Nimbus Documentation

nimbus The Nimbus Joomla template was released in December 2008.

The following steps will help you to work better with the Nimbus template. Please follow the instructions and use this item as a guide for setting up your site and configuring the various option found in the template as well as the extensions and scripts that are showcased on the Nimbus demo site.

Getting Started

Choosing between the template or the quickstart.

Installing the template.

Choose this option if you already have your site created or have at least made changes to the default Joomla installation and want to overlay this theme onto your site. For a complete installation of the demo site on your server please refer to installing the quickstart package.

Installing the template is achieved using the same method as installing any other template or extension.

Navigate to your Joomla admin area at yoursite.com/administrator

Navigate to Extensions > Install/uninstall

Click browse and locate the template zip on your harddrive.

Click upload and install.

After you receive the success message, navigate to Extensions > Template Manager

Select the radio checkbox next to the name of the template that you have just installed and then click on the button at the top right of the screen that says default.

Now if you navigate to the front page of your site and you should see the Canvas template installed into your Joomla site.

Installing the quickstart.

The Joomlabamboo quickstart packages are complete replicas of the particular template's demo site. They are basically the same as the Joomla installation zip except they come with the template, watermarked images and extensions you see on the demo site. They are a quick and easy way to have your site setup and ready to edit.

You can read the tutorial on installing the quickstart packages here.

Extensions used on the demo site

Extensions used on the demo site include:

JB Slideshow v3.0
Extended menu - Superfish and Panel menus

Installing the extensions

Installing the modules.

Navigate to your Joomla admin area at yoursite.com/administrator

Navigate to Extensions > Install/uninstall

Click browse and locate the extension zip on your hard drive. If the zip is named unzipfirst then you must unzip the files.

Click upload and install.

After you receive the success message, navigate to Extensions > Module Manager

Select the radio checkbox next to the module you just installed and begin to configure the options.

Ensure that the module is published, is assigned to a menu item on the bottom left and all of the necessary parameters are configured.

Apply or save the changes you have made.

Configuring the Extensions

JB Slideshow v3.0

Configuring the Template

Snapshot of the template configuration

nimbus_params

Enable jQuery

This is required if you use any of the effects below, but make sure jQuery is only included once.

Superfish Menu

Enables the superfish drop down effects.

Enable Thickbox

Allow the use of the lightbox feature or disable if you don't use it.

Template Style

Select the theme variation for your site.

Main Body Layout

Select the body layout variation you desire.

Slide Duration

Length of time for the transition, in milliseconds. 400 means 0.4 seconds.

Slider Labels

Change these labels to correspond to the tabs you have configured. If a tab is not enabled, it displays nothing.

Panel Speed

The speed of the panel coming into view, this is in milliseconds, so 400 is 0.4 seconds.

Layout and module positions

Nimbus has a total of 15 module positions which expands to a total of 28 module positions if you take advantage of the finbuilt module flex. Most of the module positions are collapsible which means that this template is extremely flexible and its quite easy to create a unique format and layout for your site.

nimbusmodulepositions

Modules in the top area.

The hidden panel contains the module position called cpanel and the link to the hidden panel and the panel are only published if you have a module published to the cpanel position
The slideshow is published to the banner position.
The logo at the very top left is a background image in the css file and can be found in the images directory of your template. The source file can be found in the source zip in the Joomla Bamboo download area.
The module position user1 is posiitoned directly above the logo.
The top right menu is positioned at the user 2 position and is a basic Joomla menu module with the flat list attribute.
The search module is positioned to the user4 position.
The spiele beside the logo in the center of the header area is a custom html module in the inset position.
The Superfish menu is positioned at the user 3 module position and uses the extended menu module to create the beautiful suckerfish that you see here on the demo. Please take the time to read the tutorial on setting up the superfish menu elsewhere on the demo site.
The pathway and the date are published in the index.php in J1.0 file and the templateadministrator in J1.5.

Modules in the main content body.

The modules in the main bodyinclude the usual left and right positions which vary in their position according to the layout you have selected in the template administration.
The top position is positioned directly underneath the date and pathway elements and stretches to the full width of the template.
The Advert 1 position sits above the main content while Advert 2 sits below the main content.

The slider

The titles for the slider are set in the index.php file for Joomla 1.0 and the administrator area for the template in Joomla 1.5.
The slider slides upto 9 module positions called slide1, slide2, slide3, slide4, slide5, slide6, slide7, slide8 and slide9. If you are using Joomla 1.0 then you need to create the module positions in the module position manager. If you are using Joomla 1.5 then simply select them from the drop down list when you are setting up the module in the module admin.

Modules in the bottom area.
The bottom area of the template contains the footer module position on the left and the bottom position on the right. back to top

Menus

Superfish menu

1. Install Extended Menu module v1.06 for use on Joomla 1.5.

2. Install the module by using the Joomla module installer.

3. Publish the module to the module position called menu or in older templates to the top position.

4. Disable the module title.

5. Select the menu you want to use.

6. Select flat list as the menu type.

7. Set expand menu to yes.

8. Set use menu template to yes.

9. Set the menu path to superfish/menu.html if its not already set.

Here are some screenshots of the admin panel so you can see exactly the way we have created the drop down effect.

Superfish Menu

Panel Menu

The Panel Menu is an accordion like menu effect that utilises the extended menu module and presnt your menu items in a sliding panel based menu. Its ideal for displaying a large number of links with a small footprint.

The setup for the accordion menu is pretty much the same as the superfish menu except for one key difference - instead of using the superfish/menu.html template the menu uses the accordion/menu.html template.

1. Install v1.05 of the extended menu module if you havent done so already.

2. Publish the module to either the left, right or inset position depending on your layout configuration.

3. Disable the module title.

4. Select the menu you want to use.

5. Select flat list as the menu type.

6. Set expand menu to yes.

7. Set use menu template to yes.

8. Set the menu path to accordion/menu.html if its not already set.

Here is a snapshot of the settings used to generate the panel menu.

working with the hidden Panel

The Hidden Panel is a flexible module panel you can use on your site to create a secret panel area for hiding useful but not necessarily priority website content. Using the panel is as simple as publishing any module to the cPanel position.

Drop Panel back to top