Learning to use Joomla!
It may sound too good to be true. Does Joomla! really make creating state-of-the-art websites side splittingly easy? Let's be honest—it will make it reasonably easy, but of course it does require you to invest some time and effort. After all, working with Joomla! (or any CMS) is very different from building websites the traditional way. You'll notice this as soon as you start installing the system. Compared to setting up a simple static website consisting of a few HTML pages, building a Joomla!-powered site takes a bit more preparation. You'll need hosting space that meets specific requirements and you'll need to set up a database. It's very doable, and this book will run you through the process step by step. But it does take some commitment and isn't really the most exciting part of working with Joomla!
Once you've got Joomla! set up, you'll soon get the hang of creating a fine, basic site. However, it can be challenging to get things just right for your particular goals. After all, you don't want "just any Joomla!-powered site"—you want to build a specific site, aimed at your specific target audience. The Joomla! Beginner's Guide will help you to go beyond a basic site with default settings, and it will help you make the choices that fit your goals.
One last challenge you should be aware of; in some ways, Joomla! will make it almost too easy to add any functionality you like. There's nothing to stop you from adding dozens of extra functions to your site or stuffing your pages with eye candy. Of course, that's not really what makes a good site, nor is it what makes your visitors tick. Customizing a site to your needs while keeping an eye on user experience is something a CMS can't do for you. But if you're serious about creating an excellent website that your visitors will want to read and use, then this book will help you find your way.
In short, even with Joomla!, it will take a lot of time and effort to create and maintain great websites. The site won't run itself, but Joomla! will make it much easier and much more fun for you (and your web team members) to keep it evolving.
What you'll learn using this book
The Joomla! Beginner's Guide is designed to make it as easy as possible for you to get the most out of Joomla!. It's focused on learning by doing—the structure of the book reflects the process of building a website. First, you'll install Joomla!, take a tour of the system, and get a feel for what it's like. After that, you'll start building your own site step by step:
- You master the fundamentals by creating a basic website with lightning speed.
- You'll adapt and expand this basic site to meet your (and your visitors') growing needs. You'll set up a structure for the different sorts of content you want on your site, and you learn how to add different types of pages.
- You'll learn how make that content easy to find through well-designed menus and design an attractive home page that directs people to the content they might be interested in.
- You'll learn how to engage your web visitors and turn them into active users who can register and add content.
- You'll extend Joomla!'s capabilities and add features (such as a picture gallery) to the site.
- You'll change the site layout and make it more attractive.
- You'll find out how to tweak the site to attract search engine traffic and to keep the site safe.
About the example site
The Joomla! Beginner's Guide focuses on building a realistic example site step-by-step. Instead of just learning about Joomla!'s capabilities in general terms, you'll meet real-world web building challenges. Throughout the book, you'll achieve all of your fictitious client's goals (that is 'I want a website that my web team members can update themselves' or 'I want a website that makes it easy to navigate through a large amount of content').
Now who's that client of yours? It's the Society for the Reappreciation of Ugly Paintings, also known as SRUP. They just love amateur paintings that mostly end up dumped in the trash heap or turn up in charity shops. You'll have to agree that it's a terrible waste. The SRUP think that bad painting is good. They argue it's creative, it's the ordinary peoples' artistic view on reality, and it can be valuable art—in its own, ugly way. The SRUP people need a website to inform the public about their goals, showing fine examples of ugly paintings, and encouraging people to join and participate.
You'll take the SRUP site through different stages of development. First you'll base the site on Joomla!'s default design and layout.
Later on, you'll add advanced features and shape the site's contents and design to meet the changing needs of your client.
The SRUP site is a good example of what you can do with Joomla! You start out with a basic website and add sophisticated features as you go. Of course, you can follow along in this book without having to actually perform all of the actions described—but you'll find it's a good and fun way to learn building a site and honing your skills as you go.