Let's try out an example of each of these three types of content and site management actions: Content actions example: Publishing actual content Extension actions example: Working wit
Trang 1Three types of backend actions
Roughly, the seven options in the Control Panel menu bar consist of three clusters Some you'll use on a daily basis, some you'll only have to deploy every now and then In the following diagram you can see what these three groups are In the rest of this chapter, we'll have a closer look at them not in the order they appear on the menu bar, but in
order of their relevance in your day-to-day content management activities
Trang 2Let's try out an example of each of these three types of content and site management actions:
Content actions example: Publishing actual content
Extension actions example: Working with extensions or, rearranging modules
Admin actions example: Changing site settings
Content actions example: Let's create some content!
It's fine to have an example site filled with some dummy content about Joomla!, but you probably want to make your mark by adding your own content Publish something, anything,
to your own Joomla! website Go ahead!
Time for action – publish your first article
1. Navigate to Content | Article Manager (you can also use the Article Manager
shortcut in the Control Panel)
2. In the toolbar, click on the New button (the green one with the big plus sign).
3. In the Article: [New] screen, fill out the Title and Alias field as shown in the
following screenshot (the Alias will help Joomla! create user-friendly URLs;
you'll learn more about that in Chapter 12 on Search Engine Optimization):
Trang 35. Joomla! uses a structure of sections and categories to organize content In this example, the News section holds the Latest category, which holds articles You'll learn more about this principle of organizing content in the next two chapters
6. Make sure Published is set to Yes This is the default option.
7. Click on Front Page: Yes to make sure your news will be shown on the home page.
8. Add some text in the text editor box Any text will do; for now we're just playing around in the example site
9. Click on the Apply button (with the green tick) in the toolbar in the top right-hand
side of the page Joomla! will inform you that it has successfully saved changes to your article
10. Click on Preview in the Preview and Info Bar section of the page This will take you
to the home page of your site
You're done! As you can see, you news item is published on the front page What's more,
Joomla! has automatically added your feature to the Latest News links too.
Trang 4There's even one other way the visitor can navigate to your news item Because you've
added the article to the News section, clicking on the menu link The News in the Main
Menu will also reveal your new article:
What just happened?
In a few steps you have created and published brand new content By categorizing your new
article in the right way, and clicking on the Show on Front Page option, the article text is
added to the home page Moreover, the article title is added as a hyperlink to the dynamic
Latest News list, and finally the article also turns up on the page that shows items from the News category.
Extension actions example: Managing modules
A good web page shows a clear structure The Joomla! example site presents lots of content
in quite a crowded layout; every single space is filled with text The site displays more than ten little blocks of content around the main content area (the mainbody) There are four menus, three of which are shown in the left-hand side column Putting that many blocks on the page will almost certainly distract the reader from the main content We're going to give the content some breathing room and help the reader scan the page
Let's clean things up a little We'll rearrange our screen and remove some unnecessary items
In Joomla!, you use the Module Manager to change the position and other settings of the
site's modules (building blocks)
Trang 5Time for action – rearranging page layout
In our left-hand side column, we'll discard the Resources menu and the Page Layouts menu, leaving only the Main Menu To get an uncluttered left-hand side column displaying only the main menu we will also move the Login Form to the right-hand side column.
1. Navigate to Extensions | Module Manager.
2. As you can see, there's an impressive list of installed modules To find just the instances of the menu module we'll apply a filter Above the table column
headings there are four drop-down list boxes In the Select Type drop-down
list, select mod_mainmenu:
No matter how many menus are displayed on the site, every menu
module is of the mod_mainmenu Module Type In other words, not
only the "Main Menu" uses this module
3 As a result, only the six instances of mod_mainmenu are shown:
Trang 64. Click on the Enabled icon (a green check mark) in the column to the right-hand side
of Resources Clicking on the icon will toggle it to a red cross indicating this module
item is now disabled
5. Now click on the Enabled icon in the column to the right-hand side of Key
Concepts and Example Pages too These menu modules are also now disabled.
6. Click on Preview You've cleaned up the left-hand side column There is just one menu left, the Main Menu (this should never be removed or hidden; it's essential
for Joomla!—and for your visitors)
Trang 77. To finish our job, we'll switch back to the Module Manager in the backend to move the Login Form to the right-hand side column In the Select Type drop-down list, choose mod_login.
8. In the Module Name column, click on Login Form to edit the login form settings:
9 In the Module: Edit screen, select Position: right to make the module appear in
the right-hand side column:
Trang 810 Click on Save to apply the changes and click on Preview to view the results.
You've successfully cleaned up the left-hand side column There's one menu left; the login form has been moved to the right-hand side of the screen:
What just happened?
You've just experienced the power of the Module Manager Enabling a module displays it on
your website, disabling hides it That means you can easily switch screen items "on" or "off" and still leave them around in the backend, just in case Also, you've seen now how quickly
and easily you can move things around on the screen by choosing another Position in the
module editing screen
Site actions example: Configuring basic site settings
Trang 9Time for action – set Joomla! preferences
When browsing the Joomla! backend you may have noticed that after a certain amount of idle time Joomla! will ask you to log in again By default, Joomla! kicks you out when you've been logged in for 15 minutes without any activity When developing a site it can be quite annoying to have to log in every time you return to your desk with a fresh cup of coffee Let's
change this with the Session Lifetime setting in the Joomla! preferences.
1. From the Control Panel, navigate to Site | Global Configuration (you can also click on the Global Configuration button below the menu bar; it's a shortcut).
2. Global Configuration is divided into Site settings, System settings, and Server
settings Click on the System link to show the appropriate settings panel.
3. On the System page, you'll see Session Settings in the bottom-right corner
Change Session Lifetime to 45 minutes.
4 Click on Save From now on you can leave the computer for 45 minutes before
Joomla! prompts you to log in again
What just happened?
You've just made your life as an administrator a little easier by changing one of Joomla!'s system settings Now you can leave your computer idle for 45 minutes before Joomla! kindly kicks you out and asks you for your login name and password again
Have a go hero – explore the configuration options
Check out the other Global Configuration options, but be careful Most of the settings you should leave unchanged Don't touch the Server Settings and Database settings (on the
Server page) unless you know what you're doing as these contain critical data that Joomla!
needs to function properly However, you can easily change some harmless Site settings Maybe you would like to change the Site Name (the name shown in the backend header bar)
or replace the default Joomla! text in the Metadata Description field with a few appropriate
words to let search engines know what your site's about If you're not yet familiar with these concepts, however, that's fine You'll learn more about the options you need later on in the book
Trang 10Looking for all the answers?
In the course of this book you'll learn much more about what the Control Panel is all about However, we won't cover every tiny little detail of the administration interface Luckily, Joomla! offers an exhaustive online reference to all backend menus, submenus, options, settings, and
screens In the backend, click on Help | Joomla! Help There's a wealth
of up-to-date information from the Joomla! help site
Pop quiz – test your knowledge of the Joomla! way of web building
1 What's makes a CMS-based website different from a traditional, "static" website? a) A CMS consists of an unlimited database of web pages
b) A CMS doesn't use traditional coding languages, such as HTML
c) A CMS dynamically builds web pages by gathering content blocks
from a database
2 What's the backend of a Joomla!-powered website?
a) It's the interface where administrators log in to change site
configuration settings
b) It's the interface where administrators log in to build and maintain the site c) It's the part of the site that's only accessible for registered users
3 How can you rearrange the page layout of your site and move about content blocks? a) By moving and deleting articles
b) By using the Module Manager to the position and visibility of modules
c) By using the Article Manager to change the position and visibility of articles