EVERYDAY OPERATIONS

 

1. Basic controls: what is where

   • Basic layout of CMS (Joomla), with some explanations.
   • The 3 basic definitions you have to know are: Component, Module, and Plugin. They are interdependent sometimes.
     Component = large script, accessible at Admin panel Components. Contatins some general underlying logic.
     Module is what you will need most. It’s a block at Admin panel Modules, that outputs some data that is added / editable via related Component.
     Menu, sliders, News blocks – they are all Modules. If you need to edit some block or add another – go edit it’s module, or create a new one.
     Plugin – a small helping script at Admin panel Plugins, dedicated to one specific purpose. Like for making readable urls, ability to pop-up images, etc.

2. How to set order for articles, slides, modules

   1.  Mostly, you can set the order in the ‘Ordering’ column. Either step-bystep (clicking – arrows, and pressing save   ), or in a single step
   2. Another way is by entering numbers next to the items in question, then pressing save ).

3. Search: how and why we use it:

   The website has 2 searches: front-end one, and admin one. They are both ‘live’, i.e. are searching on-the-fly, without pressing enter, just by typing. The kind of a search you see at www.apple.com
   I encourage you to use admin search. It speeds up searching for an article or module a lot. Just be sure you are about to edit the right thing, read search results carefully: it can show you 3 exact same headings, but 1^st link says it is for a menu item, 2^nd can be for an article linked to by that menu item, the 3^rd can be for a module.
   Please also note that the admin search looks up only in titles of articles, modules, components, plugins. It does not look in contents of articles, etc., unfortunately.

4. Names for files and images

   Try avoiding russian/ukrainian names. Best practices are to use UTF-8 characters and the characters a-zA-Z0-9_.-~ in file/folder names.

5. Images : how do they behave and pop-up?

   • Default behaviour – aligned to the left, flown around by text.
   • Pop-up is automatic, IF you shrink the dimensions of the image in the article.
     If the image is inserted in 100% of its size – it’s NOT popped-up.

6. Slider (like the one on the Home page): how to use

7. Video: Add / remove / edit
   

   • Go to Components Webplayer Videos. You just fill the required fields, and that’s it.
     You have to fill at least 3 fields:
     – Title,
     – Video Type
     – Category (pls select ‘General’, videos with no category are not shown)
     Also pay attention to SEO Settingskeywords.
   • Categories for video: currently there’s only 1 category, ‘General’. But any number of categories can easily be added.
   • Sorting videos is done as per 2.1 above.

8. When renaming a file, JCE (visual editor) gives you ‘Error 403: : INVALID PATH’ :

   You have bad file / folder name. Just reupload that file via JCE File Browser. And from now on use correct file name, as specified in paragraph #4 above.
   That error might happen when uploading logos via RSForm.

   Spaces are allowed if the “Allow spaces in file/folder names” option in JCE settings is set to “Yes” (default is “No”).

9. Approving EUEA member  :

   1. Suppose that a would-be Member has submitted his data via ‘Become a Member’ form.
   2. The Member and site admin both get a notification, each one – his own text.
      What Member needs to do:  nothing.
      What Admin needs to do:
      • go to Admin panel Components RSForm Pro manage submissions. 
      • Select the form you want
      • Check if the data has really been submitted:  You can filter the whole list by, let’s say, new Member’s name.
      • Admin edits Member’s data, and in the field ‘Confirmed’ значение yes. This shows his data on the website.
      • Go to Admin panel Users User manager. Activate the username for the Member, so that he would be able to login.

        Also, for better understanding, see these 2 screenshots:
         

10. Deleting EUEA Member:

    1. Delete the data submitted by the Member via RSForm Pro (Same links, as above).
    2. Delete his respective user, via Admin panel Users User manager. (Same links, as above)

11. Modal popups: how to use

12. Floating tips: how to use

13. Module in an article: how to

14. Contacts page: howto

    It is organized via ‘aiContactSafe’ component.  
    To change contact data, go under Components  aiContactSafe Profiles  Default form-ENG [or UKR, whatever you need]   Edit contact.
    For example , for the english version, here is the direct link.
    Warning: Joomla strips code for google maps. Use an iframe (like shown below, it’s copied from Google Maps), and only add this code by first toggling the editor off: 

    <iframe width="300" height="300" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com.ua/maps?f=q&amp;source=s_q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=%D0%B6%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8F%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F+31+%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B5%D0%B2&amp;aq=&amp;sll=50.437104,30.503261&amp;sspn=0.006929,0.021136&amp;gl=ua&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=%D0%96%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8F%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F+%D1%83%D0%BB.,+31,+%D0%9A%D0%B8%D0%B5%D0%B2,+%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4+%D0%9A%D0%B8%D0%B5%D0%B2&amp;t=m&amp;ll=50.433154,30.512509&amp;spn=0.008201,0.012832&amp;z=15&amp;iwloc=A&amp;output=embed"></iframe>

 

Back-up and Restore website

1. Backup

    Akeeba Backup helps you to make a backup. there  you get your backup done in a couple of clicks. Very simple.

Backups are located in ‘/_backups’ folder.

1. 1. There are 2 backup profiles: with ‘/images’, and without it (a very quick one, taking little space). You can choose what  you need.

2. Restore

   Is done with Akeeba Kickstart. Pls use this visual guide, or official Docs. Just a bit harder than to make a backup: you need to know things like your Database name, DB user / password. And first, be sure to upload the Akeeba Kickstart files and the backup file itself.

   1. As the site grows in size, I strongly recommend using Kickstart, and not restoring manually via FTP/DB access. It will save you very much time

Otherwise, your backups are done automatically by Altima hosting company, no less than weekly, according to your Agreement.

 

Actions when changing domain name / location :

 

• GENERAL: Change the variable $live_site, located in /configuration.php (in the root folder). You might also want to adjust these:   $dbtype, $host, $user, $password, $db
• FORMS: Change the path, to which Members’ logos are uploaded, when a new Member submits the form. It’s done at /administrator/index.php?option=com_rsform&task=forms.edit&formId=1, then you edit ‘Logo‘ Field, under ‘Attributes‘ tab you have the ‘Destination’ option. That’s it.
• OTHER: Also, check other places, where absolute paths might be set. (absolute paths = paths, which contain domain name or internal server paths (e.i., see php value for document_root))

 

Hidden components

This is for advanced users, do not touch otherwise.

1. AceSQL – makes test SQL queries. Mainly for development stage.
2. AcyMailing – very powerful mailing/subscription component. Can be used at any moment. Lots of functions, absolutely best way to get in touch with target audience. Features: Personalized newsletter, automated and scheduled.

 

Modified components

1. RSForm Pro: files that have been changed.
   1. /components/com_rsform/models/submissions.php. Commented lines to disable pagination, to allow jQuery sortable pagination to work
   2. /components/com_rsform/views/submissions/tmpl/default.php.  This is the output of the component. Edited heavily. Has integrated ‘Members Counter’ and some other bells and whistles.

   3.  Submissions page in admin panel (?what file?). Reworked to have a more clear view.