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How To Start a Blog Section
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- John Hart
- Rocketeer
- Posts: 79
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I've searched around quite a bit and can't seem to find a tutorial for what I'm trying to accomplish. I have a site that has many subjects. For each subject, I would like to set up a blog page for specific users to run their own blog. In the end, I expect to have 10 to 20 regular bloggers, all with their own blog page...but spread across the site under the different subjects. I really don't feel I grasp the fundamentals enough for this configuration....and I don't know really how to set up a blog. Is there a tutorial that can guide me through this? I am using TerraTribune as a template if that matters.
Thanks
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- Terp
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 1720
- Thanks: 23
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If you don't mind buying a commercial component, MyBlog would suit your needs perfectly. The general premise is to allow mulitple users to blog (and tag, etc) on the site...
www.azrul.com/products/my_blog.html
There ae also a number of free extensions on the Joomla mothership, too...
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- imagine4D
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 409
- Thanks: 1
- Project developer
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I'm doing something similar with Terran. Maybe this will help:
1. Go to section manager. Create a new section (ie Sports)
2. Go to Category manager. Create categories in the section 'sports' (hockey, baseball, etc)
3. Assign the section a spot on the main menu. To do this, go to menu manager/main menu. Click 'new'. Select 'articles'. A panel will open with a series of choices. Select 'section blog'. Name it 'sports'.
4. You will see a number of settings to control the presentation of blog posts. I use: 'leading'=1; '#intro'=9; 'columns'=1; '#links'=4
5. Instruct your bloggers to write short intros when posting. THey write the intro, click 'read more', after which a red line will appear. After the red line, they should write their main blog post.
Image 1 is the menu manager. Image 2 is the blog settings page. Image 3 is the end result.
NOTE: I like certain global settings configured in the article manager/parameters. I suggest:
a) Make article titles linkable
b) Show category
c) Make category linkable.
You can see an example from my own site here: shproto.urbanatomy.com/shanghai-proto/index.php/food-a-drink
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- John Hart
- Rocketeer
- Posts: 79
- Thanks: 0
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Thanks guys...I really looked into this yesterday, on both suggestions. It seems I needed to add something else to the mix before I do anything, and that was to add Community Builder to the sites. It seems to create the right environment for the next step of adding the blogs. MyBlog looks pretty comprehesive and could ultimately save me a bunch of work. $45 doesn't seem like much when I think about having to put in 40 or 50 hours of setup into doing it m'self. But, I'm still evaluating.
I have to get this authentication thing worked out. Some how, I have to allow users to log in to any of the sites, and they have access across all of the sites. There doesn't seem to be anything out there that will work. Getting kinda depressed about this.
hey...I was wondering....If I set up the separate Joomla installations using the same database, but different database prefixes....would I have authentication across all the sites?
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- The Wingman
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 1208
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John Hart wrote:
Thanks guys...I really looked into this yesterday, on both suggestions. It seems I needed to add something else to the mix before I do anything, and that was to add Community Builder to the sites. It seems to create the right environment for the next step of adding the blogs. MyBlog looks pretty comprehesive and could ultimately save me a bunch of work. $45 doesn't seem like much when I think about having to put in 40 or 50 hours of setup into doing it m'self. But, I'm still evaluating.
If you are only having a limited amount of users - not a free for all, Then you don't really need to by a blog component - Joomla has default blog settings.
As Futureguy stated: setup a section then categories (You can even make a section for each user then put new categories over time for them to fill up i.g. George's Blog [Section] 2009, 2010, 2011 [Categories]...real easy and you have lot's of control.
Things you have to consider Joomla Blog setup Vs, Commercial/Non-Commercial Blog setUp:
User control:
-- Joomla Blog setup - you have to set their permissions to "publisher" to allow them to publish (which gives each individual a lot of power to manage anyone publishers articles too) or you set them to "author" and review and publish their articles yourself.
-- Commercial/Non-Commercial Blog setUp: Usually just registering gives the individual users permission to write, publish and control who sees their articles and who doesn't without having contol over anyone elses articles. Of course, admin can see, edit and control everyone's articles.
Look and Feel
-- Joomla Blog setup - offers lot's of control and feel - you can really make a good looking blog with lots of cool ways to display and lots and lots of extensions, because your setting the blog up via Joomla's core. (That is what Futureguy is showing you via his example)
-- Commercial/Non-Commercial Blog setUp - you can get locked into extension specific component only, which can limit you, plus the look and feel might or might not be what you are looking for (I tried Mamblog - cool little component, but layout sucked really bad). But again, really test them out first or read up.
TIME: I am not going to seperate these, I am just going comment - anytime you put into Joomla, whether you use the product or switch routes or drop the project all together - is part of the learning curve and will benefit you later.
John Hart wrote:I have to get this authentication thing worked out. Some how, I have to allow users to log in to any of the sites, and they have access across all of the sites. There doesn't seem to be anything out there that will work. Getting kinda depressed about this.
hey...I was wondering....If I set up the separate Joomla installations using the same database, but different database prefixes....would I have authentication across all the sites?
I had a site that had 28 Joomla installs - so, I am aware of your login issue and authentication problems, but with more experience under my belt I was able to condense them into one install (boy, that was huge, demanding and required a lot of creativity), but it worked out for the best and in the end saved me a lot of time and headache.
As for how to - boy, ummm, well depends on what you are exactly trying to do and with how many installs - in other words - need some more details as to exactly what you are trying to do and what Joomla version you are using and extensions and what is set up on what install and also do you have any external setups (i.g. coppermine, forums etc...)
As for same data base but different installs - your authentication cookies right off the bat will be confused (I think - I am confused
) so, from personal experience and the best of my knowledge - I don't want to say anything till more details. :
- "You can learn a lot from a dummy. So, pay attention to yourself." Quote by me.
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- John Hart
- Rocketeer
- Posts: 79
- Thanks: 0
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On the database issue...A few minutes ago, I went ahead and created another installation using the mother database, and just a different database prefix. It didn't solve anything. It just created a full set of tables unique to the new installation and functioned independently. So...I'm back to the original problem.
Now...Combining everything into one installation would be an option...although a bunch of work. But my big problem is my inexperience. Being only 2 weeks into Joomla, I really lack the expertise to accomplish my goals.
Here is the description of the project. The website is called USAmerica, and it is subdivided into 7 lower components...men, women, kids, government, animals...etc. Each of the lower entities is a site of its own....requiring unique menus and having their own forums and blog sections. If I could magically obtain knowledge of how to make the menus unique, I would combine them in a heartbeat. The site is so new, that it would be worth the rework. I am using 1.5 Joomla with the TerranTribune template. At this point, I have nothing but articles set up. No blogs or forums yet. It's really bare-bones at this point.
I agree with your perspective on "Time". I've been a long proponent of the school of hard knocks, so I'm not afraid to put in the time. But with that said, I hate to put in time that takes away from other facets of the project. If I could get past this authentication issue, I'd put in the time to develop the Blogs on my own. But while the user thing hangs over my head, pre-canned applications seem the more painless approach.
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- The Wingman
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 1208
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With your description it is a lot easier than you think to put it into one joomla install. Only issue is the default template for the forum, but that can be creatively resolved.
Create Menu1, Menu2, Menu3, Menu4, and so on (this is just an example - you can name it what you like). Assign copies of the template you are using to the different menus via template managers. (you can copy you template and rename it men, women etc. then customize the individual templates - again your forum might not stay in the individual templates - so, I always like to make it have it's own template - again depends on what you want) You can -
A) Create a drop down via the menu to connect all the different sections AKA Sites or use another menu like TopMenu and post it on all of them so your consumer can get to the different sections
you can just use mainmenu on the home page that gives them access to the different sections and by default they have to go to the homepage to access again the different sections.
Those are a few suggestions...as for the blogs and anything else - just set it up on the different menus the way you want it - Men section uses menu1, so you set up Men's Blog section/category and tie it to menu1, then Women's Blog section/categories is tied to menu2 and so on....
as for the Forum?? You just set up different top levels with sublevels related to the top levels - Men's Forum with blah, blah, blah under it then put a link in menu1 that takes you to that section of the forum, then set it up for Women's and so on....
If you need clarity on my jibberish above -- let me know - that was just a rough breakdown.
- "You can learn a lot from a dummy. So, pay attention to yourself." Quote by me.
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- Terp
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 1720
- Thanks: 23
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The beauty of TT is that you use a different logo image for each menu item (i.e., the 'green' logo vs the 'grey'); I am not sure why you need multiple installations....just mulitple logos (USAmerica home, USAmerica- kids, whatever) and using independant menus like Wingman described...each menu item/page (USAmerica -Kids, for example) could display its own Section/Category of articles and content, etc, etc...
Most of the templates use the same logo for each compiled page, but the TT template uses a different logo for each respective color/menu item...could make it appear like multiple sites when, in fact, one should get this done.
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- John Hart
- Rocketeer
- Posts: 79
- Thanks: 0
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Thanks Guys. I'll give it a try. Animals and Men are completed sites, so I'll start with one of those and transfer everything over. I've already formatted the header to accept the new logos in the various color directories...plus, all the logos are designed. So really, this should be just a matter of grunt work transferring the html of the articles and getting the names right and all the pictures in the right directories. Piece of cake!!
;D
I'll do one and let you know how it turns out.
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- Terp
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 1720
- Thanks: 23
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...much easier given the ability to use different logos and section/categories to make it seem like mulitple sites than to try to sync multiple user tables across multiple installs in a single database, I think.
Good luck, sir. let's us know how you make out.
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