Introduction

The tutorial "Introduction to Creating Dynamic Websites with Joomla! CMS" is organized by the specialized high-tech company Digital Academy created by the Group of Speakers of the NTUA Multimedia Technology Laboratory. It is an intensive seminar that is carried out exclusively with the method of Distance Learning (e-learning), allowing the learner to follow a high-level scientific training program from his home, his office, or from the place of his choice and at the time of his choice, via Internet. The program has been designed in such a way by the laboratory, so that it combines high-level theoretical knowledge as well as practical advice for the design and implementation of integrated and functional websites using the popular Web CMS Joomla! which, with its modular architecture, extensibility and open source nature, has won a large share of supporters worldwide.

The seminar consists of 10 modules that are completed over a period of 12-15 weeks and corresponds to 140-160 hours of lessons.

Topics

1. Introduction & Installation of Joomla
2. Content Creation/Management
3. Create/Manage Menu
4. Front-end Components
5. Back-end Components,System Configuration
6. Front-end,Back-end Modules & Plugins
7. Create/Customize Templates
8. Extensions, Multilingual Sites with JoomFish
9. Online Stores with VirtueMart
10. Maintenance of Joomla Websites, SEO

Methodology

According to our educational program, the material is divided into 10 educational units and the program is completed with a final exam. The program uses the latest version of the free software (open source) Moodle, which is based on the PHP programming platform. The online courses are hosted on proprietary servers incorporating state-of-the-art technologies such as: Processor 2 x Intel Pentium XEON hyperthreading, Memory 32GB DDR RAM, Hard Disks IBM SCSI U320 HDDs@ 15000 rpm Raptors Hardware RAID 5. The central interface with the internet is carried out through the ESET ( National Research and Technology Network) and is of the order of 1 Gbps (EDET has 2 x 622 Mbps internet connection – Pan-European Research Internet GEANT).

After the seminar

After the seminar, the trainee will have acquired the necessary knowledge and skills to:

• Be able to build a 3-tier architecture based on PHP, either individually or through a package
• To know the basic functions of a Web CMS
• To be able to fully configure the platform so that the site fully meets its requirements
• To extend the platform by selecting and installing the appropriate packages according to its requirements
• To know basic website maintenance topics such as e.g. issues of security, accessibility, SEO etc.

Through the study of the case study presented during the seminar and the tasks of each module, the trainee develops the required skills for the design of professional websites.

Purpose of the seminar

The purpose of the course is to teach learners the basic capabilities of the platform through a series of 10 training modules that cover everything one should know to start developing websites based on Joomla!

The organization of the teaching of the course has been done considering that the trainees have no previous contact with Web technologies (HTML, PHP, CSS, etc.) and therefore, the teaching starts from scratch. However, in order to be able to attend the seminar, the trainees should have at least the basic knowledge of operating one of the operating systems Windows, Linux, Mac OS X.

The training is designed to quickly learn Joomla! Web CMS and its main features. It focuses on the detailed analysis of the most important features of the platform and at the same time properly prepares the trainee to be able to combine them and develop a modern, elegant and functional website that provides its users with all the desired functions. In the course of the seminar, 1 case study of the implementation of a complete website based on Joomla is presented so that the trainees can see in practice the workflow required for the implementation of a complete site, and on the other hand how they can choose and combine the functions of the platform that they wish on a case-by-case basis. During the training, version 3.0.x of the Joomla! platform is used.