Joomla! 1.5 templates cookbook over 60 simple but incredibly effective recipes for taking control of Joomla! templates. - Description based on print version record. - Includes index. - "Open source, community experience distilled.". - "Quick answers to co

In Detail Templates in Joomla! provide a powerful way to make your site look exactly the way you want either using a single template for the entire site or a separate template for each site section. Although it sounds like an easy task to build and maintain templates, it can be challenging to get beyond the basics and customize templates to meet your needs perfectly. Joomla! 1.5 Templates Cookbook consists of a series of self-contained step-by-step recipes that cover everything from common tasks such as changing your site's logo or favicon and altering color schemes, to custom error pages and template overrides. It starts off with the basics of template design and then digs deep into more complex concepts. It will help you make your site more attractive and user-friendly. You will integrate your site with various social media such as Twitter and YouTube; make your site mobile-friendly with the help of recipes for creating and customizing mobile spreadsheets; and use miscellaneous tricks and tips to get the most out of your website. You get all of this in a simple recipe format that guides you quickly through the steps and explains how it all happened. Develop Joomla! templates as well as learn to tweak them to meet your needs perfectly with clear and easy-to-follow recipes Approach Joomla! 1.5 Templates Cookbook contains step-by-step instructions for Joomla! users to customize their Joomla! templates. The book is designed so that you can refer to it chapter by chapter, or you can look at the list of recipes and read those that interest you in no particular order. Who this book is for This book is written for Joomla! developers who want to improve the look and feel of their Joomla! sites. Readers are expected to have knowledge of CSS and (X)HTML. Although it will be helpful, no prior knowledge of Joomla! theming is expected. Joomla 1.5 Templates Cookbook is a good beginner's title in the Packt Publishing series of titles on Joomla. One of the biggest frustrations that I often see beginner's have with Joomla is that, although there are many freely available templates for Joomla, few of them are without at least either some minor errors, or stylistic issues that a Web site manager might like to correct. What this book does best is walk the beginner through the process of making minor modifications to templates using a cookbook-based approach with easy-to-follow recipes. The first chapters begin with an overview of Joomla's Template Manager and does a decent job of explaining some of the alternatives to editing templates. However, Carter does not describe the inherent risks in some of those approaches. For example, if you do edit your template's HTML and then reinstall that template, all changes will be lost. Carter also takes a closer look at some of the more specific conventions Joomla! uses to manage site templates, including the use of positions to control module and component layout, the syntax for parameters for providing more advanced options for themes associated with templates, and the role of the XML file in creating an actual template package for distribution. While this information is both accurate and useful, some of it seems a bit out-of-place. For example, the information on the role of the XML file would suggest that Carter also provide some additional detail on how to create a template package. That discussion, relative to other Packt titles on the subject, is extremely light, and I think means that creating a purely custom template is beyond the scope of this title. That said, I would recommend leaving some of this information out of future editions, or would point the reader more directly to other titles that would help with this kind of task (note: the end of the book does reference related Packt titles, but I believe that doesn't go quite far enough.). Chapters three through eight provide recipes for a number of useful revisions to a template, including: \* styling the search module \* customizing the look of breadcrumbs \* adding random background images \* working with the administrator templates \* adding social bookmarking and integrating Twitter The code for all of these recipes is very clean, and the recipes both useful and relevant. The remaining couple of chapters of the text deal more specifically with integrating components and modules with one's template. In addition to social bookmarking and Twitter, Carter describes how to work with stylesheets for mobile devices, solve problems associated with cross-browser issues, install jQuery, and install Google Analytics. These are all excellent topics, and worthy of inclusion in a book of this scope. If I start, however, with stylesheets for mobile devices, it seems that the book gets a bit off of its cookbook approach. There are some relatively basic things I might do to create stylesheets for mobile devices. I do like that Carter gives some basic recipes for what those solutions might look like. They're very similar to his print stylesheets, and should be relatively easy for the end-user to adapt. Carter then goes on to discuss the MobileJoomla! extension. I've used this extension on my site as recently as a month ago. The author should point out that the latest version (0.9.6 as of this writing) is still in beta--suggesting that it is technically not ready for a production environment. The developers have done an excellent job working a significant number of bugs out of the extension, but it is definitely one I wouldn't recommend. The last item that I looked at in great detail was Carter's advice on installing Google Analytics. In one word: horrible. Templates should describe the look and feel of the pages associated with one's site. That includes font sizes, the color associated with design elements, the placement of logos and of modules. Templates are not, however, an appropriate place for functionality of any sort. Why? I change templates for any reason and that functionality has to get recreated in the new template. It completely defeats the purpose of working with a platform like Joomla! The solution is simple: instead of copying and pasting the code for Google Analytics into one's template, create a custom module, position it, and publish it. The same advice should be followed for any of the other examples Carter provides where he suggests adding custom code to a template. In closing, there's some good information in this title for beginners, but there are definitely some places where some serious revision--and in some cases a different approach--need to be considered in the second edition of this title. In addition, some of the conventions for illustrating code are inconsistent, screen shots use different conventions (arrows that point to specific aspects of a screenshot, for example, are inconsistent; screen shot sizes are arbitrary; screen shots designed to illustrate color are useless in a grey-scale book, and generally irrelevant, regardless). The index is generally solid, though the introductory section on Symbols seems arbitrary and incomplete. Am I still recommending this title? Yes, there are still some great recipes in this title, and the introduction to templating is perfect for a beginner. But I also think there's more potential for this book than the current edition reflects. Cover......Page 1 Copyright......Page 3 Credits......Page 4 About the Author......Page 5 About the Reviewers......Page 6 Table of Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 12 Introduction......Page 16 Finding the current default template......Page 17 Locating Joomla! templates in your website's hierarchy......Page 19 Understanding Joomla! templates......Page 20 Changing your template's color variation......Page 22 Adding a color variation......Page 26 Changing your template's logo......Page 32 Selecting the default Joomla! template......Page 33 Editing the HTML template in the administration panel......Page 35 Editing CSS in the administration panel......Page 37 Installing a Joomla! template......Page 42 Understanding Joomla! template positions......Page 45 Understanding jdoc statements......Page 47 Understanding the templateDetails.xml file......Page 50 Styling for component.php......Page 56 Adding a custom favicon to your template......Page 59 Styling Joomla! error messages......Page 61 Styling Joomla! error pages......Page 63 Styling the search module......Page 68 Styling the search component......Page 71 Using template overrides in your Joomla! template......Page 74 Customizing the breadcrumb......Page 75 Styling pagination......Page 78 Linking back to the top of your page......Page 82 Adding a random background image to your Joomla! template......Page 85 Understanding Module Chrome in Joomla!......Page 92 Customizing the error page in Joomla!......Page 94 Creating a custom site offline page......Page 100 Starting your print stylesheet......Page 104 Adding a print stylesheet to Joomla!......Page 110 Typography for your Joomla! print stylesheet......Page 111 Styling the layout of your Joomla! template for print......Page 113 Styling content for print......Page 115 Styling links for print......Page 123 Preventing common bugs in print style......Page 124 Introduction......Page 126 Understanding Joomla! administrator templates......Page 127 Installing a Joomla! administrator template......Page 129 Changing the administrator template......Page 131 Changing the logo in an administrator template......Page 134 Changing the colors in the administration panel......Page 136 Securing the administrator URL......Page 138 Changing the icons on the Joomla! administrator dashboard......Page 141 Joomla! administrator template icon graphics......Page 143 Introduction......Page 146 Integrating Twitter with Joomla!......Page 147 Integrating AddThis social bookmarking tool with your Joomla! template......Page 152 Embedding YouTube and other videos in your Joomla! website......Page 156 Configuring the DisQus Comments extension for Joomla!......Page 160 Integrating Facebook into your Joomla! website......Page 166 Adding an iPhone icon......Page 172 Designing stylesheets for mobile devices......Page 174 Specifying a separate stylesheet for mobile browsers......Page 176 Creating a mobile stylesheet......Page 177 Installing the MobileJoomla! extension......Page 180 Including a JavaScript file in your Joomla! template......Page 188 Tips and tricks for minimizing page load time when using JavaScript......Page 190 Maximizing backward compatibility with JavaScript......Page 193 Joomla! template......Page 194 Installing the jQuery JavaScript library in Joomla!......Page 196 Creating an image slideshow with JavaScript in Joomla!......Page 197 Introduction......Page 202 Comparing your template across different browsers......Page 203 Validating your template's (X)HTML......Page 205 Validating your template's CSS......Page 207 Using conditional stylesheets in Joomla!......Page 208 Fixing the double-margin bug (in Internet Explorer) in Joomla!......Page 211 Installing Google Analytics......Page 215 Introduction......Page 218 Customizing Joomla!'s home page with module output override......Page 219 Customizing Joomla! articles with component template overrides......Page 221 Creating a new module style (chrome) in Joomla!......Page 224 Index......Page 228 Annotation Templates in Joomla! provide a powerful way to make your site look exactly the way you want either using a single template for the entire site or a separate template for each site section. Although it sounds like an easy task to build and maintain templates, it can be challenging to get beyond the basics and customize templates to meet your needs perfectly. Joomla! 1.5 Templates Cookbook consists of a series of self-contained step-by-step recipes that cover everything from common tasks such as changing your site's logo or favicon and altering color schemes, to custom error pages and template overrides. It starts off with the basics of template design and then digs deep into more complex concepts. It will help you make your site more attractive and user-friendly. You will integrate your site with various social media such as Twitter and YouTube; make your site mobile-friendly with the help of recipes for creating and customizing mobile spreadsheets; and use miscellaneous tricks and tips to get the most out of your website. You get all of this in a simple recipe format that guides you quickly through the steps and explains how it all happened. Develop Joomla! templates as well as learn to tweak them to meet your needs perfectly with clear and easy-to-follow recipes