Ric Shreves - Joomla! Bible

Joomla! Bible, Second Edition

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com

Copyright 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-47491-4

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at (877) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013932112

Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Joomla! Is a registered trademark of Open Source Matters, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com . For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com .

Credits

Senior Acquisitions Editor

Stephanie McComb

Project Editor

Jade L. Williams

Technical Editor

Ed Ventura

Copy Editor

Marylouise Wiack

Editorial Director

Robyn Siesky

Business Manager

Amy Knies

Senior Marketing Manager

Sandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Project Coordinator

Patrick Redmond

Graphics and Production Specialist

Carrie A. Cesavice
Jennifer Mayberry

Quality Control Technician

Lauren Mandelbaum

Proofreading

Lisa Young Stiers

Indexing

BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services

About the Author

Ric Shreves is a partner at water & stone (www.waterandstone.com), a web development agency focused on open source content management systems, or CMS. He has been building websites professionally since 1999 and writing about technology for almost as long. He has published several books on open source content management systems, including titles on Mambo, Joomla!, and Drupal. This is his fifth title with Wiley, having previously released Visual Blueprint titles on Mambo and Ubuntu Linux, as well as Drupal 7 Bible and the first edition of Joomla! Bible.

Ric is an American who has lived in Asia since 1995. He currently resides in Bali, Indonesia. You can learn more about Ric and his most recent work by visiting his website at http://ricshreves.net/.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Wiley for asking me to return as the author of the second edition of Joomla! Bible. We worked together to produce the first edition three years ago. In the intervening years, much has changed with both the web CMS landscape in general and with Joomla! in particular. Much of my excitement for this revision text stems from the fact that the newest version of Joomla! is a major step for the project one that I hope receives the broad audience that it deserves. Having the chance to dig into Joomla! 3 in depth while researching and writing this title has been a brilliant learning experience and has left me with a very positive view of the newest version of Joomla! something that I hope I have communicated adequately in the pages of this book.

This project ran on an incredible schedule, largely due to the measured guidance of my project editor Jade Williams. We had a very aggressive deadline to meet and without Jade's experience and ability to prioritize, I never would have made it. I also want to say thank you to Stephanie McComb, a Senior Acquisitions Editor at Wiley. She's the person responsible for pushing through both the Joomla! and Drupal Bible titles at Wiley, and has been a steady champion for these projects internally.

Introduction

Welcome to Joomla! Bible. As with all books in the Bible series, you can expect to find both hands-on tutorials and real-world applications, as well as references and background information that provide a context for what you are learning. This book is a comprehensive resource on the Joomla! open source content management system. After you have read Joomla! Bible, you will be well prepared to build and maintain a Joomla!-based website.

Joomla! is in the forefront of one of the most dynamic trends in open source software: the rise of open source content management systems. Historically, a web CMS was a very expensive investment. Open source has changed all that. There are now a number of options that allow website developers and website owners to tap into the power of CMS-based websites.

Of all the web CMS options that exist in the market today, perhaps none is more popular than Joomla! certainly none is growing more quickly. The Joomla! system powers millions of websites and is one of the dominant forces shaping the way people interact with information online. It has empowered developers and website owners around the world to build the websites that allow them to express themselves, to sell their products, to publicize their news, and to build communities. With the arrival of Joomla! 3, the system moves into new ground with expanded functionality and support for mobile devices.