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Joomla General Information and updates

General information about Joomla and Joomla news



How to Find your Joomla Module Positions
Joomla General

Joomla works great with templates, but sometimes you install a new template and you have to check were the new modules positions are.

There are two way to see were each position is:

One is using the code index.php?tp=1 right after your domain URL
For example http://www.hummerbie.com/index.php?tp=1

The second one is the way I always check the postions , which is by using the function of Joomla in your administor panel that says:

Site -> Preview -> Inline with Positions

Finding the Joomla Module positions

You then get a screen with all the Module positions layed out as a screen overlay with the Module numbers and names.

joomla module positions upper part

Joomla bottom and footer module positions

Once you have the positons figured out, you can start placing the modules on the positions you want them to be, moving them around until they fit your needs...

 

 
Understanding the Joomla Content Structure
Joomla General

Some people have a hard time understanding the Structure that is used in Joomla to organize the Content.

But it is not that hard to understand if you look at it from a different angle.

Joomla is a Content Management System that in the core can be compared with a Study book.

Joomla Section

Joomla Sections

The section part of Joomla can be look at as the main parts of a Book.

Like for example an Atlas, the Section are the Continents.

Joomla category

Joomla Categories

The categories in Joomla can be classified as the Chapters of a Book

In the Atlas example, these are the country's in each of the continents.

Joomla Content Item

Joomla Content Item

The Joomla Content items are the pages in a book, each containing information to make a Chapter.

In the Atlas example, these could be pages that describe the Geological ans Social economics of a Country.

Putting it all in Perspective

If you look at the structure of this site, you will see how its build...
First there are sections about Joomla, WordPress and Drupal.

The Joomla Section is split up into categories as:

  • Joomla General
  • Joomla Modules
  • Joomla Themes
  • Joomla Components
  • Mambots and Plugins
  • Joomla Search Engine Optimization

One example of a content Item is this page, which is in the category "Joomla General"

The Joomla Content Structure explained

Keep this structure in mind if you are going to build your website in Joomla.
Make Sure you have drawn the structure on paper before building it in Joomla, it will save you a lot of headache afterwards...

 

 
Joomla Core stable 1.0.12
Joomla General

if you want to setup a Joomla based website your best choice is always the latest stable version.

At this moment that would be version 1.0.12.

Why a Stable version?

You want your website to be visites by people who can find your website and can access it without any problems.

This is the mean reason to use the stable version, if you want to use the 1.5 beta, please use it on your own PC for testing.

Where to get it and what does it cost?

You can download the latest version form the Joomla website.

Joomla Download

And the costs... its Free Open Source Software which means is does cost anything accept for Download time, installation and configuration hours...
But that is priceless sinc you will learn how to build you own great website.

But which version to choise?

I now, the download link brings you to a long list of version:

But its not that hard to find the right one:
For new installation you have to download Joomla_1.0.12-Stable_Full_Package.zip or the files with the tar.gz or tar.bz2 extensions.

For windows users I suggest you use the .zip file.

If you allready have a Joomla website, but a previous version, you are better off upgrading your website.
There are a lot of security bugs solved in version 1.0.12.

First look at your current version and then select you upgrade version.
Lets say you have version 1.0.9 then you would need the upgrade package:
Joomla_1.0.9_to_1.0.12-Stable-Patch_Package.zip.
See how simple you can find your own upgrade pakage?

So download the files and get working...