Many webmasters use Joomla for their websites because it is open source, free to use, has a lot of extensions and templates and is simple to use. It has also a large community of developers. There are many components, modules and plugins for every possible task. In other words, Joomla is a universal content management system suitable for simple home pages and complex websites. For most purposes it is enough to install a template and few extensions for common needs like displaying ads or Google Analytics. But sooner or later you need to modify the original display or standard layouts. There are two ways to make such modifications. You can either modify the original code or to override Joomla core files.

The first approach by modifying the core files might work but only until you upgrade Joomla. This process may overwrite the modified files and destroy your hard work. The other approach is to create core overrides in the template directory. For every extension Joomla checks HTML directory in the selected template directory where you can copy original files and modify them to suit your needs. Extensions are not only those you have installed, Joomla comes with many plugins, components and modules that are needed for normal operation. Creating overrides is easy. You simply copy files that need to be modified into template/HTML directory. There is a rule on how to create paths for overridden extensions:

TEMPLATE_NAME/html/EXTENSION_NAME/VIEW_NAME/FILE_NAME.php

One example for the overridden display of frontpage managed by the com_content component:

Original file PATH_TO_JOOMLA/components/com_content/views/frontpage/tmpl/default.php Override file TEMPLATE_NAME/html/com_content/frontpage/default.php

Joomla overrides are an elegant way to modify original functionality without modifying core files. Overrides work for built-in and custom installed extensions. Many times where you would like to change the blog display, add advertising code between articles or change any default layout, you don’t have to look for a special extension. All you need is to find the file in Joomla directory where this page element is created and create an override in the template/HTML directory. Of course, you need to be familiar with HTML and PHP code, but this is pretty easy because you will only modify existing code. This way you can customize your Joomla website without installing any extension. The advantage of overrides is that they still work after the Joomla files are updated, but the disadvantage is that they are linked with template. If you change it you need to copy overridden files and modify them for the new design.

Right out of the box Joomla is a very powerful application for websites.?The potential it has is amazing.?You can have as many or as few pages as you want for your website.?This can be great for those website owners that have a lot to say.?Adding more pages doesn’t bloat the code or the site.?Joomla was created to handle a lot of pages.

Joomla was also created to have organization on your site so you aren’t having a hard time trying to figure out where all your pages are.?You can categorize them anyway that you want.?If part of your website is about services you offer you can categorize them, if part of your site is specific information to your industry it can be categorized as well. This also works well for your visitors because you can link to individual sections and categories and let them choose what they want to look at without cluttering the site with different menus.

Once you get into adding things the potential expands even more. The need to pay for extra services becomes almost non-existent.?There may be some extensions that do require payment but the majority of them are open source.?The problems with linking the applications together, additional logins, and templates, are simplified because the extensions are specific to Joomla. You can access them all just by logging in to the backend of the site and they use the same template that is used for your website so no need to create another template that matches your marketing message.

Newsletter Manager

We are all familiar with the different newsletter managers such as constant contact, icontact, aweber, etc.?All of these cost something plus you have to link it into your website.?With Acajoom, (newsletter manager for Joomla) you don’t have to worry about extra fees or problems linking it to your website.?The application is open source so there is no fee associated with it. You have the ability to have multiple lists. It even gives your subscribers the ability to easily select which one of your newsletters they want to subscribe to.

Shopping Cart

One of Joomla extensions is a shopping cart that is also free for use.?You can provide discounts, keep track of inventory, accept payments through PayPal, and through other payment processors.?All extremely simple to use, and setup fees are reasonable – there is no cost for the cart itself.?

Seminar Booking

This is an extension that allows for easy seminar/event registration.?Your clients can confirm or even cancel their attendance simply and easily. It accepts payments through PayPal. There are also many other scheduling or event registration options.

Social Profiles

The basis for a community networking site. User profiles that can be enhanced in a variety of ways, including personal guestbooks, personal photo galleries, personal RSS feeds, and much more.

Forum

This is a great add-on so that can provide the central communication area for either social sites, or for business support forums.?It offers moderation, membership set up and much more. FAR simpler to use than PHPBB, and shares the template with your Joomla site, so setup is much easier and less costly.

Gallery

Galleries come in many flavors. They may be photo-community oriented, where users can submit photos and create new galleries, or they may be portfolio styled, where you are creating a gallery presentation. They come in both a grid style layout, or a slideshow style, and in varying ranges of complexity and flexibility. If you need a gallery, chances are, Joomla has one available that will do what you need.

Directory

More than a link directory. Joomla directories can manage just about anything, and can be used to catalog almost any kind of listing. Whether you need weblinks, course catalogs, resource listings, software libraries, or anything else, a directory is a flexible structure to add to a site to get just the right structure. With customizable forms for entering data, and many ways to extend the function, a directory can be much more than a list of links.

Article Submissions

Right out of the box, Joomla handles the process for both user article submissions, and an approval process (so nothing goes live until you say it can). This functionality can be enhanced in a number of directions, to give better control over the submission or approval process. It can even be integrated with social networking profiles.

This is just a sample listing of what can be added to Joomla and what Joomla can do.?As I’ve stated many times, the possibilities are endless.

Joomla has numerous advantages:

What are some of the advantages to using Joomla! to create websites?

Cost

This very well may be the biggest draw to Joomla!. It is a top-notch Content Management System (CMS) and it is free. Joomla! is comparable to other CMS’s, some of which can cost thousands of dollars.

Site Updating and Maintenance

Joomla! makes it quite easy to keep your site updated as well as add new content quickly. Due to it’s ease of use and layout, time otherwise lost trying to find where or how to make a change, is gained by allowing the webmaster to concentrate on the content itself.

Plug-ins (Joomla! calls them Extensions and Modules)

Many, many varying feature sets can be added to your Joomla! environment. Some examples might be; a Photo Gallery, a Forum, Statistics, etc… They are usually very easy to implement and use. There are thousands of free ones as well as those you pay for.

Loads of Built-in Extensions and Modules

Some of these are: Articles Banners Feed Displays Polls Newsflash Latest News Search

The list goes on….

Nearly Endless Customization Options

Joomla! is Template driven. It comes with 3 templates and thousands of others can be downloaded and easily installed. A Joomla template download can be free or of the paid for variety. It is quite easy to find a template that will suit your needs for FREE. Joomla! facilitates customization via it’s web-based Administrator front-end. The major part of it’s customization is menu-driven in this front-end. It really is wonderful! If you are so inclined, you can dig down deep and get technical as well. You have the ability to modify HTML, PHP, and CSS code if you choose to.

Synopsis

If you are looking for a free, easy, fun tool to use to create web sites, this is it! Joomla! is updated regularly and there are many forums you can join to get help, help others, or just be a part of the Joomla! community. See you there!

CMS (Content Management Software) has seen a huge increase of popularity in the last few years as the systems themselves have become far more advanced. It used to be that the web designer had totally access to your website which made editing and adding pages a bit of a slow process. However, nowadays people can access and edit their website in real-time with simple back office systems.

Back Office

A back office system lets you access your website and has a user interface, that allows you to edited and create pages for your website online. In the days before back office systems if you wanted to be able to update your website yourself, designers created your website with templates. Within these templates were marked regions that were editable so the website owner could edit these regions without affecting the site design. The site owner then had to install software that allowed them to edit their site remotely then upload it to the server. Adobe contribute is one piece of software that does this.

As you can see this wasn’t the best way to do it so the demand for more effective ways gave rise to the content management systems we have today.

Some of the other benefits that CMS websites have over static ones is that they can be edited anywhere in the World and this is increasing helpful for news reporters. Who can write a news story and within minutes it can be up on the web ready for the world to read. With the ability to add video through back office systems people can now see things as and when they happen. With content management becoming more affordable this helps small businesses make sure their websites are always up to date and always showing their latest products and special offers. These back office systems can even let websites send their newsletters out faster and more often.

I found this link on CMS websites and it has lots of further information on the subject written by a company that has many years experience in this field and has developed an SEO friendly solution.

The Future

In the future it will be all about supply and demand as businesses needs change then developer will have to come up with systems to meet those demands. Also as technology advances we will learn to use these technologies to the best advantage.

placecard holders

Joomla? This word has been doing the conversation rounds of late. Joomla is an open source solution, which will help you to create your own website. You no longer have to run around to web designing professionals who are not only exorbitant but who are not accessible, whenever you need them. So, Joomla the free software to help you build your dream website was born when a group of like-minded people began to create templates and modules that others could use as extensions when they were building their own websites.

With the widening scope of the Joomla software, a streamlined content management system or CMS was born, enabling online applications and websites to be built. One of the earliest users of this software is the Harvard University.

Joomla has freely available extensions that will become a part of the application to further the use of the software. The extensions contain components, modules and plug-ins, language packs and templates. Examples are plenty like the Mighty commerce for an e-commerce site. Joomla provides advanced features of batching of pages, to improve output and it even allows RSS feeds to be published as well as the print format to be available. Blogs, searching of websites, language systemization can all be performed by using Joomla.

Joomla is created in the PHP language and its database is MySQL. Joomla power lies in its empowering the beginner or a pro to create and run a website and manage its content. It uses a series of templates written in HTML, PHP, XML and standard image files much like the lines drawn in student books to guide them while writing. These templates are available free on the net. You only need to download and customize it to your specifications. These templates are so powerful and comprehensive that managing and maintaining any dynamic website is now easy.

The templates provide all the menus, style, color, text size as soon as the text is inserted into the template. The web page comes alive even as you click away at a button. An addition is the editing option of the CSS or cascading style sheet and the HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language files. The CSS can be edited to change the look of the web pages and the HTML will help you write the content or the text part of the web page.

Next, the graphics are generally maintained as separate file with link tags from the HTML files. So, by merely changing the link, the images icon that you want to display can be added to the web page. Another major use of templates is that you can use them to rebuild existing websites or start from scratch and start new websites without once again running behind expensive web designers. Audio, video and additional pages can be inserted including text, menus and drop-down lists. Using Flash application, the color, images and other attributes can be changed without affecting the content.

The Joomla is a very powerful web site building software for the beginner as well as the professional.

eco planning