Joomla! Documentation™

Akash Mehta (draicone)

I'm from Queensland, Australia, a region with lots of sunshine, bright welcoming beaches and oversized artificial produce.

I'm 15, in my last year of school and very interested in useful IT -- technology that makes our lives easier. I'm a little eccentric -- at school I'm known as the imported watch battery salesman; in my free time I pay offshore programmers to hack away at PHP problems for me because I'm too busy running my free hug campaign; and I'm a great advocate for pet rock rights, "because rocks are people too". I've been involved in open source for about five years, but I've gone into the business side of IT/FOSS recently, trying to encourage FOSS and business to come a little closer together, as well as providing consulting services for a few small businesses interested in open source software. I'm also a technical author, with a couple of published articles and a book in the works.

While I was attending the OSDC conference recently, Leslie from Google was giving a presentation unveiling the GHOP program. The idea of contributing to open source in such a standardised way just made perfect sense -- it was something that FOSS projects really needed to get kids involved. It looked like a really good way to get involved in open source -- I'd tried in the past but without much success, except on a couple of my own projects. One of the Joomla! tasks I noticed, while implying many late nights venturing into complex PHP territory while powered by numerous cups of coffee, looked like a lot of fun :) I was hooked.

I think participating in GHOP has been a fantastic experience, simply because I've done some really interesting things while I've had a lot of support from the community. I've tried to help out with various projects on the past, but there was never anybody to help explain things, to say, "Sure, we're trying to work out how to do this and this, can you help? You can speak to this person from our existing team, who should be able to help you out and you can always come to me if you need guidance with something." In my work with the Joomla project, I've had so much support from the community, it's really made the process of contributing really smooth and enjoyable.

Besides adding more technical tasks that don't require a thorough understanding of Joomla (like my issue 43 -- pure PHP), and encouraging more people to hang around on the IRC channel, don't change a thing, it's perfect :)

Anner J. Bonilla (annerajb)

i am from Puerto Rico i like coding, game development and creating my stuff ie. websites :D. i decided to join the contest because i am using joomla for a website i am creating and wanted it to be as good as possible also because i always wanted to help a open source project but never found anything suitable or easy enough that i could accomplish till now.

GHOP has been a great experience i have met equally minded people that share same interest like open source project and have a great talent. i thing a lot of things worked perfectly but maybe more programming task a litle bit more time maybe one more month and stuff that can be included on joomla releases maybe a new module or something similar.

Anthony Vérez (netantho)

I'm from France, not far from Douai (north).

I like spend my time making websites, programming (but a don't have a good level yet), help open source projects. I also like playing tennis, playing the guitar and learn many thing (I'm curious).

I have chosen Joomla! because I have heard of this CMS by a member of my LUG some years ago, I also tried it once and I wanted to take a look at its new versions, I think it's a great CMS.

My experience in GHOP is very good. I made some translation last month, the installation manual. It was very interresting, I have learned things about Joomla! and some Apache, PHP tips. Thanks to my mentor (infograf), I also have learned things about French, English and translations.

Now, I'm doing a website, I can't say objectively what I have already learned and what I'll learn. I think that the organization of the GHOP is very well done for Joomla!, It's good to have a list of various tasks and to be followed like that. I'm not really attracted by money (but I think the travel in USA could be nice :P), so I didn't a lot of little tasks, I prefer well done bigger tasks. I really like contributing to the community and I hope I'll be able to still contribute to Joomla! (depending on my free time and my studies) after the contest.

In the future, keep up this great job! :D Maybe it would be nice if Google could give more time for this contest and could also help other projects.

Branko Pajic (balvanboy)

The country and region you are from:

Serbia / Vojvodina

A little bit about yourself and your interests:

I study Economics, and I am interested in Web Developing (Joomla, CSS, Photoshop)

Why you decided to join the contest and why you choose Joomla!:

I want to experience something new and I want to meet new people.

Some thoughts on your experience in GHOP:

Very good organization, and interesting tasks.

Ideas on how we might make this better in the future.

Maybe creating groups, and team work on tasks.

Chad Windnagle (drmmr763)

Country and region you are from:

Country: USA Region: Upstate NY

A little bit about yourself and your interests

I am a 17 year old home schooled student, I graduated from high school nearly a year before I was supposed. I will be getting a diploma through a correspondence high school (NARHS). My interest in computers was peaked in 8th grade during the time when web 2.0 was beginning to take a grasp on the internet community. My interest still lies heavily on computers and web development. I enjoy playing drums, an instrument I've been learning for nearly 7 years now. I also love to listen to music (metal) and work on websites. I'm very active on several forums, most of which are religiously rooted, but I also have other alternatives such as the Joomla! forum where the conversations are purely "geek speak". My future plans involve continuing working for the best boss in the world, aka, the guy who taught me nearly everything I know about web development, and more specifically, Joomla! My boss, Steve Gorney owns a medium sized marketing company (s-go Consulting). Steve has been a huge influence on my career choice, as well as helping me to decide which fields I want to study at college. Those fields happen to be web development. I plan on starting towards an associates degree in web development starting in Fall 2008.

Why you decided to join the contest and why you choose Joomla!

Having started using Joomla! as soon as I got an internship at s-go Consulting, I became a fan of the open source software very quickly. I feel I know most of the ins and outs of basic Joomla! operation very well. When I saw that there was a contest being held for Joomla!, I knew that after a year of using, and developing websites in Joomla!, that this would be the perfect opportunity to not only give back to Joomla!, but as something that I could use on my resume in the future. Shortly before the contest was announced I attended Joomla!Day NYC. I met Louis Landry, a guy who made a lasting impression on me. I decided that GHOP would be an excellent way to spend some spare time, and that it'd be really cool to see thousands of other people using something I developed to make their life simpler.

Thoughts on your experience in GHOP

The GHOP contest has been quite frankly a once in a lifetime experience in my book. I've learned A LOT in just a few short weeks about programming, writing skills, software, Joomla! 1.5, and even better grammar ;). Working with some of the leaders of the GHOP contest has been an awesome experience, and one that I will personally always have affectionate feelings towards.

Ideas on how we might make this better in the future

Ohhhh. This is going to be interesting. Okay, here's what I think.

Better organization of tasks. The forum is great, but having the forum, and the GHOP page is so confusing. Its a pain to check both places to find out about a task before you can do anything.

More 'guidelines' on certain tasks. I felt a lot of things were kind of up in the air. I think that we can do better in making things, especially documentation and marketing materials (tri folds) tasks more integrated with each other and Joomla! Color schemes, fonts, screen shots, all these should have a more firm and specific presentation so that when printed they all look official and professional.

Chit Sabesh Asokan (chitsabesh)

From: Singapore (South East Asia)

I am 15 years old and am currently studying at St. Gabriel's Secondary School. I'm a Singaporean of Indian ethnicity. English is my first language and I study Mandarin in school as a second language.

I have two major afflictions that begin with “R”. The first is Reading and the second is Rhinitis.

I enjoy reading Science Fiction novels from authors such as Robert A. Heinlein and Stephen R. Donaldson. I am currently revisiting a classic dystopian sci-fi novel - “1984” by George Orwell.

My other affliction, Rhinitis has been both a boon and a bane. The allergy “attacks” have kept me indoors (bane). This has allowed me to explore the Internet as source of entertainment and information. This spawned my interest in web development (boon).

In 2007, I was appointed the President of my School's Infocomm Club (an amalgamation of the AVA and Web Clubs).

I spearheaded the migration of my School's website from a static HMTL webpage to one powered by an open-source content management system – Joomla!

Beyond the above, I enjoy visiting other countries. It gives me the chance to learn about other cultures and, their food!

Why I joined the contest and why I chose Joomla.

This contest provides an opportunity for me to learn,interact and contribute to the open-source community.

Joomla was my choice because I had already gained some experience working with it and I wanted to help contribute to its development.

Some thoughts on my experience in the GHOP.

It is wonderful to see forum members and other contestants helping each other on various tasks – Its truly exciting!

Ideas on how we might make this better in the future.

The contest has been amazing thus far. Questions have been met with quick responses on the forums and help is always there if I need it. I can undertake the tasks at my own pace, within the overall time-limit.

Perhaps an IRC Channel could be set up to allow for real-time communication. As for further ideas, I'd like to give it more thought before getting back to you.

Kevin Hayne (Kevin8020)

I'm from the USA - Denver, Colorado... and I love it. I've had an interest in computers since the Myst series entered in our home. My love for technology has stemmed from that experience. I started working with website for fun when I was 11, and haven't looked back since. Discovering Mambo back four years ago was my introduction into PHP and I started learning the joys of working with it. After seeing Joomla! appear, I was taken with the core team's plans, and jumped over here. I spent a few years with zoom gallery before it's demise, and a few with Joomla!hacks working on their bridge for SMF. Now, I do the occasional Joomla! contract project for corePHP but not much.

Seeing GHOP was like a dream come true - finally a way JUST for high school students to contribute to this amazing project. Being able to work with Joomla! and contribute small things that will make a difference in the project has been a great experience, and one that I have really enjoyed. The volunteer staff was great - especially Amy who got me through all of my tasks and helped me when I got stuck plenty of times. I hope I get the chance to participate next year too. If I were to do anything differently, it would be to get more people staffing the event. While I felt well attended too, I had to occasionally bump my own topic to get attention. Other than that - I think it was great! The only concert I have is that if people get too ambitious next year, there won't be a chance for any of us to grab more than one task... haha!

Outside of web coding and Joomla! stuff, I love music - which has resulted in my being able to work with bands in the area (as a web guy of course). I also play guitar, enjoy working with sound systems, and love to hike in the Colorado Rockies. Speaking of the Colorado Rockies... how about that baseball team, eh?

Marieke van der Tuin (Marieke92)

Country: The Netherlands Region: Noord-Holland

My hobbies are playing the piano, swimming, folk dancing and of course: my computer! Don't like those computer games at all. I like to read and post on forums and to do something with building websites.

I met Marijke (MarijkeS) at a forum of Windows Live Spaces, 1.5 years ago. With 4 others we set up a team making gadgets for Spaces. We completed 7 of them. A new site for the forum was needed, and also space for other applications and information. Marijke already knew something about Joomla!, so it was a easy choice. That's the first time I came in contact with Joomla!. Soon I tried to set up my first Joomla! site, and registered on DutchJoomla.org, the Dutch Joomla! community.

At first I read a lot of post (yeah.. I still do), and then started posting myself and tried to help others. Marijke asked me for translating the 1.5 Help files together with another student. Because they weren't completed at all at that time, the work wasn't completed.

But I was a member of the translation team now, and started translating a few components. I translated JamBook, Phoca Guestbook and after that sh404SEF, of whom I'm a translation partner now. I'm also testing the translations of dutchjoomla for the 1.5 releases and some nightly builds.

The 'newsreporter' of DutchJoomla posted an article about the GHOP project. I was interested, but first thought it was only about the coding. When I looked closely at it, I saw there also were a few translation tasks! I claimed the translation of the Installation Manual and started to work on it. I enjoyed it a lot! After that I claimed another translation task, translating a team blog. Although there were no translation tasks left, I didn't stopped with the work for GHOP, because I liked it! First looked to documentation tasks, but there weren't any left which seems fun to me. Then I saw the unit test plans, and looked to them. I liked it, and so claimed one. And a second one after that. I decided to do some coding work for the next task, but there wasn't any open code task. Then tasks were added about testing unit test plans. Completed one of them and busy with the next one! I'd like it that my work is useful to the official Joomla! 1.5 stable release. And after this?.. Don't know at all! I really like the project, especially all those positive reactions on my work! If there is any task which I would be capable to do, I'll definitely claim it!

How could you make it better in future? Don't know! It's really perfect like this!!! I love it!

Uhm.. only one thing perhaps: include the links to several websites within the task description. I couldn't find the document in the Wiki in the beginning (and actually; didn't look for it as well).

Martin Pecka (peci1)

My name's Martin Pecka, my Joomla! forums nickname is peci1

I come from Jindrichuv Hradec (or Jindřichův Hradec with full diacritics) in the Czech republic (not Czechoslovakia - it split in 1993 and nowadays doesn't exist ;) )

I'm just finishing a grammar school in my city and then I want to study on the Charles University - The Faculty for Mathematics and Physics. I'm interested in maths, programming and web coding. Expect of these interests I love music (I try to play guitar and piano) and nature.

Since I was young I've been a scout - and I like it. It is a great life way for me. In the end, I spend some time with my gorgeous girlfriend, but the distance of about 300 km between us doesn't make it easy :) And finally, I like smiling =)

First I read about GHOP incidentally during an IT class. I saw a possibility how to earn some money and good experiences in my favourite activity. And the international certificate looked also very cool =) I searched for some tasks, but I'm not familiar with Linux projects and C. So I searched some PHP tasks... But the most of them was claimed, so I decided for a translation task - after all, I love english. Now I see I don't have enough time for completing 3 tasks, but the experiences from my only one are also very useful. Thanks for a project like this ;)

I learned that the translation to a brilliant language isn't easy. Even after two cycles of translating there reside many forms, that are translated, but sound very strange, in the document. I haven't known Joomla! before, in fact, I wrote some VERY simple CMSs for myself in the past. Joomla! looks like a very advanced one. Maybe I'll use it once in the future.

The only issue that would be done better is the advertisement. I'm interested in IT, but I found GHOP only incidentally.

Maximiliano David Bustos (Maxi)

Country and Region: La Rioja, Argentina.

I am 17 years old. In March I start my last year of school. I am going to study Informatics Science at Cordoba National University (FaMaF). I participate in Programming Olympiads (for more information: www.oia.org.ar - www.usaco.org - www.topcoder.com/tc). I also make web sites. Doing that I met Joomla! because I needed to make a community web site (www.interactianos.com.ar).

I also programing simple applications in PHP to administrate different things.

On the other hand, I play the sax and the flute in school band. I play football and handball in school team. I play chess (some time ago I played for La Rioja team, but now I don´t have enough time to train).

In GHOP I chose Joomla! because it is the CMS I am currently learn to use.

MiCCAS

A little bit about yourself and your interests

I've had a keen interest in the IT area since a very young age, and have been developing websites since about 7, using XAMPP on my localhost machine.From there I found Joomla, and after learning a little more about it I became very keen in developing sites and would certainly say Joomla is a very big interest of mine now, and hopefully in the future.

Why you decided to join the contest and why you choose Joomla!

I decided to join the contest because I really needed something to kick start my contributions towards Joomla. Whilst I've always been interested in it, I haven't ever really known exactly how everything worked. The reason I chose Joomla! In particular is because not only do I know a lot about it, I found that Joomla have the best community of assistants and overall quality.

Some thoughts on your experience in GHOP

Absolutely wonderful is all I can say. Having an opportunity to get involved in major projects with people there if you need it is very reassuring!

Ideas on how we might make this better in the future.

More promotion possibly, and a faster review system is all I can suggest. And of course, more projects :) I can't believe how many people contributed to this!

Miloš Bovan (fantastic)

The country and region you are from:

Bosnia and Herzegovina (Republic of Srpska).

A little bit about yourself and your interests:

My name is Miloš Bovan. I'm 16 years old. I go to high school in second class. I like listening to techno music. I'm interested in computers, web... I would like to be professional web developer, designer or something connected with computers and web.

Why you decided to join the contest and why you choose Joomla!:

It's very useful because in that way I can improve my English and I can also meet a lot of new people with same interests. I choose Joomla! because I think Joomla! is best open source content management system, it has the biggest community, a lot of successful developers and it's easy to use.

Some thoughts on your experience in GHOP:

Very good experience, interesting topics.

Ideas on how we might make this better in the future:

Maybe you could create groups for every international zone board (Joomla community) for making tasks on their own languages.

Miłosz Lewandowski (milosz.lewandowski)

I live in Lesko, Poland (Bieszczady Mountains, south-east part of country).

I'm 17 years old and I go to General Władysław Anders High School in Lesko. Next year I'm going to pass my Matura exam (A-levels). Moreover, I co-operate with company which is working on ecology (Natural Systems) and Carpathian Heritage Society. I've done for them a few websites.

I've found information about GHOP at Online Informaticians Journal (Dziennik Internautów, http://www.di.com.pl/). GHOP Contest was a great opportunity to increase my knowledge about Open Source. I've chosen Joomla! as the most connected with my specified website development interests software. I tried to build websites based on Joomla earlier, but I didn't know about more advanced features. So I know now that Joomla! is the best way to do the most advanced, light-weighted and professional websites.

GHOP tasks were great. I improved my ability of creating documentation, coding tasks were good chance to discover capabilities of PHP, XML and Joomla!. I really learnt much with GHOP. What is more, Joomla! mentors' and other contestants' help was very professional.

Ming-Ting Wei "魏藥" (medicalwei)

My full name is Ming-Ting Wei, with the nickname called "魏藥" which sounds like stomach medicine in Chinese. "medicalwei" is the ID I chose in Joomla! forum.

I live in Taiwan, and lead a tiring life for the preparation of an college entrance exam.

One of personal interests is do something meaningful with my computer.

Before I claimed the translation task, I only installed Joomla! once and abandoned right away. To feedback on free software communities, I choose a task for me to do despite my parents' disagreement. The translation of an installation document seemed easy for me, and I've tried Joomla! for its simple installation, so I chose a translation task for it.

I have to do this task return home at 10 p.m. and spend a little time to translate one or two paragraphs. To make sure what words used for translation in Joomla!, I have to check the previous installation document translated by Eddy, the leader of JoomlaTaiwan.

Eventually, I finished the task within 2 weeks, and I am waiting for Eddy's confirmation now.

GHOP is a good chance for teenagers to participate in free software communities. Thank you, everyone.

Thomas Gummerer (littlegeniuz)

My real name is Thomas Gummerer and my forum ID is littlegeniuz.

I come form South Tirol - Italy.

Currently I go to the high school, direction informatics. Beside the Computer and programming I'm very intrested in snowboarding in the winter. In the summer I like to go with my bike.

I decided to join the contest, because I like programming and writing documentations. I'm using Joomla! for about a year. While looking at the joomla.org site I have seen the news about the ghopc and thought I could participate.

I have choosen Joomla! because I am already familiar with it, and so this task seemed the simplest for me.

The GHOP is a very good invention for scolars, which can't join SOC but would like to do something for big open source projects.

Earning prizes for helping makes it even more fun.

Tomasz Dobrzyński (depresz)

My name is Tomasz Dobrzyński, I am 17. On Joomla! forum I am known as depresz. I come from city of Piotrków Trybunalski, central Poland.

I am student of 2nd year in the one of the local High School. My interests are computers, especially programming; I love it. I decided to join contest because I always wanted to participate in some Open Source project, but I did not know how to start. GHOP gave me this opportunity.

I have chosen Joomla! project because I made up my mind that I will discover new horizons which provide Joomla!. I was so excited that I could help by development of Joomla! and in this same time, play, and learn new things. Now I can see, that it was right choise, because Joomla! Community is so wonderful.

I think that GHOP is very nice organized. I have a great time. What am I suppose next year? More coding tasks and this same awesome atmosphere ;)

Wickrama Arachchi Vithanage Hashani Maduwanthi Weerarathna (Hashani)

My full name is Wickrama Arachchi Vithanage Hashani Maduwanthi Weerarathna, a girl, sixteen years old. Joomla! forum ID is hashani.

- the country and region you are from

I'm from Sri Lanka. The district I related is Colombo.

- a little bit about yourself and your interests

I'm Hashani, a girl, sixteen years old, l would like to learn information technology and work with global people and global tasks. Actually I know it is a nice to exchange my ideas with the friends from different countries. I'm interested in eastern music, playing music instruments, reading, cooking and gardening. And also I prefer to spend time with my family. One day I want to be a doctor and help people who live in my country.

Why you decided to join the contest and why you choose Joomla!

I got a basic idea about Opensource from one of my sister who worked with a project of Google Summer Of Code competition and I also wanted to involve with such things. I heard Joomla! and it was Better, Easy to use, Flexible. Also it has very lively support community. Then I chose joomla! task for my first GHOP task.

- some thoughts on your experience in GHOP

I learned lot of things like what is a CMS and how it will be used. Except that it was a great opportunity for me to improve my writing skills, communication skills as well. And more importantly I learned what is "working as part of a community".

- ideas on how we might make this better in the future

I would like to give my contribution further to the joomla! and have a great time with great people and great tasks. :)

Witchakorn Kamolpornwijit (Chalet16)

My name is Witchakorn Kamolpornwijit. My Joomla! ID is Chalet16. I am from Thailand, South-East Asia. I am studying in grade 8, Patumwan Demonstration School. I am interested in C, PHP and network administration. I wish to create new open source project in the future.

I decided to join the Google Highly Open Participation Contest because I would like to learn more about developing these popular open source software.

I appreciate Joomla! because it very useful for most of the people who interested in creating new website with not much knowledge about HTML or PHP. I think I would like to have experiences in PHP and practical open source project management.

I think my tasks would be practical for most of people. For example footnotes plug-in can be used in many websites or DTD XML installer files can be standardize for Joomla! project in the future.

I think you should give the participants clearer details about the purpose of the task. In my opinion I suggest you to provide more coding tasks in the future.

Yavor Sashov Georgiev (fealebenpae)

Location: Vidin, Bulgaria

I'm a senior at the Mathematics and Science High School in Vidin. My educational profile has an emphasis on Computer Science. I'm interested in computers (obviously), sci-fi and fantasy, philosophy, literature and also music and dancing. I'm currently pursuing university education in the US.

I learned about GHOP on Digg and thank god, otherwise I might've missed the opportunity. I checked out the participating projects and I chose Joomla because I have experience in building/maintaining my high school's website and because I was secretly itching to code some more.

Being a part of GHOP and the J! community has been really fun, no complaints whatsoever, although I feel the participating Joomla folks have been a bit (and that's an understatement) overworked and perhaps next year things would move faster and smoother if there are more J! volunteers.

Zach Kanzler (theY4Kman)

My name is Zach Kanzler, A.K.A. theY4Kman. I live in the United States, specifically in Florida. I'm a bit of a geek, so I love tech toys and other things. I love to program, well, anything!

I participated in GHOP because I was always intrigued by the Summer of Code. I've wanted to participate in it since I first learned about it. Alas, though, I couldn't. One day I was visiting Google Code to check on the Google APIs and noticed GHOP. After reading about it, I couldn't wait to get started. I looked through the participants, noting Apache, Joomla!, and Python. I viewed the tasks for each of them and found that Joomla! had the most and the ones that I was interested in.

Throughout my participation in GHOP, I was treated with nothing but help and friendliness. Everyone I met was so nice and I received much help from them all. The only thing I would want to change is to have more participants and more tasks!