Managing Templates

Templates control the appearance of each page in a Joomla web site. To manage templates, you need administrative rights.

Install a New Template

1. Log into the back-end of your site.
2. Select Extensions > Install/Uninstall
3. To upload a zipped (.ZIP) template, click on the [Choose File] button in the Upload Package File section.
4. Select the template file and click [Choose]
5. Click [Upload File & Install]
6. If your template installed correctly, you’ll see the alert message: Install Template Success

Notes

• If you are installing a template with the same name as an existing template, you must delete the existing template first.
• If you can’t install the template, the problem is usually related to directory or file permissions. Contact your hosting provider or system administrator.

Complete instructions with screen shots: see How to install templates – Joomla! Documentation

Delete an Existing Template

1. Log into the back-end of your site.
2. Select Extensions > Install/Uninstall
3. Click Templates
4. Check the template you want to remove.
5. Click [Uninstall] on the toolbar.

Tips

• You can’t delete a template if it’s the default template, or if it’s assigned. Use the Template Manager (Extensions > Template Manager) to unassign a template before you delete it.

Using RSForms! to gather information

We use the RSform! plugin to create web forms where visitors to your site can sign up, request information, and otherwise communicate with you via your Joomla web site. This approach is much better than posting a “mailto” link with an email address because:

• Spammers search for mailto links to find new email addresses to spam, which means if you post an email address on your site, you will eventually be flooded with spam.
• RSform can email the form results to you (or any email address you specify), as well as the person who filled out the form.
• The contents of the form are also saved to the form database, which means you have a record of all the forms filled out in a format that you can download and review using a program such as Excel, in addition to any e-mails you receive.
• RSorm automatically displays a confirmation message on the website as well is sending an e-mail out to the specified addresses.

For more information on what you can do with RSform, see RSForm! User Guide – Getting started – Introduction to RSform!.

The RSForm! User Guide contains detailed instructions on how to set up, manage and update your forms, mostly in the Getting started section. This post provides a quick overview of how to create a new form in RSForm, assuming that it has been installed correctly (see Installing and uninstalling for details).

Create a New Form

To create a new form:

1. log in to your sites administrator backend,
2. select Components > RSForm!
3. click on the Forms Manager button. You’ll see a list of all the forms in your site.
4. click [New] on the toolbar. This opens the Edit Form page with the Form Edit tab selected.
5. in the Form Title field, type the descriptive name for your form. This will appear on the form itself and also be used in e-mails.
6. In the Form Name field, enter a memorable name for your form that does not include any spaces.
7. Click the [Apply] button on the toolbar to save your work.

For more information, see: RSForm! User Guide – Getting started – Creating a new form

You will probably want to add a Return URL as well. This is the page that appears after a visitor submits the form and then sees the confirmation message. Most likely this is a page in your site. To fill out this field accurately:

1. open a new browser window
2. go to the page where you want to send people after they’ve completed the form
3. copy the URL out of your browser’s address bar
4. switch back to the browser window with the Edit Form page
5. paste the URL into the Return URL field.

Adding Fields

To collect any information in your form, you need to add fields on the Form Edit tab (on the Edit Form page). To add a new field:

1. Click the [New Field] button on the toolbar to open the Add Field page.
2. Enter in the short descriptive field ID using letters only (no spaces or other special characters).
3. For the Field Title, enter a short descriptive caption, which will appear on the form next to the field.
4. You can also enter an optional Description of the field that will appear to the right.
5. For special and mandatory fields, select a Validation rule. the most basic rule is “mandatory,” which means a visitor must fill out the field to submit the form. The “e-mail” field is also very handy, and you will want to use this if you will intend to capture the visitors e-mail address.
6. Most of the time, you will want to use the text Field Type, but RSform supports a variety of field types including radio buttons and checkboxes. You also need to create one “submit button” field in your form, so visitors can submit the form for processing. For detailed information on setting up special field types, please see RSForm! User Guide – Manage the fields – Adding a new field
7. the Additional attributes and Field Style fields support advanced HTML, CSS and JavaScript options but are not necessary for most forms.
8. click the [Save] button on the toolbar to save your new field.

Tips

• Review the Field preview area on the right side of the page to see how your field will look as you create it.
• You can also use the form preview link to see a sample of your form.
• be sure to add a submit button at the bottom of your form. This is a type of field, so just follow the steps above to create a new field and select “submit button” as the field type.

Adding a Thank You Page

After you have created all of the field you want in your form (including a submit button), create a Thank You page that will display after the visitor submits the form.

1. On the Edit Form page, click on the Thank You tab.
2. In the standard Joomla edit box, enter the message that will appear after the visitor submits the form.
3. Note that you can include information from the fields by enclosing the field IDs in curly braces. \See the bottom of the Thank You page for details, or review RSForm! User Guide – Getting started – The Thankyou Tab
4. Click [Apply] on the toolbar to save your work.

Setting up the Notification E-Mail

RSform will send a notification e-mail to any number of e-mail addresses that you specify. You can also customize the confirmation e-mail using data submitted in the form. Note that if you do not send a confirmation e-mail, RSfoms will still save your form to the form database for online review or download.

To set up the notification e-mail:

1. On the Edit Form page, click on the Emails tab.
2. In the E-Mail Form data to field, enter the e-mail addresses, separated by commas, that should receive the notification e-mail. See below for details.
3. for the E-Mail Form data FROM field, enter the e-mail address of the person who can respond to inquiries about the form. This is the e-mail address that will be used if someone replies to the notification e-mail.
4. In the E-Mail from Name field, enter the persons name or the organization name that will appear in the e-mail header.
5. Enter a descriptive E-Mail Subject.
6. To keep things simple, we recommend using Text as the E-Mail Mode.
   

If you want to send a confirmation e-mail to the person who submitted the form, be sure to include a field named email on your form, set its validation to e-mail, and include this e-mail address in the e-mail form data. For more information about setting up the notification e-mail, see RSForm! User Guide – Getting started – Setting up the e-mail.

Creating the Email Text

The e-mail text can contain any text you like combined with the data submitted with the form. To include form fields in the e-mail text, type the form id, enclosed by curly braces, in the text of the e-mail.

When you are done editing the e-mail text, click [Save] on the toolbar to save your work and return to the Forms Manager page.

Preparing Your Form for Launch

Before you link your form into your site, test it extensively. The easiest way to do this is to click on the Form Link on the Manage Forms page. This usually looks like: index.php?option=com_forme&fid=X, where X is the form of ID number. You can also use the Preview link on the Manage Forms page.

Things to Test

• does the form appear correctly on your site?
• Are the correct fields set as mandatory?
• is the notification e-mail going to the correct destination(s)?
• Does the notification e-mail include all the fields you want?

Often during testing, you will want to go back to the form editor and make updates.

Linking your Form

When you are satisfied that the form operates the way you want, at a link to it in your site. the most common way to link your form in your site is to create a hyperlink in the text of a specific article. To create a link to your form in an article:

1. In the Form Manager, click on the correct Form Link. Your form should open in a new window.
2. Copy the form URL, minus your site’s domain, exactly as it appears in the Form Link column. This usually looks like: index.php?option=com_forme&fid=X where X is the numeric ID of your form. Note that you don’t want to include any slashes or your domain before “index.php.”
3. open the article where you want to link to appear. You can do this in the back end using the Article Manager, or use the front end in-line editor.
4. When you open your article for editing, select the text that you want to use as your hyperlink.
5. Click on the [Insert/Edit link] button, which looks like two chain links with a green + superimposed.
6. Paste the form URL into the URL field.
7. Click the [ Insert ] button.
8. Click [ Save ] on the toolbar to save the updated article.
9. Now, view the article in your browser and test the new link.

You can also Add a form to a menu.

Uploading Graphics using the Joomla Media Manager

Joomla’s Media Manager lets you upload files, typically graphic formats such as GIFs, JPGs or PNG files, right from your browser, without having to use FTP. To use the Media Manager,

1. Log into the administrative back end.
2. Select Site > Media Manager
3. Open the “stories” folder (this is very important!)
4. Optional: Create a new folder or open an existing folder to store your image(s)
5. Click [Browse files] to select the image you want to upload from your computer.
6. Repeat as necessary, but keep an eye on the upload file size.
7. When you are done selecting images, click [Start Upload]

Images uploaded to the “stories” folder, or sub-folders within this folder, will now appear in the JCE Image Manager dialog box. To use the JCE Image Manager,

1. Open the article where you want to add your image, or create a new one.
2. Position the cursor where you want the image to appear in the text.
3. Click on the Image button (bottom row of buttons)
4. Use the Image Editor dialog to select the desired image.

DOCman: upload, link and manage PDFs

DOCman is a Joomla component that lets you manage PDFs much in the same way you use the Article Manager to manage articles. In addition, DOCman lets you upload, label and categorize PDFs, create links, and even create listings of PDF files.

How to use DOCman to manage PDFs

1. Optimize the PDF file before you upload it.
2. Use DOCman to upload a PDF.
3. Add information about the document.
4. Create links to the PDF using the JCE editor Create/Edit Link tool.

Using DOCman to Upload PDFs

To upload a PDF file using DOCman, first log into the back end. Then, from the main menu, select Components > DOCman > Files.

1. Click [Upload] on the toolbar.
2. Upload a file from your computer is selected by default. Click [Next>>>]
3. Click [Browse…] to Choose the file to upload.
4. Click [Submit] when you’ve selected the file you want.
5. After the upload is complete, click Make a new document entry using this file.
6. Add an entry in the DOCman Document manager to describe the file you uploaded.

Note: don’t use batch mode to upload multiple PDFs — it’s not reliable. Instead, click Upload more to repeat the previous steps.

Adding Document Entries

After you upload a file (above), publish and describe the file in the Edit Document form. Then, the documents will appear in the JCE Hyperlink editor. The more information you can enter about the document, the easier it is to manage the documents. Some entries are required; others are not but are quite useful.

• Name: Enter a descriptive name for the document.
• Category: you must select a category
• Approved: select Yes
• Published: Select Yes
• Other fields: optional, but recommended.
• Click [Save] when you are done.

You can open the Edit Document form immediately after you upload a document, or from the Files listing (Components > DOCman > Files). To edit the Document information from the Files list,

1. Click on the file name in the file list.
2. Fill out the Add Document form, confirming that you’ve entered a name, and approved & published the document.
3. Click [Save].
4. Now the document will appear in the Documents list (Components > DOCman > Documents)

Now your documents will appear in the JCE Edit Hyperlink dialog, listed under Docman.

Fill Out the Add Document Form

Change the Location of Page Breaks in an Article

On occasion, you may insert a page break in the wrong location. Also, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 may insert all of your page breaks at the top of your article. Use Firefox or a more recent version of MSIE to avoid this problem.

Using JCE Editor, you can move page breaks to new locations in an article. Use the built-in HTML editor to see the name of the page break, otherwise all you see in the WYSIWYG editor is a horizontal rule.

To view an article’s HTML code:

1. Log in (front end or back end).
2. Locate the article you want to edit.
3. Open the editor (front end: click on the edit icon to the right of the title; back end: click on the title itself).
4. Click on the “Advanced Code Editor” button in the tool bar. It’s the rectangle with two angle brackets on it, near the Edit Hyperlink button [<>].

To move page breaks in the Advanced Code Editor:

1. Locate the page break. It looks like this: hr title=”Page Break Title Appears Here” class=”system-pagebreak”
2. Select the page break, including the angle brackets, and cut it (Cmd-X or Ctrl-X).
3. Insert the cursor in the location in the article where you want the page break to appear.
4. Paste it (Cmd-V or Ctrl-V).
5. Repeat as required.
6. When you are done, click [Update].
7. Click [Save].
8. View the article in a new browser window to proof your edits.

If you are using sh404SEF you need to regenerate your SEF URLs so the new page breaks link correctly.

Check In all articles (1.0)

To check in (also, unlock) all the articles on your site in Joomla 1.0 so editors can update or edit any article:

1. Log in as Super Administrator
2. Main menu: Select System > Global Checkin

This command displays a list of results by section.

Create New User Account (Joomla 1.0, 1.5)

To create a new user account in Joomla, version 1.0 & 1.5:

Open the User: Add form

1. Log into the Joomla administrative back end (yourdomain.com/administrator/) as an Administrator or Super Administrator.
2. From the control panel, click User Manager (or select Site > User Manager from the administrative menu bar).
3. Click New on the toolbar to open the User: Add form (User:[New] in version 1.5).

Fill in the New User form

1. Name: Type the user’s full name.
2. Username: enter a single (no spaces) unique username.
3. E-mail: enter a valid email address.
4. New/Verify Password: enter a secure password & retype it.
5. Group: Select the group with the lowest privileges possible for that user.
6. User Editor: Select the preferred editor.
7. Click [Save] when you are done, or [Close/Cancel] to cancel — you’ll return to the User Manager.

Add more users if required, or log out if you are done. Joomla sends new users their log-in and password information in an e-mail … but be sure to follow up with them, since this mail is sometimes spam filtered.

Note: only Administrators and Super Administrators have the ability to change passwords in the administrative backend.

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Tips on how to get started with Joomla, the open source Content Management System (CMS).