Understanding Joomla

Watch Jen Kramer's video from lynda.com's "Joomla 1.6 Essential Training" series, "Understanding Joomla."

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You might have built a web site before with Dreamweaver, FrontPage, or GoLive.

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These tools typically create what are called static web sites.

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A static web site is quite simple.

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Type in a web address like www.lynda.com into your computer's web browser.

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A web browser is a piece of software that displays web pages from the Internet,

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like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or Opera.

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The request for the web page goes from your computer, also called the client, to the web server.

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Server is a tricky word that means two different things.

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One is a hardware sense of the word.

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A server is a very powerful computer that is shared in some way.

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Server can also be used in the software sense.

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This is software designed to serve up web pages.

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Apache and Internet Information Server are examples of server software that's

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compatible with Joomla.

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The web server is frequently used interchangeably with the web host.

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A web host is a service that offers web servers for your use.

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The server locates the page called index.html in its files for lynda.com and it

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sends a copy of this page back to the client.

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It also finds any associated images, CSS, Flash files, and JavaScript, and it

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sends those along as well.

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The client displays the page plus the images and other associated files.

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The system is static in that the pages contained fixed content.

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The server simply picks the right page from the right location and sends it.

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No processing of that page is required.

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You create the web pages on your computer, the client, and you send a copy of

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those pages to the web server via FTP.

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All the web server does is store those pages and send out copies as requested.

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A Content Management System or CMS is very different than a static site.

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A CMS is a web application-- software that runs on the server instead of on the client.

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For example, Microsoft Word runs on your computer, the client.

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Google Docs, however, runs on the server.

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Both applications are designed to create and edit word processing documents, but

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the way they get that job done is very different.

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CMSs generally function in the same kind of way from a

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bird's-eye perspective.

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The server software, middleware software, and database software may vary, but

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the functionality is pretty much the same.

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Just like before, type in a web address like www.twotreesoliveoil.com/index.php

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into your computer's web browser.

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Your computer sends the request for this page to the web server.

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The web server looks in its files, realizes the page you've requested is written

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in PHP, a programming language.

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The web server knows it can't send this page as-is to the client.

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Some processing must be done first.

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So instead, the web server sends this request to PHP.

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PHP looks at the document and determines that some information needs to be

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pulled from the database and then processed.

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PHP is functioning as middleware in this way.

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This means that PHP mediates the discussion between the web server and the database.

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The server and the database can't talk to each other directly.

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They need a translator that can understand "server speak" and "database speak."

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Others examples of programming languages used in this role include ASP, .NET,

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ColdFusion, Java, and Perl.

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A database is a collection of organized information.

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Our particular database in Joomla is called MySQL.

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But other types of databases include MSSQL or Oracle.

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Access is a database that runs on your laptop and is not suitable to use in a web site.

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The database receives a request for information from PHP via a database query.

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The requested information is copied from the database and sent back to PHP.

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PHP arranges the database information into the way specified in the PHP code.

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The actual PHP code is stripped out from the page and replaced with HTML,

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according to the instructions on the page.

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Now that the page is created and it consists of HTML and associated files, that

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is sent to the client to view.

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All of this happens in the blink of an eye.

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In order to run Joomla therefore, you must have a web server configured with

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Apache or IIS, PHP, and MySQL including the right versions of those pieces of software.

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You can check joomla.org for the latest requirements and recommended web hosts.

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So obviously, a CMS is way more complicated than a static web site.

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In fact, you may be a bit intimidated by all of that technology running your site.

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Why are CMSs preferred over static web sites?

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Because of the power of the database, web sites are much easier to maintain with

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the CMS than they are with the static web site.

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If you wish to make changes to a CMS web site, you can change it without knowing

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HTML, PHP, MySQL, or anything else, which means your average client can easily

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create new pages, link them to menus, change content, and make other updates

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without talking to you.

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In a world where we increasingly integrate photo galleries, calendars, social

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media, news feeds, blogs, and other dynamic information, a CMS becomes more

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important due to the ease of integrating these features into the web site.

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If you are still feeling like a CMS is complicated, don't panic.

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This movie is as geeky as the rest of the title gets.

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Keep watching and you'll start to feel more comfortable with Joomla very shortly.

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