Joomla Banners Tutorial How to Add Banners to Joomla Sites

Joomla Banners Tutorial

How to Add Banners to Joomla Sites

By default Joomla comes with a component for managing banners. It allows you to add different banners, organise them into categories and display them in different places on your website. The first thing you need to do is to create a new banner. To do this login to your Joomla admin area and go to Components -> Banners -> Banners.

On this page, click on the green New button at the top left part of the page.

Now, you need to fill in some information for the banner you're adding and its code. First, choose a name for the banner. Name your banners with unique, meaningful names so you can easily organise them later. Next, select Custom from the Type drop-down. This will allow you to paste the banner code you've obtained from the site you're advertising. Finally, paste the banner code into the Custom Code field and press the Save & Close button.

Now you need to publish a new module to display your newly embedded banner. To do this go to Extensions -> Module Manager.

Once more, press the green New button in order to add a new module to your site.

Joomla will provide you with a list of the available module types that you can choose from. Simply click on the banners type.

On this page, you need to choose a title for the module and the position where it will be displayed. Note that the available positions and their names depend on the template you're currently using. Different templates have different places where you can add modules (in our case - banners). For the purpose of this tutorial, we will add our banner in the right column of the default Joomla template (position-7). Once you chose title and position for the module, press the Save button at the top left part of the page.

That's it! You can now browse to your website front-end and see your newly created banner.

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Install Joomla Templates

Learn How to Change your Joomla Template

In our Joomla templates tutorial we will teach you how to install a new Joomla template and set it as default for your website.

Follow These Steps in Order to Install a New Joomla Template:

Step 1: Find and Download your New Template

Step 2: Upload the Template via the Extension Manager

Step 3: Change your default Joomla template to the new one

Step 1 Find and Download your New Template

The first thing you need to do is to download the new Joomla template you're willing to use for your site on your hard drive. We'd recommend you to check out our Joomla templates gallery of free, professional designs that you can use for your site.

Step 2 Upload the Template via the Extension Manager

Once you have your Joomla template downloaded on your computer, login to the administrative area of your Joomla website and upload the template through the Extension Manager (Extensions -> Extension Manager). The process is the same for templates, modules, plugins and components.

Step 3 Change your default Joomla template to the new one

Once the template is installed in your Joomla application, you need to make it default for your website so your pages get the new design. First, you need to go to Extensions -> Template Manager.

On this page, you will see a list of the installed templates available for your site and the administrative area. Locate the one you want to use on your site and click on the star icon next to it.

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Joomla Extensions Tutorial Content:

Access the Joomla Extension Manager

Option 1: Upload Package File

Option 2: Install from Directory

Option 3: Install from URL

Access the Joomla Extension Manager

The first thing you need to do is to login to the administrative area of your Joomla website. Once you do that, access the Joomla Extension Manager by going to Extensions -> Extension Manager.

Once you open the Extension Manager, you have three options to chose from to install your extension. In most cases, you should go for the first option but it's good to know that there are alternatives.

Option 1 Upload Package File

This is one of the most convenient options available. All you need to do is hit the Browse button, browse to the location of your extension's archive on your local computer, and press the Upload & Install button.

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How to Upgrade Joomla

Learn How to Keep Joomla Up-to-date

Table of contents:

Joomla versions explained

Upgrading within the same Joomla major version

Migrating from one major Joomla version to another

Joomla versions explained

Joomla currently has two major versions that are officially supported: Joomla 2.5 and Joomla 3.x. The project developers work on both versions and provide security and bug fixes for both of them. If you are using any of these versions you should watch for minor release (like Joomla 2.5.x or Joomla 3.x). Upgrading to a new version in the same branch is easily done through the Joomla administrator with a single click.
There are also older Joomla major versions like Joomla 1.0 or Joomla 1.5 that are no longer supported. All users are strongly encouraged to move any existing Joomla 1 installs to Joomla 2.5 as soon as possible. Also, once the Joomla 3 branch reaches its 3.5 release it will become the recommended version for all existing Joomla websites and Joomla 2.5 users will be encouraged to move to the new branch too. However, moving from one Joomla major version to another is not a one click experience and may require more efforts especially for more complex websites.
To upgrade your Joomla manually, you need to access your administrative area at http://yourdomain.com/administrator. Once you do that, Joomla will automatically check for new versions at its official repository. If there is a new version available, you will see a notification in your quick links. Click on the Update now! link to proceed.

Important!We strongly recommend that you create a backup of your website before you initiate the upgrade process.

Once you click on the link, you will be redirected to the Joomla update page. Here, you will see information of your current Joomla version and the latest one you will be upgrading to, the update package URL, and the installation method. You shouldn't make any changes at this point - the default settings should work just fine. All you have to do is click on the Install the update button.

In few moments, your Joomla website will be upgraded to the latest version and you will be brought to a screen with confirmation for the successful update!

Migrating from one major Joomla version to another

Get professional Joomla Migration to a higher version!

Our support team is experienced in supporting Joomla and can provide you with professional migration service from your current Joomla website to a newer version. You can easily order this service through your HelpDesk.

Get Hosting + Professional Joomla Support

Migrating to a new major version can be tricky mostly because usually the template and extensions currently used by you may not be compatible with the new Joomla version. This means that once you complete the migration process you will have all your content transferred to the new version, but may need to change or update all templates and extensions before your website actually start working.
You can migrate a Joomla website only to the immediate next major version, meaning that if you currently have Joomla 1.5 and want to start using Joomla 3, you need to migrate first to joomla 2.5 and then to 3.

Important!Never start a migration without making a backup of your current Joomla! This may spare you days of website downtime in case any important extension you use turns out to be incompatible with your new Joomla version.

In this tutorial we will describe how to move from Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3. To begin with the migration, first you need to login to your administrative area. Then, navigate to http://yoursite.com/administrator/index.php?option=com_joomlaupdate. This will take you directly to the Joomla Update page. Since there is still no long-term release of the Joomla 3.x branch, you will have to switch to short-term release settings for the update server. To do this, click on the Options button.

A pop-up will appear with all the available settings for the Joomla Update component. All you have to do is click on the drop-down menu next to the Update Server label and select Short Term Support. Finally, click Save & Close.

Once you switch to the short-term version update server, Joomla will immediately detect an available update. Press the Install the Update button to proceed with the migration.

Joomla will take a few seconds to migrate your content. Please do not close your browser window during that process. Finally, you'll see a confirmation for the successful migration from your newly upgraded Joomla admin area.

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How to Auto-Update Joomla

Learn How to Enable Auto-Updating for Joomla on SiteGround servers

In this tutorial we will show you how to use the Joomla! Auto-Update tool developed by us in order to keep your website always safe and up-to-date.

This tutorial will teach you how to perform the following actions:

How to Access Joomla Auto-UpdateHow to have your Joomla listed in the tool

What will happen when Auto-Update is enabled?

How to use the tool for immediate Joomla update?

How to disable the Auto-Update?How to revert an update, that has already taken place?

Accessing Joomla! Auto-Update

First, you need to access your cPanel. To do that, login to your User Area and go to the My Accounts tab. On this page, you will find a list of all of your hosting accounts with SiteGround. Select the one you want to install Joomla to and click on the Go to cPanel button next to it.

Once you access your cPanel account, open the Joomla! Auto-Update tool located in the Sitebuilding Software section.

How to have your Joomla listed in the tool

All Joomla installations you make through SiteGround install tools will be listed in the Auto-Update tool by default. The tools will show their current versions and information if newer version is available.

If you have a manually installed Joomla, or do not see any of your Joomla installs, just use the “Add URL” button in the bottom right corner.

 

What will happen when Auto Update is enabled?

When your Joomla Auto Update is enabled you will be notified by email when there is a new Joomla version and your website will be automatically updated 24 hour later. Thus you do not need to keep track of new versions neither perform any manual updates. However, you can still be in control of the process as we send you an early notification and you can decide to skip any update you do not want to be performed.

Important! Your Joomla website will be updated to the latest version of its branch. This means that if you have a Joomla 2.5.6 site, it will be restored to Joomla 2.5.8 (which is the latest version by the time we are writing this tutorial) and if you have a Joomla 3.0.1 site, it will be updated to 3.0.2 if that's the latest version. This tool will not migrate your Joomla site from one main branch to another, for example it will not update your site from Joomla 1.0 to Joomla 1.5 or from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 3.0.

How to use the tool for immediate Joomla update?

In addition to scheduled auto updates, the tool can also be used for immediate one-click updates of your Joomla. This option is available for all Joomla installations, including the ones for which the automatic function is disabled.

How to disable the Auto-Update?

You can cancel any scheduled update using the Actions dropdown. Thus the particular Joomla version will not be applied to your Joomla. However, this action does not disable the autoupdater in general and once the next version is released it will be applied normally.

If you want to disable the Auto-Update function completely, choose the disable action from the drop down.

How to revert an update, that have already taken place?

Note, that if any issues with your website occur due to the automatic update feature, you can always restore your site to its state before the update. Joomla Auto-Update stores a backup of your website each time, it performs an automatic update. If something goes wrong, simply select your site and select the Restore latest backup action.

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How To Log In Joomla? Learn How To Access Joomla Administrator Login

How To Log In Joomla?

Learn How To Access Joomla Administrator Login

How to Access Joomla Login Screen

To login to Joomla and access your administrative panel, you need to open your browser and navigate to http://mydomain.com/administrator. On this page, you will find a login screen, where you need to enter the username and password you've chosen during the Joomla installation process.

What To Do If I Have Forgotten my User/Pass

If you have forgotten the password for a regular (non Super-Administrator) username, the latest Joomla version provides you with an easy method for getting your login details. Simply navigate to your login screen and press the question mark button next to the password field. You will be redirected to a page where you'll have to enter the email address associated with your Joomla user. You will then receive an email with a link to the password reset page and appropriate validation key.

However, if you want to reset the password of your Super Administrator (the main admin username you've chosen during the installation process) you will have to do that manually. Check out this article on How to Reset Joomla Admin Password for detailed, step-by-step instructions.

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Create a Website with Joomla

How to build a website with Joomla?

In this group of tutorials we will teach the basic skills you need in order to create a simple Joomla site. We believe that once you understand the Joomla structure and the way the application works, it will become much easier for you to create the site that you want. However, Joomla has endless capabilities and it is easy for the unexperienced user to get lost in the sea of information. This is why, we have focused on the fundamental knowledge that you really need.

How to Create a Website with Joomla

• Create a Simple Joomla Article Page - This tutorial will teach you the very first thing you need to know about Joomla - how to make articles and show them on your website.
• Create a Complex Joomla Page using Components - Learn how to use components to create more complex pages and visualize them.
• Use Joomla Categories - In this tutorial you will learn how to use Joomla categories to organise and display your content better.
• Use Joomla Featured Articles - Find out how to use the Featured Articles functionality in Joomla.
• How to Add Banners to Joomla - Find out how to use the Banners component in Joomla to add ads to your site.

Joomla Article Page

Learn How to Create a Joomla Article, Link it in The Menu and Display it on your Home Page

Joomla provides an extremely wide range of options for creating different types of content and for structuring it on your website. Below we will describe how to create a simple page and display it in the menu of your Joomla website.

List of Contents How to create Joomla articles How to link articles in the Joomla menu How to display Joomla articles on your Home page

How to create Joomla articles

Basically, the content for most of your standard pages that consist of text, images and hyperlink will be created in the Article Manager, which can be accessed through the Content menu item in your Joomla admin page:

When you click on Add New Article, you will see a WYSIWYG editor that you can use to write and format your new article text, add images & links to it, and more:

ImportantTo make your article visible on your website for all visitors, you need to put it on Published status and Public Access.

How to link articles in the Joomla menu

Once you have created your article you will most probably want to link it in the menu of your website, so that your visitors can actually be able to find and see it. To do this you need to use the Main menu manager.

After you have indicated that you want to create a new menu item, you will have to select the type of the menu item:

Since we will be linking content created through the Article manager we should click on the Articles link
in the list. If you want the new menu to simply open the article you have just created simply press the Single Article option.

Once you choose this option, a box for selecting which article exactly you wish to link to will appear:

That's it, you can now open your website and see your newly created menu item that links to your new Joomla article:

How to display Joomla articles on your Home page

NoteJoomla Home is a menu item like all the others. So if you want the article you just created to be the one displayed on your home page, just follow the instructions above, but instead of creating a new menu item, edit the existing Home menu item.

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Joomla Component Page

Learn how to use Joomla default components to create more complex pages

Joomla allows you to create more complex content and add specific functionality on top of the standard articles that consist of text, images and links. You can do that via the Components manager.

List of Contents Content created with Components manager Linking the content created through Components in the Joomla menu

Content created with Components manager

By default, the Components manager includes several options for adding more complex page types and other content to your Joomla website. Joomla comes with a few preinstalled components that allow you to create special page types: Contacts, Newsfeeds, Search, Smart Search and Web links.

If you want to create a page with news feed for example, you need to go to Components -> Newsfeeds -> Feeds and than click the big green NEW button.

ImportantWhenever you create new content with a component, make sure you go to the list of items for the particular component and change the status to Published by clicking on the red cross and turning it to a green checkbox. Otherwise, the content won't be displayed on your website.

Linking the content created with Components in the Joomla menu

To link content created with the Components manager in your website menu, you need to go to the Menu manager:

Once you click on Create New Menu Item you need to select the type of the Item you will add:

Find the corresponding line for the component you have used, for example if you are trying to create a Newsfeeds page, click the Newsfeeds link from the list.

Now, you need to select the exact Feed the menu should link to. To do that click on the Select button next to the Feed field and choose the newly created Test feed. Finally, press the Save button to publish this menu item on your website.

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Joomla Categories

How to Create and Manage Categories in Joomla?

In Joomla you also have Categories. Each time you create an article or other content type you can assign it to a category. Categories can give you more options for structuring your content. For example you can group similar articles in one category and create a page that displays the intros of all the articles.

List of Contents How to manage Article categories How to manage Component categories Listing Categories on a Joomla page

How to manage Article categories

Categories for articles are created in order to allow you to group your content better. If you have different types of pages on your site, or you write on different topics, you should add article Categories to group your content. Article categories can be managed through the Content manager. To add a new category go to Content -> Category Manager -> Add New Category.

Categories don't have a lot of properties. If you plan to have many categories, you can write a brief description of each one of them in order to avoid mistakes when you add articles to them. However, adding description is not mandatory, so you can simply add Title for your category and press the green Save button.

That's it. Now, when you add new articles to your website, you can choose them to belong to the newly created category

How to manage Component categories

Many Joomla components utilize the use of categories. For example, you can organize the feeds you display on your website in different categories. They work exactly the same as the ones for your articles, but they are located in the individual component's menu.

The only difference between article and component categories is that when you choose the categories menu for the particular component, you're redirected directly to the categories manager for that component. Here, you need to press the green New button in order to add a category.

 

This page is exactly the same as the one used for article categories - add Category Title, Description(optional), and hit the save button.

 

That's it, you can now use the newly created category to group your component items.

Listing Categories on a Joomla page

If you want to list your categories on your website, you need to use the Joomla Menu functionality. First, add a new item to the menu, as we previously did in our tutorial on linking articles in the Joomla menu with one minor difference - this time, you need to choose a different menu type. But first things, first. Go to Menus -> Main Menu(or other menu in your site) -> Add New Menu Item.

Here, click on the Select button next to the Menu Item Type label to choose what kind of menu you want to add.

For the purpose of this tutorial, we will add a menu item, that will display all the categories of articles we have previously added. To do so, expand the Articles section and press List All Categories.

Finally, choose the title for your menu item and the Top level category you want to display. If you want to show all categories, select "Root". If you want to display only sub-categories of a particular category, you need to set it as a top level category. Finally, press the Save button in the top left part of the screen.

That's it, once you click on the newly created menu item Categories Menu, you will see a list of all the article categories. Next to each category, you will see a number showing how many articles belong to that category.

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Joomla Featured Article

Mark Joomla Article as Featured and Display Featured Articles on a Page

The Joomla menu functionality allows you to create pages that group multiple content based on similar properties. For example, if you want to have a blog section on your website, you'd want to have all articles from your blog category displayed in it. In this tutorial we will look quickly through some of the available options.

List of Contents Mark Joomla articles as Featured Show Featured articles on a page linked in the Joomla menu Customize the way articles are arranged on this page through the menu Manage how much of each article to be shown (Read More option)

Mark Joomla articles Featured

First, you need to mark some articles in your site as Featured. To do this go to Content -> Articles Manager. Here, you will see a list of your articles. Note that there is a star next to each article. To mark an article as Featured, simply press the star next to it. It will turn yellow, indicating that you've marked this article as featured.

Show Featured articles on a page linked in the Joomla menu

If you want to manually choose the articles displayed on a page, the Featured Articles menu type in Joomla is exactly what you need.
First, let's create a new menu item. To do this go to Menus -> Main Menu(default main menu) -> Add New Menu Item (you can do the same with existing menu items, for example the Home menu).

Next, we should select the menu type by pressing the Select button next to the Menu Item Type label.

A popup with the available menu types will appear. Expand the Articles section and select the Featured Articles option.

Finally, press the Save button in the top left corner of this page.

Customize the way articles are arranged on this page through the menu

By default Joomla will show the full text of the latest featured article expanded on the top of the page, and the full text of the next 4 articles displayed in two columns. If you have more than 5 featured articles the rest will be listed as links on the bottom of the page, and pagination will be automatically created that leads to next pages featuring the full texts of the rest of the articles.

You can change the way articles are displayed through the menu item’s Advanced Options tab (Menus -> Main Menu -> Menu Item -> Advanced Options Tab). The first article, that takes all of the width is called Leading Article. You can assign any number of articles you want, including 0, to be displayed this way. For this example we will choose 0, as we do not want any article to be displayed in full width. Next you can choose how many intro articles will be shown after the leading ones on this page (we choose 6). You can also choose in how many Columns to show the Intro articles (we chose 3). Finally, choose how many of the remaining featured articles to be listed as Links at the bottom (we chose 3).

You can play with these settings untill you achieve a configuration you like. With the examplary settings we set the the page will look like this:

Manage how much of each article to be shown (Read More option)

By default Joomla will show the entire text of each featured article on the Featured Articles page. However, this is not very convenient when you have articles with different length. You can choose how much of each featured article to be shown on this page using the Read More feature in your articles manager.
To do that open the article in the Article editor, click where you want to split the article and press the Read More button right below your WYSIWYG editor. A dotted red line will be displayed, separating your article intro from the rest of the article content.

Once you do that, you will notice that Joomla has generated a Read More button right after the intro content you selected on the page where the article is featured together with the other ones.

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Joomla Tutorial How to Install Joomla?

Joomla Tutorial

How to Install Joomla?

Step-by-step Manual Joomla Installation Guide

Follow these steps to install Joomla manually:

Step 1: Download the Joomla installation package

Step 2: Upload the Joomla files to your server

Step 3: Create a MySQL Database for Joomla to use

Step 4: Go through the installation process

Step 1: Download the Joomla installation package

Download the Needed Joomla Installation Package

To start a Joomla installation on a web server, first you need to download the Joomla installation package. We recommend that you download Joomla only from the official website of the application - Joomla.org. If you download the Joomla installation package from other than the official one, there is a risk of malicious code in the setup files.

Once you click on the Download button for the latest Joomla version, the installation package will be saved to your hard disk. Locate the installation package (should be named Joomla_3.0.3-Stable-Full_Package.zip or similar) that you've just downloaded and extract it to a new folder.

Step 2 Upload the Joomla Files to Your Server

Now, you need to upload the extracted files and folders to your web server. The easiest way to upload the Joomla installation files is via FTP. For detailed information on how to upload files via FTP, please check our FTP Tutorial.

Important!If you want your Joomla to be the main installation on your account and to be accessible through your main domain (i.e. www.mydomain.com), you need to upload the extracted files to your public_html folder. If you want to access Joomla on a subfolder of your domain (i.e. www.mydomain.com/joomla) you should upload it to the appropriate subdirectory (i.e. public_html/joomla/).

Step 3 Create a MySQL Database for Joomla to Use

Next, you need to create a MySQL database and assign a user to it with full permissions. For detailed instructions on how to do that, please follow the steps described in our tutorial on How to Create MySQL Username and Database. Once you create your MySQL Database and User, make sure you write down the database name, database username and password you've just created. You will need those for the installation process.

Step 4 Go Through the Installation Process

If you have uploaded the installation files, simply open your browser and navigate to your main domain (i.e. http://mydomain.com), or to the appropriate subdomain (i.e http://mydomain.com/joomla), depending where you have uploaded the Joomla installation package. Once you do that, you will be taken to the first screen of the Joomla Web Installer. On the first step of the installation process, you need to add the necessary information about your site and your administrative username.

• Site Name: Enter the name of your site. Most templates will use this for the first heading of your index.
• Description: Add a brief description of your website. It depends on your template if and where this text would be displayed.
• Admin Email: Enter a valid email address. It will be used for password recovery and system messages.
• Admin Username: Your administrative username. Please select a unique username, rather than "admin" or "administrator" since those are often subject to hacker attacks.
• Admin Password: Add a password as strong as possible.
• Site Offline: Select whether your site should be taken offline after you complete the installation. For the purpose of this tutorial we will leave this option set to NO (site will be live after installation).

Once you fill in all the required fields, press the Next button to proceed with the installation.

On the next screen, you will have to enter the necessary information for your MySQL database.

• Database Type: By default this value is set to MySQLi. Leave it that way, MySQLi is an optimised version of the regular MySQL database and it is supported on SiteGround servers.
• Host Name: Once again, leave the default localhost value.
• Username: Enter the username for your MySQL database (Refer to Step 3).
• Password: Fill in the password for the database username (Refer to Step 3).
• Database Name: Enter the name of the MySQL database you want to use (Refer to Step 3).
• Table Prefix: Joomla will add this prefix to all of its database tables. This is useful if you want to host multiple Joomla sites on a single database. You should leave the default value.
• Old Database Process: If you have any existing databases, choose what to do with the existing tables that are required by the installer. The options are to remove or backup any existing data that's about to be replaced. We recommend that you leave this option set to Backup since it is the safest choice.

After you enter all the necessary information, press the Next button to proceed.

You will be forwarded to the last page of the installation process. On this page, you can specify if you want any sample data installed on your server. For beginners, we recommend you to choose the Default Sample data option since it will serve as an example/backbone, that you can use to build your actual website. Note that you can delete all sample articles, menus, etc. at any time.

The second part of the page will show you all pre-installation checks. The SiteGround servers meet all Joomla requirements and you will see a green check after each line.

Finally, hit the Install button to start the actual Joomla installation. In a few minutes you will be redirected to the last screen of the Joomla Web Installer.
On the last screen of the installation process you need to press the Remove installation folder button. This is required for security reasons, so no one can reinstall your existing site later on. Note that Joomla won't let you use your site unless you remove this folder completely!

 

That's it! You have a fully functional Joomla website. You can now start building your website content!