joomla

[peekaboo]

i know a tiny bit of html and i can build a basic (and probably very very inefficient) website with dreamweaver.
i want to set up a proper website and have control over it so i thought i'd give joomla a try.
i'm getting lost.

is joomla instead of dreamweaver? am i supposed to edit a template with dreamweaver and then manage it in the joomla cpanel?
is there no getting around learning how to code?

i've searched for online tutorials but they all seem to be for people who know the basics of what they are doing.
obviously i have no idea what i'm talking about (or doing) so an explanation for the retarded would be appreciated.

[mairving]

Joomla is a basically a CMS (Content Management System). It uses templates created in HTML for it's pages. Dreamweaver is an editor that can build those templates to use in Joomla or any other site. Once you build your page you will have to add things like menus, content, polls, etc. to the template. There are tons of pre-built templates out there that can be downloaded either free or at a nominal cost. You can also have people make you a template.

Joomla isn't really difficult as long as you know coding, primarily HTML, CSS and PHP.

[faulkner132]

Joomla is awesome. I use it for my personal site and am converting my company's site over to it as well.

The attractive part is you *do not* have to know HTML/CSS/PHP to add new content due to the built in WYSIWYG editor. This way our marketing person can update the site without going through me, hence saving time.

If you want to develop your own templates, you will need to know basic HTML/CSS/PHP like mairving said, but you can purchase good looking templates for a throw away $15.

[mairving]

Originally Posted by faulkner132 The attractive part is you *do not* have to know HTML/CSS/PHP to add new content due to the built in WYSIWYG editor. This way our marketing person can update the site without going through me, hence saving time.

True as long as you use JCE as your WYSIWYG editor. I also try to give them a little instruction primarily on pictures. If you don't they will take the FrontPage approach to picture resizing. That is take a 1600x1200 1.5Mb picture and size it down to 200x150 but the picture is still 1.5Mb so that the page loads slow.

[peekaboo]

i started it up and got the default joomla page(s).
i played around with it and was able to change some of the content but not the look of it.
for example, i couldn't get rid of the joomla banners/images and insert my own.
if i want to make this website (for example) controlled by joomla, am i supposed to be able to reconfigure the template or am i supposed to rebuild the site according to joomla specs?
am i supposed to be able to do it from within joomla?
i've downloaded some templates, do i need to know php in order to configure/redesign them so that they have a form that sends info to me?

Thanks

[faulkner132]

You would need to create a template and then reorder the modules in the backend to change the look.
http://dev.joomla.org/content/view/1136/79/

[mairving]

If you don't want to use banners, polls or anything in Joomla, just go into Modules, find that module and unpublish it.

On the template for your site. You will need to cut it up in pieces. The top part above the menu would be one part, the menu another, the white space another and the bottom footer another. If you want to keep the image in the middle then you could try to incorporate it into a content page or create a separate template for the home page, probably best as a separate template.

You don't need to know php much but you would need to know HTML. If you are using Dreamweaver, there are even Dreamweaver Joomla tutorials around.

[peekaboo]

i tried installing jsas, xampp and msas.
obviously i have no idea what i'm doing because i couldn't get the pages to load properly.
i try to open the joomla index or install page (with firefox) and i get "download xxxx.php" box.
how do i tell the servers to handle joomla?

i must be seriously stupid because i'm having zero success with this stuff.

[faulkner132]

Your host doesn't have your webserver set to handle PHP files using the PHP processor. Contact them about this.

[peekaboo]

i may have figured it out.

[faulkner132]

You will need to install PHP on your webserver.

For Apache: http://www.wampserver.com/en/

[peekaboo]

ok i've managed to get jsas working.
i've installed the dreamweaver joomla extension but all i see in design mode is a bunch of php icons (image attached).
am i supposed to be able to see what's going on?
am i supposed to be able to understand the different php symbols?

what's going on

[faulkner132]

I only use text editors to edit PHP/HTML files, so I can't be of any assistance with Dreamweaver.
To be perfectly honest, I think you would be best served either using a template the package ships with or buying one for the immediate future if you want to get up and running quickly.

Long term, I would suggest familiarizing yourself with HTML and PHP (w/o using Dreamweaver). By no means do you have to be an expert, but just being able to understand enough of both to "reverse engineer" the existing templates would make developing new templates infinitely easier (that's how I learned how to do it). Also, make sure you read the template tutorial from the link above. It has excellent information.

Again, I'm not trying to discourage you, but I really think stepping back for a bit to learn a little bit about the system will help tremendously.

[peekaboo]

thanks, i think i'll do that.
i was just very surprised/disappointed with myself as everywhere i read about joomla was all praises about how easy it is to master (even if you don't know php/html) and here i am struggling like a grandmother.