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270 Part IV: Joomla in the Real World To download an extension from the Joomla extensions site, follow these steps: 1. On the extension’s listing page, click the Download button. You go to a page on the extension developer’s site that lists the files available for download for this extension. Figure 12-4 shows an example Sudoku page. Figure 12-4: Extension files on a developer’s Web site. 2. Click the link for the package you want to download. You go to the download page. 3. Click the download link or button in this page. Your browser opens a download dialog box. 4. Save the compressed extension file to your hard drive. If you’re downloading a module file, the filename starts with mod_. If you’re using Internet Explorer, a yellow security bar may appear at the top of the browser window, blocking the download for security reasons. Right- click the security bar, and choose Download File from the shortcut menu. Now that you have the extension file, you’re ready to expand and install it. In the following sections, we show you how to install the three types of extensions: modules, components, and plug-ins. We start with two types of modules: game and utility. 271 Chapter 12: Extending Joomla Installing a Game Module To install a game module in Joomla, follow these steps: 1. Choose Extensions➪Install/Uninstall in any back-end page. Extension Manager opens. 2. In the Upload Package File section, click the Browse button to browse to and select the module file on your hard drive. The filename appears in the Package File text box (see Figure 12-5). Figure 12-5: Selecting a downloaded extension. 3. Click the Upload File & Install button. Joomla uploads and installs the file. When it finishes, it displays a message telling you that installation was successful. 4. Choose Extensions➪Module Manager to open Module Manager. 5. Click the red X in the module’s Enabled column, changing it to a green check mark. 6. Click the module’s name. The Edit Module page opens. 7. In the Module Parameters pane, make a choice from the Grid Size drop-down menu. 272 Part IV: Joomla in the Real World In this case, grid size refers to the size of the Sudoku board. Figure 12-6 shows an example selection for a Sudoku module. Figure 12-6: Choosing a grid size. 8. Click the Apply button. 9. To see the module at work, click the Preview link in any back-end page to view your site. Figure 12-7 shows a Sudoku module at work. Users play by clicking a square and typing a number; they start a new game by clicking the New button. Figure 12-7: A Sudoku module on a Joomla page. The installation process for extensions is the same as the one for templates, which we discuss in Chapter 9. Simply choose Extensions➪Install/Uninstall in any back-end page to install templates, modules, components, and plug-ins. Installing a Utility Module Search engines like Google are using Ajax-enabled (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) search boxes to help users. As the user enters a search term, Google makes the browser contact Google behind the scenes and display possible clickable matches, as you see in Figure 12-8, saving the user the trouble of typing the whole search term. 273 Chapter 12: Extending Joomla Figure 12-8: The Google Ajax- enabled search box. A cool Ajax-enabled search box, PixSearch, is available as a module for Joomla sites. In this section, we show you how to install it. To get PixSearch, go to the Joomla extensions site at http://extensions. joomla.org; type PixSearch in the Search box; and click the Search button. Download the PixSearch 1.5 native module — currently named mod_pix search_J_1.5_v.0.4.0.zip — and store that file on your hard disk. Then follow these steps to install the module: 1. Choose Extensions➪Install/Uninstall. The Joomla Extension Manager page opens. 2. Click the Browse button to find and select the mod_ pixsearch_J_1.5_v.0.4.0.zip file on your hard disk. The mod_pixsearch_J_1.5_v.0.4.0.zip filename appears in the text box (see Figure 12-9). 3. Click the Upload File & Install button. The success page you see in Figure 12-10 appears. 4. Choose Extensions➪Module Manager to open Module Manager. 5. Click the red cross in the PixSearch module’s Enabled column, turning it to a green check mark, as shown (in black and white) in Figure 12-11. That’s it. No further customization is required. 274 Part IV: Joomla in the Real World Figure 12-9: The Joomla install/unin- stall page. Figure 12-10: The module installation success page. Now you’ve installed the PixSearch module. You can see it at work in Figure 12-12, contacting the Joomla installation to find matches for the partial search term joo and displaying matching articles — a nice result for a useful module. 275 Chapter 12: Extending Joomla Figure 12-11: Enabling the module. Figure 12-12: The PixSearch module at work. As you can see, installing modules isn’t difficult, and the results can be well worth the time you spend to install them. In the next section, we discuss installing components. 276 Part IV: Joomla in the Real World Installing a Component Although modules fit into existing pages, Joomla components of the kind that you can download at the Joomla extensions site can display whole pages. A good example is the Xmap component, which displays a site map on its own page. Site maps are very useful, especially for search engine spiders, so in this section, we show you how to get one. Finding and installing a component To find and install a component, follow these steps: 1. Navigate to the Joomla extensions site (http://extensions. joomla.org). 2. Use any of the methods in “Searching for Joomla Extensions,” earlier in this chapter, to locate the component you want to use. For this exercise, type Xmap in the search text box and then click the Search button. 3. Download the component to your hard disk. For this exercise, download the Xmap component, currently named com_xmap-1.2.zip. (Component filenames start with com_.) 4. Choose Extensions➪Install/Uninstall. Extension Manager opens. 5. In the Upload Package File section, click the Browse button to find and select the component file on your hard disk. 6. Click the Upload File & Install button. Joomla installs the component and adds it to the Components menu. Configuring a component To configure a new component, follow these steps: 1. Choose Components➪name, where name is the component, to open a configuration page (see Figure 12-13). For this exercise, choose Components➪Xmap. 2. Change any settings you want. For this exercise, the Xmap component needs no configuration. 277 Chapter 12: Extending Joomla Figure 12-13: A com- ponent’s configura- tion page. Adding a menu item for the component To access a component, you simply link a menu item to it. To do that, follow these steps: 1. Choose Menus➪Menu Manager in any back-end page to open Menu Manager. 2. In the row of the menu you want to use, click the icon in the Menu Item(s) column. For this exercise, select Main Menu. Menu Item Manager opens. 3. Click the New button. The New Menu Item page opens, displaying a node tree. You should find the component listed in the tree — for this exercise, Xmap (see Figure 12-14). 4. Click the component’s name. The Edit Menu Item page opens. 5. Enter a title for the new menu item in the Title text box. For this exercise, type Site Map. 278 Part IV: Joomla in the Real World 6. Click the Save or Apply button. 7. Click the Preview link to view your site. You see the new menu item. 8. Click the component’s menu item to open the component. For this exercise, click the Site Map item in the Main menu. Joomla displays the component — for this exercise, a dynamically generated site map — on your site (see Figure 12-15). Figure 12-14: The New Menu Item page. Figure 12-15: A new component on the front page. 279 Chapter 12: Extending Joomla Installing a Plug-In As you may expect, installing plug-ins works just the same way as installing modules and components. Follow these steps: 1. Find and download the plug-in file from the Joomla extensions site, using any of the techniques we provide earlier in this chapter. 2. Choose Extensions➪Install/Uninstall in any back-end page to open Extensions Manager. 3. In the Upload Package File section, click the Browse button to browse to and select the plug-in file on your hard disk. 4. Click the Upload File & Install button. Joomla installs the plug-in. The procedures for configuring the plug-in after installation and putting it to work depend on the plug-in you’ve installed; see the plug-in’s documentation for details. (If you installed a new editor, for example, you need to install it via Joomla’s Global Configuration page instead of Extensions Manager.) As you can see, Joomla extensions can give you a great deal of utility, and thousands of them are available for free. We urge you to support extension developers by donating to them if you find their extensions useful. Doing that is a sure way to ensure a steady flow of new extensions! [...]... great for getting you into the Joomla community You can also check a search engine for any specific Joomla topic you’re interested in Want help finding an online host that supports Joomla, for example? At this writing, a Google search for Joomla hosting returns a mere 8.2 million results Joomla Help Site http://help .joomla. org/ The official Joomla help site is a searchable site providing help on most Joomla. .. little hard to navigate  292 Part V: The Part of Tens Joomla Official Documentation Wiki http://docs .joomla. org This Wikipedia site, which is still a work in progress, is the official Joomla documentation site It’s searchable and a great resource If you’re a beginner, check the Absolute Beginners Guide to Joomla at http://docs .joomla org/Beginners Joomla Forums http://forum .joomla. org/ Need an answer... Nonetheless, the forums are the place to ask tough-to-answer questions Joomla Community Portal http://community .joomla. org The Joomla Community Portal gives Joomla people — especially developers — a place to congregate Here, you can find lists of Joomla events, find out how to contribute to Joomla, and more You can read the Joomla Community Magazine on this site and check JoomlaConnect, which collects Joomla. .. members of the Joomla team that tell you where Joomla is headed Chapter 14: Ten Ways to Get Help on Joomla Joomla User Groups http://community .joomla. org /joomla- user-groups.html Dozens of Joomla user groups operate worldwide To find a group near you, check this site, which provides links to user groups everywhere Joomla Translation Teams http://community .joomla. org/translation-teams-list.html Joomla is... templates, and modules Joomla Quick Start Videos http://help .joomla. org/ghop/feb2008/task167/index.html This site provides a video version of the quick-start guide It’s fun to watch many Joomla tasks performed before your eyes, with helpful narration 293 294 Part V: The Part of Tens Joomla Installation Manuals http://help .joomla. org/content/category/48/268/302/ http://downloads.joomlacode.org/docmanfileversion/1/7/4/17471/1.5_Installation_... www.siteground.com /joomla- hosting /joomla- templates.htm SiteGround (see Figure 15-1) offers many free Joomla templates and claims to be the largest Joomla templates site around The site offers new releases every week, so check back often Joomla- Templates.com www .joomla- templates.com/ This site is for- pay for the most part (it offers a few free templates), but the templates it has are affordable — usually, about $50 for nonexclusive... run about $850 Joomla- Templates.com (see Figure 15-2) also offers customization services and a free clip-art gallery  296 Part V: The Part of Tens Figure 15-1: SiteGround Figure 15-2: JoomlaTemplates com Chapter 15: Ten Top Joomla Template Sites Joomlashack www.joomlashack.com/ Joomlashack is a well-known purveyor of third-party Joomla extensions, and it usually has good stuff, both for- pay and free... make Joomlashack templates special: ✓ They’re XHTML compliant and validate as valid XHTML (which isn’t true of most Joomla templates) ✓ They use a lot of XSS instead of HTML tables to arrange elements You can see some of the site’s free templates in Figure 15-3 Figure 15-3: Some free Joomla templates from the Joomlashack Web site 297 298 Part V: The Part of Tens Joomla2 4.com www .joomla2 4.com Joomla2 4.com... parameters from the back end The site is also known for its Adobe Flash–friendly Joomla templates JoomlaTP.com http://joomlatp.com /joomla- 1.5-templates/ JoomlaTP.com is another template aggregator site that releases free and for- pay templates Figure 15-7 shows its free Joomla 1.5 templates page The site says that it also offers 3,000 premium (that is, for- pay) templates If you’ve been having a hard time... Chapter 15: Ten Top Joomla Template Sites Figure 15-4: Overview of templates on the Joomla2 4 com site Figure 15-5: A template demo 299 300 Part V: The Part of Tens Figure 15-6: The Joomla Shine Web site Figure 15-7: The free JoomlaTP com site Chapter 15: Ten Top Joomla Template Sites Template Monster www.templatemonster.com /joomla- templates.php Template Monster sells templates for all kinds of software . extensions for Joomla and where to get them. We also provide ten ways to get help on Joomla — from the official Joomla help site to user groups — and introduce ten great sources of Joomla templates contacting the Joomla installation to find matches for the partial search term joo and displaying matching articles — a nice result for a useful module. 275 Chapter 12: Extending Joomla Figure. site (http://extensions. joomla. org). 2. Use any of the methods in “Searching for Joomla Extensions,” earlier in this chapter, to locate the component you want to use. For this exercise, type