Hi,

Trying to teach myself a useful skill by building and maintaining a website. The wall I am hitting is in understanding the nuts and bolts of the whole process. With so many options (joomla, drupal, flash, etc..) I am getting a little lost.

What I would like to know is how is the site structured on a dir/file basis. Is it like this:

1. / <<<ALSO includes the index.html>>>
2. /websitefolder
3. /joomlafolder

In which case the index.html file points to the resources to build the first page and its links?

If joomla / drupal are considered content mng applications, are they just called from a html page? I mean, would I build my site in kompozer and then set tags in the code that joomla will use to place / remove media as needed?

If I sound like a dont know what I am talking about its cause i dont. I have googled all I can think of. I have seen the tutorials for joomla, I just am having a problem grasping the idea of a cms.
Thanks in advance for any help!!

ollie

You can structure your site any way that works for you.

You can start by installing xampp on your local computer--without opening it to the web--and use that for testing and experimentation. You can create and experiment with a complete website locally without having to worry about registering a domain name if you aren't ready to.

I have a personal website that is structured like this:

Main directory (welcome and links to the three subdirectories
|
|
|------> Subdirectory One (Original website in about 1995 in HTML 3.0 about training and development)
| Pending update.
|
|------> Subdirectory Two (Recreational boating website written 1999-2000, recently updated to CSS).
|
|
|------> Subdirectory Three (Wordpress blog using a MySQL database).

Each subdirectory has its own index page. One and Two have an index.html, because they are HTML. Subdirectory Three has an index.php page because it's PHP, Perl, and MySQL based.

Subdirectory One was originally a stand-alone website on the old members.aol.com site. I introduced the main directory and demoted it to a subdirectory when I wrote the boating site. I moved it into a self-hosted server in my guestroom when I started the blog five years ago and put it all out on a hosting service when I moved to Virginia Beach recently.

My guess is that you need to figure out a topic to write about (if only for purposes of experimentation) and use that as a hook for your learning. It's hard to write without something to write about. That's why teachers ask you to write about your summer vacation. They really don't care what you did, but they want you to practice writing, not practice picking a subject.

There's a good basic HTML/CSS tutorial at About dot com; it is a very good intro to stylesheets and CSS. I also recommend HTML Goodies, though it's gotten so big it's not nearly so easy to navigate as it was when I first stumbled over it.

I run xampp on my local computer so I can test stuff before incorporating it in the website.

1 members found this post helpful.

Systems such as Joomla or Drupal are more website frameworks.

In a framework, you don't write the html code to structure the website; you just install the framework and then use a browser to access the website, customize the look and feel, add content, and so on.

The website itself is typically generated on the fly; your content resides in an SQL database, and the framework code (often PHP) will generate pages as required. You can have static html pages too, but the norm is to input the content through the framework user interface.

1 members found this post helpful.

thanks guys. I was getting lost. The last time I did anything with web site building was with dreamweaver. I now have kompozer and have been getting the look I want using gimp. It sounds like joomla! might be the direction I should go. My only concern is that I didnt want my site to look "canned". Thanks for the links and pointers. I am marking this as solved.

I wrote a review of Kompozer about a month ago. Maybe you will find it helpful.