Joomla! Demo Camp Notes

Just thought I would cross-post them. They are at Tazzu as well.

For those who don’t remember, I was at the Vancouver Joomla! Demo Camp last month, and posted directly from there.

My notes are in point form. Click below to read them.

My Joomla! Demo Camp notes (unedited):
Joomla! Demo Camp

• 1. Joomla 1.5 is the current version, and it has been built form the ground up
• 2. Joomla design strategy
  • a. Start with information design
  • b. Then move to a data wireframe
  • c. Move to template design from there
• 3. Information design
  • a. Make a list of what you need
  • b. Organize them into groups
    • i. In Joomla, information is organized in 3 levels
      • 1. Section
      • 2. Category
      • 3. Article
  • c. Make a document
    • i. Header levels, etc.
    • ii. Basic css document creation
    • iii. Content can be created/edited collaboratively
      1. The open source philosophy is pervasive
  • d. Create the sections & categories
  • e. Think of the content development hierarchically
    • i. Integration with MindManager?
• 4. User levels:
  • a. Publishers and editors would be appropriate for visitors who contribute
• 5. Articles in Joomla! 1.5 can be orphans. They don’t need to belong to a section or category.
• 6. Menu Items
  • a. Menu system is intelligent and set out as a tree system
• 7. Site àMedia Manager is where the images are stored
  • a. Adding images is pretty straightforward
    • i. Media manager is used to manage the directories of media
  • b. Can also add them directly in the wysiwyg editor
• 8. Joomla is not a good blog manager; use wp for blogging. But it does have a “blog layout” which is a way to create content
  • a. Allows you to have content in a column… blog-style
• 9. Much of the use and technique in Joomla site development is similar or same to that of wordpress.
  • a. Site is SEO, just like WP, for example
• 10. RSS
• 11. Different layout options, eg list layout
• 12. Creates printer-friendly pages
• 13. Cross-linking
  • a. How to incorporate flickr, youtube, facebook, etc.
  • b. Integration…
• 14. Flickr
  • a. Look at details of flickr subscription. Link to facebook, blog, etc. Use flickr as a storage system, w/ different permission settings.
  • b. Copy and paste the flickr code into the article body, and you have integration.
  • c. Slideshows; one image, multiple sites; licensing –> code is law
• 15. YouTube
  • a. Vlogging
  • b. Security issue:
    • i. Joomla.org –> extensions –> youtube –> easytube
    • ii. Extension gets around the youtube security issue
  • c. There is a plugin already available for YouTube, which makes it preferable to revver, for example, on Joomla!
  • d. Seamless integration
  • e. Plugins have usage doc. So the youtube plugin tells you how to use it ( [youtube:url of youtube page with video] )
• 16. Google Calendar
  • a. Use it as an event manager
    • i. Manage calendars –> embed calendar (code is there)
  • b. Note: outlook remote ics to avoid the redundancy
• 17. Event Brite
  • a. Event registration
  • b. That’s what we used for this event
  • c. Can be hooked into paypal to sell tickets
• 18. Plugins…
  • a. There is an “extension manager”
  • b. Analogous to facebook apps, if FBA were downloadable
  • c. Download, install, manage, etc, all through the extensions menu
  • d. Bear in mind that wheels are being invented everywhere (flickr, youtube, google, linkedin, etc) and they can be integrated rather than trying to rebuild each one.
  • e. If you want to embed something with javascript or object tags, turn off the wysiwyg to get around it, or use a plugin like the youtube extension. So to embed the eventbrite object, turn off the wysiwyg so it doesn’t chop out the scripting, etc.
    • i. Change editor to no editor…
• 19. Templates
  • a. Compass Design – Joomla Tutorials
  • b. Template elements
    • i. Joomla! has its own syntax… jdoc modules

Go through Jeannette’s tutorials on this, and the others…