The ABC of Joomla Community

The ABC of Joomla Community

@ J oomlaDay Greece 2011

My Profile …

© Joomlapolis - 2011 2

Nick A.

‘nant’ on forums

Athens, Greece

MS EE, MS CS

Telecom / CIO

“Good engineers don’t need tools, bad ones also have no use for them”

Popular social networking extension (FREE)

CBSubs paid subscriptions membership solution

Advanced / Professional add-ons and support

Templates / Hosting

Shameless self-promotion …

Great Community Buildingtools and support services

Awesome Paid Subscriptions Membership managementsolution – CBSubs

Templates


Special promotionfor this event

20% discount on everything!

www.joomlapolis.com

http://www.joomlapolis.com/

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Shameless self-promotion …

More about Community Builder and CBSubs during tomorrow’s presentation:


Planned Agenda

What is Joomla?

CMS, PHP/MySQL, Open-source, GPL, framework, extendable, FREE, commercial ecosystem, Mambo fork,

OSM, volunteers, supporters, contributors

Versions, roadmap, etc.

Exploring Joomla.org

Documentation

Help links in backend

JED (how to search)

Forums

Recommendations - resources


What is Joomla?

Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-useand extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open sourcesolution that is freely available to everyone.

A content management system (CMS) is software that keeps track of every piece of content on your Web site. A major advantage of using a CMS is that it requires almost no technical skill or knowledge to manage.


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CMS concept


JoomlaPHPMYSQLAPACHELINUX

HTMLCSSJAVASCRIPTJOOMLA

Joomla Administration Joomla Website

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Technology terms

HTML – HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for the web.

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics (the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language.

Javascript – dynamic scripting language for the web

PHP – general purpose scripting language for the web

MYSQL – popular open-source DBMS (purchased by Oracle)

APACHE – popular open-source web server


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Choosing a good host matters!

Software Recommended Minimum More info.

PHP Ver. 5.2+ Ver. 5+ www.php.net

MySQL Ver. 4.1.x+ Ver. 4+ www.mysql.com

Apache Ver. 2.x+ Ver. 1.3 www.apache.org

Microsoft IIS Version 7 Version 6 www.iis.net


GD library, iconcube, php memory >48M, good support!

http://www.php.net/

http://www.mysql.com/

http://www.apache.org/

http://www.iis.net/

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What can Joomla do?

Joomla is used all over the world to power Web sites of all shapes and sizes. For example:

Corporate Web sites or portals

Corporate intranets and extranets

Online magazines, newspapers, and publications

E-commerce and online reservations

Government applications

Small business Web sites

Non-profit and organizational Web sites

Community-based portals

School and church Web sites

Personal or family homepages


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Who uses Joomla?

Here are just a few examples of sites that use Joomla:

United Nations

MTV Networks Quizilla

L.A. Weekly

IHOP

Harvard University

Citibank

Outdoor Photographer


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How can Joomla help me build a site?

Joomla is designed to be easy to install and set up even if you’re not an advanced user. Many Web hosting services offer a single-click install, getting your new site up and running in just a few minutes.


Quick start-up but it does have a learning curve and you must invest time to learn!

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What if Joomla is not enough?

If you need specialized functionality, Joomla is highly extensible and thousands of extensions (most for free under the GPL license) are available online in the Joomla Extensions Directory - JED. Here are just some examples: Community / Membership management (Community Builder)

Document management

Image and multimedia galleries

E-commerce and shopping cart engines

Forums and chat software

Calendars

Blogging software

Directory services

Email newsletters

Subscription services (CBSubs)


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How to extend Joomla?

You can also code your own Joomla related extensions, but you need to know and have development skills:

PHP language

MYSQL / SQL Database

HTML

CCS

Javascript

Joomla API / framework


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Joomla Layers


modules components templates

applications

libraries pluginsframework

extension layer

application layer

framework layer

The Joomla CMS is actually just an application of the Joomla framework

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Type of Joomla extensions

Joomla has 4 extension possibilities:

Templates (skin, theme, presentation layer, etc.)

Components (database, backend administration, extended functionality, etc.)

Modules (frontend block)

Plugins (aka bot, on-the fly scripts)


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Component, module, plugin

Components are mini-applications that integrate within the framework of CMS. They have there own functionality, database structures and presentational aspects.Example: Community Builder, K2, etc.

Modules are presentational elements. They take information that already exist s and present them in visual packages.Example: Latest photo module, etc.

Plugins are small portions of code that work behind the scenes to assist how something behaves.Example: Email cloaking plugin


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Joomla is Open-source

Open-source literally means that access to source code is provided, but legally it means much more …


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Definition

1. Free Redistribution

2. Source Code

3. Derived Works

4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

7. Distribution of License8. License Must Not Be Specific

to a Product9. License Must Not Restrict

Other Software 10. License Must Be Technology-

Neutral

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Joomla is GPL v2

General Public License version 2

Open-source

Distribution

Freedom to change, fork, use, etc.

Copyright notices must be kept

GPL “virus” 3PD confrontation … business strategy switch


http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Free as in “Freedom”

Free as in “Beer”! =

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Where did Joomla come from?

Joomla is a “fork” from the Mambo CMS (also open-source, GPL)

August 17th, 2005 Andrew Eddie - letter to community

http://opensourcematters.org

Swahili “jumla” means “all together”

Strong legal background


http://opensourcematters.org/

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Joomla is Free, but …

Joomla is Free as in Freedom (GPL) and as in beer (no fee to download), but:

There are costs involved to use Joomla to make a website (hosting, domain registration, …)

Good extensions cost money to develop, maintain, support, etc. Free extensions cost more!

It’s (Joomla) popularity has created a multi-million dollar “ecosystem” of designers, developers, extension providers, supporters, trainers, etc working with and making money using Joomla.


See my magazine article: http://magazine.joomla.org/issues/Issue-May-2011/item/451-Push-me-pull-you

http://magazine.joomla.org/issues/Issue-May-2011/item/451-Push-me-pull-you













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Business models used by 3PD

Extensions listed on the JED and elsewhere are free (as in beer) or commercial (you have to pay to access).

Business models used to support:

Donations

Paid support subscription services

Free download – pay for documentation, support, maintenance, extra add-ons, credit removal, etc.

Developed by professional web-design firm for internal use


This is important to know because you will most likely need extra Joomla extensions and you need to understand what business model is used to support them.

Who is Joomla?

Joomla is legally represented in terms of license, and copyright by the non-profit organization “opensourcematters”

Joomla is financially supported by donations, merchandise sales, financial contributors, etc.

Joomla is primarily driven by volunteers (forums, JED, code contributors, testers, documenters, etc.)

Leadership team:

Production Leadership Team (PLT)

Community Leadership Team (CLT)

Community Oversight Committee (CoC)


What does Joomla look like (1.5)?


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Joomla 1.5 frontend


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What does Joomla 1.6 look like?


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Joomla 1.6 frontend


Joomla roadmap: 1.5 vs. 1.6 vs. 1.7

Joomla 1.5,23

Stable, mature, supported by almost all third party extensions

Joomla 1.6.3

Not backward compatible

Many changes - ACL

Not proven yet – many extensions have not taken advantage or ACL or new API

Short life cycle (end of life July 2011)

Joomla 1.7 (back to content .. Web 2.o)

August 2011 – hopefully better backwards compatibility


http://blog.joomlaworks.gr/why-were-not-porting-k2-to-joomla-16-the-life

Exploring Joomla.org sites

First impression …


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The forums

http://forum.joomla.org

Selecting a username

Appropriate avatar – picture matters

Read, search, read again

Check FAQ, sticky posts before you post!

When you must post make sure your title is as descriptive as possible and the content has as much details as possible!

Be nice, polite, appreciative.

Make it easy for people to help you – very few will respond if your post is not clear.

Don’t BUMP!


http://forum.joomla.org/

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How to get responses

10 Golden Rules

1. Don’t be rude

2. Try to be as precise and as short as possible

3. Do your homework before asking (Google, search newgroups, read tutorials,…)

4. Try to ask one question at the time

5. Proof-read your question after writing it

6. Don’t expect others to do your work

7. Avoid private email if other channels exists

8. Remind yourself that people help you voluntarily

9. Read and follow up on suggestions

10. If you get a solution let others know


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How to ask questions to get answers

Make subject title as descriptive as possible while still fairly short. Using “Help me” or “URGENT” does not describe the problem and will have the opposite effect. CAPITAL LETTERS are considered as SHOUTING.

In the messaging body of your post be as descriptive as possible. If you have gotten an error message, include it as you see it exactly! Provide all environment aspects and exact steps to replicate. Most people will not ask for more details if something info is missing – so make it easy for people to help you!

Include screenshots when applicable as a picture is worth a thousand words!


Exploring the JED

Close to 8000 extensions!


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Exploring the JED

Many categories – sometime extensions have extensions!


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Typical JED listing


Joomla Online Help


Joomla Translations

http://community.joomla.org/translations.html


Extensions have there own localization methods. E.g., CB has CB language plugins.


My personal recommended list

Community Builder – www.joomlapolis.com

K2 (CCK) – www.joomlaworks.gr

JCE (wysiwyg editor) - www.joomlacontenteditor.net

Akeebackup - www.akeebabackup.com

Joomfish (multi-lingual) - www.joomfish.net

Kunena (Forum) - www.kunena.org

UddeIM (messaging) – www.joomlapolis.com

Sobi (directory) - www.sigsiu.net

DOCman - www.joomlatools.eu

AcyMailing (newsletter) – www.acyba.com



http://www.joomlaworks.gr/

http://www.joomlacontenteditor.net/

http://www.akeebabackup.com/

http://www.joomfish.net/

http://www.kunena.org/


http://www.sigsiu.net/

http://www.joomlatools.eu/

http://www.acyba.com/

Template Providers

Joomlashack - www.joomlashack.com

Rockettheme – www.rockettheme.com

Joomlart - www.joomlart.com

Youtheme - www.yootheme.com


Just google for Joomla templates!

http://www.joomlashack.com/

http://www.rockettheme.com/

http://www.joomlart.com/

http://www.yootheme.com/

Professional help and training

Joomla training – www.joomlatraining.com

Joomla University - www.joomlashack.com/university

Open source training - www.ostraining.com/joomla-training

Joomla videos on YouTube

Joomlancers - www.joomlancers.com


Just google for Joomla training!

http://www.joomlatraining.com/

http://www.joomlashack.com/university

http://www.ostraining.com/joomla-training/



http://www.joomlancers.com/

Resource Links

http://joomla.org

http://forum.joomla.org

http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/jmarcom_assets/

http://docs.joomla.org/

http://developer.joomla.org/strategy.html


http://joomlapolis.com

THE OFFICIAL JOOMLA {book}

Barry North books


http://joomla.org/

http://forum.joomla.org/



http://docs.joomla.org/





http://joomlapolis.com/

Joomla Alphabet

Joomla (Jumla– all together)

CMS

PHP

CSS

HTML

SQL

MYSQL

Component

Plugin

Template

Module

Extension

GPL

Open-source

Free as in Freedom

Free as in Beer

Mambo

Fork

GPL virus

OSM

PLT

CLT


Ευχαριςτώ!

Επόμενη παρουςίαςη:

Κυριακή 5-6 μμ – ΔΑΝΑΟΣ 1

Community Buidler και Λύςεισ που προςφέρει


The ABC of Joomla Community

Technology

Transcript of The ABC of Joomla Community