Another computing question re website

[VicS]

I was talked into being "Website Editor" for the OA a while back. Just to take responsibility for content with a Webmaster to actually operate the website. Things have developed, largely because the volunteer Webmaster was apparently only volunteering if he was paid to do the job. Anyway another volunteer has come forward, no payment this time but it seems that I will be doing a bit more than originally envisaged. I will be be actively editing some of the website content when necessary.

Question: Does anyone have any experience of operating a website based on one of the free Joomla templates?

It looks a formidable learning curve to me but is it really as easy as Joomla suggest.
Just starting to look at the quick-start tutorial. OK It'll take me right through setting up a website but I dont see a shortcut to learning just what I need to.

I should say the site has been set up but is a bit of a mess in places.

 

[johnphilip]

Sorry, can't help but I am curious to know who the "OA " are?

 

[Blue5]

Hi Vic, experienced with web sites but not the templates you quote, I use Dreanweaver as editing software and FTP Pro to upload to the web. If you are new to all this I would keep a duplicate back up web site off line going for a while just in case you have a few teething problems and you can then revert to the original site.

 

[misterg]

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry, can't help but I am curious to know who the "OA " are?

[/ QUOTE ]

It's the Old Alchemists, of course !

Surprised you had to ask /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Andy

 

[nimbusgb]

Joomla is indeed a steep learning curve. A lot depends on how the system is set up in the first place. Good luck!

 

[Richard10002]

[ QUOTE ]
It looks a formidable learning curve to me but is it really as easy as Joomla suggest.
Just starting to look at the quick-start tutorial. OK It'll take me right through setting up a website but I dont see a shortcut to learning just what I need to

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Vic,

Having recently started on the first steps to a career as a web designer/developer, I dont see how you can make changes to a website without knowing how it was created - unless you are an expert and can pick up what is going on in a flash.

I'm using Microsoft Visual Web Developer which everyone, and every book, says makes web site development a piece of cake - it doesnt!!! or not until you know how.

I would say you might be taking on more than you can chew, (and more than you agreed to!) - a ",", or a "'" in the wrong place, and the whole thing can be cocked up.

Good Luck

Richard

 

[whipper_snapper]

There are a couple of Joomla experts on the forum - and I am not one of them!

However, I know enough to know that Joomla does have a steep learning curve. The point is that it makes the content management easy for non-experts, but the underlying system needs to be managed by someone who knows Joomla and the databases.

It is TOTALLY different from HTML authoring things like dreamweaver.

 

[cnh]

Notepad is good enough for me ...

 

[Wunja]

I agree that notepad (or a good editor) is fine for writing HTML, but as Mr Whipper Snapper points out, Joomola is a content management system and does not need HTML knowledge, I might have been able to help more if it did!
I had a quick google and found there is a demo area that is provided by Joomola to play in, so that would be a good starting point without risking your real site with trial and error activities!
Demo Site

 

[GruffT]

IMHO rule #1 in anything computer "programming" related...
Backup, backup, backup. (oh - and know how to restore). In a CMS you're probably looking mainly at the database, and config files if you're changing them (although I haven't got first hand experience of Joomla). If you haven't been told how, or aren't sure it's working, check. Then you can experiment happy in the knowledge that if it all goes wrong you can roll back.

If it's a commercial system then rule #2 comes into play:
Test, test, test (and no - not on the live system).

However - if it's not critical that the site never goes down then you can get away without that. You should be able to roll back in a few mins or so from the backup. You did take the backup didn't you? /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

NB. If you're hosting on a commercial provider do not rely on their "we're 100% backed up" claims - often they keep running backups to guard against hardware failure - not against "programmers" accidentally deleting stuff. Not that I'd do that of course...[cough]... Of course they're technically correct in their claims but if this is the case - make sure you have the data stored locally before you play.

Enjoy!

 

[VicS]

Thanks for the comments. Richard may be right in saying that I've bitten off more than I can chew ... more than I really want to chew at any rate. At least I wont be needing to get involved with any of the HTML stuff but I think the new Webmaster might be thinking about modifying parts of the template.

As suggested I'm going to look at the Demo site. Even that did not get off to a good start. I tried to register to use it but the verification code failed to materialise by email. Couldn't go through the procedure again because its now got my email address registered. Had to find a reserve address that had not died from malnutrition and think of another user name!
Trouble is its not so much a Demo and certainly not a tutorial more of a play with it and find out how it works kind of thing.

I'd still be interested in hear from anyone who has used a Joomla template.

 

[webcraft]

The easiest way to learn a CMS is to use it for one task at a time. Get a good manual, use Google intelligently and just do one job at a tiome and you will soon stsart to pick it up.

When you want to do a certain job just find out how to do that particular job - trying to grasp the whole thing, or even an overall picture, will do your head in and isn't necessary.


- W

 

[Neddie_Seagoon]

I have several Joomla based websites. Joomla is, like most Content Management Systems, not easy to set up. The point is that once set up, almost anyone can create and maintain web pages without needing to understand the technology, it makes it as easy as creating a simple document in a word processor.

If this volunteer sets up the website in Joomla, then all you will have to worry about is writing / updating pages in a simple wysiwyg editor, and deciding which sections and categories of the website those pages should belong to. The business of sections and categories is where most people have initial difficulty, because using Joomla requires some organisational forethought. E.g. if you had a Sports website, you might have a section for Cricket, containing Categories for Bowling, Batting etc. Only once you have defined your categories (within sections) can you publish an article - so you are expected to define the structure of your information before creating the content - this conflicts with most peoples impatient desire for instant gratification, so many people get frustrated with systems like Joomla when they have a first experimental "play", but once you're up and running it's a doddle.