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10 Steps to Mastering Joomla - What actually is Joomla?

Written by Barrie North
 Wednesday, 19 August 2009 13:24

Article Index
10 Steps to Mastering Joomla
Why do you need a website, and why use Joomla
What actually is Joomla?
How do I install Joomla?
How should I set up my site?
Picking a Template
Organizing Content
Creating Navigation
How can I add features to my site?
How can I make Joomla better for SEO?
How do I keep my site updated, and what lies ahead for Joomla 1.6
All Pages
Page 3 of 11

Joomla is an open source content management system.

So what does that mean?

  • Open Source means that anyone can contribute to the code, improve it, or distribute it. This means the platform is a living project being created and improved by a community of developers all over the world.
  • A content management system uses a database to place content into designated places on the web page. Its dynamic and in real time.

Let's look at a forum as an example

Example of a database website

Joomla works the same way, the template creates "buckets" or "placeholders" for content, and then the CMS pours content into them as needed.

Example of a database website

Here, the articles are being dynamically generated as well as the bottom lists of links.

Joomla is

  • Easy
  • Powerful
  • Cheap (not free!)

Barrie North's 80/20 rule

  • 80% of what you want to do will take 20% of the effort
  • You don’t really know what your site visitors want

Resources

 



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