Building Websites with Joomla! 1.5: The best-selling Joomla! tutorial guide updated for the latest 1.5 release
April 10, 2010 by Clyde Dennis
Filed under Building Websites
Product Description
In Detail Joomla! started as a fork from Mambo in 2005, when many of the original developers of the Mambo CMS moved to working on Joomla! It has rapidly grown in popularity and, according to its own description, is a “Cutting Edge Content Management System and one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management systems in the world. It is used world-wide for anything from simple homepages to complicated corporate websites. It is easy to install, easy to manage and very reliable.” While the Joomla! CMS has the flexibility and power needed for complex, full-featured web applications, it is also simple to use to create basic websites. Its powerful, extensible template system can deal many differen… More >>
TheWealthyPromoter (62)
Joomla [sorry, I just won't add that exclamation mark after it] is targeting the novice website designer and programmer. By some definitions, a designer need not be concerned with the messy details of actually making webpages. However, Joomla is easy enough to pick up that a designer might well be tempted to indulge in actual page design and generation.
It does aim at websites where the intent is for users to have a persistent login. To this ends, Joomla offers a separation of functions, for the user and for the administrator [you presumably]. As the book demonstrates, it’s pretty easy for you to create user accounts. The specialisation for content management is shown when there is the concept of groups of users. Joomla offers Registered, Author, Editor and Publisher. With subsidiary groups of Manager, Administrator and Super Admin. The administrative tasks are done within a simple GUI that frees you from memorising arcane command lines.
Joomla also has an interesting functionality. It lets you, the website author or owner, publish Joomla-generated URLs that are search engine friendly. Various search engines tend not to store long URLs, where there are many arguments in these, after the host name. The assumption is that the URLs refer to dynamic [ie. transient] content. Hence there is little point to the engine storing these URLs, or the pages pointed to by them. But you want the engine to store your website’s URLs, right? What Joomla does is rewrite the URLs in a more compact form, which improves the chances of an engine recording these. And thus offering your website in its free results.
Rating: 4 / 5
It like an overview of the cms system, but not a real guide for development with joomla framework.
Its perfect for people who needs to manager only the admin enviroment an a few hacks on templates.
Rating: 4 / 5
“Building Websites with Joomla 1.5″ is an excellent choice for all developers and webmasters who didn’t have a chance to work with Joomla! CMS. The book is very easy to read and it’s really ideal for webmasters who didn’t have a real development experience. Joomla! CMS is a good choice for entering the world of CMS-based websites and this book will provide you an excellent introduction how this popular CMS is working and how you can administer it.
At the beginning of the book you get all the information how to install Joomla! on different server types and after you complete your first installation, the book will give you all the necessary information about the frontend and backend. What I really like in this book is the fact that it gives a really good overview about the basic module functionalities: menus, login forms, online status, polls, breadcrums, banner management, etc. All web newbies will receive enough information how to use these modules and web veterans will use first few chapters as a quick overview of Joomla modules and components.
After first 200 pages you will learn how to expand your Joomla! installation with additional extensions and how to create your first template, custom component and how to integrate new functionality into your first Joomla! website. In chapter 16 you will use the knowledge from previous chapters to create a new website for vintner family Bertrand. This will be a good practice to test your Joomla skills.
As I said before, with this book basic knowledge of Joomla! Beginners will be very thrilled with this book, advanced users will appreciate it because it is a good resource for more advanced CMS-based projects.
Rating: 4 / 5
If you are looking for a book that takes you really under the hood of Joomla, this is not the one. This book provides you with the basic information to set up Joomla! 1.5 and to do a little changes here and there. If you for instance are looking for a tutorial book showing how to interact fully with the frame work by making your own classes, stay away from this. You find most of the information on this book online
Rating: 4 / 5
A number of years ago I set about planning the re-launch of a website. I was using a blog system. I learned about `CMS’ and did my research. I narrowed down my options to Joomla, Drupal, Plone and a few others. I then went off to my local bookstore. There I went through the books. I decided on Joomla and looked for a good book to use. It is key that a `how to manual’ speak to you in a manner that you can understand. I choose Building Websites with Joomla 1.0 by Hagen Graf. That started me on the Joomla journey.
I have just finished reading the sequel Building Websites with Joomla 1.5. The book is even better than the first edition. Graf explains what a CMS does, the changes from version 1.0. The book explains all the parts of Joomla. It even covers the more advanced areas of creating your own templates and components.
If you are just starting out with Joomla, this book gives you a head start. If you are already experienced with using Joomla, but not customizing it, this book is for you. This book will defiantly be on the “within reach” Book shelf.
Scott Wolpow is a member of the New York Joomla Group. He also builds and hosts Joomla sites.
Rating: 5 / 5