As you make your Joomla! site using the extension you will control the details of the display using parameters. Parameters control everything from whether the author's name is displayed to who can view what to the number of items shown on a list.

Default parameters for each components are changed using the Options button on the component toolbar.

Parameters can also be set on an individual item, such as an article or contact and in menu links.

If you are happy with how your site looks, it is fine to leave all of the parameters set to the defaults that were created when your site was installed. As you become more experienced with Joomla! you will use parameters more.

 

If you are an experienced Joomla! 1.5 user, 1.6 will seem very familiar. There are new templates and improved user interfaces, but most functionality is the same. The biggest changes are improved access control (ACL) and nested categories.

The content component (com_content) is what you use to write articles. It is extremely flexible and has the largest number of built in views. Articles can be created an edited from the front end, making content the easiest component to use to create your site content. Help

Your installation includes sample data, designed to show you some of the options you have for building your website. In addition to information about Joomla! there are two sample "sites within a site" designed to help you get started with builidng your own site.

The first site is a simple site about Australian Parks. It shows you you an quickly and easily build a personal site with just the building blocks that are part of Joomla!. It includes a personal blog, weblinks, and a very simple image gallery.

The second site is slightly more complex and represents what you might do if you are building a site for a small business, in this case a Fruit Shop.

In building either style site, or something completely different, you will probably want to add extensions and either create or purchase your own template. Many Joomla! users start off by modifying the templates that come with the core distribution so that they include special images and other design elements that relate to their site's focus.

With Joomla! You can create anything from a simple personal website to a complex ecommerce or social site with millions of visitors.

This section of the sample data provides you with a brief introduction to Joomla! concepts and reference material to help you understand how Joomla! works.

When you no longer need the sample data, you can can simply unpublish the sample data category found within each extension in the site administrator or you may completely delete each item and all of the categories.

The search component proviedes basic search functionality for the information contained in your core components. Many third part extensions also can be searched by the search component. Help

Joomla! means All Together, and it is a community of people all working and having fun together that makes Joomla! possible. Thousands of people each year participate in the Joomla! community, and we hope you will be one of them.

People with all kinds of skills, of all skill levels and from around the world are welcome to join in. Participate in the Joomla.org family of websites (the forum is a great place to start). Come to a Joomla! event. Join or start a Joomla! Users Group. Whether you are a developer, site administrator, designer, end user or fan, there are ways for you to participate and contribute.

All components also are used in the administrator area of your website. In addition to the ones listed here, there are components in the administrator that do not have direct front end displays, but do help shape your site. The most important ones for most users are

• Media Manager
• Extensions Manager
• Menu Manager
• Global Configuration
• Banners
• Redirect

 

Media Manager

The media manager component lets you upload and insert images into content throughout your site. Optionally, you can enable the flash uploader which will allow you to to upload multiple images. Help

Extensions Manager

The extensions manager lets you install, update, uninstall and manage all of your extensions. The extensions manager has been extensively redesigned for Joomla! 1.6, although the core install and uninstall functionality remains the same as in Joomla 1.5. Help

Menu Manager

The menu manager lets you create the menus you see displayed on your site. It also allows you to assign modules and template styles to specific menu links. Help

Global Configuration

The global configuration is where the site administrator configures things such as whether search engine friendly urls are enabled, the site meta data (descriptive text used by search engines an indexers) and other functions. For many beginning users simply leaving the settings on default is a good way to begin, although when your site is ready for the public you will want to change the meta data to match its content. Help

Banners

The banners component provides a simple way to display a rotating image in a module and, if you wish to have advertising, a way to track the number of times an image is viewed and clicked. Help

Redirect

The redirect component is used to manage broken links that produce Page Not Found (404) errors. If enabled it will allow you to redirect broken links to specific pages. It can also be used to manage migration related URL changes. Help

The users extension lets your site visitors register, login and logout, change their passwords and other information, and recover lost passwords. In the administrator it allows you to create, block and manage users and create user groups and access levels. Help

Please note that some of the user views will not display if you are not logged in to the site.

The Joomla! Project consists of all of the people who make and support the Joomla! Web Platform and Content Management System.

Our mission is to provide a flexible platform for digital publishing and collaboration.

The core values are:

• Freedom
• Equality
• Trust
• Community
• Collaboration
• Usability

In our vision, we see:

• People publishing and collaborating in their communities and around the world
• Software that is free, secure, and high-quality
• A community that is enjoyable and rewarding to participate in
• People around the world using their preferred languages
• A project that acts autonomously
• A project that is socially responsible
• A project dedicated to maintaining the trust of its users

There are millions of users around the world and thousands of people who contribute to the Joomla! Project. They work in three main groups: the Production Working Group, responsible for everything that goes into software and documentation; the Community Working Group, responsible for creating a nurturing the community; and Open Source Matters, the non profit organization responsible for managing legal, financial and organizational issues.

Joomla! is a free and open source project, which uses the GNU General Public License version 2 or later.

The contact component provides a way to provide contact forms and information for your site or to create a complex directory that can be used for many different purposes. Help

Weblinks (com_weblinks) is a component that provides a structured way to organize external links and present them in a visually attractive, consistent and informative way. Help