DISCUSSION: Anna's Joomla Tips

[guilliam]

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All DISCUSSIONs about "Anna's Joomla Tips" will be made on this thread.


Thank you Anna! 

[user deleted]

Hi,

@ Anna, thanks for posting them on our forum ! Really appriciated.

@ guilliam, thanks for locking the thread and creating a seperate discussion topic, wonderfull action !

[Johnny Boy]

Can I suggest that we make "Anna's Joomla Tips" a sticky.  Surely a thread worthy of stickiness.

Just a thought.

Thanks for listening. 

[guilliam]

Can I suggest that we make "Anna's Joomla Tips" a sticky.  Surely a thread worthy of stickiness.

Just a thought.

Thanks for listening. 

thanks.. its stickied already. wasnt able to stickied it a while back when i locked it.

[Johnny Boy]

Ok.

Thank you. 

[kaizen]

This should be required reading for every Joomla/Mambo user whether 'experienced' or not.

BTW, You should check her music out.  She's really a talented vocalist and trumpeter, not to mention quite easy on the eyes. 

http://www.annacallahan.com/

Seriously, I'm planning on picking up a CD.

[gene]

Good job w/ the quick tutorial. I wish I had known of this earlier!  My favorite section is the part where you mention the "must-haves" for any basic Joomla! package. 

[kai920]

BTW, You should check her music out.  She's really a talented vocalist and trumpeter, not to mention quite easy on the eyes. 

After checking out the website, I agree!    (oops. did I think that out loud? )

In all honesty though, Anna's tips have been tremendous in helping me understand many aspects of Mambo/Joomla.  Thanks Anna.

<--- started out on trumpet but moved to low brass (trombone/euphonium). couldn't handle the small size of the trumpet mouthpiece

[absalom]

Just to let you know that for the last two months, the tableless design tutorial in Anna's tips has been on the blink due to incorrect linkages on both versions (Mambo and Joomla) of the tips:

The correct URL is:

http://www.absalom.biz/tutorials/Mambo_ ... orial.html

[user deleted]

Thanks Lawrence,

Will change the URL so it works again.

edit; link replaced, should work again.

[Whiskey]

I just started utilizing CMS solutions a few months back. I started with the default Godday.com PostNuke install. Now that I have had a look at Joomla, bye bye Postnuke. I am feverishly working on a new Joomla site and found this post to be extremely helpful. Thanks for taking the time to put this together. 


http:whiskey-town.com (Not Joomlaed yet)

[TheSaint]

You might want to edit the first post of this thread to include a link to the sticky:

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,5503.0.html

Some people ignore stickies all together. It never hurts to have backup.

[kenmcd]

You might want to edit the first post of this thread to include a link to the sticky:

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,5503.0.html

Good idea. Done.

[ssmayer]

I so appreciate your tips, Anna. I printed them out and they were my absolute guide for my first site. Now, I've shared it with clients, too, so they can be set free in their own sites, too! Your tips are terrific!

So many marvelous people in here!!!

[Teessider]

Great tips - as a newbie to Joomla, and redesigning my entire site http://www.teessideonline.net to utilise it, these guides provided me with exactly what I needed to understand how the whole thing works.

My next question would be - is there a similar guide around for writing your own modules?

Basically, I want to design my own front page with modules that only appear on the front page. I know Joomla has the frontpage module, but doesn't really work as I wanted - some components suddenly get loaded with things I've specified as frontpage only and I dont really know why. For example - im using the noah classifieds integration, and when i click to add a new advert, it loads the random image that I have specified on frontpage only!

Therefore, i'd like to have my own frontpage, that I design as a module and then set it as my homepage???

Does this make sense?

Is there a module template somewhere that has the necessary starter code for module development or a guide?

Cheers in advance

[sunsetonline]

What a great resource for a new guy like me!  Thanks for posting that.

I thought I should point out, in case it hasn't been noticed already, that there are several bad links in there.  There are at least a couple links to the *ambo forums that have a "..." in the link target itself (in other words, the link target is the same as the abridged link text).  Also there are one or two links to outside enthusiast sites that don't seem to go to where they are supposed to.

[ajdlinux]

Does Anna mean Joomla2.0 when she says 5.0? 5.0 looks like a  Mambo release not a Joomla one.

Andrew

[leolam]

Does Anna mean Joomla2.0 when she says 5.0? 5.0 looks like a  Mambo release not a Joomla one.

Andrew

How does the world look like when we have Joomla 5.0........

* I must be senile by than or even worse than now.......
* Rey starts thinking about ending his career as referee becasue of artritis
* Brad has grown 140 Kg and is desperately trying to get rid of his Foster's addiction
* Andrew has moved on to Microsoft as Chief Engineer CMS.......
* The developers have bought Miro and re-baptised it Jiro.....(and made loads of money)
* Tim Broeker has moved to Paris where he is teaching colors at the Sorbonne University....
* Websmurf has build himself a UFO-application and flying around online with his Team
* Arthur Konze is still maintaining his Jiroportal.ufo
* and Anna is writing her memoires..........titled "where did it all go different......."



leo

[bluesaze]

ROFL that a real good one leolam the core team should read this...... maybe you can post it in the humor zone..

How does the world look like when we have Joomla 5.0........

* I must be senile by than or even worse than now.......
* Rey starts thinking about ending his career as referee becasue of artritis
* Brad has grown 140 Kg and is desperately trying to get rid of his Foster's addiction
* Andrew has moved on to Microsoft as Chief Engineer CMS.......
* The developers have bought Miro and re-baptised it Jiro.....(and made loads of money)
* Tim Broeker has moved to Paris where he is teaching colors at the Sorbonne University....
* Websmurf has build himself a UFO-application and flying around online with his Team
* Arthur Konze is still maintaining his Jiroportal.ufo
* and Anna is writing her memoires..........titled "where did it all go different......."



leo

[guilliam]

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[Moderator Note] reminding all that this is the FAQ's, not the "humor zone".



going back to the DISCUSSION of the thread's topic is greatly appreciated.



-guilliam

[t17169]

Absolutely essential reading for absolute beginners like me.  I cannot overstate how helpful Anna's Tips are.  Covering the basics might seem too obvious to most, but it feels like the foundation I needed. One of the things she brings up I don't really remember seeing addressed elsewhere:

"Where can I get add-ons? Joomla has a whole site dedicated to them: http://mamboforge.net/. Unfortunately, the descriptions of them are generally poor, and it's hard to find the right one or compare different add-ons. If only they would require all add-ons to include a good description and a features list...and how about a rating system? (Hint, hint.)"

While I have never found the development community to be patronizing to non-tech folks like myself, sometimes the amount of time you can spend researching becomes too daunting.  And not much is presented for the novice given the fact that it is a community of developers.  However, after checking everything else out there (for months I might add), I opted to go with Mambo and had barely begun when Joomla was born. 

And now I'm confused all over again with Joomla being the clear direction. (I may not know where I'm going, but I know how I'm getting there.)  I'm guessing most components/modules/mambots that worked with Mambo 4.5 will work with Joomla, but I don't know for sure.  Are available add ons primarily an issue of timing right now?  Could I expect the vast majority of add-ons for 4.5 to be useable for Joomla at this stage?

And, btw, if Joomla does take Anna's advice and implement a rating system, I'd go a step further and break that down into developer/user ratings since what might make something appealing to one might make it impossible for another.

I found Mambo easier to install and set up than Word Press. something I never ended up using.  I've still only ever installed two things on my VPS.  It was so liberating after nightmare experiences with developers.  I was literally yelling like a post season baseball game was on TV.  It felt like the mysteries of online development were suddenly available to even folks like me.  And now I'm living in a foreign country and intend to use Joomla to build several sites, one for an historic neighborhood, a UNESCO World Heritage site ...the first European settlement on the entire Pacific Coast of the Americas actually.  Joomla is so very exciting and you have made the learning curve adventurous.  Thank you so much from this tech newbie.  I feel like you've opened up the world to the rest of us. 

[guilliam]

"Where can I get add-ons? Joomla has a whole site dedicated to them: http://mamboforge.net/. Unfortunately, the descriptions of them are generally poor, and it's hard to find the right one or compare different add-ons. If only they would require all add-ons to include a good description and a features list...and how about a rating system? (Hint, hint.)"

^^the joomla community is now geared towards: developer.joomla.org its the new file repository or forge. oyu can also try joomlaforge.net but its just a pointing domain name to help oyu remember.

the new source forge will be implementing a lot of new features. for further info on the new forge ou can check this forum:

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/board,152.0.html

[BoiseGuy]

I would love to see people add to Anna's tips. What I mean is that if someone has done some really cool work with the blog content features to take off and do a specialized faq on that. If someone really understands the site mambots do a specialized piece on that. If it exists out there then if someone would submit that link to this area. Then maybe the forum moderators might add their post (if good) to Anna's main FAQ.That way the information (especially for beginners and those still learning - like me) stays cohesive and logical. Just my thoughts.

Anna your music is awesome! I and my family listen to it often. Once I found your music on Yahoo's music engine it stays in my constant collection! Keep up the good work on your music and joomla!

Lee

http://www.boisevenue.com

[guilliam]

@BoiseGuy, got your suggestion duly noted sir. thanks for sharing the thoughts.

[toiletduck]

In regards to the addon for Dreamweaver, I currently have Version 4 of Dreamweaver, I downloaded the addon for it for joomla only to be told it wouldnt install it as i need a newer version of the dreamweaver exchange or a newer version of the extentsion. I've updated the Dreamweaver part, however is there somewhere I can get a more recent addon so i can make templats in Dreamweaver?

[nathandiehl]

one suggestion for the FAQ that i find a lot of questions on. (i know the answer to this, but i point people to Anna's FAQ all the time, and the wrapper is a handy tool)

1. What is wrapper and what does it do?

[TigerLord]

Many many thanks for the great FAQ !!! It helped a lot

[Steve_C]

I am looking for a way to have images autothumbnailed with "Click to Enlarge". I read this:

there is also another mambot called mosthumb for doing this that you might want to use -- for more info, visit his post at http://forum.mamboserver.com/showth...3412#post243412

but the link is dead.

Is there a new link?

[kenmcd]

MOS Thumb Mambot
A feature-rich replacement for the MOS Image Mambot Features: Generate thumbnails of images that exceed a defined size PopUp window to the full size image (can be disabled) Add captions below or above Images If you like this Mambot please consider to make a donation Installation: If you want use the PopUps you will have to add the following line to your template, above closing -tag:  You have to unpublish the MOS Image Mambot when using the MOS Thumb Mambot

http://www.joomlaya.com/component/optio ... atid,1171/

Please let me know how this works for you with Joomla.

[TraderX]

Yes... without a doubt a must read for noobs like myself. A great foundation. And here it goes... But, I do get confused on adding content. If took me a while (and I still scratch my head) to understand the Table - Content Section and Table - Content Category on how "I" wanted content to display (for that area). As this is only my first (very limited site), I do plan on building a (hopefully) large community site, is there any threads or tutorials that might give better usage and function of them?

Also.. any threads of more detail use of the blogs? I have really yet to play with it, but would like to find something that could get me started more. As from what I have heard, could be a very important function for my next project.

Thanks all
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