The Joomla!^TM 1.5 component SimpleLists is a content-oriented component. This means that you are responsible for managing the content - SimpleLists just simplifies the process of managing the component. In this tutorial you will learn how to use SimpleLists. If you want to know what SimpleLists has to offer you, have a look at the demo first: http://joomla1.demo.jira.nl/.

1. Installation

You can install SimpleLists as any other component within Joomla! 1.5. If you want more information on how to do this, we suggest having a look at docs.joomla.org first.

If you want to know how you should upgrade SimpleLists from a previous older version, check out our "Upgrading SimpleLists" whitepaper.

The minimum requirements for this component are Joomla! 1.5.7 and PHP 5.

1. To install this component, download it from the download-section on this site to your computer.
2. Then install the ZIP file from within the Joomla! Administrator as a regular extension.

2. Creating categories

SimpleLists has two types of content: Items and categories. Because items are always stored in categories, you will need categories first. Browse within the Joomla! Administrator menu to Components, than SimpleLists and than Categories.

By default, there are no categories. Use the toolbar-button New to add a new category. On the next page, you will be presented with all the options for creating a category. A SimpleLists category is almost the same as a Joomla! category as used for regular articles or weblinks, except for one thing: Parent categories.

With SimpleLists there are no sections. To have a more complex hierarchy, you can use the option Parent category. For the first category (or for the top-level category within a more complex structure) the field Parent category just stays blanc.

3. Creating items

Once you have created one or more categories, you are ready for creating items. The word items is a very broad term which can be used for a lot of different things. Just imagine items to be articles. Browse within the Joomla! Administrator menu to Components, than SimpleLists and than Items.

By default, there are no items. Use the toolbar-button New to add a new item. The next page looks similar to a form used to edit an article. But a SimpleLists item is NOT the same as a Joomla! article.

While an article and a SimpleLists item both have a title, text and category, only a SimpleLists item has a picture as well as a link. Ofcourse you can use a WYSIWYG-editor to insert a picture or a link to another page, but this is not a standardized way. By seperating the picture from the text, you can define a solid template for both your pictures as your texts.

The link is important as well. First of all a link could point to several different resources:

• None: Ehm, the link is not used at all
• Custom link: An URL totally defined by yourself, for instance if it's an webpage outside Joomla!
• Internal menu-link: If you want to link to another internal page, this is the best option
• Internal article: If you want to link an article, but there is no menu-item for it, this is the right option
• Internal image: If you want the item to point towards an image, you can use this option

The link is then used within the layout you choose. We will learn about this later on. But in the end we can choose how we want to use the link. Do we want to use the link if we click on the items title, or if we click on the picture? Or do we want to show a read-more link instead? This is all configured through the parameters. Some parameters are shown within the item, some are shown within the menu-item.

For each item we need to set a category. Items are never shown stand-alone, but always within a list - that's what the name SimpleLists refers to. The actual list is a listing of both the category as well as the items contained within that category.

An item can also reside in multiple categories. Just keep the CTRL-button pressed, so you can select multiple categories. This will save you the trouble of managing duplicate items.

4. Creating a menu-item

The actual SimpleLists page is created through a menu-item. Use the Menu Manager to create a new menu-item. The menu-item should be an Internal link to the component SimpleLists. As soon as you collapse the SimpleLists component you will see that there are two types of pages: A Categories page which lists categories and a Category page.

The Category page is the actual list: It is built with a single category and all the items contained within. Now underneath Category you will discover that there are multiple layouts. This is the real power of SimpleLists: You can just choose a layout, configure which elements should appear within this layout and you're done.

• Basic
• Default
• Hover
• Picture
• SelectBox
• Table
• Toggle

Every so now and then a new SimpleLists version will add new layouts. If you want to see what you can do with each layout, try it yourself or check the demo.

Once you have choosen a layout for the Menu-Item, you are directed to the regular Menu-Item Editing Form. The usual aspects of menu-items can be edited on the left, but on the right you will find parameters specific to SimpleLists.

The Parameters (Basic) will show you at least an option to select which category should be used for the page. This setting is mandatory and should always be filled in. If you don't set this value, the page will not display anything.

The Parameters (Advanced) and the Parameters (Component) will allow you to override the Preferences set in SimpleLists. If all lists should behave the same (let's say they should all use "linkable titles") you can use the Preferences button in the toolbar at the SimpleLists Items overview. If a setting is specific for a single menu-item (thus a single page), you use the Parameters (Component).

If you don't understand this principle, we suggest you first visit docs.joomla.org to learn more about how Joomla! deals with menu-items.

5. Using images

Till now, we have discussed the basics of using SimpleLists. Perhaps you already have a list up and running, but you're missing pictures. Ofcourse you could add an image to the item by using the WYSIWYG-editor, but it is simpler to use the Image selection on the right. Once you click on the button Select an image button, you are able to choose the right image in a popup-box.

Images should be uploaded to the Joomla! directory images/simplelists. You can have subfolders, but the component does not allow you to keep the images in let's say images/stories. You can use the Joomla! Media Manager or FTP to upload new images.

The item's Image is a bit different from the Link Image (which is the same as the link Internal Image). The actual Image is used inside the SimpleLists layout, while you also have the option to create a link. Within the parameters you can indicate where this link is used: should the title be used as link, or the image, or should an extra "Read More"-link be added? The Link Image is the page at the other end of the link. This could well have been a Joomla! article or an external link.

With the right parameters, you could also create the following setup: A list of items; for every item the image is shown; when an user clicks on the image the user ends up on a new page with a larger image. This "gallery" could even be extended to use the Lightbox-effect.