Wow! eBook – Blog

Book Description

Joomla! is one of the most popular open-source Content Management Systems, actively developed and supported by a world-wide user community. Although it’s a fun and feature-rich tool, it can be challenging to get beyond the basics and build a site that meets your needs perfectly. Using this book you can create dynamic, interactive web- sites that perfectly fit your needs.

Completely updated for Joomla! 2.5, this practical guide teaches you how to create professional, appealing and extendable websites, whether you want to create a full-featured company or club website or build a personal blog site.

The Joomla! Beginner’s Guide helps beginners to get started quickly and to get beyond the basics to take full advantage of Joomla!’s powerful features. Completely updated from the first book, real-life examples and tutorials will spark your imagination and show you what kind of professional, contemporary, feature-rich websites any developer can achieve with Joomla!. This book thoroughly covers the concepts behind the software and creates a coherent picture of how the software works. This book is not about what Joomla! can do – it’s about what you can do using Joomla!.

What you will learn from this book

• Create a feature-rich site that’s easy to expand, customize, and maintain without having to learn web languages such as HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Download Now »

Book Description

The book will show people that they can build and manage a Joomla! 1.6 or 1.7 website without a technical background. Starting with an introduction to Joomla and how to install it, the book will detail how to add content, control users, make links and then add extra features to a Joomla! site. The book simplifies things to avoid difficult tasks that are unnecessary for beginners to understand. Written in plain English, the tutorial offers clear instructions, simple explanations, real-life examples, plenty of screenshots and humor. The book is aimed at busy people who want to understand Joomla in a fun, readable and straightforward way.

From the Back Cover
Master Joomla! hands-on, step-by-step, through easy, practical examples!

Joomla! now powers tens of millions of websites of every size and type. But many beginners find it confusing, and most Joomla! books are too complex to help. Joomla! Explained is the solution. Top Joomla! trainer Stephen Burge teaches everything beginners need to know–and nothing they don’t need to know!

Joomla! Explained requires absolutely no experience with Joomla! content management, website construction, programming, scripting, or even HTML. Stephen Burge has taught thousands of beginners–and thousands more who’ve experimented with Joomla! but haven’t mastered it yet. Nobody knows more about guiding Joomla! users up the learning curve–from confusion to results! Download Now »

Book Description

Building on the first edition of Joomla!: Visual QuickStart Guide, this task-based guide is the perfect tool for those just starting with Joomla, as well as, seasoned professionals who want to know how to use the latest version of the software to its fullest. It shows how to create, customize, and maintain a dynamic Joomla 1.6 website starting with fundamental concepts for using Joomla and then walks the user through every function of the system. It details the requirements for operating a secure and efficient Joomla website, including server configuration and website planning. The reader learns not only the functions of Joomla, such as adding content and structure, creating menus, using components, modules, plug-ins, and templates, but also how each function integrates as a whole. Each chapter ends with increasingly advanced topics, such as installation and configuration of the administrative back end, using 3rd-party extensions to create a portfolio, a blog, an e-commerce site, magazine, or news portal, as well as, how to use content construction kits, create custom templates, and integrate social media.

New features covered in this edition include: how to use the redesigned admin interface; new menu systems, including advanced functions for developers; how to use the category-article structure of content; the ability for users to create their own groups and assign access control levels; and control and customization of templates.

About the Author
Marni Derr is a writer, developer, designer, trainer, and consultant helping people build successful Joomla websites over the past 4 years. A technical writer for over 16 years, Marni currently writes and blogs about Joomla daily. Download Now »

Book Description

VirtueMart is the best shopping cart solution around for the Joomla! CMS. A VirtueMart template is a Joomla! template that is designed to create the overall look of a store. It puts in things such as a shopping cart bar, more shop-like graphics, more readable colors, and so on. A VirtueMart theme only impacts the area of the site actually controlled by the VirtueMart component. Themes work inside the overall framework. Applying custom templates and themes to give a unique look and feel to your VirtueMart web store will really attract customers! This book will guide you to build VirtueMart custom themes and templates.

Joomla! VirtueMart 1.1 Theme and Template Design explains how the VirtueMart theme and template system works and points out ways to configure the default theme. It then goes on to look at each of the major templates with an emphasis on how to customize them. It then discusses individual page groups such as product list, product details, shopping cart, checkout, and invoice e-mails in the order they appear to your customer. After-sale services like invoice e-mail, account management, and order list are also discussed.

The book also discusses the different components of a VirtueMart theme and will teach you how to build a theme from scratch. You will also learn advanced features like child products, advanced attributes, custom attributes, and product types. Topics like integration with Joomla! plugins and AJAX functions are also included. An Appendix provides a comprehensive template reference of the use and available fields of every template. Download Now »

Book Description

How to develop powerful mobile Web sites using popular content management systems (CMS)

Mobile is the hottest thing going—and developing content for mobile devices and browsers is even hotter than that.  This book is your guide to it all—how to design, build, and deploy sites, blogs and services that will work brilliantly for mobile users. You’ll learn about the state-of-the-art of mobile web development, the tools available to use, and the best practices for creating compelling mobile user interfaces. Then, using the most popular content management systems, WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal, you’ll learn how to building world-class mobile web sites from existing platforms and content..  The book walks you through each platform, including how to use third-party plug-ins and themes, explains the strategies for writing your own logic, how to switch between mobile and desktop, and much more.

• Provides a technical review of the mobile landscape and acquaints you with  a range of mobile devices and networks
• Covers topics common to all platforms, including site topologies, switching between mobile and desktop, common user interface patterns, and more
• Walks you through each content management platform—WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal—first focusing on standard plug-ins and themes and then exploring advanced techniques for writing your own themes or logic
• Explains the best practices for testing, deploying, and integrating a mobile web site
• Also explores analytics, m-commerce, and SEO techniques for mobile Download Now »

Book Description

Learn to secure Web sites built on open source CMSs

Web sites built on Joomla!, WordPress, Drupal, or Plone face some unique security threats. If you’re responsible for one of them, this comprehensive security guide, the first of its kind, offers detailed guidance to help you prevent attacks, develop secure CMS-site operations, and restore your site if an attack does occur. You’ll learn a strong, foundational approach to CMS operations and security from an expert in the field.

• More and more Web sites are being built on open source CMSs, making them a popular target, thus making you vulnerable to new forms of attack
• This is the first comprehensive guide focused on securing the most common CMS platforms: Joomla!, WordPress, Drupal, and Plone
• Provides the tools for integrating the Web site into business operations, building a security protocol, and developing a disaster recovery plan
• Covers hosting, installation security issues, hardening servers against attack, establishing a contingency plan, patching processes, log review, hack recovery, wireless considerations, and infosec policy

CMS Security Handbook is an essential reference for anyone responsible for a Web site built on an open source CMS. Download Now »