Joomla! Documentation™

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Hands-on the Administrator Back-end

The Back-end of your Joomla! site is the administrative interface (as opposed to the public interface, Front-end). Access is limited to users who have appropriate permissions.

Administrator permissions:

• Super Administrator: can do anything.
• Administrators: Can do most things, apart from installing extensions, altering site-wide configurations or the Super admin accounts.
• Managers: Can login to the admin pages but are limited to the main menu and managing the content

The mechanics of using the Back-end

Enter the address of your site - such as the localhost site with sample data - http://localhost/joomla15/administrator

• Login to the Back-end

Enter the Username and password that you have for the site

Note that most sites log you out automatically if you have mot done anything on the site for a defined length of time - usually about 15 minutes. This is for security.

Logout There is a Logout link in the top-right corner of the Administrator screen.

Click on it

This returns you to the Administrator login screen.

The Control Panel

When you login to the Back-end of a site, the Control Panel opens. (You can find this again under the Site Menu - it is called Control Panel)

Screen of an established site showing the Control Panel

Screen of Sample data inlocalhost showing the Control Panel (cross ref to localhost)

The Control Panel is roughly divided into three sections. There are Menus along the top, the control icons are to the left, in the main part of the screen. And the Site Information part is to the right.

1. The Icons on the main part of the screen This provides administrators with a quick way to access the most frequently used tasks to manage the whole web site. Exploring each of these will give a sense of what an administrator can do. List them with brief comment

An example in more detail - Article Manager

All the various manager interfaces are similar and are designed to show key information. This illustrates how the various mangement screens work. They contain a lot of information and can be used for many tasks. The information is in a compact form - so exploring it is worth while.

• Help gives full information about the Article Manager. There are similar Help facilites in the menus of all the main functions.

Click the icon to use the Help - very good and comprehensive

To Note:

• Search box
• Order Articles by clicking on the header of each column
• Select Articles by Category / Section / Author - useful for a large site
• Icons to allow various manipulations of content - such as Publish, Trash (ie delete) Edit and New.

An example of a Workspace page

Once you open a specific task in the Manager pages, you are usually taken to a page with a Workspace layout.

screen of one explain how to open it

The key elements allow you to enter information required.

2. Site Information

This can vary according to how the site has been set up. Four display by default - (shown in an earlier figure) and give an overview of the activity on the site.

Explore these for the Sample data in localhost

Shows that there are two additional ones added in the sample site - Welcome to Joomla! and Joomla! Security.

• Open each choice

• They give useful information on how the site is being used, recently added material, what are the most popular articles and so on.

3. The menus

These give access to all the functionality available in the site

If extra features have been added, they too appear on the menu - compare sampleadmin menus with the one for an established site where some exrat features (Extensions) have been installed.

• Look at each menu in turn

You won't remember it all - but it will introduce the feel of the Back-end and also indicate to you what more you will need to find out to progress.

Cross-references and further information

• Help on-line: The icon links to the Joomla! documentation web site. It is comprehensive and covers what all the features do. If you are an experienced reader of Help - this will not be too difficult, but beginners may find they do not understand all the vocabulary. Persist - you will understand more of it as you get experience using a site. Using a site builds your understanding of concepts and associated vocabulary. Developers will welcome the added detail of the on-line Help.
• Joomla! Administrator's Manual - on-line
• Quick start guide
• http://community.joomla.org/august-2008/article/522-introductory-learning-joomla-using-sample-data.html

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--Lorna Scammell 10:55, 31 December 2010 (UTC)