Clean Out the Cobwebs: Rethinking Your Web Presence with Joomla CMS Mark A. Smith – LiSUG Conference October SUNY IT – Utica NY

Apologies In Advance.

What I’ll Try & Cover What is a Content Management System? Why a CMS Might Be an Option for Your Library What is Needed to Run Joomla? A “Look-see” At Joomla Driven Library Sites Basic Concepts that Form the System Tour of Administrative Module Time Permitting: Demos of Site & Content Creation

A Quick Peek Joomla Out of The Box Out of The Box

Joomla: Not Your Father’s Website Content Management System (CMS) Both Website & Repository Database Driven Modular – Extensible – Plug & Play Template Design Structure Administrative Backend Managed

Show Me What You Mean A Couple More Mystery Site Mystery Site - Made With Joomla Scholes Library Scholes Library – A very modest implementation built with sweat equity and much trial and error

Why Is Joomla An Option For You? Open Source and Free (Active User Community) Easy to Keep Your Content Fresh Archives All of Your Content (text, images, links, etc) No Programming or Coding Required.. No HTML, CSS, XML, CFM, etc. Easy WYSIWYG & Distributable Editing

More Good’ness Change Design Elements & Templates Instantly Embedded Relational, Hierarchical Linking Structure for Content Administrative Backend Organizes & Monitors Content (including Statistics) Portable (exportable database)

… And More Templates Do All The Work (but html/css editable from within the admin module) Multiple Media Format Friendly Highly Customizable at Every Level (from item to site-wide) User Accounting (if you want to go there).. And more

And The Fun Part Extensible Web Apps Plug-ins for 2.0’ness Polls, Blogs, RSS feeds, Search, Contacts, Breadcrumbs, Popularity, Page Delivery, etc. Out of the Box Other Functionality - Calendars, wikis, image galleries, media players, editors, forums, etc. Widely developed & easily added

In A Nutshell The System Provides an End-User & Content Creator Environment that is: Familiar, Flexible & Customizable

Look What You Could Do

Sounds Good! What Do I Need? A minimally cooperative IT department OR your own server MYSQL and PHP Joomla Software: versions for Win Server and Unix Time to Experiment (learning curve to initially customize the structure) A Plan to Rethink Your Content & Nav. Structure

Got $6.95 A message from our sponsor (kidding): The Evil Outsourcing Option: Could Try Bluehost or Another Hosting Service & You Are Up & Running Without Any IT Guys Proof of Concept Approach

OK. How Does the Thing Work? The Basics 1. Organizing the Information 2. Layout: Template / Module Positions 3. Functionality: Modules-Components-Extensions 4. Navigation - Menus

1. Organization Hierarchical Organization Sections Categories.. may have multiple categories under a section Articles.. may have multiple articles under a category Departments Borr. Policies Getting Lib. Card Circulation Section Staff Category Article Reference Staff Ask A Libn

2. Layouts Ruled By Templates Your “Look” is governed by Templates. Templates contain a map of “module positions” that identify where you might wish to position content Templates can be built, borrowed, purchased, stolen, etc. And they are editable (HTML,CSS) Scholes Module Map

3. Functionality Modules-Components-Extensions … Oh My! banners, contacts, polls, blogs, RSS feeds, breadcrumbs, popularity, page delivery, calendars, wikis, image galleries, newsflash, ratings, media players, editors, forums, stats, related items, etc. Joomla comes with a great deal of functionality right out of the box. Other extensions are widely available (many free)widely available A Limited Set For Our Library BluehostBluehost – Out of the Box

4. Navigation All Done with “Menus” A robust function within Admin Menus utilize your Sections, Categories, & Articles structure that automates menus that are logical. (ie. a menu of all your categories) The most powerful & frustrating concept/feature in Joomla. I initially found it difficult to wrap my head around this.

Under the Hood A Look at Scholes Joomla Admin.Scholes Joomla Admin Sections / Categories / Articles Menus Front Page Manager Media Manager.. etc

Joomla May Not Be For You.. If you lack IT Support to Install and Maintian Server. (You won’t need server access or much help from them.) If your site design must exactly/closely match a campus design (but could build your own template) If you are easily frustrated by a learning curve. (However, much simpler than Aleph. And once the layout is done..its a snap to maintain)..

What Are Other Libraries Doing With Joomla? Joomla in Libraries CommunityCommunity / ShowcaseShowcase

Do We Have Time? Demos/Tutorials Overview Modules Menus

Materials & Resources Presentation Materials, Links & Joomla Resources available at Demo Account: (login: lisug/sunyla) - will self-destruct 11/1/08 Questions?

Playtime What do you want to see? Change Templates (same content) Add an RSS Feed Download and add a template/module Create a Poll Build a Section/Category