Wednesday, October 24, 2007

At home with Joomla

REMEMBER THAT WEBHOSTING PACKAGE that I won at PBS Wika 2007 blog tilt? It has come to life with the help of Joomla. It is an Open Source Content Management System. Honestly, I do not know anything about web development or content management system. So I asked Jared, one of my previous officemates who is now working as Systems Administrator for the Provincial Government of Zamboanga del Norte and is currently based in Dipolog City, and he recommended Joomla.

Using Fantastico in the C-panel, I installed Joomla. Being too familiar and accustomed with blog formats, I had some difficulty using it at first. I did not like the template installed, and it seems more complicated than blog formats! I wondered how I could customize my website. After some futile attempts, I decided to just delete the installation. Instead I educated myself by reading more articles about Joomla, browsed through the different free Joomla templates available, and have to learn how to use it. Luckily, I also found one template that suits my taste--clean, simple and free from clutter (which is exactly how I wanted it to be.)

In every step or in every feature that you do, there is help for administrator which provides the guidelines in detail. Unlike blogging templates, web-content management is more complicated because you have to create a section, then category, then you can post your article. The user interface though is quite easy to learn, and one has to have some patience tweaking everything until you get the look exactly how you wanted it to be. I still have to learn how to tweak its HTML though (although I am already contented with it for now). The CSS is easy to tweak. You must have a ready list of the hexadecimal color codes and names.

And so, after 2 nights of grueling with my personal website, Joomla template, and web-hosting courtesy of PBS, this is how it looks now:


My personal website serves as an aggregator of all my blogs and my photography site. This compelled me to buy a one-year Flickr Pro account which costs me $24.95. Good thing, dollar is cheaper now. Although I am still wary if my credit card purchase was safe.


Feel free to visit my site at VIEWPOINTS.

2 - inked their thoughts:

nadine said...

Hi, I read about your e-flower movement on the Inquirer website. I've posted my tribute to the families of those killed in the Glorietta blast at
http://indaybadids.multiply.com/journal/item/27/E-Flowers_for_the_Families_who_lost_loved_ones_in_the_Glorietta_2_explosion

INKBLOTS said...

Thank you, Inday! I do note have a multiply account that is why I cannot thank you there. I will include your link to the article below.

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About Inkblots: Life Unraveled

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INKBLOTS
In the life-long quest for coming up with realistic notions about life, this blog ponders and threshes out my advocacies, thoughts, feelings observations, and anything about mundane existence that I perceive to be worthy of the sagacity of the mind and curiosity of the soul. This blog is inspired by Rorschach's (pronounced as 'ror-shak') Inkblots Test, which is a projective technique in psychological testing. The inkblots convey personal meanings to different people.
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