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Introductory: Learning Joomla! using Sample Data

All you need for this lesson is available in each Joomla! download

Written by Mark Dexter

Introductory: Learning Joomla! using Sample Data
Installation
Explore
First Change
Some Jargon Explained
Adding an Article
Registration and Login
More Cool Modules
Conclusion
Show All

Our First Change

Now, fasten your seat belt. We're going to completely change the look of our site. Go to the back end (the screen shown previously) and select Extensions / Template Manager, as shown below:

This will display the Template Manager screen shown below:

Select the "JA_Purity" template by checking the circle and press the "Default" button in the upper-right toolbar. The star in the "Default" column will move next to the "JA_Purity" template.

If you still have the front end of the site open in your browser, press the "Home" link. If you don't have the front page open, you can press the "Preview" link in the upper right of the back-end screen. In either case, you should see the screen shown below:

If you look carefully, you will see that this site has exactly the same content and menus as the original site. However, it looks completely different! With Joomla!, the content of the site, the structure of the site, and the look of the site are all independent of each other. So you can change one without changing the others. Here we just completely changed the look without affecting anything else in the site. If you like, go back to the Template Manager and try the "beez" template. Again, you will see that the look of the site changes dramatically but the content and structure remain the same. When you're done, change back to the "JA_Purity" template. We'll use that template for the rest of the article.

Bonus: Sample Website Contains Useful Information!

At this point, you might want to explore another bonus of the sample website -- the articles it contains have a lot of great information in them! For example, click the link "Extensions" under the "Key Concepts" menu. This gives you a great overview of some of the important terminology in Joomla!. Take a minute to read this before we continue. Also, in case you were still wondering, select the "Joomla! License" link in the "Main Menu". This explains the licensing and, yes, it really is free!


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30 Comments

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  1. avatar ssnobben makes this comment

    2008-11-06 13:20:49

    Cudos to all 3pds and their great work for making Joomla the most flexible and outstanding web front end ever!

  2. avatar Lorenzo Garcia makes this comment

    2008-11-06 23:32:51

    Thanks Sam for writing the blog. I second with you, that the 3rd party developers needs a raise for their hard work and their contributions. Without them, Joomla! wouldn't be what it is today.

    I also want to mention that we have had a remarkable development in JED. We started with 334 extension in March 2006. For one year ago we had reached 2299 extensions and yesterday we passed for the first time 4000 extensions.

  3. avatar Dave Huelsmann makes this comment

    2008-11-07 04:12:01

    I, too, want to echo ssnobben and Lorenzo by thanking all of the third party developers for their terrific contributions and to all the JED editors who keep the JED so well organized.

  4. avatar gnuffmaster makes this comment

    2008-11-07 11:52:24

    That sounds great. Which extension was the 4000th?

  5. avatar Joel makes this comment

    2008-11-07 14:01:33

    Excellent work, however I wonder what the extra influx of extensions would be from duplicates where they have been updated from 1.0 series and released for 1.5?

    Take these away from the statistics and I would like to see the complete trend of genuinely new extensions to the directory. It would be more accurate.

    Regards,

    Joel

  6. avatar John Coonen makes this comment

    2008-11-07 21:22:56

    4000 reasons to go out and tell your friends that Joomla rocks.

  7. avatar Daniel Dimitrov makes this comment

    2008-11-08 11:55:18

    That is very good, but I wonder how much of this extensions are really extensions, and how much are module, and how much are plugins :)

  8. avatar Nick Kotarski makes this comment

    2008-11-09 01:32:50

    That's a hell of a lot of extensions.

    Nick

  9. avatar Karen Krueger makes this comment

    2009-01-11 04:47:30

    How do you upload an image to a Joomla Template?

  10. avatar Brian makes this comment

    2009-03-05 11:06:49

    How do i insert page breaks properly?

  11. avatar Dan Futoran makes this comment

    2009-03-29 16:06:26

    Thank you for the tutorial. I was getting pretty lost until I found this. It was a great primer, and now I feel like I'm ready to explore Joomla! with greater confidence.

  12. avatar BonBren makes this comment

    2009-03-31 17:19:12

    How can I set up an online form, that can be submitted and emailed.?

  13. avatar samatchi makes this comment

    2009-04-14 00:15:23

    That is very good
    i want install a templete help me :\

  14. avatar hemant makes this comment

    2009-04-16 04:00:31

    Joomla is "Content Building System" first and finally a "Content Management System" !!

  15. avatar Eric makes this comment

    2009-04-22 14:27:57

    How can do I create a Scholarship online form for students to submit for scholarship?

  16. avatar Yvonne Janssen makes this comment

    2009-05-28 13:21:52

    I'm trying to make a joomla website, but am struggling.8-)

  17. avatar ab0ki makes this comment

    2009-05-28 16:30:39

    I need help how to install template.help needed pls

  18. avatar Peter777 makes this comment

    2009-06-11 00:21:44

    This tutorial is extremely helpful. I have been studying the Joomla system and trying it for two weeks. This is best explanation of how it works that I have seen. Thanks!

  19. avatar Stephen Byrne makes this comment

    2009-06-22 21:50:12

    THis is by far the best tutorial I have found after searching around and I'm a real beginner when it comes to using Joomla!

    My only reservation is that I have followed the Quick Start Guide to the word... and it told me not to install the Sample site. Now I'm stuck in gaining the best experience form this tutorial!

  20. avatar marco makes this comment

    2009-07-04 13:40:55

    grazie!

  21. avatar Rob makes this comment

    2009-07-12 22:14:42

    Thanks!:-)

  22. avatar Julie makes this comment

    2009-08-23 02:38:29

    Hi there,

    How do I add a new position in the middle center of the page just below My First Article? Currenlty, the only spot there is "banner" and whatever I put there shows on every single other page. I downloaded JoomGallery and would like the gallery thumbnails to appear below My First Article and only appear on the homepage and no other pages. Please help!

    Thanks,!

  23. avatar solar panel makes this comment

    2009-08-26 13:49:13

    Great tutorial! Together with some other ebooks i think i will master joomla once and forever!

  24. avatar Sarajordan makes this comment

    2009-09-02 08:01:39

    Thanks for all sharing ..
    Your site is very useful for the beginning learner.
    but now, I have trouble in joomla. I have error code 212..and so on ... I so very poor mind for this :'(::\

  25. avatar Vijay makes this comment

    2009-09-08 02:05:31

    hi,,
    its a best solution and very easy to understand

    thanks,:-)

  26. avatar squareart makes this comment

    2009-09-10 11:01:03

    Hi, thanks for this tut, it was just what I was looking for on the default data content management. I must say that Joomla is a bit overwhelming at first but it looks very powerful so I'm persevering because I think it will be a great tool to add the list - and the type of site requests I'm getting are leaning more to this type of application.

    Any recommendation on reading material for transferring data from Joomla 1.0 to Joomla 1.5 or one Joomla install to another.

    Thanks once again :-)

  27. avatar Haris makes this comment

    2009-09-11 10:07:44

    Hi,

    In the Select Type filter i am getting only mod_mainmenu in the dropdown .. I am not getting anyother options as shown in the image .... Am i missing something here ????

  28. avatar Marco Henry Artillaga makes this comment

    2009-09-14 08:08:29

    Hello Everyone! :-)

    I'm new to Joomla! (1.5.14) 8-)

    I'm reading many Joomla! literature before actually installing it to my pc and using Joomla! ;-)

    I hope "Learning Joomla! Using Sample Data" will help me ;-)

  29. avatar rebeca makes this comment

    2009-10-14 01:28:27

    error: doesn´t show box to select article in order to delete. HELP! php version?

  30. avatar Kambar makes this comment

    2009-11-03 14:22:16

    It is a very useful resource. It has made many many things clear. Thanks a lot Mark Dexter. Thanks to all Joomla members.

    Regards,
    Kambar Farooq
    A Beginner

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