Beginning Joomla!® Web Site Development

Introduction

Content management systems have been around in one form or another for as long as there has been content. The efficient and effective management and presentation of content is one of the most important tasks facing web designers, web developers, and web site administrators. Some systems of managing and presenting content are more efficient and effective than others.

Ten years ago (and perhaps for some of you, ten minutes ago) web content was managed and presented in a terribly inefficient manner. The system consisted of web directories full of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) files, images, and other media files, and was organized in a directory tree structure much like your computer operating system is organized. Each page of content in a web site represented a single, stand-alone HTML file. Making any sort of changes to your content required a working knowledge of HTML, and the patience to dig through all of the files to find the correct file to change. Changing the overall look and feel of the site was an even more arduous task, because it required changing the HTML of each and every file in the system. What a nightmare!

It didn't take long for many to transition from this system to a slightly more efficient system of server side includes (SSI). This was a method of building one HTML file to serve as the framework for the look and feel of the site, and "including" content from other text files within that HTML file. This was one way to separate the presentation of ...