In Chapter 3, First Steps – Getting to Know Joomla!, you learned that Joomla retrieves content from a database, block by block. Together, these blocks form a web page. That's why you begin building a site by creating categories; you start with the core of the site—a well-organized content database. In this chapter, we've learned what it takes to create content categories and build a future-proof framework for site content.

Specifically, you learned that every website, big or small, requires planning. It all starts with creating a logical site map reflecting the structure of the content you have in mind. Keep it lean and clean. Bear in mind that visitors will want to get to the content they're looking for as fast as possible. To transfer your hand-drawn site map to a working Joomla site, first identify the different Joomla content elements in it. This will help you build the site step by step.

The main content containers are categories and subcategories. You will create these first...