SOLVED Better training tutorials
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- Donna Barnes
- Newbie
- Posts: 7
- Thanks: 0
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From the start, let me say that I am new at Joomla. I took over a site for a none profit and it went well. I have normally done html5 websites and coded them. There has been such aculades over Joomla and Rockettheme templates and the fact that you can make websites responsive, I figured I had better jump on board.
My biggest complaint is that I cannot find a beginners tutorial anywhere. Yesterday I decided to download Gantry 5 as the possibilities of putting modules where I wish looked like it should be fairly easy. I must say I am highly disappointed that the video tutorials and documentation that I have come across assumes that the user has been a Joomla and Rockettheme customer for years and have 'grown up' with these tools.
Please tell me that there is a place to learn from the ground up. I have taken courses from Lynda.com on Joomla. That is not my concern. My concern is spending money and then not finding a place to show me how to convert my gantry 4 website I was building locally to Gantry 5.
I would like to see something that shows you how to take an existing site and redo it as a Gantry 5 site, utilizing an existing site. Does something like this exist?
I really am half tempted to just go back to using Dreamweaver templates to acheive the responsive sites I need. I'm not an expert, I do not claim to be, but how anyone can say that this stuff is for those who don't code is beyond me.
Respectfully submitted,
Donna - Last Edit: 8 years 7 months ago by Donna Barnes.
- DonnaB
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- MrT
- Preeminent Rocketeer
- Posts: 101084
- Thanks: 13484
- Web Designer/Developer
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Hi thank you for your comments.
First of all, yes, there is an assumption that if you are going to use a Joomla template then you are familiar with Joomla and it's terminology. We can't teach you all about Joomla in our documentation but there are plenty of tutorials on the net about Joomla and Lynda.com that you mentioned is one of the best.
Next, Gantry 5 is not backwards compatible with Gantry 4, so converting from a Gantry 4 base template to one based on Gantry 5 can be a more involved procedure than starting fresh with Gantry 5 since you have to "unlearn" some Gantry4 concepts and then learn the Gantry 5 methodology and terminology.
All the Gantry 5 documentation can be found here http://docs.gantry.org/ . That documentation is pretty comprehensive and includes several videos.
All that said, the key differentiator with RT templates and Gantry 5 is the support we offer here in the forum. We answer hundreds of posts a day helping our membership to achieve their goals - so please don't be afraid to ask any specific questions you might have. Please do try to keep your topics to one specific question though (or closely related questions). There's no limit on the topics you can raise though - raise as many as you like and we'll be glad to assist you.
What's the best way forward for a beginner? - Start with the documentation (read it all) and then install a rocketlauncher copy of your chosen template. This will give you a working site that looks exactly like the demo (with placeholder images substituted for copyright images). This is the best way of understanding how a Gantry 5 based template is constructed.
We have thousands of member who have produced thousands of websites bease upon Gantry 5 and our templates (new and old membership alike) so I do think that the documentation (together with the support in this forum) should enable you to produce a great website.
I hope that helps.
Regards, Mark. - Please search forums before posting. Please make sure your post includes the version of the CMS you are using and a link to the problem. Annotations on screenshots can also be helpful to explain problems/goals. Please use the "secure" tab for confidential information.
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- Donna Barnes
- Newbie
- Posts: 7
- Thanks: 0
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I did take all the courses and read all the documentation. There still seems to be key issues missing. Like for all the modules and articles I've already created. Remove positions on modules as they will be reassigned, but no where does it state from a pre-existing site, how you put articles into the layout.
But thank you for your reply. - DonnaB
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- MrT
- Preeminent Rocketeer
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- Web Designer/Developer
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Let's take articles first...
1. Create a Joomla menu item of type "single article" and choose the article you want to show (this is just standard joomla).
2. On the layout of the outline Thatyou are using make sure that you have a "page content" particle on the layout. the "page content" particle is where all Joomla component output is rendered (articles, blogs, contact form, etc etc).
http://docs.gantry.org/gantry5/particles/page-content
That's it!
For modules:
1. Where do you want the module to show? Look on the layout of the outline that you are using. There should be some "module position" particles somewhere on the layout, but if there aren't you can add them to the layout yourself (drag and drop) and then alter their settings to give them a "key" value - this the name you want to give to the position, it can be anything you like put let's call it "myposition-a"
2. Go to Joomla module manager and change the position in which you want the module to be rendered to "myposition-a" or whatever position you want to use that exists on the layout of your outline. Also, make sure that the module is assigned to the menu item that you want to use to see the module. Again as you can see this is just standard Joomla.
http://docs.gantry.org/gantry5/particles/position
If you need more help, Please would you post your URL, superuser id and pswd in the secure tab of your post and i'll have a look for you. Be specific about what you want to achieve and I can help you with that.
Regards, Mark. - Last Edit: 8 years 7 months ago by MrT.
- Please search forums before posting. Please make sure your post includes the version of the CMS you are using and a link to the problem. Annotations on screenshots can also be helpful to explain problems/goals. Please use the "secure" tab for confidential information.
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- Donna Barnes
- Newbie
- Posts: 7
- Thanks: 0
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OK, thanks! I'm going for it. All my articles and modules are written already. My only wish in converting before publishing (running locally) is to have my own layout. I have read every piece of documentation and viewed every video. So I believe I am better prepared now and with your help it should be fairly easy. It's the stupid simple stuff that goofs me up.
Thanks for your help and wish me luck!
DonnaB - DonnaB
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- MrT
- Preeminent Rocketeer
- Posts: 101084
- Thanks: 13484
- Web Designer/Developer
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I wish you luck
Please raise new topics if your have further questions that you need assistance with.
Regards, Mark. - Please search forums before posting. Please make sure your post includes the version of the CMS you are using and a link to the problem. Annotations on screenshots can also be helpful to explain problems/goals. Please use the "secure" tab for confidential information.
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