September 2008
Joomla! 1.5 Web site David Umlauf Philly Roller Girls
Joomla! 1.5 Powers the Liberty Belles
Written by David Umlauf
I became involved with the Philly Roller Girls (PRG) through my girlfriend, "Dara Licks", who is one of the top players on Liberty Belles (the Philly Roller Girls traveling team). The team is a skater run, skater owned organization. They are growing rapidly and were in need of a new Web site. They hired a developer that quoted them around 3,000 dollars for a closed source, commercial, CMS with eCommerce, photo galleries, etc. They paid $1,500 up front and had a template designed. Unfortunately, the developer completely abandoned the site and stopped responding to attempts to communicate with him. They are now pursuing legal action to retrieve the down payment.
This is where I came into the picture. Their budget was shrinking and they were desperate. I had experience designing static Web sites, but nothing with a back end. I started doing research and convinced myself that I could set them up with an open source CMS. After reading many forums and testimonials, I decided that Joomla! was the software that fit our needs and was the best of all the open source management systems. I never mentioned to them that this would be my first attempt at setting up a site of this nature. It was a trial by fire mission that I was going to try my best to complete. I got off to a slow start after deciding to go with version 1.5. The installation process took me some time. Being the noob that I am, the most confusing thing was configuring the database. I eventually figured out that I needed to create a new database user in phpMyAdmin. After that, it was smooth sailing.
I'd bought a $50 book about Joomla! and later regretted it. Most of the information was copied word for word from Joomla.org. As soon as the structure made sense to me, I realized that you could put almost anything into a single article and have the appearance of a static page such as our about page or our contact page. I even opted to use my own static design instead of the Joomla! links component. I had the template that the dead beat developer designed and modeled my structure off of his. Joomla! was so flexible that it was easy to see how things would fall into place. I began testing different extensions based on their ratings, reviews and support. The blog was the easiest thing to set up with the built in articles/category structure. I began to see the downside of using 1.5 because it had less available extensions, but the legacy setting made it possible for me to use the extensions I needed. At the time of the site's release there was not a stable release of Virtuemart. I left the old store in place and plan to add a Virtuemart store shortly now that the stable version was finally released.
The next challenge was setting up the player profiles. I had an idea in my mind of how I wanted it to work. I wanted players to be able to sign on themselves and create and update their profiles and profile images. After going through all the extensions there didn't seem to be anything that fit. I tried some extensions that didn't have enough support until an extension combo finally solved this puzzle: Community Builder as the profile and Group Jive as the profile organizer. I end up having to go into the code of an extension most often when there are more features than I need without the option of deactivating them in the admin console. The profiles part of the website was the most time consuming because of the deactivation I had to do, but it works really well. The players have had an easy time setting up their profiles with minimal instructions. I would love to add a message board such as Fireboard down the road and have the skater's posts link to their profiles.
I used the Eventlist extension for the Upcoming Events section. Multiple users have access to update this section by uploading flier images, adding text, etc. I also use a module with this extension that lists the next three events in the side bar at all times.
The biggest hurdle in the PRG site was a battle with Internet Explorer. The JavaScript banner in the template I was using worked beautifully in every other browser aside from IE. I quickly found out about the underlying hatred many developers have with Microsoft's IE. I recently read from this article on Al Fasodt's technofile which notes, "Rather than fixing the bugs, Microsoft instead comes out with a new version every few years, expecting all of us to switch to the new one. But of course the new one is buggy, too, and we all know -- or will soon know, after dealing with such flaws -- that Microsoft will once again decide to let most of the bugs go and while introducing yet another new version we should switch to. And it, too, will be buggy". I also read how they refuse to comply with the web standards of the W3C. I then championed the "down with IE" sentiment as a cause of my own and began asking every PC user I knew to switch to Firefox. After a 48 hour battle of rewording google searches, multiple forum threads, an embarrassing misunderstanding with an advanced developer where I was referring to JavaScript as Java (I'm a beginner over here, give me a break) I finally gave up and added a conditional comment to make the decorative JavaScript banner appear as a static image in Internet Explorer. IE users get punished with anti-fanciness and I get to move on with my life.
One person is the main administrator of the Web site and three other editors are in charge of different sections. I currently have no daily responsibilities with the site and am only called on once in a blue moon with a question or a problem that I try to resolve quickly. The site is still a work in progress, but to me that is the most beautiful thing about a Joomla! website: the ability to change, adapt and grow with a client's needs.
My goal for this site was to give the Philly Roller Girls a site that was on par with the many other Roller Derby team sites and get past the learning curve of setting up Joomla! sites. In no time at all, I was setting up interactive features that I couldn't have imagined doing a week prior. I've also taken some huge strides in working with CSS, PHP and MySQL databases. I have since built around ten Joomla! Web sites, some of which are still works in progress. I started playing around with Joomla! in January 2008 and it's now August. If a dope like me can do it, anyone can.
2008-12-14 23:42:25
BTW, Its interesting how slowly more and more people are realising what a terrible choice it is to remain stuck inside the Windows world. The sooner more people move right off it altogether the better for all.
2008-12-15 22:24:33
2008-12-16 10:28:54
I believe you have spoken most of our "first time" with joomla feelings.
You think you will have a hard time, until you meet joomla
2008-12-18 10:53:41
2008-12-22 15:15:23
2008-12-24 18:21:45
2008-12-26 19:02:25
I am currently migrating my website over to Joomla and am having a very similar experience. I love how flexible and modular it is and saves me having to do a whole lot of learning whenever I want to add some new functionality.
Only a few weeks ago, if someone would have mentioned PHP or MySql to me I would have gone very blank...and now I'm manually hacking away at config files (albeit with shaking hand
Believe me, I was very suprised when I uploaded the site and it all worked.
2009-01-01 16:30:54
2009-01-05 01:48:56
2009-01-11 13:49:02
2009-01-13 05:02:02
God job man!
2009-01-16 09:06:01
Thanks for this article.
2009-01-23 12:59:33
2009-01-24 14:08:24
2009-01-27 15:48:32
I. Really. Need. Help.
Any ideas good people?
Oran
2009-02-02 05:21:33
2009-02-03 21:06:37
2009-02-13 05:43:48
2009-02-14 17:21:37
What else do I need to know?
2009-02-17 09:36:24
2009-02-17 12:55:19
2009-03-16 01:37:02
2009-03-25 03:42:06
I was able to take a few ideas of yours a use it in in local community portal that I am working on, PE life, and the Events List component is proving to be a very important part of the site.
It would be very interesting to see more of yur work
2009-04-14 11:58:19
thank you David
2009-04-15 13:15:14
2009-04-15 21:20:49
2009-04-16 10:46:25
2009-05-05 16:58:29
2009-05-14 10:10:14
2009-05-22 01:52:56
I am grateful to the developers that are providing a such a powerful toolset. Helping those that want the control and low cost of open source solutions without the learning curve has been a great business model. We contribute productive feedback, testing, and financial support to the community and function as hybrid developer/teachers to our clients. Serious thanks to all involved.
2009-05-28 16:17:26
2009-06-05 04:49:18
Thanks Jooomla World!!! Love you!
2009-06-14 11:20:18
2009-07-01 06:19:52
2009-07-06 05:04:03
2009-07-11 22:44:24
2009-07-18 03:43:21
2009-07-23 11:47:51
I am so new at this. my first domain , meganfoxshrine.com
i got to learn how to build sites.
and so far. I am sick of learning drupal. too many hands in the soup and no , one step at a time , how to start to finish a site.
i am now tryine to learn wordpress
and i saw joumla from cpanel so i thought id look at it.
this story gives me some hope i can learn how to make a php based site i dont have to created new pages every time i want to update to the new/latest news story etc.
well, im still using just html with some css for
images ans stuff.
it is hard to teach a old dog old tricks i am learning.
i grew up with html and no nothing really about all the new
stuff.
praying wont , love wont, money cant.
so
i got to just do it.. as nike said in my day.
good luck
and btw. i dig roller derby.. yea i grew up with the original thing happening.
i am happy to see it making a go
i know from touring in rock band that it aint easy or that much fun. unless your twenty one
lol
da kutter
peace
2009-07-25 03:56:10
2009-08-06 04:14:02
Email Me anyone who can help @ devonta10@hotmail.com
2009-08-11 01:38:03
I am a newbie to website development and I have a similar experience to share. Like most newcomers I had a very sour experience with a web developer before I stumbled upon Joomla!
It all started when I decided to have a website for my new company which retailed dental products. I contacted a web developer to build a simple catalogue website as 99% of my customers prefer ordering by phone after checking out the website. However, as most businesses are moving to ecommerce, I told them to put the shopping cart facility for future use.
Anyway, after four months of coding they give me a website with a 12 page check out procedure. When I commented that no one will use a shopping cart with a 12 page check out, they want me to pay more money to change it. So I scrap the project as it was not going anywhere and decided to learn a bit about web development.
I borrowed some books on XHTML & CSS and started learning coding myself. Then one day when I was analyzing the source code of a website, I read . So I Googled the word Joomla and I get directed to the Joomal website. When I read what Joomla can do, I was astonished to learn how easy it was to build a website with limited code knowledge. Then I converted my old laptop to an LAMP server and installed Joomla for experimenting. After that I Youtubed Joomla and watched all the videos on how to config Joomla and build a website.
Since May 09 I have developed two Joomla websites www.fortunedental.net & www.yuandco.net. They are still in work in progress, but usable. Both websites use VirtueMart, CK forms, Docman and sh404SEF extensions. I am currently learning how to build Joomla templates and PHP coding. And at the same time I am polishing my XHTML and CSS skills. If not for Joomla, today I have to spend a ton of money to get my website working.
Thank you Joomla for providing a great CMS.
A true web site in a box.
Fusun YU
2009-08-12 12:20:46
I am a ASP.NET developer. I get several websites to do, most of which are very simple that I do not need all the protocols that come with a ASP.NET website. I have a great feeling Joomla can help me, but each time I try to read about it, I simply give up....the documentation is sooo verbose in many circulstances, such that I feel like the I can develop more than 2 pages usimng the same time I need to just get a feeling of Joomla. CAN ANYONE PLEASE KNOW WHERE I CAN GET SIMPLE AND STRAIGHT FORWARD MATERIAL ON HOW TO GET STARTED WITH JOOMLA?????
2009-08-18 03:06:12
Try Youtube. I started by watching the joomla demos and they were very good.
Regards,
Fusun YU.
2009-08-31 18:45:13
2009-09-05 15:44:42
Thanks for being Short and informative. Specially the tips about extension "Community Builder as the profile and Group Jive as the profile organizer". I was trying do find the same and now I got it so easy. Thanks
2009-09-08 20:37:32
2009-09-12 11:32:38
Anyway great job on the first time Joomla.
2009-09-21 23:52:19
Its a great article.
Im currently working on http://www.experiencenigeria2009.com and i know this will help me.
Thanks
2009-09-25 13:27:23
2009-09-29 08:54:36
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2009-12-18 19:45:49