Joomla Jumpstart

Joomla menus define how the user will access the content of a site. Presentation, however, is defined by the interaction of three elements used by the system: templates, modules, and components. Joomla is incredibly flexible because each of these elements can be modified or replaced.

When first approaching Joomla, one of the hardest things to understand is how the system itself is organized. It's straightforward enough to add an article, but how do you determine where on the site that article will be displayed? The answer to this question is menus.

If you're a graphic designer and haven't heard of Joomla, you can dramatically increase your web design power and possibilities of employment by learning it. Joomla is a free, open-source, Content Management System (CMS). Joomla lets someone design, develop, and deploy a complete web site without programming a single line of HTML. Better still, you can maintain a Joomla site through the web-based Administrator interface from anywhere.

When programming a Joomla extension in PHP -- particulary when you need to create a display module -- you often need to get information about about the document being displayed. By instantiating the document object, you can get access to all of the information on everything from the metatags to the template name.

Sometimes finding documentation for Joomla features is like searching in a darkened home for that illusive flashlight. Even if you find what you're looking for, it may be no help at all (are these batteries dead?). Likewise, documentation on Joomla is often difficult to locate and when you discover something in the area where you're looking, the thing you need is missing. There is a well-lit, often comfortable place where you can find anything you're searching for -- the Joomla source code. Using a powerful text editor like jEdit, you can often quickly and easily locate the information that you need.

If you do a minimum Joomla! install, many of the common extensions will not be activated (Who's Online, Syndicate, etc.) or listed in the various managers (Module Manager, Plugin Manager, etc.). To install them manually, you need to modify the XML descriptor files. Here I'll show you how.