Part I: Getting Started with Joomla! 46 Note Joomla! classifies modules into two categories: Site modules and Administrator modules. The Site modules are visible on the front end of the site. The Administrator modules are only visible on the back end of the site. To view and manipulate the Site modules, access the Module Manager. Cross-Reference Site modules are discussed in Chapter 17. Administrator modules are covered in Chapter 18. Introducing the Back End (The Admin Interface) The back end of your Joomla! site is the administration interface where the majority of your site management activities occur. Access to the admin system is controlled by a login form and is restricted to only those users who are assigned to user groups higher than publisher. By default the admin login page is always located at /administrator, for example, www.yourdomain.com/ administrator . Note Back-end users should access the system with only more recent versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari to assure maximum accessibility to all the admin functions. Older or more obscure browsers may not function optimally. Exploring the admin interfaces Three primary types of interfaces are in the admin system: the Control Panel, the manager pages, and the workspace pages. I cover each of these interfaces in the following sections. Control Panel The first page you see when you log into the admin system is the Control Panel, as shown in Figure 3.5. You can also return to this page at any time by selecting the option Control Panel under the Site Menu. The Control Panel is designed to provide administrators with quick access to the most frequently used tasks and tools as well as a summary of useful information. Chapter 3: Taking a Look at Joomla! 47 FIGURE 3.5 The Control Panel is the first page you see when you log in to the back-end admin system. At the top left of the page is the main navigation menu. Click on the choices to access the various areas of the admin system. At the top right of each page is a set of tools that provides you with the following functionality: l Preview: Click to open a preview of the front end of the site. l Mail icon (no label): This shows you the number of unread messages in the admin sys- tem’s Private Messaging center. Click to open the Private Messaging Manager. l People icon (no label): The number shown here indicates the number of users logged in to the site. l Logout: Click this icon to log out of the admin system. Part I: Getting Started with Joomla! 48 On the left side of the page, below the main navigation bar, are the shortcut icons. The icons are simply provided as a convenience; they are accelerators that repeat functionality that can be found under the menus at the top of the main navigation page. Click on any icon to open the functional- ity in the browser. On the right side of the page is the Welcome Message, along with various information concerning the current state of the site. In addition to the Welcome Message, the options visible in Joomla! 1.5.x are: l Logged in Users: A list of all users currently logged in to the system. l Popular: A list of the most frequently viewed articles on the site. l Recent Added Articles: A list of the most recently modified articles on the site. l Menu Stats: A list of all the menus with a count of the Items assigned to each. l Joomla! Security Newsfeed: This tab shows the RSS news feed from the Joomla! Security Team. This is provided as a convenience to help keep you informed of alerts and notifica- tions of upgrades and vulnerabilities. Tip The output you see on the Control Panel page is created by various Administrator modules. You can customize the appearance of this page somewhat to suit your needs by re-ordering or disabling Modules. Manager pages All of the various manager interfaces in the admin system are largely similar. The pages are struc- tured consistently, though the data displayed may vary. Click on any of the manager links in the shortcut icons on the Control Panel or use the links under the main admin nav bar to see a man- ager page similar to what is shown in Figure 3.6. Manager pages are designed to handle large numbers of items and to display key information. In the chapters that follow, this book looks at each of the managers and explains the controls and the information that you see on that page. Workspace pages Once you click through from the manager page to perform a specific task, in the vast majority of cases you are taken to a page with a workspace layout. All workspace pages are largely similar, with elements laid out consistently. Typically a workspace page displays the key elements you see in Figure 3.7 including l A toolbar at the top right l The primary information fields at the top left, below the title l A text field, where necessary, at the bottom left l Parameters fields on the right side of the page Chapter 3: Taking a Look at Joomla! 49 FIGURE 3.6 A typical Manager page interface, in this case the Article Manager in Joomla 1.5.x. In the following chapters, this book looks at each of the various workspaces and explains the con- trols and the information that you see on those pages. Tip Although the Joomla! admin interface is designed to work just fine on a wide variety of screen display settings, the workspace pages really benefit from having your display set to a resolution greater than 1024 x 768. Part I: Getting Started with Joomla! 50 FIGURE 3.7 A typical Workspace Page interface, in this case the Article Editing Dialogue in Joomla 1.5.x. The Site menu Clicking on the Site option on the admin main nav displays the following options: l Control Panel: Click to return to the Control Panel. l User Manager: Click to open the User Manager. l Media Manager: Click to open the Media Manager. l Global Configuration: Click to open the Global Configuration Manager. l Logout: Click to log out of the admin system. Note this is redundant with the Logout icon on the top right of each admin page. Chapter 3: Taking a Look at Joomla! 51 The Menus menu Clicking on the Menus option on the admin main nav displays the following options: l Menu Manager: Click to open the Menu Manager. l Menu Trash: Click to open the Menu Trash Manager. l Main Menu: Click to open the Main Menu’s Menu Item Manager. l User Menu: Click to open the User Menu’s Menu Item Manager. l Top Menu: Click to open the Top Menu’s Menu Item Manager. l Resources: Click to open the Resources Menu’s Menu Item Manager. l Example Pages: Click to open the Example Pages Menu’s Menu Item Manager. l Key Concepts: Click to open the Key Concepts Menu’s Menu Item Manager. Joomla! 1.6 The Menu Trash option does not appear in this location in Joomla! 1.6; instead it is integrated into the toolbar at the top right of each Menu Manager. The Content menu Clicking on the Content option on the admin main nav displays the following options: l Article Manager: Click to open the Article Manager. l Article Trash: Click to open the Article Trash Manager. l Section Manager: Click to open the Section Manager. l Category Manager: Click to open the Category Manager. l Front Page Manager: Click to open the Front Page Manager. Joomla! 1.6 The Content menu does no t exist in Joomla! 1.6; instead you can access the content articles from under the Articles option on the Components menu. The Components menu Clicking on the Components option on the admin main nav displays the following options: l Banner: Click to go to the Banner Component. Sub-nav choices here let you jump directly to the Banner Manager, the Banner Client Manager, and the Banner Category Manager. l Contacts: Click to access the Contacts Component. Sub-nav choices here let you jump directly to the Contacts Manager and the Contacts Category Manager. l News Feeds: Click to access the News Feed Component. Sub-nav choices here let you jump directly to the Feeds Manager and the News Feeds Category Manager. Part I: Getting Started with Joomla! 52 l Polls: Click to open the Polls Component. l Search: Click to access the Search Statistics. l Web Links: Click to access the Web Links Component. Sub-nav choices here let you jump directly to the Links Manager and the Web Links Category Manager. Joomla! 1.6 The Components menu in Joomla! 1.6 includes a number of differences. First, the menu includes the option articles, which give access to the Articles Manager. Second, the menu does not include the Polls option, as the Polls component is not included in the Joomla! core in version 1.6.x. Finally, the menu does not include the Search option, as that functionality has been removed. The Extensions menu Clicking on the Extensions option on the admin main nav displays the following options: l Install/Uninstall: Click to go to the Install/Uninstall Extensions functionality. l Module Manager: Click to open the Module Manager. l Plugin Manager: Click to open the Plugin Manager. l Template Manager: Click to open the Template Manager. l Language Manager: Click to open the Language Manager. Joomla! 1.6 The Extensions menu in Joomla! 1.6 includes only one small difference: The option Install/Uninstall has been renamed to Extension Manager. The Tools menu Clicking on the Tools option on the admin main nav displays the following options: l Read Messages: Click to access the admin system Private Messaging Manager. l Write Message: Click to write a message using the admin system’s Private Messaging Manager. l Mass Mail: Click to send mail to the site’s users. l Global Checkin: Click to force all items currently open for editing to close. l Clean Cache: Click to open the Cache Manager. l Purge Expired Cache: Click to open the Cache Manager’s Purge Cache function. Joomla! 1.6 The Tools menu in Joomla! 1.6 includes one additional function: Redirect. Clicking on the Redirect option opens the Redirect Manager, which allows you to redirect specific URLs to specific pages. Chapter 3: Taking a Look at Joomla! 53 The Help menu Clicking on the Help option on the admin main nav displays the following options: l Joomla Help: Click to open an index of the help topics available from the Joomla! help system. l System Info: Click to view information about your server system and your Joomla! instal- lation. Summary In this chapter, we have taken a quick tour of both the front end and the back end of the default Joomla! installation. You learned the following: l How the content is organized l How the menus and menu items are structured l How to access the admin system l How the Admin interfaces are organized l The contents of each of the menus on the main admin navigation bar . resolution greater than 10 24 x 768 . Part I: Getting Started with Joomla! 50 FIGURE 3.7 A typical Workspace Page interface, in this case the Article Editing Dialogue in Joomla 1. 5 .x. The Site menu Clicking. to open the Language Manager. Joomla! 1. 6 The Extensions menu in Joomla! 1. 6 includes only one small difference: The option Install/Uninstall has been renamed to Extension Manager. The Tools menu Clicking. choices here let you jump directly to the Links Manager and the Web Links Category Manager. Joomla! 1. 6 The Components menu in Joomla! 1. 6 includes a number of differences. First, the menu includes