Cory Webb's How to Joomla!

By default, Joomla! displays the FrontPage component on the home page. The FrontPage component takes a list of content items that are published to the FrontPage and displays them in a blog layout. This will work for most sites, but some webmasters want the option to display something else on the home page. If you would like to change what is displayed on your home page, follow these steps:

1. In your administrator panel, click Menu->mainmenu.
2. Create a new menu item that links to what you want to display on the home page.
3. Re-order your menu items such that the item you want to display on the home page is listed first.

It really is that easy. Joomla! displays the first menu item in mainmenu as the home page. You can set anyting in your site as your home page using this method.

I had a request from a reader to provide more detailed instructions on "database wrangling" with your Joomla! database. This article is an attempt at honoring that request. I will add an article later that explains how to import your Joomla! database using phpMyAdmin.

To perform the tasks in this article, you will need phpMyAdmin installed on your server. I am using version 2.8.0.2 of phpMyAdmin and version 4.1.21 of MySQL. For the sake of brevity, I have assumed that you have access to your MySQL server and left out details on how to gain that access. If you are unsure about how to gain access to your MySQL server, you should contact your hosting provider.

Things happen. Plans change. Websites outgrow current servers and need new servers. Hosting companies provide poor service, prompting a web master to decide to change servers. Whatever the reason, you might need to move your Joomla! installation from one server to another.

If you've been running a website for a while, you have probably already accumulated quite a bit of content and several 3rd party components and/or modules, and you do not want to start fresh with a new Joomla! installation. This article explains what I did to move HowToJoomla from my test server (howtojoomla.corywebb.com) to the server that it is on now.

I just recently installed Joomla! using a database that already had an instance of Joomla! installed in it. It was actually really easy. This article explains how to install multiple instances of Joomla! with 1 database.

With your standard Joomla! installation, you get a WYSIWYG editor called TinyMCE. A WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor basically enables you to edit content items in your browser just like editing a document in a word processor without needing to know how to write HTML code.

For most people, TinyMCE will serve their needs adequately. However, you might prefer to use a different editor. If so, this article will teach you how to install a new editor and make it your default editor.

At the Joomla! help site, there is a great article explaining the various functions to be used in a Joomla! template. It gives an explanation of the parameters involved in the mosLoadModules function, which often cause confusion for new template developers. You can either read that article, or if you don't feel like leaving this page, you can continue reading this article, which will explain the same concepts.

When you create a menu with the Joomla! menu manager, a corresponding menu module is automatically created. In the resulting menu module, you will have 3 options for how to display your menu with the "menu style" parameter. The 3 choices offered are vertical, horizontal, and flat list. In this list, there are 2 ways to create a horizontal menu: the right way, and the not-so-right way. In this article, I will explain both ways, and try to persuade you that the right way is the right way. I'll start with the not-so-right way.

Although it can do so much more than manage content, Joomla! is, at its core, a Content Management System (CMS). It is important for aspring Joomla! site developers to have at least a basic understanding of how Joomla! is set up to organize content. Proper content organization can greatly improve the flow and usability of your website. This article is meant to provide that basic understanding, and give steps to successfully organizing your content.

If you use Community Builder (CB) and the CBAuthorBot (the one that makes the author's name linkable to their CB Profile), then you might be interested in this hack. It enables you to display the author's CB avatar at the top of an article with a link back to his or her CB profile. I originally posted it here on the CB website. You can go there for more information, and to see how other people have modified the hack.

Here's the code:

Here is a trick for making your module positions viewable only by unregistered visitors.

There are some powerful programming objects in the Joomla! API that are available to template designers. One such object is the user object, which is accessible with the php variable $my.