Book Image

Joomla! 1.5 Content Administration

Book Image

Joomla! 1.5 Content Administration

Overview of this book

Often a company hires consultants or web developers to build a Joomla! web site, and then takes over running the site in house. If you are a content administrator concerned with creating and maintaining the 'product' of a content management site, and not modifying its code, this book is all you need. This practical, hands-on guide will give you all the knowledge needed to maintain and edit your web site as a content-rich place that visitors return to again and again. There are many books available to help you administer a Joomla! site, but this is the only one specifically for Content Administrators. It is a quick-start guide that best serves content administrators and editors and doesn't cover designing or creating a site. However, anybody who has built their own site but needs help with article management, multimedia management, search engine optimization, and more will also benefit from it. To explain all the features, we will work on developing and maintaining the content and structure of a fledgling web site for a fictitious company "The Party People". Beginning with the basics, which includes an exploration of how to access and navigate around the administration interface, you will move into managing and creating content, including adding images, video, and audio material. There is advice on how to make the most of your multimedia material and how to choose the right file type for your needs. As your skills develop, you will work through techniques for making the site search-engine friendly and securing it against potential malicious attacks. All of these techniques and processes are explained step by step, and by the end of the book you will be able to take advantage your new-found knowledge and skills and maintain your Joomla! site with ease. Keeping your content fresh and engaging becomes easy, once you know how and that's what this book aims to do. It will help you become a more effective and efficient manager of Joomla!-based web sites.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
Joomla! 1.5 Content Administration
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewer
Preface

Organizing your site


The structure for organizing content within your Joomla! site is based on a hierarchy of Sections, Categories, and Articles.

Sections are created first and established as the highest level of organization, separating the content of the site into the broader topic areas. Categories are then created and allocated to Sections, to sort the content into more specific subject areas. Articles are allocated to Sections and Categories and present the details on these areas on the frontend of the website.

Understanding Sections, Categories, and Articles

To access the individual manager screen for Sections, Categories, or Articles, use either the Control Panel icons, or go to Content | Section Manager | Category Manager | Article Manager from the menu.

Using the Section Manager as a guide, we can edit and manage all the Sections created for your site. Double clicking the name of the section provides access to the details.

Use the icons on the toolbar to create a new Section, delete an existing one, or publish/unpublish them.

The Category Manager and the Article Manager are accessed the same way.

Within the Party People website, there are five Sections, each with at least two Categories within them. Articles are then created and allocated to each depending on their content.

When your developer established your site, he/she would have created a Section and a Category for the content to be allocated. Chapter 2, Creating, Editing, and Organizing Content looks at this in a detailed manner when we create and allocate content to Sections and Categories.

What are uncategorized articles?

Articles generally used for content that is not associated with any particular Section or Category are saved as uncategorized. They are content items that are used in certain locations, where the content remains the same and doesn't require user input or regular updates. Content that requires updating regularly and may include enabling a user to add comments is allocated to a category. For example, a "Welcome to the Site" message may be listed as a static item.