Submitted sessions for Joomla!

CMS: Joomla!

Friday - 1:45pm - Friday - 2:45pm

Description:

Joomla! extensions are easy to build and even easier to distribute. They're the ideal method for incorporating existing PHP code into the Joomla! framework or adding new functionality. This session will cover the differences between the three extension types and when to use each. We'll also discover how a component, module, and plugin come together to create the Podcast Suite: a Joomla! based platform for publishing podcasts.

Next, we'll delve into the Daily Message component, which has very basic functionality. We'll then see what happens when we attempt to install it on beta 1.5. We'll also take a look at some of the new framework features 1.5 has to offer.

Presentation slides: http://www.jlleblanc.com/joomlaextensions.ppt

Lead by:

CMS: Joomla!

Friday - 11:30am - Friday - 12:30pm

Description:

The topic of multilingual content within websites is getting more and more important. Most of the existing OS CMS solutions provide full UTF-8 support and a list of translations for the general static text used. A implementation of the multilingual dynamic content is far more complex and needs quite some knowledge from the developers. Joomla! found a solution which supports all dynamic extensions and simplify the integration for the 3rd developers.

How this approach is implemented and can be used is part of the session. The possible concepts of versioning or generic content handling is described. In general the aproch to tag a version with a language flag works quite well but leaves the whole responsibility of handling the translations within the developers hand. As Joomla! is a project that has a huge number of extensions and a framework that is very much focused on this possibility to extend the core it would mean that all of the developers in the community must understand what is important in handling languages and different versions. To solve this problem a centralized concept which is extending the Joomla! database layer was implemented. This concept helps to achieve a kind of automatic translation for all Joomla! extensions using the standard DB-Klasses. The whole translation is still focused on manual translations and managing those different versions but the concept is captable to translate any dynamic content which is stored in the database.

I like to present the concept of this approach during the session and discuss the pro and cons. May be there are some good suggestions how the concept can be improved and may be even generalized to be used in other systems as well.

Lead by:

CMS: Joomla!

Thursday - 11:30am - Thursday - 12:30pm

Description:

A key strength of Joomla! is templating.

This session begins with an overview of the Joomla! template structure. Attendees will see how to modify the delivered template; locate and install free and commercial Joomla! templates; and, finally, markup an open source template for use with Joomla!.

The overview is intended to share basic options available for Joomla! designers but will not cover CSS techniques, SEO considerations, or the all time favorite debate on "tables versus div tags."

Lead by:

CMS: Joomla!

Thursday - 1:45pm - Thursday - 2:45pm

Description:

What is documentation? Why do we go through the often painful process of writing it? Does anyone ever read it?

This session will take a radical look at the nature of documentation and why it needs to play a central role in open source projects in the future.

By deconstructing the needs of various users (consumers) of documentation, the capabilities of various producers (developers and writers) and the constraints of technology, resources and time, a model of documentation is constructed which emphasises flexibility and re-usability.

As an example, the model is then compared with the current state of Joomla! documentation to see how a fresh approach might make everyone happy!

Lead by:

CMS: Joomla!

Friday - 10:15am - Friday - 11:15am

Description:

Discussion on the evolution of authentication schemes within Joomla! v 1.5. The session focuses on the structure and details of Joomla! v 1.5 plugins, including developed solutions for Gmail, LDAP and OpenID, and a roadmap to build new schemes. An overview of several challenges and resolutions encountered during development will be discussed. It is of great interest to hear of real life experiences from other OSCMS projects. Those experienced or interested in authentication schemes are encouraged to please attend.

Lead by:

CMS: Drupal, Joomla!

Friday - 10:15am - Friday - 11:15am

Description:

CiviCRM is an open source Constituent Relationship Management software designed specifically to meet the needs of political campaigns, advocacy, non-profit/NGO and membership organizations. CiviCRM integrates with both Drupal and Joomla! content management systems - providing a powerful set of tools to connect, communicate, fund-raise and activate supporters and constituents.

CiviCRM has been deployed by the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia), Greenpeace-UK, Compumentor-Techsoup, Green Party Canada, and many others. The software is downloaded more than 100 times per day by individuals and organizations across the globe and has been translated into 19 languages. It is supported by a vibrant online community of users, developers and integrators.

CiviCRM features include:

• contact management and activity tracking
• online contribution processing
• membership management
• broadcast email
• event management

We will do our best to adapt session content to the interests of folks attending. Our "draft" agenda for the session is:

Provide an overview of CiviCRM features, and look at the benefits of deploying an integrated CRM application within CMS sites.

Review the available CMS / CRM integration techniques including:

• administrator configured forms and directories
• APIs
• Hooks

Discuss and demonstrate a live integration example developed by CivicActions for Creative Commons - using Drupal and CiviCRM.

...and save time for Q and A.

Lead by:

CMS: Joomla!

Thursday - 10:15am - Thursday - 11:15am

Description:

Joomla! is such a young community.
Many people think:
"It will take another year or two before the Joomla! community is as organized and enthusiastic and involved like other communities, f.e. Drupal".
So, until this will happen, I offer an overview of the powerful Joomla! CMS in the meantime.
The more we learn about one another's projects, the stronger our projects will become. Each community has so much to offer.
I have written books in German language about OS projects (Drupal, Joomla!, Apache) and I am sure the Joomla! overview will be interesting for you :-).
Thank you Amy for the idea to this session.
To have not only my view in that session, please visit my blog entry about this session and write a comment which part of Joomla! (and Version) I have to cover and what is important to say about the people behind Joomla!.
[update] I have discovered that it is possible to post comments here ... so please do that :-)

Lead by: