Upgraders
If you are an experienced Joomla! 1.5 user, this Joomla! site will seem very familiar. There are new templates and improved user interfaces, but most functionality is the same. The biggest changes are improved access control (ACL) and nested categories. This release of Joomla! has strong continuity with Joomla! 1.6 while adding enhancements.
Using Joomla!
With Joomla! You can create anything from a simple personal website to a complex ecommerce or social site with millions of visitors.
This section of the sample data provides you with a brief introduction to Joomla! concepts and reference material to help you understand how Joomla! works.
When you no longer need the sample data, you can can simply unpublish the sample data category found within each extension in the site administrator or you may completely delete each item and all of the categories.
Administrator Components
All components also are used in the administrator area of your website. In addition to the ones listed here, there are components in the administrator that do not have direct front end displays, but do help shape your site. The most important ones for most users are
- Media Manager
- Extensions Manager
- Menu Manager
- Global Configuration
- Banners
- Redirect
Media Manager
The media manager component lets you upload and insert images into content throughout your site. Optionally, you can enable the flash uploader which will allow you to to upload multiple images. Help
Extensions Manager
The extensions manager lets you install, update, uninstall and manage all of your extensions. The extensions manager has been extensively redesigned for Joomla! 1.6, although the core install and uninstall functionality remains the same as in Joomla 1.5. Help
Menu Manager
The menu manager lets you create the menus you see displayed on your site. It also allows you to assign modules and template styles to specific menu links. Help
Global Configuration
The global configuration is where the site administrator configures things such as whether search engine friendly urls are enabled, the site meta data (descriptive text used by search engines and indexers) and other functions. For many beginning users simply leaving the settings on default is a good way to begin, although when your site is ready for the public you will want to change the meta data to match its content. Help
Banners
The banners component provides a simple way to display a rotating image in a module and, if you wish to have advertising, a way to track the number of times an image is viewed and clicked. Help
Redirect
The redirect component is used to manage broken links that produce Page Not Found (404) errors. If enabled it will allow you to redirect broken links to specific pages. It can also be used to manage migration related URL changes. Help