Clean Out the Cobwebs:

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Clean Out the Cobwebs

• Rethinking Your Web Presence with Joomla CMS
• Mark A. Smith LiSUG Conference October 2008 -
  SUNY IT Utica NY

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Apologies In Advance.
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What Ill Try Cover

• What is a Content Management System?
• Why a CMS Might Be an Option for Your Library
• What is Needed to Run Joomla?
• A Look-see At Joomla Driven Library Sites
• Basic Concepts that Form the System
• Tour of Administrative Module
• Time Permitting Demos of Site Content Creation

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A Quick Peek

• JoomlaOut of The Box

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Joomla Not Your Fathers Website

• Content Management System (CMS)
• Both Website Repository
• Database Driven
• Modular Extensible Plug Play
• Template Design Structure
• Administrative Backend Managed

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Show Me What You Mean

• A Couple More
• Mystery Site - Made With Joomla
• Scholes Library A very modest implementation
• built with sweat equity and much trial and error

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Why Is Joomla An Option For You?

• Open Source and Free (Active User Community)
• Easy to Keep Your Content Fresh
• Archives All of Your Content (text, images,
  links, etc)
• No Programming or Coding Required .. No HTML,
  CSS, XML, CFM, etc.
• Easy WYSIWYG Distributable Editing

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More Goodness

• Change Design Elements Templates Instantly
• Embedded Relational, Hierarchical Linking
  Structure for Content
• Administrative Backend Organizes Monitors
  Content (including Statistics)
• Portable (exportable database)

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And More

• Templates Do All The Work (but html/css editable
  from within the admin module)
• Multiple Media Format Friendly
• Highly Customizable at Every Level (from item to
  site-wide)
• User Accounting (if you want to go there)
• .. And more

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And The Fun Part

• Extensible Web Apps Plug-ins for 2.0ness
• Polls, Blogs, RSS feeds, Search, Contacts,
  Breadcrumbs, Popularity, Page Delivery, etc. Out
  of the Box
• Other Functionality - Calendars, wikis, image
  galleries, media players, editors, forums, etc.
  Widely developed easily added

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In A Nutshell

• The System Provides
• an End-User Content Creator
• Environment that is
• Familiar, Flexible Customizable

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Look What You Could Do
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Sounds Good! What Do I Need?

• A minimally cooperative IT department OR your own
  server
• MYSQL and PHP
• Joomla Software versions for Win Server and
  Unix
• Time to Experiment (learning curve to initially
  customize the structure)
• A Plan to Rethink Your Content Nav. Structure

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Got 6.95

• A message from our sponsor (kidding)
• The Evil Outsourcing Option
• Could Try Bluehost or Another Hosting Service
• You Are Up Running Without Any IT Guys
• Proof of Concept Approach

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OK. How Does the Thing Work?

• The Basics
• Organizing the Information
• Layout Template / Module Positions
• Functionality Modules-Components-Extensions
• Navigation - Menus

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1. Organization

• Hierarchical Organization
• Sections
• Categories .. may have multiple categories under
  a section
• Articles .. may have multiple articles under a
  category

Departments
Section
Reference
Circulation
Category
Borr.Policies
GettingLib. Card
Staff
Staff
Ask A Libn
Article
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2. Layouts Ruled By Templates

• Your Look is governed by Templates.
• Templates contain a map of module positions
  that identify where you might wish to position
  content
• Templates can be built, borrowed, purchased,
  stolen, etc. And they are editable (HTML,CSS)
• Scholes Module Map

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3. Functionality

• Modules-Components-Extensions Oh My!banners,
  contacts, polls, blogs, RSS feeds, breadcrumbs,
  popularity, page delivery, calendars, wikis,
  image galleries, newsflash, ratings, media
  players, editors, forums, stats, related items,
  etc.
• Joomla comes with a great deal of functionality
  right out of the box.
• Other extensions are widely available (many free)
• A Limited Set For Our Library
• Bluehost Out of the Box

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4. Navigation

• All Done with Menus
• A robust function within Admin
• Menus utilize your Sections, Categories,
  Articles structure that automates menus that are
  logical. (ie. a menu of all your categories)
• The most powerful frustrating concept/feature
  in Joomla. I initially found it difficult to
  wrap my head around this.

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Under the Hood

• A Look at Scholes Joomla Admin.
• Sections / Categories / Articles
• Menus
• Front Page Manager
• Media Manager .. etc

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Joomla May Not Be For You ..

• If you lack IT Support to Install and Maintian
  Server. (You wont need server access or much
  help from them.)
• If your site design must exactly/closely match a
  campus design (but could build your own template)
• If you are easily frustrated by a learning curve.
  (However, much simpler than Aleph. And once the
  layout is done ..its a snap to maintain).
• .

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What Are Other Libraries Doing With Joomla?

• Joomla in Libraries
• Community / Showcase

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Do We Have Time? Demos/Tutorials
Overview http//www.youtube.com/watch?vC3UgF9y2C
3k Modules http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXaPcsRR
ULTc Menus http//www.youtube.com/watch?vEvjVkze
3fTs
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Materials Resources

• Presentation Materials, Links Joomla Resources
  available at
• http//lisug08joomla.wordpress.com/
• Demo Account (login lisug/sunyla) - will
  self-destruct 11/1/08
• Questions?

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(No Transcript)
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Playtime

• What do you want to see?
• Change Templates (same content)
• Add an RSS Feed
• Download and add a template/module
• Create a Poll
• Build a Section/Category