Using Joomla!, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1. Overview

There are so many great ideas and purposes for websites. Yet how do you make yours a reality without spending a ton of money? Where do you start? What resources are available to support you? Do you have to know a bunch of code that makes you feel like a deer in the headlights in order to get the result you want?

No, you don’t need a lot of money. Just some time. In Using Joomla, we’ll show you where to start and take you step-by-step along the way. You’ll be given resources on where to look for further help if you need it. You won’t need to know any code, though a little HTML and CSS will make your journey a bit easier.

All of this is accomplished by using Joomla for your next website.

Joomla is a content management system (CMS) which allows users to add, change, and manage website content with ease. Using Joomla is going to give you the directions to build a Joomla website step-by-step: from planning (Chapter 2), installation (Appendix A), setting up the structure (Chapter 4), and creating content (Chapter 5), to more complex operations such as extending Joomla with third-party extensions (chapters 7 to 11), migration (Appendix B), multiple languages (Chapter 7), security (Chapter 14), and more. All of this will use Joomla 3.x, the latest and most exciting release to date!

A Brief History of Joomla

In 2000, the Australia-based company Miro developed a proprietary CMS called Mambo and, a year later, released it for free to the public under the GNU General Public License ...