Developing a Mambo Site by Firestorm

firestorm · 08-29-2006, 08:27 PM

Through out the next few months, alnog with Lyte's project, I will be discussing how to develop, edit, and publish a mambo (CMS-Content Management System) site. First off, you need to download Mambo CMS.

You can either download it from mamboserver or install it using Fantastico in your cpanel (some might not have this). More info on how to download it will come soon.

The site I will be developing is one of Lyte's. It is WhatisFTP. Our goal is to make this site look good, display info in an easy to read fashion, hook up a few RSS feeds regarding FTP's and make it where no one can misunderstand what FTP is after viewing the site. This project will be started in a few days and will be updated periodically, when I have time. Any questions can either be emailed, pm'ed, or posted here about the site.

-fire

**Lyte** · 08-29-2006, 11:54 PM

Excellent! I can't wait to watch it progress and learn how to use a content mangement systems (CMS). I have no clue!

firestorm · 09-11-2006, 08:54 PM

When you finish downloading Mambo, you can go to your website and see the newly installed CMS

. Here is the screen you should see at the beginning(will be a different theme, but same material, just different colors).

Anytime you update or change your website, you need to log in as the administrator. You can do that by clicking the Administrator link on the left or by going to the following url.

Code:

http://www.yoururl.com/administrator/

Once logged in you have a variety of options. This will be where 90% of your changes will take place. I will refer to this as the admin or main panel. Here is what it should look like(again, with different colors).

This is enough reading for one post. I will make another one shortly regarding themes and minor redesign.

firestorm · 09-12-2006, 06:15 PM

Well, no one that I can think of likes an ugly website. Atleast not me

. Some of you might like the standard WaterandStone800 template, which is a nice one. Let's just say I don't like that one though and am going to chose a diffent one. Since this is Lyte's site, she picked out one from http://joomlahacks.com. Joomla and Mambo templates work hand and hand at this point in time, so feel free to search for any mambo or joomla template.

Templates can be changed at anytime. Don't feel like you have to pick one certain one and stick with it for the rest of your life

. You can change individual images as well, just read further down the post.

To install a template, you first need to download one. The one I am using can be downloaded at the link above and is called Orange Smoothie. The cool thing about mambo, is that you don't have to unzip the folder that you downloaded the template in. Go back into the cool lil' admin panel. From there you will see the top menu bar. Click Site>Template Manager>Site Templates.(all directional info will be in lime green). Then click the new button(right side, kinda near the top). You will see a white box that says Package File. Browse and upload the .zip file that your template was downloaded in. Mambo will do the rest for you. Go back to Site>Template Manager>Site Template and click the circle beside the newly installed template. In the top mddle, select the default icon to make the new template work.

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Now for the images. Say you don't like the look of an image. On the main page of your website, right click that image, and click view(FF users) or show(IE users) on the pop up menu. The path in the url bar is the path to that picture. Go into your ftp account or your cpanel, and find that picture, using the path above. The path to the header on my site would be http://whatisftp.com/templates/rhuk_...ric_header.jpg
All images for the new template will be held in

Code:

http://yoururl.com/templates/template name/images

I assume that you know how to edit an image, if you don't know how to, then use paint or google how to. PM me if you need help on editting images.

. Image editting can be tedious, that is why I try to find a template that I like, without having many images to mess with.

The next session will deal with editting the menu and the main content areas. Simple stuff, just has to be done.

jordan · 09-26-2006, 10:57 AM

That is a very nice looking site if you ask me. One question though, why did you choose mamboo instead of joomla?

firestorm · 09-26-2006, 07:24 PM

just b/c. Right now, the difference are minor. I just liked mambo at the time. Will eventually swap it to Joomla, since that is where all the good coders went. Right now though, I see nothing wrong with mambo, especially for a site that doesn't really have anything to be protected.(by that I mean, no user info, credit card #'s, and stuff like that).