Joomla SiteBuilder 2

Jen Kramer4Web, Inc.CMS Expo, Evanston ILMay 2010

Agenda

• Collect cards for Free Drawing!• Introduce Jen• Background: skills, planning• Joomla tips:

• Joomla hosting• Evaluating extensions• Useful extensions

First, about Jen

• Program Director, MSIT, Marlboro College Graduate Center

• Manager, Joomla! User Group New England

• Lynda.com author, 6 video titles• Author, “Joomla! Start to Finish”, Wrox

Press• Author, “Joomla! 24-Hour Trainer”, Wrox

Press• And I get 8 hours of sleep a night.

Now about you…

• Worked with Joomla before? (Kickstart is great!)

• Worked with any CMS before?• Know hand-coded HTML?• Know hand-coded CSS?• Anything special you want to

learn today?

Best ways to improve your Joomla skills

• Learn hand-coded HTML• Learn hand-coded CSS• Learn about website planning

and strategy• These skills applicable to any

CMS

First of all, what are you building?

• What problem is this website trying to solve?

• Why is a website the best way to solve that problem?

• Who does it serve?• Goals: organization, website,

user?

Joomla Hosting

• Where do you host now?• Do they do backups?• Really?• Are you sure?• Absolutely totally 100% positive,

no question?• Ever discussed it with the host?

Hosting Backups

• Your host likely backs things up for their own use

• These backups are frequently not guaranteed

• You need your own separate backups

How do hosting backups work?

• It Depends.• Is backup disk space included in

your account?• How often are backups made?• How long does it take to restore

from backup?

Other things to watch for

• Host should run PHP 5.2+ and MySQL 5.0.4+ for compatibility with Joomla 1.6

• Does the host have a background in working with Joomla?• Any GoDaddy horror stories in the

audience?

Don’t know hosting?

• Me either.• Host with Rochen,

www.rochenhost.com. Great Joomla tools.

• Demo

Evaluating extensions

• How do you choose your extensions?

Evaluating extensions

• Software version: avoid alpha/beta

• Date added/updated: hopefully updated recently, maybe added long ago

• Make sure it’s 1.6 native• Votes and comments: positive

Evaluating extensions

• No encryption• Do you have to change

permissions to use it?• Does it start with the right first

line of code?• <?php defined (‘_JEXEC’) or die; ?>

• index.html file in each folder?• Does it overwrite core files?

Which is better: free or paid?

• Free: great price!• Paid: more guaranteed to get

support and upgrade paths

Extensions!

• JCE• Akeeba Backup• Joomla Updater• CCK (K2, Sobi, Flexicontent,

Zoo, others)• RS Forms Pro

Free Drawing!!!

• Did you get your business card in the bucket?

• Win autographed copy of “Joomla! 24-Hour Trainer”

• More on sale in the 4Web booth

Questions?

Jen Kramer4Web, Inc.www.4webinc.comwww.joomla4web.comjen@4webinc.comTwitter: jen4web