with Created Expression

Joomla! is a piece of software. It is also a project, a community and a whole new approach to the web.

The software...

The core of Joomla! is a piece of software that is installed on your web server. It can either be installed manually (FTP'ed to your web server, unpacked and installed) or it can be installed via a web host tool like "Fantastico".

Once this software is installed, it must be configured to your site. This is easier than it seems and basically involves typing in your site's name and time zone and any preferences you have for your site (like wanting people to be able to register or not, displaying article "author" names,...)

Once the base installation is configured, the next thing to do is sort of up to you.

• You will, at some point, want to set up the sections and categories of your site.



• You will, at some point, want to begin adding content.



• You will likely want to add on some additional functionality like a commenting system, or a store, or...
  
  Doing this is as simple as identifying and locating the functionality you want and then downloading this extension to your home computer. Identifying whether what you have downloaded is a component, module, mambot or some combination of these is important as the next step involves clicking on "installers:module" or "installers:component" or "installers:mambot" from within Joomla!, browsing for the zipped/packed file(s) that you have downloaded, and clicking on "install". Then you will configure whatever it is that you have just installed. Most extensions (the good ones at least) have documentation available for both the installation and configuration part of their functionality (and many have forums) so help is out there.



• You will want to set up your menus.



• You will want to install a different site template or configure one that is already installed.
  
  Installing a template is like installing anything else. You download a zipped/packed template from wherever you have found one you like. In Joomla!, you go to "installers:template", browse for the zipped/packed template that you have downloaded and hit "install". Then from the "site:template" menu you chose which template (from the list of your installed templates) you wish to use as your default template.
  
  Customizing a template could mean a bunch of different things. It could mean replacing a supplied logo image with one of your own or editing the HTML or CSS files involved or adding in your own PHP or Javascript code. It's basically as little or as much as you like.



• You will want to begin setting which modules are active where and when.

And that's it. It really is plug and play (and plug some more and play some more). And, yes, beyond the Joomla! core, some plug and play things don't play as nicely as they ought. I guess that's where we come in :o)


A project, a community, a new approach to the web

The continued thriving of this work -- the core, the extensions, the documentation, the funding -- is a project in its own right. There are "centrals" for downloads and extension homes as well as for other language versions of "stuff". There is a huge community of people responsible for developing, documenting, improving and using this work. It really is big. Given both the size of the community and the fact that much of the software is freeware, feedback in terms of comments and donations is what will keep moving excellence forward.

If you haven't yet checked out how and why Joomla! "is", I highly recommend so doing. Perhaps the best quick introduction can be found in the article found at http://www.opensourcematters.org/content/view/79/40/.