i am new to everything. my son develops websites for a living, but i am determined to do mine by myself. my big issue is getting 'captivity content' to show up in my template mgr [it should show up there, shouldn't it?].
i have downloaded 'captivity content' from your website. it shows up on my 'module mgr / site', but not in module mgr / admin'. it does have a green check mark next to it, although everything else in the module mgr / site has a red circle with a white 'X'. i went to the 'module settings' area and it is enabled, but what confuses me is the statement in the trouble shooting area. it says to move the module from the left position to the appropriate position. i need a hint on that one.
i have downloaded 'JB Library' from your website, and it shows up in the 'plug-in mgr'. there are a variety of lines with the red circle / white 'X'.
hopefully i am doing OK so far. am i missing any components? do i also have to download 'zen grid', or is that part of the 'captivity content' download. please don't use 'developer speak'.
i have looked in your help area, and i am afraid to even think about images!
thank you in advance,
ava06 aka 'not the sharpest knife in the drawer'
in a very general sense, this is where i am headed and it would seem that is not a problem captivity content and/or zen grid.'

Well.... welcome to Joomla! and JoomlaBamboo

Zen Grid is likely installed and should be OK for what you are doing (you may want to tweak settings in it later.

Where you need to see captify content is in the Module Manager, no need to mess with anything else for now. The position depends on the template you are using. It will likely work well in the 'banner' position of most templates. Even if you are not using a JoomlaBamboo template I would look also at how the setup is done on the Grid2 temple (See how to set up the frontpage link in the Grid2 demo)

As with many things in life, using Joomla and extensions such as captify content can be frustrating. getting things perfect will take lots of trial and error. (Also, step 1 on everything is Back Up, look at akeebabackup for easy backups).

Good luck, hope this helps

HI Ava,

Welcome to Joomla Bamboo!

The reference to the left position is the position to which the module is published on the front-end of the site. It should work in pretty much any position on that template though. You can change the position the module is published to within the modules settings.

Just go into the module manager, click on the Captify module to edit the settings. Very near the top-left corner you will see the position option, where you can sellect where, in the front-end, you would like to display the module. Grid 1 is also another good choice for this template.

You need to ensure that JB Library is enabled (green tick). If it isn't click on the cross to enable it.

Astrophel and Seth, thank you very much for the help, and for replying so quickly!
here are the results and new issues i face: i assume i am using a JB template as it is the only one i have downloaded from my investigations into a number of sites. additionally, captivity content is showing up in my extensions/module manager area. 1| the position i have picked is banner. 2| in terms of Grid 2 and Captivity Content, it looks as if they are the same in terms of 'Module Parameters'. of course Grid 2 does have the Customize and Slide show components. 3| i am not sure why i didn't mention this b4, but my 'Module Parameters' and the screen shot from your site do not match in terms of drop downs etc. this is where they differ: you have something called 'Joomla Content' for the category 'Display Sections, categories or content?', i can only pick the individual areas.; 'Content' is not an option. as a result, where yours says 'Content Display Settings', i show 'Section Display Options' and 'Joomla Content Display Settings'. under 'Joomla Content Display Settings', you have 'CC', which is not an option for me. i have things like Resume, Portfolio and Recommendations [are they in the wrong place? the 'meat' is actually under 'articles'.]. under 'K2 Content Display Settings', you again have 'Demo/CC', my area is blank. 4| as part of the same window, i have 2 additional areas: 'Details/mod_captifyContent' and 'Menu Assignment'. the 'position' drop down doesn't show any module numbers, and the closest thing is 'user 1, user2, user3...' as well as 'breadcrumb' , 'debug', and 'hornav'.

my JB Library is green checked. at least i did one thing correctly!

thank you again,
ps. how do i get out of 'preview'?

I assume you are using the default template that comes with joomla (likely Rhuk Milkway, check Extensions - Templates and see which one is default). It may help if you post a link to your site.

Ignore all K2 references (you have not installed, and do not want to learn K2 at this time)

For Joomla Content - think of a newspaper

A newspaper has sections (News, Sports, Entertainment)
Each Section has categories (say Sports is divided into Soccer, Baseball, BasketBall, and Football)
Each Category has Articles (In the Baseball Category there may be several articles - Blue Jays miraculously beat Yankees etc)

Now .... Think of the page layout of a newspaper. Each is a position (in left you may have introduction to stories, in banner you have the Section and Category headers, in right you may have some ads etc). In joomla, articles are generally posted in the content positions. The positions that are available to you depend on the template you are using, every template has different positions. An easy way to see what positions are available for your template is to go to your site and add /?tp=1 for example www.bambootheme.com/showcase/jun10/?tp=1

So in Captify Content you choose to display X number of articles which you decide to choose from a particular section, category, or a set of articles you choose. Generally I choose to display them from a category which I may call Captify.

I hope this helps some... keep at it

btw, there is an 'official manual' help.joomla.org/images/User_manual/user_manual_v1%200%201_10%2021%2006.pdf it may help to clarify some of the joomla concepts for you.

If your content selection area is empty you do not have any articles to display. When you installed, did you install the sample data?

Seth and Astrophel,
before i start anything, i really want to thank you very much for your patience. as i mentioned in the beginning [in addition to the 'subject'], my son does this for a living, and i could approach him or just hand it over, but i am determined, possibly at the onset of dementia for you, to do it myself [did that sound like a 2 year old?]. have a drink and put it on my tab.
second, Blue Jays, Yankees? how about Cubbies beat White Sox?
if i may start with your questions first, Seth, i went back to check and all of my information is included under 'articles'. when i went into the 'module manager/parameters', under 'general captify settings', i made sure that 'display sections, categories, or content' had 'articles' on the 'pull-down'. just to be sure, i changed it to 'sections' and then 'categories', and i still didn't see any difference in the template manager . i assume i installed the demo data as i went thru the entire 'Landscape' tutorial.
i have tried playing around with all 3 templates in terms of 'default', and do notice a difference in the 'preview'. i went into the 'web link manager/links', and did see links i had set up for my tutorial, so i created a new link and tried it under 'specific links' and 'other resources', still nothing [was that what you referenced?],
the 'newspaper' analogy really helped as i am a 'visual' person - thank you. when i first started putting information in, e.g. 'resume', article seemed to make sense. i also appreciated the 'positions available' [why does that sound like the Kama Sutra for Joomla?] i have no idea where i found it, but there was another link that only showed the locations on the front page for 'captify content' [?].
four other things. am i supposed to unzip anything? i am hooked into 'hostgator' and 'filezilla'. would doing a 'screen capture' on any of this make any sense? on one of your site pages, you reference a link 'www.joomlabamboo.com/jul09' and i get an 'oops' message.
again, thank you for your patience! BTW, my name is Dennis, so i am not a 'dumb blond', i am actually a 'dumb brown hair'. my granddaughter's name is Ava. :o]
almost forgot - i live on the 37th floor, and something tell me Joomla wouldn't bounce from this height. i just read an article on minimalism and the title seems to be appropriate: In Death, New Discoveries. i don't plan on dying quite yet.

Hi Dennis,

Is your site online? A link will be the best way for us to see what's happening.

hello Seth,

my site is www.dastjohn.com
i have 5 articles: contact, resume, awards and accolades, about me, and portfolioo [there was already a 'portfolio' and so i had to know which was which]. there is information in 'contact', resume, and awards and accolades. i know i am jumping the gun, but how do i get the 'contact' to only show the word as opposed to the entire address?
is there any way i can send you my sign-in confidentially so you can look at how i have messed up?

D.

Hi Dennis,

You can submit a support ticket with the admin details so we can take a look.
www.joomlabamboo.com/submit-ticket

Seth / Astrophel-
i had to chuckle when i noticed that 50 people had viewed the post. i must admit that 'box of rocks' on this site is definitely an attention getter. i have my ticket assembled, so either you can look for it or go to the men's room to avoid it. there are question marks, but there is also information in the correspondence box. i think the user name and password for the FTP site are the same as the cpanel, but the host is just my domain name with an ftp. in front of it [?]. is there any reason why i would want to go into the FTP site? luckily, when i talked with HostGator, i copied our live chat conversation and pasted it into a word document.
my guess is that i turned something off that should have been left on in my module manager or front page manager.
of course, if you have any questions...quit laughing! are you in Australia? it must be nice with spring just around the corner.
D.

I doubt they would need anything more than an admin username and password for joomla admin panel.

quite a generous offer to access the site of a free member, I expect this is highly unusual. i think Matt is starting fall as you and I, but some are in Australia

What page is Captify published to? I can't see it on your site....

Seth / Astrophel -
in case you haven't picked up on the message before, i am so appreciative of your help and patience, you have no idea! BTW, i saw the guy sitting on the screen in the emoticon as me; the one that comes on the screen represents the entire JB team.

so, to answer your question, Seth, i am not sure i understand your question. maybe this is the root of all of my evil! i assume i am trying to publish to my website: www.dastjohn.com, using the captify content extension / template [?] and somehow fit 'zen grid' into it . i am not sure this will help, but i am trying to imitate a website that is not joomla, but has the simplicity / crispness that you present. all of my work is crisp and clean, so it is definitely based on my 'brand'. i can't imagine why, but if you need some of my photos, let me know. this is it, if you want to take a look-see: the opening page for www.sababali.com/ or craig-james.com.au/ [which is joomla]. please note that i am not asking you to design my website. it would seem that once i get to the template, i would be comparatively easy, even for me [?]. i have read all of the support questions and some of them make sense - probably enough where i could hammer out a website.

Astrophel-
i am not sure i understand 'generous offer'. it would seem to me that to offer support, they need a complete picture. i know that when i am working, i do.

My apologies, I certainly meant no offense in any way, it is one of the risks of forum communication.The comment was directed toward JoomlaBamboo, and was not meant to have any other connotations. My view is that it is extremely generous of a business such as JoomlaBamboo to extend such personal support on a free extension that may not even be in use. Such support is generally extended only to commercial members everywhere else (I may be wrong about the status of your membership at JoomlaBamboo).

I think what much of the surrent support stems from is that there is confusion about what capitify content, and Zen Grid are. I have clients that call captify content Grid since they have seen the templates and Framework names.

I'll try to explain clearly with examples.

Zen Grid is the framework on which JoomlaBamboo build its templates. The template is the skin that is applied to the frame (As drywall and paint are applied to a house building's frame, excuse my ignorance about contruction materials). In your case you are not useing the framework or template designed by joomlabamboo

Captify Content is more like a painting or billborad you may attach to any building, which displays images, a caption, and links to an article.At this site I created using the Grid template by joomlabamboo www.tabitabihakuba.com you will see a page that displays the template, on it you see 12 images that display a caption and link to an article. Only the part that displays the images and caption is captify content. Everything around it is based on the commercial Grid 2 template.

I hope this helps

Hi Ava,

Atsrophel is right here. We are trying our best to provide support for a free extension, support which is primarily here to serve members of the template club, but there has to be limits.

We can help you to understand how to get captify up and running if you have issues with the extension, but we cannot teach you how to use Joomla, especially as you are not a member of the template club.

If you are, and I am mistaken, then please sign in with the username used to purchase the template. If not, I suggest you look to joomla.org, or Google for beginners advice on Joomla. Thanks.

Seth / Astrophel,

i understand totally. i really appreciate your help and patience. i did not realize i was asking for help on Joomla, but rather your free extensions / templates, captify content, one of your programs. i have been to both sites you suggest many times. as a result of your help, it may make more sense now. i would gladly pay the $40. for a membership, but i don't have it - i am without work [ergo the website] and i am being caught in an eviction. if i get further stuck, i will borrow the money from someone if i have to, and be back to see you. when i get the site up and running [hopefully soon], i will let you know, since you have expended so much time and energy.

thank you again,
Dennis

Dennis,

there are many free resources and templates, as well as free help (and you are welcome here I am sure). Times are difficult, that is well understood, and people here are just as aware as others. My entrance to the world of joomla were under similar circumstances, and much of the time I spend is still to help people voluntarily.

In short if you want captify like on the site i showed...

You need at least the number of articles you want in the module (I hesitate to call it a Grid). Each article must have at least one image (the first imahe in the article will be the image that is shown, and I usually size it in similar relation to the size it will be resized in the module).

I always create a category called front and put all the articles i want to display in that category (easier to remember that way) and set captify content to display the Joomla category that you see as the category ID when you select Content-Categories in the Joomla Admin panel menu.

Looking at www.dastjohn.com/?tp=1 you'll likely want to publish the module in the user1 position, and only on the Home page (get it to display first, then ask how to make it first page only).

Finally, to make it look good will take some trial and error. For a very clean and simple site, you hardly need another menu (having no menu at all is for a more advanced lesson) since your articles are linked to from the images.