Hi Guys,

I've been using Joomla for a couple of months now, and since using it, I've not made any extensions for it yet.

Since deciding i wanted to start developing for Joomla, ive found it hard to find a book for beginners and wanted to know if any of you know of any good books that will really help out a beginner learn from scratch how to create extensions for Joomla 1.5 Native

Thanks

- Ryan Jones

Hi Ryan,

I'm just working through this book (from Dan Rahmel) and I think you'd find it useful. I'm having problems getting some of the applications to work but that's possibly because Joomla is developing all the time.

Don't be too put off by the title: I'm only a relative beginner too and I've found it very useful. Have a look, too, of course at the Joomla Wiki. It's growing all the time and should complement the book quite well.

Hey Lochman,

Thanks for your reply, whats the name of the book?, or is it "I'm only a relative beginner..."

Just a random question on top though, im trying to find a good user content submission form so that there are sections within each article that the user can edit...

i.e. in an article could have section 1, section 2, section 3 and section 4. Now, when a user goes to edit that article, they have to choose which of the 4 sections within that article to edit.

If anyone has any idea of an extension/plugin that can help me achieve this, let me know :)

Ive been looking for a while now but have no idea now!

thanks

- Ryan

Hi Ryan,

Sorry can't help with the content submission form. I use Joomla Content Editor as an improvement on the basic text editor that comes with a standard J Installation and I know that they have a series of extensions of their own but I can't say I've ever tried any of them (not really having a need there at the moment).

Sorry, I should have made the book title clearer. (I put it in the title but not in the text.) It's actually called "Professional Joomla", written by Dan Rahmel and published by Wrox. A lot of the stuff there is already in the J documentation but the book lays it out in a much more friendly and accessible way. He also suggests the use of a number of other programs that you might find helpful (such as EasyEclipse).

All the best,
Lochman

Thanks Lochman, I'll give the book and that text editor a go

:)

I am working through Joomla! Start to Finish and I get to chapter 12 and wham - It uses Dreamweaver for the examples. Bummer. It mentions another freeware item - Kompozer but doesn't use it in the text examples. I don't have access to Dreamweaver and am not going to buy if for this text.

There was no mention of the use of DW in the book prior to chapter 12(of 15). It would have been a book killer for me if I knew of its usage. I still don't know how to change the default logo that comes with joomla.

This book is mostly about how to work with a client for whom you will be developing a joomla site. It tends to overlook some basic needs till the very end of the text.

Good luck in your search, I am now looking at books that discuss joomla templates.

You do not need Dreamweaver. You could do it all with Notepad. The advantage to a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver, Kompozer, or any HTML, PHP and CSS editor is the WYSIWYG. They are just tools to make it easier thaat notpad.

If you really want to start developing extentiosns for Joomla then you really should consider the investment of purchaing a good editor. It will save you months in development time and testing.

If find that learning CSS is a big help with creating templates.

When creating templates, a good image/graphics editor is almost a must have. Photoshop is very popular. Again this is worth the investment.

Have you seen this: http://www.gantry-framework.org/ ?

__________________
Boyd Trimmell aka HiTechCoach (.com)
Microsoft Access MVP Alumni 2010-2015

Point taken.

Thanks.

That's the main doc I use to find out more about Joomla! Thanks!