References

This is a list of references for both versions - marked by the 1.5 / 1.6 logos.

The aim of listing references is to choose some that are found useful or that summarise Joomla! There are many detailed references at the foot of all the documents. Both versions are included here because it is useful to see what is available for both versions alongside one another.

Joomla! main and documentation sites

• http://www.joomla.org/ Links to everything but be careful you do not get lost!

• http://docs.joomla.org/ The official Documentation web site for all versions of Joomla!

Books

As Joomla! becomes widely used, there are more books aimed at various levels of expertise. It may seem strange to recommend books for an on-line application but the book has not died as a result of on-screen documentation. Studies have shown that people read differently on-screen and on paper, so it makes sense to use books alongside other resources. Here are some that enhance to the on-line or on-screen documentation.

• Jennifer Marriott and Elin Waring, The Official Joomla! Book Addison-Wesley Professional, 2010. Part of the Joomla! Press series. This is a very useful guide to Joomla! because it has masses of background about how to think about the design of a new site. It also links to examples set up for the book. And masses of useful advice and links.

• Ric Shreves, Joomla! Bible, Wiley, 2010. Comprehensive and practical. A reference book but with a lot of practical things, as well as nuggets of information. Good for developers but also useful for learners. It has some material about version 1.6 but was published for version 1.5.

• Cory Webb, Beginning Joomla! Web Site Development, Wrox Wiley 2009. One of the Programmer to Programmer series. Better for people with a bit of experience of computing in general and web sites in particular. But it has some good parts - including some detailed analysis of Template files.

• Ron Severdia and Kenneth Crowder, Using Joomla, O'Reilly, 2010. A descriptive book in the traditions of the O'Reilly publications. Not for beginners.

• Marni Derr and Tanya Symes, Visual QuickStart Guide: Joomla!, PeachPit Press, 2009. Helpful layout with a lot of screen shots and asides. Some experience of IT is needed but the book leads you along nicely and is written in a straight forward style.

None around yet specifically for 1.6

• Jennifer Marriott and Elin Waring, The Official Joomla! Book . This has a lengthy section on version 1.6 and covers the parts that have changed.

• Ric Shreves, Joomla! Bible, This has some extra comments in the text about differences in version 1.6, but does not have much detail.

Help on-line and

• General: The Joomla! Help pages are variable in their helpfulness, especially for beginners.

• Most are very good. If you are an experienced reader of Help - they will be useful.
• Beginners may find they do not understand all the vocabulary. But they do become clearer as you get to know Joomla! so do not write them off.
• Remember that Help is intended to contain all possible actions but does not necessarily explain the point of everything.

On-line resources and

Joomla! on-line magazine with some helpful material, some aimed at beginners.

• http://magazine.joomla.org

The landing page for all Joomla! documentation.

• http://docs.joomla.org

The Joomla! Forum. It takes a bit of experience to get the best out of the Forums. If you are not very experienced, you will find a lot here that does not make sense and it is easy to get distracted. But many questions are well answered.

• http://forum.joomla.org

Some on-line Joomla! documentation

• Joomla! Administrator's Manual - on-line This will be comprehensive when it is complete.
• Quick start guide This includes descriptions of the Back-end as part of installing and creating a Joomla! site. It is good and helpful.
• Learning Joomla! using Sample Data It has a short section on the Back-end but is also useful in exploring the Sample data in the localhost installation.

There are some - to be added

Other documents in this series

• List of documents for this series - version 1.5
• |List of documents for this series - version 1.6 - coming soon