Joomla 1.6 Global Configuration

Just as in the previous versions, Joomla 1.6 has a Global Configuration area. You can find it in Joomla Admin, Top admin panel, Site, Global Configuration. There you will find 4 tabs with the following options:

1. Site - here you can change all basic site settings such as site name, meta data and SEO options. You can also put your site offline and set the offline message from here.
All options are important in the Site tab, especially the SEO ones. If you are using Apache webserver, you will have to rename the file htaccess.txt to .htaccess in order for the Use Apache mod_rewrite feature to work.
2. System - while most of the settings in the system tab are rather advanced, you should definitely pay attention to two of them:
   • Cache Settings - set it to On - Progressive Caching if you’d like maximum caching and fastest Joomla. Set it to On - Conservative if you’d like to disable modules caching. In any case there is cache time in minutes. During this time changes may not appear because cached copies will be served to the viewers.
   • Session Settings - this is the timeframe during which you will stay logged in your Joomla even if you are inactive. Increase it if you are annoyed by being logged out too often from your Joomla.
3. Server - most of the settings here should be automatically configured during the installation. You might want to change the Location Settings if you are in a different time zone though. This will help you when the published date of your articles is incorrect or when you receive Joomla notifications with invalid date.
4. Permissions - this is probably the most important improvement in Joomla 1.6. It gives you the opportunity to allow / disallow certain actions for the different access levels and groups users. By default you should change nothing in the Permissions for a standard site. These functions are rather meant for sites with complex structure and multiple user levels.

Upgrade Joomla 1.6 to Joomla 1.7

Upgrading Joomla 1.6 to 1.7 is fairly easy. However, we strongly recommend that you make a full backup of your website in case something goes wrong. For more information on that matter check our tutorial on How to Backup your Joomla site.

First, make sure that your Joomla 1.6 application is updated to the latest version of the 1.6 branch - Joomla 1.6.5. Then, go to Extensions -> Extensions Manager page in your Joomla administrative area.

On this page you have to locate the Update tab and click on it. It will take you to the page, responsible for the update process.

Once you are on this page, press the "Find Updates" button in the upper menu. It will check for the latest Joomla upgrade available.

In few seconds the new Joomla version should appear. Select it and press the "Update" button. It will download the appropriate upgrade package and apply it to your site.

In few seconds the update process will complete and you will have a working Joomla 1.7 ready to be used! Since the new version of Joomla uses the same template engine, your website front end should not be changed in any way.

Finding Help For Joomla 1.6

While working with Joomla 1.6 you may stumble upon bugs,  have difficulties accomplishing certain things or just wonder about the exact functionality of a feature. Luckily, Joomla is well documented, very popular among web masters and strongly supported by its community. This ensures that you will find help fast, which is not always the case for other software.

First, about the bugs. Just as any software Joomla has bugs too. The least you can do in return for using this great software for free is to report promptly any bug you come upon. This can be done directly on Joomla 1.6 issues tracker. Please just make sure that you are reporting a real bug. If you have even the slightest doubt, try to discuss it first with the community. 

Second, how to get help from the community. Many forums serve Joomla community such as:

• Siteground Joomla forum - a popular Joomla forum  administerered by experts in Joomla (the Siteground Support team), which ensures prompt replies to your issues.
• Official Joomla forum (forum.joomla.org) - the official Joomla forum

Even though Joomla community is very friendly and helpful, please just make sure to do 2 things before posting your request:

1. Make sure that no one else has posted a similar topic or asked a similar question. For this purpose you can search the forum or even check it with Google.
2. Check thoroughly the Joomla documentation for a related article. Almost everything in Joomla is documented and well explained. Joomla has made it very easy to read the documentation about a certain feature. You just have to click on the help icon as shown in the picture below:

Hopefully, when using Joomla 1.6 you will not have to look for help too often and you will find it intuitive and easy to use.

Redirect Manager in Joomla 1.6

Another new feature in Joomla 1.6 is the Redirect Manager. It can be of great help to your site SEO by allowing you to redirect old (invalid) URLs to new working ones. Without a redirection you will get a 404 error - component not found which is bad for your search engine ranking.

Redirect Manager's functionality is quite straightforward. You just add a new redirection and make sure that its status is active. Please just make sure to specify the full source and destination URL such as http://example.org/full_url/. 

We acclaim this new feature in Joomla 1.6 because it is essential to any modern site and proof for this is that it has been available in third party Joomla SEO extensions for quite some time.

Managing Joomla 1.6 Extensions

Extensions in Joomla 1.6 are managed from the Administrator panel, the Extensions button in the top menu. There you find a page with the following tabs:

 Install, Update, Manage, Discover and check Warning in Joomla 1.6 Extension Manager

 

 As you can see each tab has its purpose. Some tabs are self-explanatory, like Install for example. Others, however, like Warnings, are not. Let’s go briefly through each of them and check their options:

1. Install - this tab offers you 3 ways to install a new extension - upload a file, use a file already uploaded to your site or directly download an extension from an URL. The latter is new for Joomla and would allow faster and easier extensions installation. However, it may not work on all servers.
2. Update  - this is another new feature which will allow you to update Joomla and its extensions directly from the admin panel. This is similar to Wordpress update functionality and the cornerstone for stable and secure installation.
Since this feature is very new you are strongly advised to be very careful using it and to always create backups beforehand. It may severely damage your Joomla and wipe out all its files.
3. Manage - in this tab you can enable, disable and most importantly uninstall extensions. It is important to know that this is the only place in the admin area which will allow you to uninstall an extension and this may confuse users of previous Joomla versions.
4. Discover - this is another new function which can detect incomplete Joomla 1.6 extensions installations. For example, if Discover finds files for mod_example extension in modules/ it will show the installation as incomplete and give you the option to complete it.
5. Warnings - this screen will show you errors related to your extensions and their installation. These errors could be anything from missing files to incompatibility with other extensions or the core Joomla installation.

Extending Joomla 1.6

Joomla 1.6 can be easily extended and customized just as its previous versions. For those who are not familiar with Joomla extensions we will explain the role of Joomla components, modules, plugins, templates and languages through which you can extend the functionality of your site.

Joomla components provide the most extensive functionality of all extensions. They can completely alter the functionality and look of a Joomla-powered website. For example, with a component you can turn part of your Joomla into an online store, forum or photo gallery. 

Joomla modules can be used if you are looking for minor functionality extension such as adding a block in your pages for showing the weather. Each module can be published in predefined blocks or template positions which differ for each template.

Joomla plugins are invisible to the end user since they don’t show directly in parts of your site. However, plugins are very powerful and can change Joomla input / output in various ways. An example of a plugin is the one used for changing the pagination in Joomla or rewriting the URLs.

Joomla templates are used for changing the look of your site. There are templates for the frontend and for the backend. Most templates are for the frontend since the backend template is visible only for users with special permissions (e.g. administrators). By default, Joomla 1.6 comes with 3 frontend and 2 backend templates. If you haven’t chosen your template yet, check the ones in our free Joomla templates gallery.

Last but not least, there are Joomla languages. You will need an additional language pack in case you plan to create your site in a language different from English, which is the default one.

When looking for Joomla extensions it is important to make sure that the one you choose is compatible with your Joomla version. Joomla 1.5 had legacy mode which allowed older extensions to be used. However, Joomla 1.6 does not have such option and it does not support extensions for previous versions.

Contact Us page in Joomla 1.6

Once you start your web site, you will probably want to allow your visitors to contact you. This way they will be able to provide important feedback to the webmaster. For this purpose you need to set a Contact Us page with an online contact form.

Open your Joomla 1.6 admin area and navigate to Components->Contacts->Categories.

Click on the New button and enter the details of your new contacts category. Only the Title value is required. You can also set the preferred configuration for the rest of the options.

Save the changes and return to Components->Contacts->Contacts.

Click on the New icon to begin the setup of your Contact us page.

Enter the required values in the corresponding fields.

Review the options listed in the right part of the page and set them per your needs.

In order to receive a copy of the contact form inquiries, enter a valid e-mail in the Contact Options list.

Save the Contact Us page setup and navigate to Menus->Main Menu to publish it. Click on Add New Menu Item.

Define the menu item type from the corresponding dialog.

Enter the Menu Title value and select the contact in the right part of the page by clicking on the Change Contact button.

Review and set the other options that are not mandatory per your requirements.

Save the new menu item and check it on the front end.