Navigate to Extensions | Plugin Manager and locate the Simple Image Gallery plugin.. Click on the Plugin Name Simple Image Gallery Plugin to set Image thumbnail width and Image thumbnail
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3. As this is a plugin, we'll use the Plugin Manager to enable this extension Navigate
to Extensions | Plugin Manager and locate the Simple Image Gallery plugin Click
on the cross in the Enabled column The cross turns into a check mark, indicating
the plugin is now active:
4. Click on the Plugin Name (Simple Image Gallery Plugin) to set Image thumbnail width and Image thumbnail height both to 100px This will reduce the thumbnail
size to a maximum 100 pixels, allowing for a good deal of small thumbnails
on the page:
5 To actually create a gallery, we need a folder containing all of the pictures we
want to show Let's upload them to a folder /images/stories /paintings
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6. To do this, navigate to Site | Media Manager Navigate to the stories folder and create a new folder paintings Open this folder and upload your images to it.
7. You're all set Now you only have to create a new article (or edit an existing one)
that will contain the gallery pictures Navigate to Content | Article Manager and click on New In the following example, I've created an article titled Ugly Paintings Gallery and assigned it to the Ugly Paintings section and the Facts category.
8 In the article enter this code: {gallery}paintings{/gallery} This will instruct the
plugin to display all image files from the images/stories/paintings folder
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9 Click on Save You're done On the frontend, click on the Ugly Paintings link in the Main Menu to navigate to the new article It will display as follows:
What just happened?
You've set up a gallery that will impress your visitors Clicking on any of the thumbnails opens
a lightbox with the full-size image, allowing the user to browse through through the available set of images:
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The plugin automatically searches images/stories to find the specified
images folder If the target folder would be images/stories/food/
bagels, then you would enter {gallery}food/bagels{/gallery}.
Do you want more from your photo gallery?
The Simple Image Gallery plugin is—as you might expect—quite simple If you're looking for
a more sophisticated gallery tool that allows you to manage a large number of images and show them to your visitors in a structured way, you might want to consider using a gallery component An example is Phoca (www.phoca.cz/phocagallery) Phoca can present large image collections using categories and subcategories Visitors can browse the photos using lightbox pop-up screens:
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Using extensions to enhance your work space
Extensions don't just extend the functionality of the frontend of your site There are also extensions available that enhance and extend the backend For example, you can replace the backend article editor by a more powerful one
Time for action – replace Joomla!'s default text editor
The default text editor is allright for entering text, but some of the advanced capabilities (such as adding images or inserting hyperlinks) aren't really easy and intuitive Let's install the Joomla! Content Editor, a popular and freely available replacement for Joomla!'s default editor (which is called TinyMCE) For many Joomla! users, JCE is the first thing they add after installing Joomla!:
1. Go to http://www.joomlacontenteditor.net and download the "single
installation package" (containing the two extensions JCE: the Editor Plugin and
a Component) The installation package is a ZIP file.
2. Navigate to Extensions | Install / Uninstall Click on Browse to locate the ZIP file you just downloaded and click on Upload File & Install Once both are installed you'll see the message: Install Component Success.
3. Tell Joomla! that you want JCE to be the default editor Navigate to Site | Global Configuration On the Site tab panel set Default WYSIWYG Editor to Editor - JCE.
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What just happened?
You've just installed the JCE editor What's the big deal? At first glance, the differences between JCE and the default editor might be inconspicuous—but they will make a big difference in day-to-day article editing! Here are some examples of the benefits:
You can now quickly create text links (hyperlinks to other articles) In Chapter 8
(section Creating plain text links) you've seen that you can't do this from the
default editor screen In JCE, you just select some text and click on the hyperlink
icon (Insert / Edit Hyperlink) JCE now lets you select the target article (or another
link destination) from a drop-down list:
In the Attributes section, add a link Title (the little pop-up text the visitor sees when hovering the mouse pointer over actual link) and click on Insert That's it.
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Another improvement you and your colleague content editors will appreciate is the easy way to images with JCE To add an image to an article, you no longer use the
Image button below the editor screen Instead, click on the Insert / Edit Image icon
to open JCE's own Image Manager:
To add an image, click on the desired folder, select the image file, check the preview, and
click on Insert.
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If you need to control the image alignment, that's possible too For example, set the
image Alignment to Left and the Margin at the Right and the Bottom to 10 pixels to
have the text flow nicely around the image:
The Image Manager also makes it possible to directly upload more than one image simultaneously from your hard drive to the web server You can move, remove, or rename images and preview them full-size
In short, JCE makes it possible to do more things with text and pictures, and it makes editing much easier
You can adjust JCE's settings via Components | JCE Administration | Control
Panel Among others, JCE has a comprehensive system of Groups that allow you
to determine what different users (for example, editors or webmasters) may see and do in JCE This functionality will come in handy if you want to limit what
different types of users can do, for example if you don't want to allow editors to add images to an article
So much more to explore
With thousands of extensions available, the best way to find the perfect addition to your site
is by exploring the Joomla! Extensions Database To whet your appetite, here's a little taste
of the different types of functionality they offer:
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AllVideos: Show YouTube (or other) videos
inside articles
Plugin Googlemaps: Display Google
Maps within articles, modules,
or components
Virtuemart: Integrate an e-commerce shop
within a Joomla! site
Kunena: A component that allows
you to deploy a community forum
on your site
You can find all the above extensions by searching www.extensions.joomla.org for the extension name
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Finding unmissable extensions
Every Joomla! user probably has his own particular favorite extensions—but there sure are some great ones around that almost everybody using Joomla! seems to deploy A good way to find great extensions is to do a web search for
"best Joomla extensions" or "must-have Joomla extensions" You'll get some great tips on cool extensions, both for enhancing the frontend and backend functionality of your site
Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla! extensions
1 What's the difference between components and other extensions?
a Components are more powerful and more complex
b Components are only available to selected users
c Components are shown in different module positions
2 What's the use of the Newsflash module?
a To allow visitors to subscribe to newsfeeds
b To show just one news item in a module position
c To show one or more article intro texts in a module position
3 What's the use of installing modules?
a Modules can make it easier entering new content
b Modules can contain any kind of advanced functionality
c Modules can contain lists of hyperlinks
Summary
In this chapter, we've covered the magic of Joomla! extensions:
If you need any functionality that's not built into the basic Joomla! core you'll very likely find it in the Joomla! Extension Directory (JED) The JED lists very many extensions, but there are many more extension portal sites and developer sites
There are three types of extensions: components (the big ones), modules (the medium ones), and plugins (the small ones) Components have their separate menu item in the backend of your site; the other extensions are found through the Extensions menu
The Joomla! core already contains several components, modules, and plugins You'll find an overview browsing the Components and Extensions menu of the Joomla! backend
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