Setting up a Joomla website is not as time consuming as many people think. Based on our experience, we have developed a checklist to install and develop a new website for clients.
As a minimum, below is the check list we follow whenever we install a new Joomla website. Depending on the functionality of the site, we install additional components, plugins and modules:
Step 1: Register Your Site With an ISP, Host or Set Up Your Own Web Server. We prefer registration with Siteground - www.siteground.com
Regardless of some of the testimonials on the web, we have had only excellent support and hosting from Siteground for very reasonable prices. We guess that when you have over 150,000 sites hosted, not everyone can be happy at all times - but we have been so far.
- Create email addresses
- Create subdomains if needed
- Install Joomla with Fantastico without sample data (advanced users)
Step 2: Global Configuration: Site Settings
- Insert Site Name
- Set list length to 100
- Change Global Site Meta Description
- Change Global Site Meta Key Words
- Activate Search Engine friendly URLS
- Select Yes for Apache Mod Rewrite
- Rename Htaccess.txt into .htaccess in the root directory on the server
Step 3: Global Configuration: System Settings
- Disallow user registration
- Set cache to "Yes"
- Increase session life time to 60 or more minutes
Step 4: Global Configuration: Server Settings
- Enable GZIP Page Compression
Step 5: Set Article Manager Parameters
- Set Title Linkable to Yes
- Set Author Name to Hide
- Set Create Date and Time to Hide
- Set Modified Date and Time to Hide
- Set Icons to Hide
Step 6: Install Template
- We prefer JSN EPIC Pro Template by JoomlaShine.
Step 7: Install Joomla Modules
- Note_its for a nice post-it note on the site
- JSN ImageShow - JSN Imageshow Free if we need a flash presentation
- Login Module (is installed with sample data - is a standard Joomla Module)
- Mod_dn Module to showcase featured content. To showcase featured tutorials on the frontpage, we use the Display News Module. Each model shows randomly articles from a certain category and section each time the page is reloaded
- Mod_latestnews Module to show new content (standard Joomla module)
- Breadcrumbs module (is already installed with sample data - is a standard Joomla Module
- "Place here" - a module to show articles in module positions and that allows front editing of articles in a module position (think of a custom html module with the option to front edit the content)
Step 8: Install Joomla Plugins
- Mavik Thumbnail Plugin to generate thumbnails
- BIGSHOT Google Analytics - Bigshot Google Analytics Plugin to insert the tracking code. This plugin allows us to follow traffic to the site. It is amazing how much information is available once you use Analytics. This plug-in is very useful and as with all other extensions on www.test.developmentwork.net, it is for free. Just make sure you sign up with Google for a web-ID (also for free and really easy to do), enter the web ID in the plug-in and activate the plug-inGoogle Verify Plugin if we use Google webmaster services
- SOESimple Plugin to generate metadata for SOE
- Tabs & Slides (in Content) Plugin to insert tabs and slides in an article. We use a simple but very easy to use plugin by joomlaworks
- Jsmallfib Plugin to show a file repository in an article
- Random Content Plugin to show related articles under an article. We use RandomContent - a plug-in to show related articles below the page the following text: “You may also be interested in these articles:” You can also use modules available in the JED for this purpose and place them in template positions
- Xtypo Plugin to generate CSS styles in article. This is used to style some articles with CSS without the need to understand CSS
- Doclink Plugin when we install Docman. When you write an article, you may want to include a direct link to a document that is in the docman repository. With this plugin, you can create links to documents that are in the docman system. The plugin adds an additional button under the editor (like you have a button for the read more function)
- LazyDBbackup Plugin to email backups of the database every week. We recommend that you do not solely rely on the backups of your host. We have installed LazyDbBackup so we get weekly updates from the system by email with a copy of the database
- ECrawler for dragging and dropping images from the Web
- Simple Image Gallery Plugin to generate a gallery that generates thumbnails. We were particularly interested in a gallery that generates thumbnails automatically with a nice shadow and border. We finally ended up with the free version of Simple Image Gallery because of the quality of thumbnails and the limited number of pictures we wanted to show on the site. We would have used phocagallery for larger photo repositories.
- Very Simple Image Gallery Plugin to generate a gallery that generates thumbnails
- plugin_googlemap2 for everything related to Google maps
- Sourcerer to include Javascript and other codes in articles
- FlashChart Content plugin for charts in articles (a great alternative to the more complicated but superior AmCharts)
- Jnavigation to improve page navigation
- Modalizer if we want to show external urls in a modal popup
- Insert Article. A powerful plug-in to insert articles in content
- JCK Editor (excellent editor with spell checker).
Step 9: Install Joomla Components
- Xmap to produce XML sitemaps for Google. Xmap is used as our sitemap. Sitemaps are important for search engine optimization and provides your visitors easy access to your site. The component automatically generates the map - all you need to do is to linkthe component to a menu
- No Number extension manager to manage the fabulous NoNumber extensions
- Joomfish if we develop a multilingual website
- Mjaztools Autopopulate to load files into Docman
- Docman as the default file repository
- Remository is another very good alternative for a file repository
- SectionEx to produce article listings. This component is used to provide visitors an overview of content. It is an extremely powerful component and should be part of the Joomla core
- Phoca Documentation to show a summary of articles. The component automatically generates a map of articles - all you need to do is to link the component to a menu
- Linkr to link to articles, menus, etc. When we started with Joomla, we could not believe that you cannot link to other articles in articles. The “Linkr” component and button plugin are installed to make it possible
- Joomlapack to backup the site
- Content Templater if we need templates for articles
- JComment that enables visitors to leave comments
- jAutoUpdate component to upgrade your Joomal 1.5 version to the latest version directly from the Joomla admin panel
- aiContactSafe - An AJAX driven Joomla! component to place a contact form on your web page with CAPTCHA, profiles, etc
Step 10: Other Settings
- Edit robot.txt to allow the idexing of images (when needed). By default, these are indexed
- Create 404 redirect page: Edit the templates/system/error.php file on your web hosting account