107 - Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions

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107 - Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions

Post by drmmr763 » Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:48 pm

Hello again! I have claimed another task! Yes, another documentation task.

I won't bother re-introducing myself, if you want to find out about me I have a thread marked as 'issue 026' in this section. Check it out!

So, I've claimed task 107

Thank you to the Joomla! Community for their very helpful support and advise!
Last edited by AmyStephen on Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:59 pm

So! My first revision, complete with many edits.

Revision 1

I changed my format a little tiny bit. I did some more text wrapping and such. Let me know!
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:27 pm

Does anyone have any feedback to offer on this? If not then I'll submit it for final review and try to move on to another task.
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:28 am

Okay...no one seems to have anything to say, so, I'll for a final review!

*calls for final review*

I'll also post this on google.
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functio

Post by AmyStephen » Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:31 am

Chad -

You are on my list. I spent the day reviewing both Google and J! forums. The system we are using is - shall we say - less then "user friendly." There are a number of tasks that are a couple of days past due, due, or due this weekend that we have not given attention to. So, I've had to sharply prioritize my time.

That is not helpful or what you might have wanted to hear, but, it's the reality of the matter.

I have not forgotten. Now, that the "clean up" is done, we might be able to move more swiftly.

Thank you for your involvement with this program - and for your kind patience,
Amy :)

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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:39 am

I understand. I apologize for trying to push things. I should have waited longer for a response from you. Thank you for being patient with me.
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functio

Post by AmyStephen » Fri Dec 14, 2007 5:39 pm

You have *no reason* to apologize. This contest is just overwhelming and that is *not* your fault!

I love this document. I found no spelling errors. You got straight to the point. You didn't wander around aimlessly with stuff that doesn't matter. That is the *only* kind of documentation I have any patience for.

So - WAY TO GO.

Beautifully put together, as I would expect from you.

I recommend one additional section at the end. I recommend you show them how to create a "Menu page" listing all Contact categories on one page.

To do so:
  • Create an article (it can be unclassified.)
  • The article should alphabetically list all of the Contact Groups - (ex. Actors, Grocery Market, Zoo).
  • Instruct how to obtain the URL from the front end and correctly link to the menu item within the article (manual process).
  • Then, show how to add a new menu item to the main menu that links to this new article.
  • Finally, make the new menu item the "parent" of all the children. (So, from the main menu, you would first go to this menu page).
  • Once you have navigated to the new page, all of the children submenus will show, along with the listing of linked items.)
If you have questions, ask. Again, I thank you for your patience. I'll look for this to be done and try to review quickly.

Amy :)
Last edited by AmyStephen on Fri Dec 14, 2007 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:15 am

Hi Amy. I think I understand what you want to see, but I thought I'd clarify just to make sure before I got into this. (planning on doing it over the weekend). You want an article that displays all the categories. So this would be just building links to contact categories in an unordered list, correct? Then I would have a menu item to that article as a parent item over menu items directly to each category. If thats right, then I'll start on this right away.
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functio

Post by AmyStephen » Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:23 am

It sounds a lot more difficult the way I said it.  :P

Yes - that's correct. I think that will be a helpful addition.

Thanks!
Amy :)

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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:46 am

Okay great!

*cries over the fact that Joomla 1.5's built in WYSIWYG does not support all the cool linking options that JCE does...*
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functio

Post by AmyStephen » Sat Dec 15, 2007 5:11 am

[me=AmyStephen]feels Chad's pain.[/me]

Ian has a great idea for a development project we might add that calls for creating a link button - by the image button - for that purpose. It will be very useful.

You ought to consider a coding task for your next one. It's fun!

Amy

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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functio

Post by drmmr763 » Sat Dec 15, 2007 5:19 am

I'd love to do a coding task; sadly, my php skills aren't quite up to par. I know enough to be dangerous and fake it pretty well, but my knowledge is quite limited.

PS, as long as the the pizza, soda, and music lasts, I'm sure I'll manage to finish the painful task of getting URL's from the browser.
Last edited by drmmr763 on Sat Dec 15, 2007 5:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Sat Dec 15, 2007 7:24 pm

The soda is all gone, but I still have some pizza, and of course tons of music left to devour! I added what you asked for, Amy. Let me know.

Revision 2
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functio

Post by trombonechamp » Sun Dec 16, 2007 2:59 am

Cool! 
In Joomla!'s back end menu, go to the components
menu, in the list of sub menu's that drop down you will
see the contacts manager.
There should be a new sentence (or a semicolon) instead of a coma after "menu".
The contacts manager also
has sub menus that pop out to the right, select the
categories menu.
Same thing as the last one; a new sentence or semicolon should go after "right".
Go back to the 'contacts'
menu, and rather than clicking categories, click
'contacts'. (Figure 7)
Why do you have both italics and quotes?  You should probably choose one.
Once you are in the Contacts Manager, click new
to create a new Contacts entry.
Another formatting issue: you capitalized Contacts Manager here, but in other places it is lowercase.  There are other places in the document like this, so you may want to make sure all of your italicized words are in the same case.
Once you reach the Menu Manager for the Main Menu, on the right there are several icons,
click new to create a new menu.
I would make a new sentence here after "icons".  Don't be afraid to make new sentences.  They are much better than run-ons!  :)
At once you have copied the Url you will need to
paste it in the new link dialog box.
"Url" should be "URL"
On the administrator menu, there is a menu called
menu manger, when you hover your mouse of it
drops down several sub menus, those are all the
menu modules that are on your site.
Split this into two sentences as well, or use the semicolon.
That is, to set all the menu items that go directly to the contact category as child items to the menu
item to the article menu.
Leave the coma out.  Also, I would put "child" in quotes, because it is in quotes in the next step.
Now that you've selected a parent item, you can save the
menu item.
Since you quoted it before, you should probably put "parent" in quotes again.


The second "note" looks like it is in Times New Roman instead of Arial.  The third and forth notes are completely bold, and the forth is also missing the "Note" title.

I'm glad you made it look like your last one.  It looks so professional!

Hope this helps!
Max
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Sun Dec 16, 2007 4:29 am

Hey Max! Thank you SOOOO much for proofing this for me. You've been a HUGE help. And, if you feel up to it, you can check my third revision! I went through all the changes you recommended, and a few other things that I caught myself.

Revision 3
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functio

Post by trombonechamp » Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:57 pm

Using Core Joomla! Contact Component as a Business Directory
There should be a "the" after "Using"
he next screen will display a title, which is
required, and optionally an alias.
Do you want this whole sentence to be italicized?
And there you have it.
What would your language arts teacher say about this sentence?
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:02 pm

Thank you once again, Max! I fixed all of those, and here I come with revision 4. Man, next time I have to write something in school, I'm having you proofread it for me!

Revision 4
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functio

Post by AmyStephen » Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:13 pm

I, too, am finding Max to be *extremely* helpful. When I see he's working in a certain thread, I know he can provide the kind of feedback that makes a quality end result. I have waited until his feedback is relatively short before I read. I trust his judgement very much.

Cannot download Revision 4. Tried a couple of times. Is there something odd about that file?

Thanks!
Amy :)

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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:27 pm

I don't know what happened...for some reason my FTP is uploading past about 30%. I even tried uploading with Joomla! 1.5 media manager. Very very strange. I think it may have something to do with me turning on SEF URL's and enabling mod_rewrite. Although I turned it off after I found this problem and it still is doing it. I'm still working on it, in the meantime, try this:

http://files-upload.com/files/682340/BDRev4.tar.gz
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:32 pm

AHA! Figured it out...I was out of server space..lol...Deleted old files. All the past links I've posted for this aren't going to work anymore, and all the links in my last documentation except the final will not work.

Revision 4

PS: This is a tar.gz file, as I was messing with different types of formats because of this upload problem. If you can't open it, I'll go back to zip files now that I know what was wrong.
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functio

Post by AmyStephen » Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:13 pm

Very, very good work Chad.

Minor changes.

Page 5
Change menus to menu items.
What you will be doing here is creating an article with test that simply links to the menus you create earlier.
Page 6
Step 2
Change manger to manager (also on top of page 7. bottom of 7, better just look for all manger s)
On the administrator menu, there is a menu called menu manger.
Very, very good! :-*
Amy :)

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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:55 pm

Heh, I guess my mind was more on the Christmas play with all those 'mangers'. I found four of 'em.

Revision 5

Unless anyone has anything else they want to see changed, I'd like to put this up for a final review. (just saw another task that I can do, wanna get it before someone else does)
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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functio

Post by AmyStephen » Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:14 pm

Chad -

Another excellent contribution!  8)

I'm trying to see if we can get a second Judge's review. You are welcome to post on Google, in advance. If they want changes, you can post again.

If we have not responded within a day, bump this!

Task accepted as complete.

Amy :)

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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functio

Post by ianmac » Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:25 pm

I approve.

This thread will be marked "Solved." Please post your work to your
Google Task page. After you have done so, we will close the task and
you will be free to choose another task, if you desire.

Ian

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Re: 107 Write a document explaining how to use the core Joomla! contact functions t

Post by drmmr763 » Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:27 pm

Thank you both, Amy and Ian.

Amy, you have been most helpful and dedicated to this project, I don't feel that I can thank you enough!
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