Many of today’s web pages and other online applications are about providing material, ranging from blog posts, comments, Tweet feeds, and short headlines to product statistics, audio, pictures, videos, and PDFs, among other things. This is true for a growing number of businesses, including government entities (agencies, offices, cities, states, countries), transportation/travel, organizations, and more, as well as SOHOs and professionals, families, and even individuals.
Most of this content is intended to be entered by people who aren’t HTML experts and aren’t the site’s developers or administrators. To build and maintain these content-intensive pages, many designers and developers want higher-level tools than the HTML editors of the past.
Here are some best practices for Joomla! developers.
1. Create Custom Content Types
Joomla! allows you to install a Content Creation Kit (CCK) to identify custom content types. You can create a category like STAFF, and then an admin or HR individual who doesn’t know HTML can select “STAFF MANAGER,” and a form will appear, allowing them to enter data, which will then be inserted into the web site. The site’s search features — there’s a plug-in for search — are immediately aware of this knowledge since it’s used in a CCK.
2. Become a Part of the Joomla! Community
The Joomla! Extensions Directory, or JED, allows you to list your extension for free as long as you follow and support the Joomla! project’s guidelines Rather than just putting it on your website, this expands your market.
If you’re a developer, list yourself in the Joomla! Resources Directory, which includes listings for contractors, freelancers, extension providers, educators, support services, and more, recommends Pirtle. A DaaS provider can make this type of work easier.
3. Make Use of the Joomla! Framework and Its Features
The Framework has Classes that include filtering and ‘scrubbing’ for sanitizing user input, fetching data from sessions and URLs, reformatting the data, so it’s secure going in and out of the database. There have been security problems with third-party extensions, mostly because they didn’t follow the API or use all of the security features. Joomla!, for example, has a database class that protects against malformed SQL and user input. Don’t reinvent the wheel; the code has been written and tested by thousands of people; yours would be less efficient if you write it yourself.
4. Participate
There’s a lot of Joomla! preparation out there. There is also a slew of books, blogs, and websites. Look for a user community in your area to join, whether to keep up with what’s going on or to ask questions. Keeping in touch with people in our area through a mailing list is a great way to stay informed.
Being involved in the Joomla group is good for business. You can get new lead calls and emails as a result of a Joomla blog post you write. Joomla’s ecosystem necessitates that you inform others that you are a Joomla user. It’s not just a CMS; it’s a sector in itself, catering to anyone from small businesses to large corporations.
5. Stretch Your Budget
Getting a Joomla! site to look the way you want it is one of its strengths. For $10 to $20, or for an annual subscription, you can skin and theme it. There are hundreds of template companies that specialize in this. Many of these are extremely effective, allowing you to save money on a designer.
Decide whether you’ll use a commercial template, do your own design, or customize a commercial template. There is a significant price gap, however. A custom design by a designer can cost thousands of dollars, while commercial models typically cost $40 or less and can be customized. If you have the choice, it is suggested to use an existing template.
6. Keep It Simple
Know what your primary goal is, and restrict functionality to what supports that goal. You never know what people want, and each of your guests has a different perspective. So start with the bare minimum of features and see what sticks, then add more and tweak stuff based on user feedback. Some pages don’t have many extensions. Each extension adds to the complexity and upkeep of the system. So keep it simple at first.
7. Make Backups of Your Website
Backing up your Joomla! website is critical. It’s important to have a backup in case you lose your site. When you work with a CMS, you can make changes to your site that aren’t just content updates. And, since most of the work is performed on the web server, you usually don’t have a backup copy of everything on your machine, such as shopping cart orders, user feedback, and so on.
8. Maintain Clarity
Check what a client means when they say they want a blog or a calendar. If a client requests a calendar for their website, for example, don’t just go to the Joomla Extensions Directory and select one from the list. It’s much easier if you first ask a few questions, such as, How many activities do you have every day/week/month/year? Is it necessary to register for such events? Who would be responsible for entering new activities or updating current ones? Do you need a calendar on the web, or does a list of events (in addition to the calendar) suffice?
Some clients only have one event a year, but they believe they need a calendar, which will then be empty for the other eleven months. Other clients are unaware that event registration is an option. The majority of clients don’t have a strategy in place about who should add new activities or make changes to current ones. A few questions can help you choose the right calendar or determine if you don’t need one at all!
9. Display Site Name
Setting “global configuration” in “SEO settings” in Joomla helps you to customize your browser. Select “Site name in page titles” from the drop-down menu. The default value is “no.”
If you enable this, your site name will appear on your browser tab before or after the title of your pages, depending on how you set it up. If you’ve completed this, make sure to save your changes.
