynameisdp — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:05:20 +0000

After going through many sites over the past couple weeks I think I have finally settled on a template which I will be building off of. I have looked through tons and tons of template sites to find something that had eye appeal and also had a layout that worked with my concept site. Most template sites for Joomla have e-zine type layouts, so it became a very involved search for me. After many close calls and brainstorming through some whether or not I could make work for me, I have found what may be… sacrilegious… but sincerely awesome.

http://www.shape5.com/demo/touch_of_soul/index.php

After running into this template I had a battalion of ideas fire off, and that is what made me choose this template. As you can see in the background of the template I believe it is supposed to be a church wall, but what I will be doing is changing this template into a Pub atmosphere with beer signs on the back and different beer referenced gimmicks. Maybe have some brewing equipment sitting in the background. I don’t want to make it too distracting, but I would like it to look as if you are sitting down in a micro-brewery.

I almost went with another template but I just couldn’t go with the plain boring forum look. I want people to enjoy coming to the site, and it is a bit harder to motivate people with nothing to look at.

Finding the Right Extensions in Joomla

mynameisdp — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:52:20 +0000

This week I have endeavored into the wonderful world of Joomla extensions. I have installed dozens of extensions this week and have been testing them out to see if they feed my purpose. What I have learned from the extension community is that there are plenty of extensions to accomplish the same tasks with different approaches. You have to be careful with people’s ratings, because some are based on the usefulness of the extension to the particular reviewer. I will go over some of the extensions that I have tested.

Joomla Blog Extensions

iDoBlog - was a very powerful blogging format. It’s main purpose seems to be to create a blog community on your Joomla powered web page. This extension did not fit my need, but I had tested it out to evaluate the personal blogging format. I wanted a set up like WordPress but this blog format looked more like a forum than a blog, attaching a picture of the poster next to their post.

WordPress for Joomla- This is absolutely brilliant. Users have given it huge results, but it didn’t fit my needs as it is another blogging format for multiple users. I am simply looking for a decent looking blog component to run a blog section for myself on the site.

Joomla Comment Extensions

First things first, these extensions require you to use SEO compatible links which you must set in the Global Configuration file of Joomla. I have set this up, but I could not get any of these extensions working. Disqus, Rok Comments, or Intense Database. Every time I set up these systems, it would show a comment link under the article but when you click it it would just go to the article url, and nothing more. I am not sure what I did wrong on these extensions, but there wasn’t any step by step guides for any of the extensions. You would think that they would create some step by step installations for these extensions, but the ones that I saw were not very in depth.

Joomla CCK Extensions

K2 - Is very powerful, but the layouts didn’t fit my needs. It adds a lot of power into organizing content and adding more versatility to your content. You truly have to install it to understand its power. My only problem with this extension is the layouts to display your content. There are a couple templates that come with the package, but not nearly enough options. There are some people that seem to be working on building more templates, but there isn’t much documentation driven behind the community. I would like to see a layout template section on the site, and some tutorials on how to create layouts. Without this it really is in the hands to experienced developers. I would make a lot more use of this extension if they gave you more control on how your content was displayed, until then I won’t be using it.

Zoo from YooTheme.com – This extension package from YooTheme looks the most promising. It has just as much control as K2 but with beautiful display options. The thing that appeals to me most about this extension is, multi-mapping content, you can assign content to multiple sections or categories. Product catalogs is a super plus for me, and I love the way Zoo displays the content built for these catalogs. My only problem is the huge price tag on Zoo from YooTheme which is $145 for 3 months. This does include access to all of their templates and other extensions, which is a pretty good deal, but the demo for this product doesn’t give you much experience all of its features which makes it hard to convince.

How to Change Joomla’s Front Page Layout

mynameisdp — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:12:19 +0000

My main page on My First Brew will consist mainly of blog entries until I decide on a more organized front page. The problem I was having was with how many articles the default blog layout would display. I wanted to get of a more authentic blog layout as I will have many entries that will be interrelated. I found the following tutorial. Hope this helps anyone that is looking to create a blog like page in their Joomla setup.

Joomla Template & Extensions

mynameisdp — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:30:14 +0000

This week I spent a lot of my time catching up in a Math class that I had a midterm in, so I wasn’t able to work on much of my content, but I did do some research in the direction I will be heading.

My first ambition this week was to become more familiar with editing and designing Joomla templates. Since I was a kid I never really designed from scratch, not my strong suits, but I was able to take a solid idea and create my own from it. So I went on a journey for Joomla templates. I came to some really impressive sites: YooTheme, YouJoomla, & Rocket Theme; were definitely the ones that stood out.

Rocket Theme is simply awesome. The amount of support and the size of the community is tremendous. The extensions built for their templates are like butter, easy to slice and taste delicious. I am not sure how much I will use them on MyFirstBrew, but I am doing a side project for my friend’s locally published magazine.

What I like about this Joomla Template sites is that they have a ton of extensions that are already established in the template, and they have terrific tutorials for setting it up to fit your needs. I will post more on my experience with Rocket Theme, for I think I will be choosing them. After being in the IRC channels it seems like a lot of people swing that way, so I will follow the support of the community.

My First Brew

mynameisdp — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:43:38 +0000

This week I have configured my domain with a fresh new Joomla install! I configured the Joomla install for my new site MyFirstBrew.com. I am currently using the default template, but I have edited the template to use a custom logo I mocked together in a few minutes. I have spent most of the day creating the outline and site functionality if you would like to take a peak click on for

My First Brew

Outline

1.0 My First Brew (Home)

1.1 About My First Brew

1.2 Blogging My First Brew

1.3 Brew Recipes
1.3.1 Ambers
1.3.2 Stouts
1.3.3
1.3.4

1.4 Brew Ingredients
1.4.1 Hops
1.4.2 Grains
1.4.2.1 Brewing Grains
1.4.2.2 Specialty Grains
1.4.3 Malt Extracts
1.4.4 Yeasts
1.4.4.1 Dry Beer yeasts
1.4.4.2 Liquid Yeasts
1.4.5 Additives & Adjuncts
1.4.6 Flavorings & Spices

1.5 Brew Equipment
1.5.1 Complete Brewing Kits
1.5.2 Brewpots & Kettles
1.5.3 Kegging Equipment
1.5.4 Outdoor Cookers
1.5.5 Testing Equipment
1.5.6 Wort Chillers
1.6 HomeBrew Guides
1.7 Forums
1.8 Contact Us (Contacts)

Site Functionality

The purpose of the site is to educate the audience in the world of homebrewing. The site title derives from my experience with homebrew. Having never done a homebrew on my own, I will Blog about my first time experience while developing the website.

The prospective audience will be first time homebrewers, people looking for homebrew recipes, and others trying to find equipment or ingredients.

The Site Goal – To be a One-Stop reference site for first time brewers and experienced brewers.

I will further explain the functionality of each site section

1.1 About The Site

1.2 Blogging my First Brew – Will be a chronological journal of my first brew experience. After my first brew, it will journal my future endeavors of trying new brews and different equipment. They will be categorized by each new experiment.

1.3 Brew Recipes – This section will list different recipes for homebrews, with a list of their ingredients. Users can click on ingredients to get more information on the ingredient, as well as what other recipes it is in. Users can also rate and comment on different recipes.

1.4 Brew Ingredients – This section will be organized by the type of ingredient. Each ingredients will have a detailed description and the recipes it is associated with. This sections data is interlinked with Brew Recipes through the use of tagging in Joomla’s extension Custom Properties.

1.5 Brew Equipment – This sections goal is to be a E-Commerce Store with reviews and ratings on the different equipment. The section will start out by listing equipment, and maybe a price comparison with commission links to bring money into the site.

1.6 HomeBrew Guides – Will have different guides for brewing with ratings and comments.

1.7 Forums – for users to discuss what they wish

1.8 Contact Forms

Searching for Joomla Add-Ons

mynameisdp — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:44:20 +0000

Earlier in the week I posted to a Moodle Forum and also to the Joomla Forums looking for an add-on to Joomla that will help me achieve interlinking articles across sections. Not much success posting to my class’s moodle site, but I did have some success posting to the Joomla forums.

My question was about interlinking information outside of it’s section or category. One Joomla user recommended using a tagging extension. I chose to go with Custom Properties. It allows me to create a sub-relationship between articles based on a tag. The installation was easy, and the initial set up was easy. I am still tinkering around with it and I will post something more in depth after I configure it for my site.

Creating pages in Joomla

mynameisdp — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:30:02 +0000

This is my first entry using the iPhone WordPress app. I am stranded with no Wi-Fi access, so this is the perfect opportunity to use this app. I’m lovin’ it so far.

This post’s purpose isn’t for the iPhone app, but it is about creating pages in Joomla. Creating pages in a CMS has a different concept than the usual page by page creation. When you create a page the old fashion way you would have to generate the content every time you create a new page. Content Management Systems have reduced having to enter the same content over and over. It works very much the same way CSS manages styles. In Joomla you have querys that call for content to populate the page. Creating a page in Joomla doesn’t work the same as creating a new HTML file. Instead you create a menu item, for that menu item you will designate content and designate a format/layout. It is all new concept to me. It makes complexed websites very easy to update and create.

Customize Your WordPress Theme

mynameisdp — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:53:59 +0000

http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/installing-wordpress-locally/ – Is a wonderful tutorial for installing WordPress locally. The site has a lot of resources on customizing your WordPress site. I was very impressed with the site’s own theme.

http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/building-custom-wordpress-theme/ - Is a terrific tutorial on how to build your own templates for WordPress. This tutorial takes a reverse engineering approach.

Extend Text Editor in Joomla

mynameisdp — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:05:36 +0000

I was following some of the Lynda.com tutorials on Joomla and was wondering where all my text editing tools on my article manager went, because they sure didn’t match the ones on the video. Well it seems that you have to enable them in your TinyMCE plug-in. For more information check out the Joomla Documentation.

How to install Joomla on MAMP

mynameisdp — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:46:14 +0000

Never before would I have imagined how easy the install of Joomla would be. The First thing you want to do is download the latest package of Joomla. Second extract the zip archive into the your Sites folder. Third rename the folder in your Sites folder and then open your web browser and type in the url: http://localhost/[JoomlaFolder]/ Fourth you will configure your Joomla Database. After you are done with the installation, you will go back to your JoomlaFolder and delete the installation folder. Done!

So to recap:

1. Download the latest package of Joomla

2. Unpack the archive into your Sites folder & Rename it to your desire, for examples sake we’ll name it Joomla

3. Open Firefox and type in the URL http://localhost/Joomla this will enter you in the Joomla setup.

4. Select your Language. The Pre-Installation screen will come up, if everything is green click next. Agree to the license by clicking next.

5. Now we have the database data to enter.

Database type: mysql

Host Name: localhost

Username: root

Password: [enter password]

Database Name: joomla

6. If you are working on a remote server, you can add in your information on this next step, if you are working on a local server just ignore the FTP Configuration page and click next.

7. Enter in your Site Name, E-mail Address, & Admin password. You can also install sample data to give you somewhat of a template in your Joomla. After you are done on this page click next.

8. You are now done with the configuration of Joomla. To finish installation go back to your sites folder. Open the Joomla folder, and remove the installation folder.

9. In Firefox go back to http://localhost/Joomla/ enter in your user and admin password. You should now see your Joomla Main Page