So I'm brand new to Joomla. Hell let's be honest, I'm new to all web coding. I was hired by a small advertising firm as a graphic designer and then got assigned nothing but web development projects. No sweat, I love a challenge and am a pretty fast learner. From those projects I've started to get a rough handle on CSS, PHP, and content management (but they use Wordpress ...booooooo).

Anywho, last week I got the bright idea that it was high time I finally develop my own site. I've heard great things about Joomla so I dove in head first. I understand the use of Joomla pretty well now and love it, but wanted to shoot for the moon on my first try since I can be picky. So here's my question, maybe someone can offer some guidance.

I'm basically looking to combine the looks of three of the templates here - Grid 1, Organica, and Grid 2. I know this will involve rearranging some code, but I'm up for it and it would be a great learning experience. Having trouble finding out where to start though. Here's what I like

Layout of Grid 1 - I like the drop down panel way better on grid one and much prefer the CaptifyContent over a slider bar like you see in Grid 1 - Hate the navigation menu at the top though.

Accordion Slider of Organica - LOVE this - I want it to be the main way I organize my content. I basically want each bar of the accordion slider to house its own category of CaptifyContent grids - IE: You click on of the accordion bars (one would be labled "Print") and it slides out to reveal the grid of CaptifyContent articles that only show articles related to my "Print" work that I have done. Then you could click another accordion bar "Web" and the "Print" section folds up to reveal the grid of Captify web articles/

Captify of Grid2 - The new captify module looks SO much better - I much prefer how Grid2 changes the overlay of each image with a white opacity and the centered title of the article.

So there ya go! Those are the parts of my Joomla Bamboo Frankenstein. Any suggestions on where to start? I'm tinkering as we speak and will soldier on until I find something, but any help would be MUCH appreciated.

Cheers,
Tyler

Hey Tyler,

Wow thats a pretty impressive list. I think to do that kind of customisation you really nee to just dive in.

The captify effect is in the latest captify module so there are no mods there.

As far as moving the features of the old templates to the new its a matter of checking the html, css and javascript and doing a cut and paste.

Its such a big list I cant really offer a step by step for you but I encourage you to dive into it. Will certainly be a good learning experience.

Let us know how you get on.

Anthony

Hey Tyler,
The advice I would add is to use Grid2 as a base and build from there. Like Anthony said there is a lot to be done. So step by step would be great and we could end up with a manual in this thread
Best way to learn Joomla, templates, php, css and of course for those accordion, javascript.

Cheers,
Jason.

Awesome, thanks for the advice guys! I'll try and keep notes of what I'm doing as I go so that I can post them later. I can guarantee my way will be about as efficient as trying to design a lead balloon but hopefully I can get a suitable start and from there get some input from the coding veterans out there. Lol this should be an interesting process for sure.

Lol I also forgot to mention the other two wild customizations that I'm determined to figure out. Asymmetrical grids (or merged modules) with the CaptifyContent as well as a snazzy flash intro to the entire site. Below are links to 4 rough diagrams of the homepage layout as I envision it so you can get a better idea of the overall look. Hopefully I can make it happen!

www.t-designsonline.com/Web%20Layout-01.png
www.t-designsonline.com/Web%20Layout-02.png
www.t-designsonline.com/Web%20Layout-02.png
www.t-designsonline.com/Web%20Layout-04.png

Cheers,
Tyler

Hey Tyler,

They look pretty cool - will definitely be interested in seeing the final result.

Anthony

Sigh, slow going on the site at the moment. Not much free time after I get off of my full-time job. Almost done with full quality Illustrator mockups though. I figure this will be Step 1 in my process - Determine 95% of the final site aesthetic and make sure that most all content is created first. Hopefully it helps me keep track of each task I had on my mental "To-do" list. I'm also still learning the basics of CSS via Lynda.com so it might be a while before I start to try and seriously crack some template code.

Step 2 will be, Customize template features. Then Step 3, add in all content and test for browser compatibility.

I know these are VERY VERY vague abstractions of the process, but it's a start.

Anyone up for sharing their own personal Joomla workflow regarding how they start to customize templates?

Also, anyone know of any solutions to integrate Joomla into a local version to make template testing a bit easier?

-Tyler

Hey Tyler,

Good stuff. Certainly takes time learning the basics but its time worth spending if you want to really learn how to do it.

If you are on a mac you can use MAMP and PC users have WAMP. There is also something called bitnami stack but I prefer using the local server option. Worth googling WAMP or MAMP to get a better idea of what they are.

Cheers Anthony