Joomla! Discussion Forums

The first Joomla! Doc Camp will take place soon.

If you have any ideas about particular topics you would like to see documented, please add a description of what you'd like to see here.

Thanks,
Chris.

Is there a table of contents or browse feature for the wiki? I'm having problems navigating it without resorting to random pages, a search, or tags. Dan

All currently available information on the Doc Camp is on this page: http://docs.joomla.org/index.php?title=Joomla%21_Doc_Camp

We're starting to put together a list of tasks on this page: http://docs.joomla.org/index.php?title=Doc_Campers_Start_Here

Regards,
Chris.

A while back, Macromedia put together a site called Pet Market where they showcased many popular features of their products all in one mock site. Then they developed a ton of case studies and tutorials around how users/developers could create the same functionality, etc.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/blueprint/

What do you think about a series of tutorials (falling into the User/Admin/Web Designer categories) that would take a mock Joomla site and break down how easy it is to put together using step-by-step instructions?

For future reference, with a bit more forward warning I could put together a location for the UK. We have all the facilities available to do this. I *MAY* be able to get something organised before the 19th if someone can get in touch with me, but cannot guarantee it.

Incidently it will be based in Aberystwyth, Wales UK.



thnkx
Paul

I like the idea.  It would take a bit of planning to make it work, but definitely one for the list.

Thanks,
Chris.

Sorry about the short notice.  If this event is successful we will probably run another later in the year and we'll be able to give more notice for that.  If you can put something together for the 19th that would be great.  Sending you a PM.

Regards,
Chris.

We can work on a Chicago location for an upcoming event.

Chris -

I might have missed this on the wiki, but is there a place for those intending to participate to sign up? Particularly, if there is not a physical location? Or, even if we want to offer a physical location if others in our area are interested?

Thanks for this great idea and way for us to participate,
Amy

Hello Joomla!'s Heroes

I have a suggestion for you. Why don't you try to build a comprehensive Walkthrough that takes new comers like me in the whole process of building, optimizing a website (a real example) and learning the multiple joomla fields (templates, backend, frontend, components, modules etc...).

Thank you
Reagrds
YMA


Mod note: Manual signature removed. Please add signatures in your profile and not to each post.

That would be cool.  Let me know if there's anything we can do to help.

Regards,
Chris.

You just need to register on the wiki (here's a quick link: http://docs.joomla.org/index.php?title=Special:Userlogin&type=signup).  As an anti-spam measure you need a valid email address to complete the registration process.  That gives you write access to the wiki.

If you wish to be present at one of the physical locations you need to visit the appropriate website and register there as these events are being run by local community members.  Right now only Vancouver has that facility, but others will follow soon.

If you want to offer a physical location you don't need to do anything special (except organise it!) but it makes sense to let me have the details so I can help spread the word!  That includes being listed in the official announcements.

Chris.

Yeah, I think that's a good idea.  It sounds a lot like severdia's suggestion earlier in this thread where we have one or more sample/demo sites setup then we write tutorials which take the reader step-by-step through the process used to create them.  I think it could work although it would require quite a bit of upfront planning.  Is that the kind of thing you had in mind?

Regards,
Chris.

Here are few things I would see better documentation for:

  - More details about how to create a editors-xtd plugin.  For instance, once you are in
    the onDisplay call-back code, how can you get the article id?  How do you surpress
    the display of your button dynamically (I figured this one out).  How can you
    display something above or below the article editing area?

  - How to construct a patch file (assuming this is possible):  A file that you upload through
    the install/uninstall extensions system that would replace an existing file with an updated
    version.  This would simplify creating patches for existing extensions that only require
    that files be modified.

  - Better documentation of the various types of things that can be done via custom
    plugins.

Thanks!

    -Jonathan

Sounds like a job for JFactory.  Writing about JFactory is on the task list.  If you find answers to your questions (and I don't know the answers), perhaps you could write up some notes that might form the basis of some documentation.


Upgrading of extensions is not supported in 1.5, although I believe some hooks are there for future use.  Hopefully someone will write a white paper proposal for this so we can get it into a future version of Joomla!


Write ups for most of the plugin types are already on the Doc Camp task list.  Just need to find the authors to write them.

Thanks for you comments.  We'll try to make it happen.

Regards,
Chris.

maybe a usefull suggestion:

Categorize all wiki-pages in either "end-user documentation" or "developer documentation".
- End-user documentation would be used as input for all documentation found on help.joomla.org, the help screens in the joomla-site administrating back-end, etc.
- Developer documentation would be placed at dev.joomla.org, for those designing /coding third party extensions (templates, modules, components) and/or the joomla core.

I expect documentation for these two groups, differs a lot in e.g. learning curve, writing style etc.
If usefull, i am willing to help categorizing the current pages in de wiki...

Hi avdkooij,

Actually we are deliberately going in the opposite direction at the moment by blurring the previous distinction between user and developer documentation.  That's because we have found that there is quite a bit of overlap with some user documentation being of use to developers and vice versa.  Consequently we are gradually centralising the documentation and we will also be trying to modularise it so that it becomes more re-usable.  We can still retain user/developer tags in the form of wiki "categories", but these are more like hints than hard-and-fast divisions.

This does not mean that we will be doing away with help.joomla.org or dev.joomla.org, but it is likely that the documentation areas that they contain will be derived from the central docs.joomla.org instead of being "original".

If you want to help us in the documentation effort, then please register on docs.joomla.org and get started on any task that takes your fancy.

Regards,
Chris.

great to see that the doc group is approaching Joomla's documentation in such a professional way. Tactics for handling the user / developer overlap, the modulated documentation, etc. You guys are doing an amazing job!

After reading the existing MVC tutorials (J! 1.5), I still needed to clarify the file structure and naming conventions of such a component.  I tried to add this to the Doc Camp list, but apparently used an "impossibly long title".    True enough.  However, the page has been redirected simply to "Naming Conventions", a title I don't believe is wholly appropriate either.

I've added {{review}} to the top of the page -- so I'm hoping this will be categorized more correctly.  Is there another, better way I should have gone about this?  Another location or forum thread where I could have asked for help with a more appropriate title?

While I'm happy to continue to contribute to documenting 1.5, this was rather like having a door slammed in your face and left wondering where to go next.

Thanks.

Hi radiant_tech,

Apologies if you felt like we were slamming a door in your face.  There will likely be a lot of changing of titles, moving stuff around, breaking things into smaller modules, etc., to come.  The contents of the wiki are pretty haphazard at the moment, following the Doc Camp event, and we need to develop a structure and get stuff organised into that structure.  Please don't be offended if that happens to something you've written.  It's nothing personal.

Thank you for taking the time to contribute to the project.  We really do appreciate such efforts.

Regards,
Chris.