Need help & opinions on building a school website using Joomla.

[Maxilla]

Hello.. I hope I'm posting at the correct category. Well anyway.. about the subject, after researching and checking stuff out.. looks like Joomla! is the best CMS on the net, (actually the website frontpage presentation gave it all in the selection and going in to the website helped me in deciding on which CMS to choose.) so I decided to use Joomla! to be my CMS for managing content for my school's website I'm trying to build.

The subject is to create a School website that mainly concentrate on the student audience.. in other words.. is a website for students.. so the problem is I need opions from Joomla! users about what should I do, make-use and customise Joomla! so that I could build a proper website that will cater information to the students based on the citerias below:

• 1. Supply information -  The information are accessed by students and are supplied by certain students such as Club owners, or students who wants to post something on the website such as birthday news, lost & found etc. In other words, setup and interface where these people can use the front end easily (may not need to register, since posting a birthday announcement doesn't require a lot of data[maybe a global account to login]). Information are basically treated as news & updates. I would also like to have an event calender in the front page of the website. Need suggestion on that.
• 2. Providing individual Club webpages - The school website will be catering Club's webspages inside a main website. I need a feature or way for Club owner can build a customise webpage so suit their need. Rather than myself, website admin, building individual for each club. Club webpage will be easy and require less html knowledge to build by them, and mainly cater news and information. I'm planning to use Wordpress since it provide easy text authoring and text content managing, also adding users (club members) to have special previlages. Is that a good or bad idea using Wordpress?
• 3. Provide a media gallery for students to view - Since one of my school's club got a photography club, I'm planning to make an easy interface for the photography club to upload pictures and 'kinda' sell them to other students who want to buy them. I'm thinking of using Gallery2 (and use a bridge to Joomla!) to cater the picture uploads they make to the school website. Again.. is this choice a good one.. or there are better ones?
• 4. Provide a forum - hmm, I know something about forums.. and I'm planning to use vBulletin or phpBB, but the problem is about the bridge, for vBulletin I found that the component is no longer active in the extension section in Joomla and phpBB.. not sure about that part. I have no problem with them (students) to have to register separately within the forum itself, but can someone what does 'bridge' do when bridging with Joomla? Again I need opion in this part, whether to go with vBulletin, phpBB or SMF.
• 5. Wap version of the website - Although this is over the scope of me using Joomla to manage my WAP-site, I heard and saw some stuff on hotscript.com about managing a WAP-site thru Joomla!. Is it better for me to that option or just make manually a WAP-site by hand with a CMS?

Since there are a LOT of extentions, componets, plugins available in Joomla!, I just don't know what to choose so that I can get the best that suits my needs.. and other students that will be visiting the website. So if the members can help me.. give opinions and suggestions on what to use and modify, it would greatly help me in selecting best features out of Joomla! and its extentions.

[maddunr]

try researching here:
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg146957
http://extensions.joomla.org

- V

[Maxilla]

Thnx.. well checking that thread.. good thing all are in one page.. easy to read and find information on each extention.. yet.. I'm still waiting and do ppl think about it..

I hope i get good opions.. hehhe

Cheers!

[maddunr]

Hi Maxilla,

If I may say so, I doubt i you'll get targeted replies to your question because it is quite general. You might consider asking more specific questions.

Also, have you looked at the site showcases? There are several on this forum. Just do an advanced search for "school" with all site showcase forums selected.

Try the Community Builder Plugins that come with Attend Events http://developer.joomla.org/sf/sfmain/d ... tendevents

- V

[hud]

• 1. Supply information -  The information are accessed by students and are supplied by certain students such as Club owners, or students who wants to post something on the website such as birthday news, lost & found etc. In other words, setup and interface where these people can use the front end easily (may not need to register, since posting a birthday announcement doesn't require a lot of data[maybe a global account to login]). Information are basically treated as news & updates.

Maxilla .. I will break your requests via the entries your list and answer This is my opinion based on my experience. 

It sounds like you want an open forum of sorts where anyone accessing the site can post announcements, etc.  The best component I have found is a modified guestbook.  I recommend using AkoBook Pro 2.0.3.  Originally authored by Arthur Konze, an early joomla/mambo champion, and later updated by Walter Cedric, Akobook's strong suit, is in its flexibility for the newbie joomla administrator.  The language file can be modified directly to reflect your use and it has a full featured config settings with hooks to anti-spam scripts.

You can see an application of this guestbook at my demo site.  I have named the component "Community Wall".  Although it could be named anything to reflect your need.  I modified the language file to reflect the "Write on Our Wall" theme.

The beauty of well written joomla/mambo components is how they can be applied to different situations.  Sometimes you have to study a component and figure out different ways to use them.  At first look Akobook is your typical guestbook.  Not so,  it's applications are endless.  This component can be used in multiple ways throughout a single school web site.

[hud]

• 1. Supply information -  I would also like to have an event calender in the front page of the website. Need suggestion on that.

An events calendar for joomla/mambo installations is a tough call.  In the day, the standard was Events 1.2.  Written by Eric Lamette/module by Dave McDonnell.  However, this component and module combination has not seen a real update in about two years.

I have a couple of issues with this component.  1) I don't care for the way the monthly calendar displays multiple entries.  A busy school would quickly eat up the tiny day square allotted in the monthly view.  After two or three entries, the nicely formatted calendar begins to skew and the result is a stretched out mess.  2)  The admin of this component, although thorough, contains a number of quirks and the four tab display requires a lot of clicking and steps for the school secretary (who is likely in charge of adding events).  I still use a slightly hacked version of this component at my site, but would really like the time to further rework it.  In short (and despite my opinion), the events component does it's job and I would recommend it's use.

I would be amiss not to mention a commercial calendar, Easy PHP Calendar.  It is PHP based and has been modified to display within the joomla/mambo framework.  The administration of this calendar is completely separate from joomla/mambo.  However, this is great because it allows the creation of a district wide calendaring system.  Multiple joomla installs within a single district could access this common, externally controlled database.  We will be experimenting a lot with this program and may replace the original Events calendar with it.

Another possibly that is non-commercial, yet a modification, is ExtCalendar.  I have no information on this one.  Maxilla, be sure to use the search function in all joomla/mambo forums found on the net.  You will locate lots of assistance on using Events, Easy PHP, ExtCalendar and others.

[hud]

• 2. Providing individual Club webpages - The school website will be catering Club's webspages inside a main website. I need a feature or way for Club owner can build a customise webpage so suit their need. Rather than myself, website admin, building individual for each club. Club webpage will be easy and require less html knowledge to build by them, and mainly cater news and information. I'm planning to use Wordpress since it provide easy text authoring and text content managing, also adding users (club members) to have special previlages. Is that a good or bad idea using Wordpress?

Part 1 of 2 of my thoughts: 

joomla/mambo has long been critisized for its lack of a quality blogging component. Many joomla supporters have created integrations of blogging, forum, etc. software within the joomla framework.  One well-known integration of Wordpress and joomla is authored by a forum member, Preditor.  The following links will provide you plenty of information on this combination:

Wordpress/joomla integration thread
Predator's demo site

Again, searching this forum with the keywords "JD Wordpress" will provide lots of assistance.

Do remember, your students can create a blog outside of joomla and you can create a news page with links to these external blogs.  You might benefit from studying the Wordpress Multiple User site.  It allows multiple blogs to be created from a single wordpress install.

[hud]

• 2. Providing individual Club webpages - Club webpage will be easy and require less html knowledge to build by them, and mainly cater news and information. I'm planning to use Wordpress since it provide easy text authoring and text content managing, also adding users (club members) to have special previlages.

Part 2 of 2:

All said, I am a bit confused on your original objective for your students.  It sounds like you want them to create content easily with some, but not all, HTML programming.  Your objective doesn't seem like you want them blogging, but creating webpages.  I just don't see Wordpress as a tool to create HTML page.  joomla - however ...

joomla is an excellent tool to teach HTML programming.  Students can select a link on your main page that allows them to create a content (news) page.

The TinyMCE editor, included in all joomla installations, is a WYSIWYG HTML editor.  Your students can create HTML pages using the WYSIWIG side and view the results by clicking the HTML button included in this editor.  As a real test, coding using the HTML area first and viewing it WYSIWIG would be a fine goal to achieve.  You could also use your choice of HTML Development Tools like Dreamweaver, GoLive, or any one of the free programs available.  Usually their source code can be copied and pasted within the TinyMCE editor and you have an HTML page within the joomla framework.  Keeping the width of these pages less than 500 pixels wide make them perfect content pages to view within the joomla framework.

As you grow in knowledge, you may wish to look towards Ryan Demmer'sjosCE editor as a replacement for TinyMCE.  His editor, currently free of charge, provides more options than the default.  Again, search Ryan's site or the forums for installation instructions.

[hud]

• 3. Provide a media gallery for students to view - Since one of my school's club got a photography club, I'm planning to make an easy interface for the photography club to upload pictures and 'kinda' sell them to other students who want to buy them. I'm thinking of using Gallery2 (and use a bridge to Joomla!) to cater the picture uploads they make to the school website. Again.. is this choice a good one.. or there are better ones?

The Gallery 2 integration/bridge is one of the best documented and there are plenty of example sites.  I agree with using this bridge because your students can upload photos without access to the administrative backend of joomla.

Gallery 2 Bridge
Gallery 2 Forum - Specific joomla integration

For our sites, we use z00m Media Gallery.  z00m is fully integrated into the joomla framework.  There might even be a way to access the admin from the front end.  Not sure, but it would be good to hear from others about their experience using z00m with students.

z00m is not without its share of problems.  I haven't checked in a while but the authors seem to be actively pursuing a more bug-free version.  We have spent many hours researching forums to locate fixes for some of its issues.  I particularly like the eCard feature.  It is a great PR tool used to draw grandparents, relatives, and other community members to the school site.

[hud]

• 4. Provide a forum - hmm, I know something about forums.. and I'm planning to use vBulletin or phpBB, but the problem is about the bridge, for vBulletin I found that the component is no longer active in the extension section in Joomla and phpBB.. not sure about that part. I have no problem with them (students) to have to register separately within the forum itself, but can someone what does 'bridge' do when bridging with Joomla? Again I need opion in this part, whether to go with vBulletin, phpBB or SMF.

Maxilla, I have used phpBB and am familiar with vBulletin.  Any public forum must be moderated and continually updated with the latest security patches.  I am curious as to why you did not mention Jan deGraff's joomlaBoard?  JoomlaBoard (originally Simpleboard) is a fully integrated joomla forum.  It can be installed in minutes, connects with your user DB, and provides a rather robust feature set.  I have used Simpleboard/joomlaBoard for quite a number of users/posts and it has worked flawlessly.  Sure, you will find quirks and limitations over some of the standalone-bridged forums, but they are minor.

I highly encourage you to try this forum option, before looking at the bridges.  That is all I have Maxilla, hope this has helped.  P.S.  I know nothing about WAPs.  I looked forward to opinions about this topic.

[maddunr]

If I may say so, I doubt i you'll get targeted replies to your question because it is quite general. You might consider asking more specific questions.

WOW! Maxilla, I humbly take back my words . Hud, very nice reply there. They should make this a sticky on this forum

[AmyStephen]

Nice work, hud!

[hud]

Thanks, my pleasure.  I am planning on installing the Simple Machines Forum integration this week.  Their website looks very professional and the community support is top notch.

I will let you know how it goes.

[Maxilla]

OMG~*! waaaa...! Thnk you so much! hud!... waaaa.. I actually dont know wat to say.. bit speechless here though... I didnt know u replied a lot.. (I didnt get any notification of it... in my email.. well anyway).. Wats important.. I got really GOOD/excellencent replies from you...

I helped me open my eyes on some part.. I'll reply each of your post.. and say what I think about it.. since some are not in details.. in my first post.

Here I want to say something about the forum.. the reason why I didnt want to use the built-in forum (simpleboard) is because.. usually here at my place.. the students are accustomed to use those popular forum board like vBulletin, phpBB, and Invision Board.. so.. I want them to feel 'at home' when using the forum.. (administering them.. since I'll be granting some moderating works for certain students). And my own personal reason.. it is due to the support that is availble with the forums.. mentioned earlier.. and also the 'plugins/extentions' that comes with the forum board.. since maybe in the future I might add some 'add-ons' to the forum.. to help/add experience and ease of usage with the forum.. eg: Quickreply feature..

So now I've made up my mind.. and I'm currently using SMF.. (although its my first time.. its kinda easy.. though) well.. I hope my decision is a good one. Also.. when I saw Joomla.org uses SMF for its forum.. it looked seemless.. so.. I was kinda happy to see that.. heheh

Well.. Here is the link for the website I'm building.. www.maktabduli.org ..though it is still kinda raw.. but.. again currently I'm doing a 'one-man-show' here.. I'll have to make sure.. the infrastructure im implementing is stable first.. before I call my friends (and also Club members.. btw.. I'm a president for a club in my school.. ICT Club). After everything is done.. then I'll fill the website with content.

Well thats all for now.. I would like to reply ur post.. hud.. asap.. since you've done a great deal of help.. and I really appreciate that.. heheh THANK YOU hud! 

~MAxilla

[Maxilla]

Thanks, my pleasure.  I am planning on installing the Simple Machines Forum integration this week.  Their website looks very professional and the community support is top notch.

I will let you know how it goes.

Hello there hud, I was just wondering whats your progress in using SMF. Currently I have installed SMF 1.0.7 in my server, but the problem is I got stuck with implementing it into Joomla.

My main concern is integrating it into Joomla. I want to use the bridge and when I tried to download the bridge, rather than having the file to be easily downloaded for my version, I found out that.. there were tonz of it for different version of SMF.. and at last I got confused.. hehe.. as I read more.. I got more confused.. since there were forum threads stating.. how to input the codes into joomla/smf to 'enable' the bridge.

My question is.. is that how bridges work? I mean, rather than just installing the bridge like a component or module into Joomla, we got to 'code' the bridge in order for it to work?.. sigh.. Its not that I can't do it.. its just too much of hassle.. and I think I'm prone to make error and screw up the whole Joomla system that I've installed and set up (since I heard from the reviews, the bridge tend to screw up everything - meaning have to reinstall Joomla, IF its not done correctly..) The case is, I'm just afraid to do it.. and move.. I'm afraid it will jeopardise my Joomla in the server.

So.. now, all I want is for SMF to nicely integrate into SMF like this Joomla Forum we are using now. Nice, simple and clean. (Though I know I have to edit the SMF layout.. so that the top header wont be in the way.. logo etc. of SMF)

Any progress so far with yours hud? Anyway.. thanks for the help in replying my previous post, really appreciate that..

[rickc]

Thanks, my pleasure.  I am planning on installing the Simple Machines Forum integration this week.  Their website looks very professional and the community support is top notch.

I will let you know how it goes.

Hello there hud, I was just wondering whats your progress in using SMF. Currently I have installed SMF 1.0.7 in my server, but the problem is I got stuck with implementing it into Joomla.

My main concern is integrating it into Joomla. I want to use the bridge and when I tried to download the bridge, rather than having the file to be easily downloaded for my version, I found out that.. there were tonz of it for different version of SMF.. and at last I got confused.. hehe.. as I read more.. I got more confused.. since there were forum threads stating.. how to input the codes into joomla/smf to 'enable' the bridge.

My question is.. is that how bridges work? I mean, rather than just installing the bridge like a component or module into Joomla, we got to 'code' the bridge in order for it to work?.. sigh.. Its not that I can't do it.. its just too much of hassle.. and I think I'm prone to make error and screw up the whole Joomla system that I've installed and set up (since I heard from the reviews, the bridge tend to screw up everything - meaning have to reinstall Joomla, IF its not done correctly..) The case is, I'm just afraid to do it.. and move.. I'm afraid it will jeopardise my Joomla in the server.

So.. now, all I want is for SMF to nicely integrate into SMF like this Joomla Forum we are using now. Nice, simple and clean. (Though I know I have to edit the SMF layout.. so that the top header wont be in the way.. logo etc. of SMF)

Any progress so far with yours hud? Anyway.. thanks for the help in replying my previous post, really appreciate that..

Installing the bridge isn't very hard. I know it can seem a bit intimidating to do it to a live site. But I have faith that you can do it. There is some confusion because many people think SMF is a COM of joomla, but its not, its a separate software. Though the bridge itself is a COM. The bridge allows the  integration of joomla/SMF. (Thus the term bridge) As far as the many ver.s of SMF, there are only 2 current ones. 1.1.rc2  & 1.07. It may look a bit confusing because each of them has an install (installs SMF) an upgrade (upgrades from another version) and update( updates you from an older version).

The bridge should have a simple read.html me file in it. I would suggest upgrading your SMF forum to 1.1RC2 and using the newest bridge. The bridge should install in JOOMLA without any coding. (some copy and paste is needed for mambo though) If you need someone to walk you through the steps, I would be more than happy to assist. You can reach me on MSN. PM me here for, I'm online after 6pm M-F Pacific time

[hud]

Hello there hud, I was just wondering whats your progress in using SMF. Currently I have installed SMF 1.0.7 in my server, but the problem is I got stuck with implementing it into Joomla.

Maxilla, sorry for the delay.  Busy with life and business   I haven't had time to integrate SMF into our site.  It looks like it will be a few weeks before I can get there.  As soon as I do, I will report back.