Beginning Joomla!® Web Site Development

Chapter 4. Managing Content

I know what you're probably thinking, "Wait. Doesn't Joomla! do that for me? Why do I need to learn about this?" That's what I thought when I first started using content management systems, and in a way it's true. The temptation is to just jump right in and start writing articles and static pages because Joomla! makes it so easy. If you take the shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later route, you will learn quickly that you should have taken some time to learn how to manage content with Joomla! or any content management system (CMS) for that matter, because often you're left with a disorganized mess of a website.

Every CMS has its own unique way of organizing and managing content. Some systems use tags, which are a set of keywords, to categorize content. Others use the concept of folders, or nested categories. Others use a combination of techniques for organizing content. Joomla! has a clearly defined, somewhat rigid hierarchy for managing content, and it is important to understand this hierarchy before you begin adding content to your site.

In this chapter, you learn about Joomla!'s content structure and how content is organized into sections, categories, articles, and uncategorized articles. You also learn about planning your content, why content planning is important, and how your content plan might fit into Joomla!'s architecture. Finally, you see an example of content management in the sample site for this book.

Understanding Joomla!'s Content Structure ...