The CSS is a key component of the Joomla template system. Not only can multiple CSS files be used with every template but a custom CSS file can be specified with a granular level down to individual articles. Even more importantly to a Joomla practitioner are the features available within a CSS.

If you do a simple survey of most CSS files, you’ll find that their authors only use the most basic features available. CSS is bursting with attributes that can be used to polish the presentation of a Web site. The great news is that nearly all of the various attributes in the CSS specification are supported by all popular browsers.

In this section, you’ll learn about some of the features that can make your template display stand out from other sites. You’ll see how positioning can be used to locate text over an image. You’ll learn the best practices about locating image references in the CSS file itself, and how to specify a CSS file for a specific article or target platform (such as cell phone or PDA).

The main Joomla site (www.joomla.org) keeps a directory of extensions that work with Joomla, and also provides a feedback/rating system where users can describe their experiences with the various add-ons. You can directly access the extensions directory here: http://extensions.joomla.org

The Joomla Extension Directory (JED) catalogs more than 1,600 extensions (as of this writing) that have been registered on the system. Each extension is filed in one of 18 categories. The home page of the directory also displays the five most recently added extensions and lists the five top-rated. Each entry in the directory contains descriptive and usage information relating to the add-on.

As of this writing, Joomla has been moving extensions from the Joomla! Forge site to JoomlaCode (http://joomlacode.org). This process has been going on for quite some time and still remains incomplete. If you click on an extension download link in JED and get a “file not found” error, try searching the projects on JoomlaCode to see if the extension has been relocated there. If you still can’t find it, go to a search engine such as Google where you can typically locate a current version on the developer’s home page.

Joomla templates can be made up of a any number of files and folders, but their standardized structure allows Joomla to treat templates generically. That makes it possible to switch the look- and-feel of a Joomla site by simply selecting an alternate template. As long as a template includes a place for component display and a few typical module positions, it can be used interchangeably with most other templates.

Therefore, you will need to know the folders that hold a template (often the root folder, the css folder, and the images folder) and the minimum files required for proper display (index.php, template.css, and templateDetails.xml). There are also several optional files (parameters.ini and template_thumbnail.png) that make it easier to manage a template. Since you may only have experience with templates from the user side, your study should begin by looking at how the Joomla system organizes each template.

Files and Folders
All user templates installed on a Joomla site are stored in the templates directory, which is located at the root directory of a Joomla site. The templates folder holds a single folder for each template installed on the system. The name of the folder must exactly match the name of the template, and the template system is case-sensitive. For example, the template rhuk_milkyway must be contained in the huk_milkyway folder.

Any Source code control (SCC) system needs a repository that acts like a vault to hold the current and archival copies of the files that have been registered with the application. For a single developer, a repository can simply be created as a folder on the local drive. Once the folder is created, SVN can be selected to register it as a repository, and it immediately creates the files and folders that will be needed by the application for housekeeping of the archive.

Create a folder and name it SVN_Repository. This folder may be located on your local drive or, for backup possibilities, may be located on a network drive that is scheduled for automated backup. If you would prefer to set up a SVN Server, you can easily find instructions on that process on the SVN site, although the configurations (particularly in regard to security) are beyond the scope of this book.

Right-click on the folder and, from the context menu, select the TortoiseSVN ➪ Create repository here... option. You will be asked to select the repository type. Leave the default selection and click the OK button. The system should let you know that the repository was created successfully.

Joomla installation is relatively easy for an experienced computer user. This section summarizes the installation steps, so if you haven’t gone through the process, this will familiarize you with the basic features.

Start the installation by downloading the current Joomla image (from www.joomla.org) to a local drive. Expand the archive (either a .zip, .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 file), and place the Joomla files in your Web server directory. In a remote installation, you can use an FTP program such as the free FileZilla to upload the files in the root directory on the Web server.

Before you begin installing on a remote server, you should check to ensure that PHP is functioning properly. You can easily perform this test by creating a file with your text editor (such as Notepad) named test.php and putting in a single line that reads . Save the file and upload it to the remote server. When you access the file (with a URL such as http://www.example.com/test.php), you will be presented with a multipage screen of PHP configuration parameters. If PHP isn’t executing properly, contact your ISP. Be sure to delete this file after it has executed properly because it can reveal a great deal about your Web server to a potential hacker. Additionally, a phpinfo() page is securely included in the Joomla Administrator interface, so you can obtain the information there.