PDF Ebooks Joomla1.5 For Beginners Ebook

About the Author
Ivan Bayross the human being

The author Ivan Bayross is a 58 year old techno geek, mentor and friend. He is an M. Tech from Manchester University UK and has spent more than 30 years in the software industry rising through the ranks in the IT industry. Ivan Bayross started as a programmer, moved up to CIO, and is now the Chairman and Technology lead, in a software development house at Mumbai, India. He also owns several businesses in Mumbai India. He specializes in multi-tier, client / server, application development. Ivan Bayross is really a most approachable person and happily shares his skills with students and professionals alike.
Ivan Bayross the teacher

In the last ten years Ivan Bayross has put aside one day in the week when he guest lectures at a few MBA and Engineering colleges. If you would like him to guest lecturer at your college, do get in touch.
Ivan Bayross the consultant

Additionally, being passionate about project management, he has been assisting a number of medium sized I.T. houses in stream lining their project management processes. Assisting them in any way he can to deliver their throughput to their clients in the shortest possible time and with the least bugs possible. Ivan Bayross is also very interested in Human Resource Management. HR is the most valuable resource in any company, more so today, because of the very competitive business environment in existence. He has assisted a number of medium sized companies in improving their Human Resource Management processes, helping them retain their talent, appropriately hire new talent, and cross train and improve their current employees to deliver a ton more than they currently do.
Ivan Bayross the author

Ivan Bayross is also an author, having authored and published over 68 books. He has the ability of taking a fairly complex programming or design concept and explaining this in simple to understand terms which has won him tons of fans among young information technology professionals.
Table of Contents
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An Introduction To Joomla .................................................................................................................................................... 1 Download Joomla .................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Prior Joomla Installation ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 Creating a Joomla Virtual Domain under Apache ............................................................................................................ 4
Making entries in Windows HOSTS file ............................................................................................................. 8

Creating the MySQL Database and User for Your Joomla Installation. ........................................................................ 9
Creating A Database Under MySQL ................................................................................................................... 9 Creating The Joomla User Under MySQL ........................................................................................................ 12
Joomla Installation ................................................................................................................................................................ 13 Joomla Global Configuration .............................................................................................................................................. 21
Description .......................................................................................................................................................... 21 SITE ...................................................................................................................................................................... 21 Site Settings ..................................................................................................................................................... 21 Metadata Settings ........................................................................................................................................... 22 SEO Settings ..................................................................................................................................................... 23 SYSTEM ................................................................................................................................................................ 24 System Settings ............................................................................................................................................... 24 User Settings .................................................................................................................................................... 24 Media Settings ................................................................................................................................................. 24 Debug Settings ................................................................................................................................................. 25 Cache Settings ................................................................................................................................................. 26 Session Settings ............................................................................................................................................... 26 SERVER ................................................................................................................................................................. 27 Server Settings ................................................................................................................................................. 27 Locale Settings ................................................................................................................................................. 28 FTP Settings ..................................................................................................................................................... 28 Database Settings ............................................................................................................................................ 28 Mail Settings .................................................................................................................................................... 29
To make a site in offline mode ............................................................................................................................................ 30
Open Source Varsity. All Rights Reserved. Tel: 022 26124533 Email: ivan@ivanbayross.com
Section Manager..................................................................................................................................................................... 32
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Creating a Section ................................................................................................................................................ 32 Manage Sections: ................................................................................................................................................ 35 Unpublish a section ......................................................................................................................................... 35 Publish a section .............................................................................................................................................. 36 Copy a section ................................................................................................................................................. 36 Edit a section ................................................................................................................................................... 37 Delete a section ............................................................................................................................................... 37
Category Manager .................................................................................................................................................................. 38
Creating a Category ............................................................................................................................................. 38 Manage Categories: ............................................................................................................................................. 41 Unpublish a category ....................................................................................................................................... 41 Publish a category ........................................................................................................................................... 42 Copy a Category............................................................................................................................................... 43 Edit a Category ................................................................................................................................................ 44 Delete a Category ............................................................................................................................................ 44
Article Manager ...................................................................................................................................................................... 45
Creating an Article: .......................................................................................................................................... 45 Manage Article: ................................................................................................................................................... 49 Archive and Unarchive an Article .................................................................................................................... 49 Publish/Unpublish an Article ........................................................................................................................... 50 Delete an Article .............................................................................................................................................. 50 Copy an Article to a Respective Section/Category .............................................................................................. 51
Articles: Article Layout ......................................................................................................................................................... 53
Description: ......................................................................................................................................................... 53 Menu Item Details ........................................................................................................................................... 53 Parameters ...................................................................................................................................................... 53

Joomla Template Install And Uninstall............................................................................................................................. 57
Installation: .......................................................................................................................................................... 57 Uninstallation: ..................................................................................................................................................... 61
An Introduction To Joomla
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Joomla (CMS) is a powerful open source, Content Management System available on the Internet for free download and use. It was created by the same award-winning team that brought the Mambo CMS to its current state of stardom. Joomla is used worldwide for crafting everything from simple websites to complex, interactive, corporate applications. Joomla! is the phonetic spelling for the Swahili word Jumla, which means all together or as a whole. It was chosen as the entire teams behind Mambo were unanimous in their commitment to protecting the interests of the creators and community, which was the true cause for the success and acclaim earned by that project. This name was chosen from thousands of recommendations by the community. It even went through an arduous review session by branding and marketing professionals who also felt that Joomla! was the best choice of the lot. Joomla has a huge support base with hundreds of plugins all available either under the OGL or very modestly priced. Joomla! eliminates the tedium of hand coding interactive, database driven, websites and portals. Even non-programmers can create excellent interactive websites and portals with loads of functionality using Joomla!. Website / portal development companies the world over are adopting Joomla! in very large numbers. Using this product increases the productivity of programmers tremendously. Any huge increase in programming productivity always results in development cost savings. This means that companies today have the ability to deliver industrial strength, database driven, interactive websites and portals at a fraction of the cost that it took to hand code the very same type of website or portal. Site maintenance, reduces considerably. Changes or new functionality additions to a site are made with ease. All in all, proficiency in the use of any CMS brings real value to a web development company. Of the many CMS available on this planet, Joomla! is widely supported, has multiple technical and user forums where help can be sought and is freely given. Joomla's functionality is being expanded every day through the constant development of plugins. Let's start our journey towards using Joomla successfully by downloading Joomla and saving it to our local hard disk prior installing Joomla CMS on the local computer. Do take a look at the next tutorial.
Download Joomla
Joomla CMS can be downloaded from: Joomla Org
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In the page that opens in your Browser window look at the top right hand corner to locate the Download link to the latest version of Joomla. I suggest downloading the full package because I'm assuming that you are downloading Joomla for the very first time. NOTE: I'll deal with updating Joomla in another section. If you'd like to read through the Joomla installation manual Click here (PDF). If you'd like to read through the Joomla Quick Start manual Click here (PDF). If you'd like to access the Joomla Installation Forum Click here. Now let's hop across to creating a MySQL database which Joomla will populate with its tables and default data during its install process. Do take a look at the next tutorial in this chain.
Prior Joomla Installation

It's install process is simplicity in itself.
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Joomla! is a product completely crafted out of PHP. It's built to dovetail into Apache2 perfectly.
The Joomla Full_Package setup file downloaded from joomla.org is a zipped file. Extract the contents of the archive using Winzip or any other archiving tool. During extraction, all the files contained in the archive will be extracted to a folder, named Joomla_{version_number}-Stable-Full_Package. If the archive was downloaded and extracted to D:\, there will now be a folder called D:\Joomla_{version_number}-Stable-Full_Package\ where the files extracted from the archive can be found. Rename the folder Joomla_{version_number}-Stable-Full_Package to joomla. You are now ready to install Joomla CMS on your local computer. Joomla CMS is normally installed on your local computer within a folder that is controlled by Apache Web Server. NOTE: The installation and configuration of Apache Web Server is given in another tutorial on this website. The parent folder in which Joomal is installed on an Internet based host server is normally public_html. Hence your local computer should have a folder like D:\public_html. NOTE: Normally the folder public_html is at root level. Not within another folder. Your can create D:\public_html using Windows explorer. Once D:\public_html is created create a folder named joomla within it. Now Apache Web server needs to be informed of the existence of D:\public_html\joomla. This is done by adding virtual domain codespec to Apaches httpd.conf file. The technique for doing this is described in The Joomla Virtual Domain tutorial on this website. Which is the next tutorial in this series?
Creating a Joomla Virtual Domain under Apache

The location Apaches httpd.conf file is normally at C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\httpd.conf
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NOTE: This is assuming that Apache was installed in C:\Program Files on your local computer. Open httpd.conf file in any text (i.e. ASCII) editor of your choice. Locate the code block contained within <Directory "C:/Program File/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs"> in Diagram 1. </Directory> enties as shown
Diagram 1
Select this code block. Copy and Paste this code block immediately below the original. NOTE: Please ensure that both <Directory . . . .> and the </Directory>tags exist.
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Change <Directory "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs" > </Directory>. To <Directory "D:/public_html/joomla"> as shown in Diagram 2 NOTE: Please note the use of the forward slash above.
Diagram 2 These entries within Apaches httpd.conf file ensure that Apache knows that D:\public_html\joomla exists and that directory permissions are set.
Once Apache knows the existence and location of D:\public_html\joomla appropriate entries in the httpdvhost.conf must be made. httpd-vhost.conf is normally located at C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf Open the above conf file in any other text (i.e. ASCII) editor of your choice. Copy the <VistualHost *.80 > block of code and paste it immediately below the original code block.
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Diagram 3
Make the following changes as shown in Diagram 4 ServerAdmin: <Email Id> DocumentRoot: <Path where your virtual domain is located> ServerName: <Name of the website> ErrorLog: <Folder where all Apache errors logs will be stored> CustomLog: <Comment the CustomLog>
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Diagram 4 After making all the above entries in both httpd.conf and httpd-vhost.conf Please Restart Apache Web Server NOTE: The Apache Web Server icon is normally visible in the status bar of the Window. Look at the extreme right hand side of the status bar. If Apache Web Server does not restart please check all the entries made in the httpd.conf and httpd-vhost.conf files. NOTE: Look especially carefully for spelling mistakes.
Making entries in Windows HOSTS file

Now its time to make entries in Windows HOSTS file as shown in Diagram 5 The HOSTS file contains mappings of IP addresses to host names.
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There must be a single IP address / host name pair on a single line in the HOSTS file. NOTE: The IP address and the Host name must be separated by a TAB. The HOSTS file is normally located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Diagram 5
Creating the MySQL Database and User for Your Joomla Installation.
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The install process of Joomla! creates a set of MySQL tables and populates some of them with appropriate (default) data. It's best to create a separate database named joomla under MySQL so that Joomla CMS has its own reserved data storage area under MySQL into which it will place its tables and populate them with default data appropriately if so desired. Additionally, create a MySQL user named joomla. Protect this user with a password and finally grant this user with full rights to the resources held in the joomla database.
Creating A Database Under MySQL

Open a Command Window: Start > Run -> cmd as shown in Diagram 6 and Diagram 7
Diagram 6
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Diagram 7 At the system prompt Login to MySQL with login id and password created at the time of installing MySQL as shown in Diagram 8 and Diagram 9. NOTE: I have covered the installation of MySQL in the MySQL section.
Diagram 8
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Diagram 9 At the mysql> prompt enter: mysql> CREATE DATABASE joomla; Output: Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
Diagram 10 MySQL responds by immediately creating the joomla database.
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Creating The Joomla User Under MySQL
Next create the user joomla and grant this user all rights on the joomla database controlled by a password. This information (username, password and database name) will be required at the time of installing Joomla. Write themdown and store them safely for future use. At the mysql> prompt enter: mysql> GRANT ALL ON joomla.* TO joomla@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '{use any password here greater than 8 characters}'; NOTE: Do not forget the single quotes that surround the password value. NOTE: Upper and lower case are not important. Use all lowercase if you wish. Uppercase has been used to add some clarity to the MySQL command. Output: Query OK, 0 row affected (0.03 sec)
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Diagram 11 This will create a user joomla, who can login to MySQL only from the local machine and will be identified by the password {password set above}. Once complete an empty joomla database is ready for use. This only be accessed by a registered MySQL user named joomla, who has all rights on the joomla database. Since these steps are complete all that is left is to run the Joomla installation PHP scripts within the Joomla core downloaded earlier. The next tutorial steps you through what you need to do on your local computer just prior actually going through with installing Joomla CMS on your local computer. Do take a look.
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Joomla Installation
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Just before you begin the Joomla installation process do a check to ensure the following: 1A) That a MySQL database named Joomla has been created on your local computer. 1B) That a MySQL user named Joomla has been created on your local computer with appropriate password protection. NOTE: Details of how to do this have been given in the Create the MySQL database and User tutorial on this website. 2) That virtual domain entries for Joomla have been made in Apache's httpd.conf file and httpd-vhost.conf files to ensure that Apache knows of the existence the Joomla folder beneath the folder public_html. 3) That ip to domain name binding for Joomla has been done within the HOSTS file. NOTE: Details of how to do this have been given in The Joomla Virtual Domain tutorial on this website. Joomla! actually installs itself with minimal intervention on your part. You had earlier downloaded the Joomla .zip file and unzipped its contents to D:\joomla. NOTE: Have a quick look at the Download Joomla tutorial on this website if you have not. Copy all the folders and files from within D:\joomla to D:\public_html\joomla You are now poised to commence the Joomla CMS installation on your local computer Open your Browser and in its address bar enter: www.localjoomla.com i.e. the domain name entry made in the HOSTS file. This will automatically invoke index.php within the joomla folder. When index.php executes, the Joomla installation process is started. You have to first select the language that Joomla will use after its installed.
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We have selected en-US English (US). Then click Next in the Browser window as shown in Diagram 12.
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Diagram 12 Pre-Installation checks for Joomla {Version - Number} Stable are executed and the screen as shown in Diagram 13 will be displayed in the Browser.
Diagram 13
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Then click Next in the Browser window to continue the Joomla Installation process.
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NOTE: If you notice the Display Errors attribute showing On in red. Ignore this for the time being This page is full of useful information. Use the vertical scroll bar and scroll through the contents of the page. Read the information displayed carefully. Click Next when done The screen as shown in Diagram 14 is displayed in the Browser window. This is the Joomla! License screen.
Diagram 14 Then click Next in the Browser window to continue the Joomla Installation process. The MySQL database configuration screen appears as shown in Diagram 15. NOTE: The MySQL database named Joomla has been previously created on your local computer. NOTE: The MySQL user named Joomla has been previously created on your local computer with appropriate password protection.
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Its now time to enter these details into the Joomla installation form as shown in Diagram 15. From the Database Type drop down list box select MySQL. In the Host Name text box enter localhost.
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In the User Name text box enter joomla exactly as you created it. In this case all characters were lowercase. NOTE: Ensure that you enter the User Name exactly as you created it. In this case all characters were lowercase. In the Password text box enter your MySQL User password. NOTE: Ensure that you enter the password exactly as you created it. i.e. Pay careful attention to any Upper and Lower case characters, numbers and/or special characters used In the Database Name text box enter the MySQL database name created earlier i.e. joomla exactly as you created it. In this case all characters were lowercase. Please ignore the Advanced Settings for the time being. Click Next to continue as shown in Diagram 15.
Diagram 15
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The FTP Configuration screen is then displayed in the Browser as shown in Diagram 16 Simply click Next and by pass this data entry screen for the time being.
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Diagram 16 The Joomla Main Configuration screen will be displayed in the Browser as shown in Diagram 17 In the Joomla Main Configuration screen: In the Site Name text box enter this websites name www.localjoomla.com. In the Your Email text box enter this websites admininstrator Email ID {Enter an appropriate Email ID}. In the Admin Password text box enter this websites admininstrator password {Enter an appropriate administrator password}. In the Confirm Admin Password text box enter the identical password as the one entered above. NOTE: Write the administrator password down and keep it safe. You will need it to login into your Joomla, website administration system.
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Since you are a first time Joomla user do install the default sample data. To do this simply select the Install Default Sample Data radio button (if its not selected) and Click the Button Install Sample Data The Joomla sample data is installed and the Button changes to read Sample data installed successfully. Take a look at the diagrams below for guidance.
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Diagram 17
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Diagram 18
Diagram 19 Click Next. You should get a message saying Congratulations! Joomla is now installed as shown in Diagram 20
Diagram 20 Now take a Bow. Youve successfully installed Joomla CMS on your local computer NOTE: There is one small but important job left before you can test your Joomla CMS installation. Navigate to D:\public_html\joomla folder on your computer and delete the installation folder.
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NOTE: The Joomla website will not run until you do. A warning to this effect is prominantly displayed in the last screen as shown in Diagram 20 Navigate to D:\public_html\joomla and delete the installation directory. Now simply enter: www.localjoomla.com in your Browser's address bar and click GO. Your Joomla website will be displayed in your Browsers window. This is because the Joomla install process setup a default template and then uses this template to show you a default website. Easy as pie. Congratulations!!!! Youve just installed Joomla CMS successfully on your local computer.
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Joomla Global Configuration

Description
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The Global Configuration screen allows you to configure the Joomla site with your personal settings. Access the global configuration settings from the control panel or from the menu Site -> Global Configuration as shown in Digram 21.
Diagram 21 The main configuration file for your Joomla 1.5.X installation under the site tab is as shown in Diagram 22. There are three tabs: Site, System and Server. The Site settings directly relate to your site, the system is user registration, etc and the Server settings are some of the settings you can set up that related to the web server that your Joomla site is hosted on.
SITE
There are some settings under the Site tab as shown in Diagram 22.
Site Settings
Site Offline: This setting will turn your site offline and users will not be able to access your main site. Only Administrators will be able to see the site. This is useful if you are doing any major maintenance on your site.
When visitors come to your site they will see a message that states: This site is down for maintenance. Please check back again soon. This information can be changed by changing the next parameter Offline Message of site settings. The default setting is No.
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website is offline. This helps when announcing launch dates and other information.
Offline Message: You can enter here a little message, to be displayed on site, for your visitors when your Site Name: This is the name of the site that you have entered during the installation steps of Joomla1.5 (step6:
Main Configuration). Here, you can change the parameter to whatever best reflects your online presence.
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Default WYSIWYG Editor: WYSIWYG stands forWhat you see is what you get. By default, TinyMCE is the default editor installed. It is used whenever an editor area is loaded for e.g. when creating articles and other content. List Length: This refers only to users that have access to the administration panel. This is used to control the number of items you can see at one time when viewing a thing like article lists. This can also be controlled while viewing the lists. For e.g.If you have 40 article pages then you will have two pages because the default list length is 20. You can change this anywhere from 5 to 100 in increments of 5. It's a global setting that applies to all lists in the administration panel including modules, plugins, templates etc. By default, this is set to 20. Feed Length: This is the default number of items that will be displayed in your website's feeds. If you set this to 5, then all feeds will have only 5 articles in them, no matter how many you actually have in your Category of articles. Feed Email: This will apply only to Atom and RSS feeds that have the author e-mail option in them. You can set
this to either Author E-mail to use each author email in the newsfeed or Site E-mail to include the site 'Mail from' email address for each article.
Metadata Settings
Global Site Meta Description: This is the description of the site which is indexed by search engine spiders
or, in other words, this is used as the global site description in your meta data. This can be modified at the article level as well.
Global Site Meta Keywords: These keywords describe the site and are the basis for improving the ability of search engine spider ability to index the site or in other words this is used as the global site keywords in your meta data. This can be modified at the article level as well. Show Title Meta Tag: If set to yes, then it shows the Meta information of each article. This Meta information is used by search engine spiders when indexing the site. Each article can have its own Meta Data information (set under the Metadata Information pane when creating or editing an article). Show Author Meta Tag: If set to yes, then it shows the Author Meta information for articles and is used by search engine spiders when indexing the site.
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SEO Settings
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
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spiders. For example, the URL: www.example.com/index2.php?option=com_content&view=etc..., would turn into: www.example.com/alias. Most of the items created in Joomla have an Alias box where a search engine friendly URL can be inserted. The default setting is No.
Search Engine Friendly URLs: When set to Yes, URLs are rewritten to be more friendly for search engine
Use Apache mod_rewrite: When set to Yes, Joomla will use the mod_rewrite settings of Apache when creating search engine friendly URLs. You must use the .htaccess file provided with Joomla in order to use this setting. To use this file, rename the htaccess.txt file (found in the root directory) to .htaccess. By default, this setting is set to No. Add suffix to URLs: If set to yes, then .html will be added at the end of every URL. Which in turn transform your URLs from www.example.com/article-name to www.example.com/article-name.html. The default setting is No.
Diagram 22
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SYSTEM
There are some settings under the System tab as shown in Diagram 23.
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System Settings
Secret Word: This code is generated when Joomla is first installed and is not changeable. It is used internally by Joomla for security purposes. You should change this to ensure that your website is secure. In order to change the Secret Word go to your JoomlaRoot/ and open configuration.php in an editor, go to line 14 and edit this line: var $secret = 'feM9ufFYpsfKvWqd'; -> Change the feM9ufFYpsfKvWqd code to something else. Path to Log folder: This shows you where the log file is located on your server. The Joomla! installer will automatically fill in this folder. You can also change the location to keep your logs private. To do this, rename the logs folder to something else. Enable Web Services: This enables RPC communications on your site. Many third party extensions require this to be enabled to work properly. Help Server: The place Joomla looks for help information when you click the Help button usually located on the
top - right of the Administrator page. By default, it uses Joomla!'s main help site. This setting also determines what language will be used.
User Settings
Allow User Registration: This option, if set to yes, it allows users to register on your site and gain access to functionalities that require a registered user group status. The default setting is Yes. New User Registration Type: If Allow User Registration is set to Yes, then this setting will determine the default user group for new users registering on your website. The default setting is Registered. New User Account Activation: If you set this to yes, your new registrations will require validation. This means that when a user registers on your site, an e-mail will be sent, containing a link to a web address, to the email address used for the registration in order to confirm the validity of the information entered in the registration form. The user must follow this link to activate his/her account. By default, this setting is set to Yes. Front-end User Parameters: Joomla! 1.5 has a front-end editing option and other features dedicated to the
Front-end user. You can set this to yes if you want your users to have access Front-end options. The default setting is Show.
Media Settings
Legal Extensions (File Types): This allows you to control the extensions of files that can be uploaded via the media manager. This can help from having harmful files uploaded to your site. By default, when Joomla is installed, basic image and document files are allowed.
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Maximum Size: This allows you to set a maximum size for uploads. PHP also has it's own setting for the
maximum size. It is set by default to 10 MB.
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files. You can create a new folder to use with the Media Manager and enter the path to that folder here but do not delete or rename the existing "<Joomla! home>/images" folder on your server otherwise it will cause an error. The default is "<Joomla! home>/images".
Path to Media Folder: The path where non-image media files are located, including videos and document
Manager and enter the path to that folder here. If you want to access this folder from the Media Manager, either use the default value or make the new folder a sub-folder of the Media Manager folder but do not delete or rename the existing "images/stories" folder on your server otherwise it will cause an error. The default is "<Joomla! home>/images/stories".
Path to Image Folder: The path where images are stored. You can create a new folder to use with the Media
Manager. You should set this to yes because it allows you to safely choose trustworthy Managers, Publishers and Administrators for your website. The default setting is Yes.
Restrict Uploads: This restricts upload privileges to just images for users that have a lower user group than
Media Manager in the front end. Users in this group or higher groups will be able to access the Media Manager.
Minimum User Level for Media Manager: This sets minimum user level in order to gain access to the
Check MIME Types: This allows you to control if Joomla should check the MIME types of files uploaded via the media manager. The default setting is Yes. Legal Image Extensions (File Types): This allows you to limit the types of images that can be uploaded. It operates by checking the file image headers. By default, Joomla only allows bmp, gif, jpg, png. Ignored Extensions: This sets which extensions are ignored for MIME type checking and restricts uploads. By default, no extensions are ignored. Legal MIME Types: This sets the list of legal MIME types for uploads. By default, Joomla automatically
includes some standard file types but, this setting is active only if you have Check MIME Types set to Yes.
blocks HTML MIME types but, that are not allowed to be uploaded if "Check MIME Types" is enabled.
Illegal MIME Types: This sets the list of illegal MIME types for uploads. By default, Joomla automatically Enable Flash Uploader: This is set to Yes by default. Change it to No because it's not reliable and depends
a lot on what version of Flash Player you have installed. So, most of the times it might not work.
Debug Settings
provide diagnostic information, language translations, and SQL errors. If any such issues or errors occur, they will be displayed at the bottom of each page, in both the front-end and back-end. Note: This should be used only in the testing and building phases.
Debug System: This controls whether or not to display system debug messages. When set to Yes, this tool will
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Debug System to No, you will not get any relevant information to help you fix potential errors on your website.
Debug Language: This controls whether or not to display language debug messages. If this is set to Yes and
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Cache Settings
Cache: This setting sets whether site caching is enabled or not. If this is set to Yes, it will create static files for your website to reduce the load on your MySQL database. It is useful if you have a lot of visitors on your website. It ensures faster loading time, and faster navigation. By default, setting is No. Cache Time: This setting sets the maximum length of time (in minutes) for a cache file to be stored before it is refreshed. The default setting is 15 minutes.
File Handler.
Cache Handler: This allows you to control how the caching files are stored. This gives you only one option of
Session Settings
last. After this period of time users are logged out. The default setting is 15 minutes.
Session Lifetime: This applies to users and administrators. It allows you to control how long a session should
Session Handler: This setting sets how the session should be handled once a user connects and logs into the site. The default setting is set to Database.
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Diagram 23
SERVER
There are some settings under the Server tab as shown in Diagram 24.
Server Settings
Path to Temp-folder: This is the path to the temp folder which is used to store temporary files. This is filled in by default when Joomla is installed. You can modify this location and specify a different one.
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GZIP Page Compression: GZIP can reduce the time it takes pages to download by compressing the output
before it's downloaded. At the same time, it can increase the load your site generates by needing to compress data on every page load. The default setting is No.
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highly recommended to have it as low as possible. Crackers can use the information produced by errors to find holes into your site. There are four options for this feature: System default, None, Simple and Maximum. During development stage, you can turn it to maximum after that you should turn it back to system default. By default, the setting is System Default.
Error Reporting: You can change the amount of error reporting that Joomla does. In production sites, it's
Force SSL: This will force SSL (Secure Socket Layer) on certain areas of your website. Access to those areas will be only by using the https:// prefix but turn this on only if your server supports such an option. By default, the setting is None.
Locale Settings
Time Zone: This tool sets the current date and time. The set time should be where the site's server is located. You can change the default time zone for your site. The default setting is (UTC 00:00) Western Europe Time, London, Lisbon, Casablanca.
FTP Settings
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. Most of these settings are set during the initial Joomla installation.
Enable FTP: This setting tells Joomla to use its built-in FTP function instead of the normal upload process used
by PHP.
FTP Host: You can enter the name of the ftp host. FTP Port: You can specify the FTP port. By default, the value in Joomla! Global Configuration is 21. FTP Username: You can enter the FTP Username provided by your hosting provider, the same username you use to access your ftp account.
use to access your ftp account.
FTP Password: You can enter the FTP Password provided by your hosting provider, the same password you
FTP Root: You can enter here the physical location of where your website resides on the server. If you are not sure of what that is, you can contact you host provider.
Database Settings
Database Type: The type of database to be used. The default setting is mysql. Hostname: The hostname where the database is located. It is typically set to localhost for most servers. It is possible for the hostname to be located on a different server all together.
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Username: The mysql username to access the database.
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Database: The name of the database that stores all fields and tables for Joomla 1.5. Database Prefix: The prefix that is used before the actual table's name. This allows you to have multiple Joomla installations in the same database. The default setting is jos_, but this can be changed during initial setup of Joomla.
Mail Settings
Mail Settings: Joomla has 3 ways to send your site e-mails.
PHP Mail This uses the mail function that is built into PHP and is the simplest way of mailing. SMTP This uses the site's SMTP server and is the most secure way of mailing but it requires entering your SMTP login details. Sendmail This uses the Sendmail program, which is typically used when creating HTML email forms but it requires entering your Sendmail path to be correct. The default setting is PHP Mail Function.
Mail from: The email address used by Joomla to send site email. From Name: The name Joomla will use when sending site emails to the users. By this, the users will easily
identify all the e-mails from you. By default, Joomla uses the site name during the initial setup.
Sendmail Path: The path where the Sendmail program is located. This is typically filled in by Joomla during
the initial setup. This path is only used if Mailer is set to Sendmail.
SMTP Authentication: If the SMTP server requires authentication to send mail, set this to Yes. Otherwise
leave it at No. This is only used if Mailer is set to Sendmail.
Sendmail.
SMTP Username: The username to use for access to the SMTP host. This is only used if Mailer is set to SMTP Password: The password to use for access to the SMTP host. This is only used if Mailer is set to SMTP Host: The SMTP address to use when sending mail. This is only used if Mailer is set to Sendmail.
Sendmail.
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Diagram 24
To make a site in offline mode

After logging in to the Joomla administrative panel, click on the Global Configuration in the control panel as shown in Diagram 25 in order to access the global settings of joomla1.5.
Diagram 25
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By default, the setting under the site tab is opened as shown in Diagram 26. Set the Site Offline parameter to Yes. Click on the Save icon at the top-right hand corner.
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Diagram 26 Now, the site is set offline. The successful updation of global configuration is displayed as shown in Diagram 27.
Diagram 27 Note: You can test whether the site has successfully been set offline by opening a browser and typing your website URL.
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Section Manager
What is a Section? A section is a collection of Categories.
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This is the top level in the Joomla content hierarchy i.e. Sections -> Categories -> Articles. For example, a website might have Sections called Animals and Plants. Within the Animals Section, the website might have Categories such as Birds and Mammals. Sections are maintained using the Section Manager which can be accessed via the Joomla Administrator (Backend) Content -> Section.
Creating a Section
Log in to the backend of Joomla1.5, you will see a screen as shown in Diagram 28.
Diagram 28 Log-in as administrator. Click on the Section Manager icon in the Control Panel or click on 'Section Manager' in the 'Content' menu in the back-end of your Joomla Installation as shown in Diagram 29.
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Diagram 29 The Section Manager screen opens. Here you can edit existing Sections and/or create new ones. Click on the New button at the top-right hand corner to create a new section as shown in Diagram 30.
Diagram 30 Enter the following details for the section as shown in Diagram 31: Scope: For this no entry is allowed. It displays the scope of this screen, which is "Content". Title: The Title for the section. This may or may not display on the page, depending on the parameter values you choose. Alias: The internal name of the section. Normally, you can leave this blank and Joomla will fill in a default value. The default value is the Title or Name in lower case and with dashes instead of spaces. You may enter the Alias manually. The Alias should consist of lowercase letters with no blank spaces. You can use a hyphen (-) to indicate blank spaces. The Alias will be used in the URL when SEF is activated. Published: Whether or not this section is published. Select Yes or No from the radio button group to set the Published state for this item.
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Order: The order this section will display in the Manager screen. Use the drop-down list box to change the Order. You can select 'First' or 'Last' to make this the first or last item. Or you can select an item from the list. In this case, the current item will be listed just after the item you select. Note that the Order can also be changed in the Manager screen. Access Level: This determines who can access to this section. The options are: Public: Everyone has access Registered: Only registered users have access Special: Only users with author status or higher have access Enter the desired level using the drop-down list box. Image: Image for this Page. The image must be located in the folder "images/stories". Image Position: Position of the Image on the page. Select Left or Right from the drop-down list box. Description: The description for the section. Section and section descriptions for Articles may be shown on web pages, depending on the pages parameter settings. These descriptions are entered using the same editor that is used for Articles. The Section and section descriptions may not be edited from the front end. In order to save the changes click on the Save icon at the top-right hand corner, as shown in Diagram 31.
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Diagram 31
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Finally, the section is created as shown in Diagram 32.
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Diagram 32
Manage Sections:
Unpublish a section
To unpublish a section, select the section you want to Unpublish as shown in Diagram 33.
Diagram 33 After selecting the section, you can either click the Unpublish icon at the top right hand corner or click on the icon next to the selected section under the Published column as shown in Diagram 33. After being unpublished the section will look as shown in Diagram 34.
Diagram 34
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Publish a section
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To publish a section select the section you want to publish as shown in Diagram 35.
Diagram 35 After selecting the section you can either click the Publish icon at the top right hand corner or click on the icon next to the selected section as shown in Diagram 35. After being published, a section will look as shown in Diagram 36.
Diagram 36
Copy a section
To copy a section to another Section select the section that has to be copied as shown in the Diagram 37.
Diagram 37
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After clicking on the Copy icon at the top right hand corner you will be prompted to select a section. Select the section to be bounded to the section and then click on Save as shown in Diagram 38.
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Diagram 38 A new section will be added to the section Manager by the name Copy of <section name> as shown in Diagram 39.
Diagram 39
Edit a section
To Edit a section, select on the section that has to be edited and click on the Edit icon at the top right hand corner. The section: [Edit] window will open as shown in the Diagram 40. Edit the details and then click on Save.
Diagram 40
Delete a section
To delete a section select the section that has to be deleted and then click on the Delete icon at the top right hand corner as shown in Diagram 41. The selected section will be deleted.
Diagram 41
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Category Manager
What is a Category?
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A Category is a collection of Articles. It is in the middle in the content hierarchy Sections -> Categories -> Articles. For example, a website might have Sections called Animals and Plants. Within the Animals Section, the website might have Categories such as Birds and Mammals. Within the Birds Category, the website might have Articles such as Parrots and Sparrows. Categories are maintained using the Category Manager which can be reached in via the Joomla Administration panel (Back-end) by clicking on Content -> Category Manager.
Creating a Category
Log in to the administrative backend of any Joomla1.5 website, and you will see a screen as shown in Diagram 42.
Diagram 42 Click on the Category Manager icon in the Control Panel or click on Content -> Category Manager as shown in Diagram 43.
Diagram 43
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The Category Manager screen opens. This is where you can edit existing Categories and/or create new ones. Click on the New button at the top-right hand corner to create a new category as shown in Diagram 44.
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Diagram 44 Enter the following details for the section as shown in Diagram 45:
Title: The Title for the category. This may or may not display on the page, depending on the parameter values you choose. Alias: The internal name of the category. Normally, you can leave this blank and Joomla! will fill in a default value. The default value is the Title or Name in lower case and with dashes instead of spaces. You may enter the Alias manually. The Alias should consist of lowercase letters with no blank spaces. You can use a hyphen (-) to indicate blank spaces. The Alias will be used in the URL when SEF is activated. Published: Whether or not this category is published. Select Yes or No from the radio button group to set the Published state for this item. Section: It is the section for this Category. Select the Section from the drop-down list box. This is a required field. Category Order: The order this Category will display in the Category Manager. Use the drop-down list box to change the Order. You can select 'First' or 'Last' to make this the first or last Category. You can also select a Category from the list. In this case, the current Category will be listed just after the Category you select. The Order can also be changed in the Category Manager screen.
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Access Level: This determines who can access to this category. The options are: Public: Everyone has access Registered: Only registered users have access Special: Only users with author status or higher have access
Enter the desired level using the drop-down list box.
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Image: You can use Image for this Page. Image must be located in the folder "images/stories".
Image Position: You can give position of the Image on the page. Select Left or Right from the dropdown list box. Description: The description for the category. Section and Category descriptions for Articles may be shown on web pages, depending on the parameter settings. These descriptions are entered using the same editor that is used for Articles. Note that Section and Category descriptions may not be edited from the front end. In order to save the changes click on the Save icon at the top-right hand corner as shown in Diagram 45.
Diagram 45
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Finally, the category is created under section as shown in Diagram 46.
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Diagram 46
Manage Categories:
Unpublish a category
To unpublish a category, select the category you want to Unpublish as shown in Diagram 47.
Diagram 47 After selecting the category, you can either click the Unpublish icon at the top right hand corner or click on the icon next to the selected category under the Published column as shown in Diagram 48.
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After being unpublished the category will look as shown in Diagram 48.
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Diagram 48
Publish a category
To publish a category select the category you want to publish as shown in Diagram 49.
Diagram 49 After selecting the category you can either click the Publish icon at the top right hand corner or click on the icon next to the selected category as shown in Diagram 49. After being published a category will look as shown in Diagram 50.
Diagram 50
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Copy a Category
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To copy a Category to another Section select the Category that has to be copied as shown in the Diagram 51.
Diagram 51 After clicking on the Copy icon at the top right hand corner you will be prompted to select a section. Select the section to be bounded to the category and then click on Save as shown in Diagram 52 and Diagram 53.
Diagram 52
Diagram 53 A new category will be added to the Category Manager by the name Copy of <category name> as shown in Diagram 54.
Diagram 54
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Edit a Category
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To Edit a category, select on the category that has to be edited and click on the Edit icon at the top right hand corner. The Category: [Edit] window will open as shown in the Diagram 55. Edit the details and then click on Save.
Diagram 55
Delete a Category
To delete a Category select the Category that has to be deleted and then click on the Delete icon at the top right hand corner as shown in Diagram 56. The selected Category will be deleted.
Diagram 56
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Article Manager
Creating an Article:
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Log in to the Admin end of Joomla1.5. You will see a screen as shown in Diagram 57.
Diagram 57 Click on the Add new Article icon in the Control Panel or click on Content -> Article Manager in the top menu as shown in Diagram 58.
Diagram 58 Once Article manager opens, you will see several articles listed in as shown in Diagram 59. To Edit a specific article simply Click the articles link. Alternatively Select the Check box against a specific article and click the Edit icon in the tool bar. When in article Edit mode you can modify an article's title, content, and a host of other things.
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To create a new article Click on the New icon as shown in Diagram 59
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Diagram 59 You can now start creating a New Article as shown in Diagram 60. The following information can be filled in for the new article.
Title: The Title for the article. This may or may not display on the page, depending on the parameter values you choose. Published: Whether or not the article is published. Select Yes or No from the radio button group to set the Published state for this item. If this attribute is set to Yes the article will appear in the website if set to No the article will not appear in the website. Alias: The internal name of the article. Normally, you can leave this blank and Joomla will fill in a default value. The default value is the Title or Name in lower case and with dashes instead of spaces. You may enter the Alias manually. The Alias should consist of lowercase letters with no blank spaces. You can use a hyphen (-) to indicate blank spaces. The Alias will be used in the URL when SEF is activated. Front Page: Select Yes or No from the radio button group to indicate whether this Article will be shown on the Front Page (i.e. The index page) of the website or not. Section: Select the Section for the Article from the drop-down list box. Note that you can select Uncategorized if you do not want this Article associated with a Section or Category. This can be used for Articles that are displayed in an Article Layout as static content. Category: Select the Category for the Article from the drop-down list box. If you selected Uncategorized for the Section, the Category list box will automatically display Uncategorized.
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Once done you can save the article by clicking the Save icon in the top right hand corner.
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Diagram 60 To Preview the article Click the Preview icon in top right hand corner. The title of the article is displayed as a menu item as shown in Diagram 62. This article has been created under the Section and Category as shown in Diagram 61.
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Diagram 61
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Diagram 62 Click the menu item Book and the article will be displayed in the Browser as shown in Diagram 63.
Diagram 63
Manage Article:
Archive and Unarchive an Article
In order to Archive/Unarchive the article, Select the Article(s) Check box and the click on the Archive/Unarchive icon at the top-right hand corner as shown in Diagram 64 and Diagram 65.
Diagram 64
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Diagram 65
Publish/Unpublish an Article
In order to Publish/Unpublish the article, Select the Article(s) Check box in front click on the Publish / Unpublish icon at the top-right hand corner as shown in Diagram 66 and Diagram 67.
Diagram 66
Diagram 67
Delete an Article
In order to delete the article from Article Manager, Select the Article(s) Check box and click on the Trash icon at the top-right hand corner as shown in Diagram 68.
Diagram 68
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Copy an Article to a Respective Section/Category
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In order to copy an article to any other section/category, Select the Article(s) Check box and click on the Copy icon at the top-right hand corner as shown in Diagram 69.
Diagram 69 Select the particular section/category in which the article is to be copied from the given list as shown in Diagram 70.
Diagram 70 Click on the Save icon at the top right hand corner. The article would be successfully copied to that section/category as shown in Diagram 71.
Diagram 71
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The article is copied to a particular section and category as shown in Diagram 72.
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Diagram 72
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Articles: Article Layout

Description:
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Article Layout is used to create a menu link which shows a single article on the page. On clicking, the Article Layout Link, the control settings of the menu item opens as shown in Diagram 73.
Menu Item Details

Enter the required details in the Title, Alias, Display in, Parent item and Published for the menu item as shown in Diagram 1. The explanation of each of the menu item details is given in Lesson 2.
Parameters
On the right hand side, Parameters Basic has a single parameter, i.e. To select and article to be displayed. Click on the Select button to select the desired Article for this layout.
Diagram 73
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From the opened Box select the target article, from the Title column, to be bound to the menu item as shown in Diagram 74.
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Diagram 74 In the parameter section, the article is selected and its title is displayed as shown in Diagram 75. Click on the Save icon at the top-right hand corner.
Diagram 75
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The menu item would be successfully created and saved as shown in Diagram 76.
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Diagram 76 Click on Preview at the top-right hand corner to view the front page of your website. In the main menu, you would see the menu item created as shown in Diagram 77.
Diagram 77
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Click on this menu link.
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The link would display the article that was selected earlier in the configuration of menu item. The one which is highlighted in yellow is displayed on clicking the Single Article link as shown in Diagram 78.
Diagram 78
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Joomla Template Install And Uninstall

Installation:
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To install a new template in Joomla core, login to Joomla website as administrator, by simply entering the url_of_your_website/administrator in your Browser. Enter the appropriate username and password {which was provided while installing Joomla } and then click on Login as shown in Diagram 79.
Diagram 79 After logging in as Joomla Admin, a Control Panel page opens as shown in Diagram 80. The Control Panel provides access to different Joomla functions and features.
Diagram 80 In the top menu, locate Extensions. Click on Extensions, from the drop down menu that appears click on Install/Uninstall as shown in Diagram 81.
Diagram 81
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An Extension Manager page opens. In the Upload Package File section, click the Browse button as shown in Diagram 82.
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Diagram 82 After clicking on the Browse Button a file navigator window opens. Navigate to the appropriate folder where the Joomla template file is, select and open the Joomla Template zip file as shown in Diagram 83.
Diagram 83 The zip file name appears in the Package File text box. Click Upload File & Install in order to upload the Joomla template zip file and install it into the Joomla framework as shown in Diagram 84.
Diagram 84
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Once the template zip file has been uploaded you will see the successful installation message as shown in Diagram 85.
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Diagram 85 In the top menu, locate the link Extensions. Click on Extensions, from the drop down menu that appears click on Template Manager as shown in Diagram 86.
Diagram 86 A list of templates in Template Manager is displayed. The template which is active has a yellow color star icon under the Default column, in front of the template name as shown in Diagram 87. You can verify and preview the new template installed for Joomla core as shown in Diagram 87.
Diagram 87
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To make the template currently installed the default template, select the radio-button adjacent to new template name and then click the Default icon at the top-right hand corner as shown in Diagram 88.
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Diagram 88 The new template will get assigned as Default template as shown in Diagram 89.
Diagram 89 The template is now installed, activated and set as default as shown in Diagram 90. To view the installed template in Joomla core, enter the url_of_your_website in your Browser and hit GO. The Joomla website opens with the installed template as shown in Diagram 90.
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Diagram 90 The template is activated and installed for your Joomla CMS is finally completed.
Uninstallation:
To uninstall template from your Joomla CMS, make another Joomla template the default template as shown in Diagram 91. NOTE: The default template cannot be uninstalled.
Diagram 91 In the top menu, locate Extensions. Click on Extensions, from the drop down menu that appears click on Install/Uninstall as shown in Diagram 92.
Diagram 92
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An Extension Manager page opens. Click on Templates as shown in Diagram 93.
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Diagram 93 The Templates Extension Manager page opens as shown in Diagram 94. Select the check-box adjacent to new Joomla template and then click the Uninstall icon at the top-right hand corner as shown in Diagram 94. This will successfully uninstall the plugin.
Diagram 94 After the uninstallation is complete the Uninstall Template Success message is displayed as shown in Diagram 95.
Diagram 95
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Making entries in Windows HOSTS file ............................................................................................................. 8

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Prior Joomla Installation

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Creating a Joomla Virtual Domain under Apache

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Making entries in Windows HOSTS file

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Creating A Database Under MySQL

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Diagram 10 MySQL responds by immediately creating the joomla database.

Creating The Joomla User Under MySQL

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Joomla Global Configuration

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Username: The mysql username to access the database.

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To make a site in offline mode

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Finally, the section is created as shown in Diagram 32.

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Finally, the category is created under section as shown in Diagram 46.

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