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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
User Registration and Login
With Joomla!, we can add advanced functionality to our site very easily, because the programming is already done for us. A common requirement for many sites is to allow users to register and login to the site. Perhaps there are areas of the site that will be available only to logged in users. Perhaps we want some users to be able to add or edit articles or other content.
The sample website provides a great example of how to add this feature to our website. In the front end, navigate to the home page and notice the login form on the left side, below the menus, as shown below:
This little form has a great deal of functionality built into it. The "Remember Me" box allows a user to be logged in automatically on future visits to the site. The "Forgot your password" and "Forgot your username" links will send a user their username or password via e-mail (not that any of us would forget a password!). The "Create an account" allows a user to self-register, with the ability to validate the account via e-mail. That's a lot of functionality in a little space!
What did the Joomla! web designer have to do to add this functionality to the site? Let's go to the back end and find out. As we discussed earlier, the small items around the content area are normally modules, so let's navigate to Extensions / Module Manager. We'll use the "Select Type" filter to select the "mod_login" type, as shown below:
This will display the Login Form, as shown below:
Click on the "Login Form" module name to open the module for editing. This will display the Module: [Edit] screen, as shown below:
As with the menu module we saw earlier, in this form we tell Joomla! where on the page to show the login module (the "left" position) and on which pages or menu items (only the Home menu item). If you compare this screen with the Module: [Edit] screen we saw earlier, you will see that the left-hand side ("Details" and "Menu Assignment" sections) is the same and that the right-hand side ("Parameters" section) is different. Every module has to be put in a position on the page and assigned to menu items. Beyond that, each module has different parameters that allow you to fine-tune it's behavior. If you like, take a minute to look at the Module Parameters for the "mod_login" module. If you hover the mouse on a field, a pop-up help message displays, as shown below:
Often, this message is enough to tell you what to do. You can also press the Help icon in the toolbar to display a complete help screen in a separate browser window. So, this module is added to the site just by filling out this simple screen. Doing this adds sophisticated user login functionality to the site.
Next, let's go back to the front end and see how this works. Navigate to the home page and login with the username "admin" and your admin password. You are taken back to the home page, but with some differences. First, notice the new icon next to each article, as shown below:
The edit icon to the left of the title allows you to edit the article from the front end. Let's look at it. Click on the edit icon and the screen below shows:
This opens the article for editing. This is a very important feature of Joomla! and CMS software in general. Authorized users can add and change the content of the website just by navigating to the site and logging in, and without having to access the back end.
The other change to the page is a new User Menu, as shown below:
This menu gives you some important options. Navigate to the "Your Details" page. Here you can change information about your account, such you name, e-mail, and password. Notice also that you can select a back-end and front-end language. Joomla! comes in many different languages, and different users can even use different languages.
Next, navigate to the "Submit an Article" link. Here an authorized user can add an article to the website. The "Submit a Web Link" allows an authorized user to add a web link to the site.
Now let's look at how this is accomplished in the back end. We already saw that the login was added using the "mod_login" module. What about the User Menu? In the back end, navigate to Menus / User Menu to display the screen below:
Notice that the Access Level for the menu items is either "Registered" or "Special". This is why you cannot see this menu unless you are logged in to the site. In this case, only users who are registered on the site can use the "Your Details" or "Logout" menu items. "Special" is a higher access that in this case allows users to navigate to the "Submit and Article" and "Submit a Web Link" pages. This security is built into Joomla!. All we have to do to use it is pick an Access Level for each menu item. There are many other places in Joomla! where you can set access levels, for example to restrict access to articles or links.
In the "Type" column, notice that a special layout is being used for each of these menu items. Again, Joomla! comes with built-in layouts to support each of these tasks, and the sample website shows us how to use them.
2008-11-06 13:20:49
2008-11-06 23:32:51
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.
2008-11-07 04:12:01
2008-11-07 11:52:24
2008-11-07 14:01:33
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
2008-11-07 21:22:56
2008-11-08 11:55:18
2008-11-09 01:32:50
Nick
2009-01-11 04:47:30
2009-03-05 11:06:49
2009-03-29 16:06:26
2009-03-31 17:19:12
2009-04-14 00:15:23
i want install a templete help me
2009-04-16 04:00:31
2009-04-22 14:27:57
2009-05-28 13:21:52
2009-05-28 16:30:39
2009-06-11 00:21:44
2009-06-22 21:50:12
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!
2009-07-04 13:40:55
2009-07-12 22:14:42
2009-08-23 02:38:29
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,!
2009-08-26 13:49:13
2009-09-02 08:01:39
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
2009-09-08 02:05:31
its a best solution and very easy to understand
thanks,
2009-09-10 11:01:03
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
2009-09-11 10:07:44
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 ????
2009-09-14 08:08:29
I'm new to Joomla! (1.5.14)
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
2009-10-14 01:28:27
2009-11-03 14:22:16
Regards,
Kambar Farooq
A Beginner