Hello all.

I am doing some volunteer work for Staffy Rescue updating their web site to a Joomla site. Ive had a great weekend downloading and installing extensions. Trawling the internet for free templates. Deleting things I shouldn't, reinstalling things I broke and junking things that didn't work out of the zip. I have to thank the whole Joomla community for creating such an awesome resource.

Being a long term beginner at Joomla I thought I would inflict my project on you at this very early stage.

www.staffyrescue.org.au is their old site. They have done a great job of hobbling together web services so as to find homes for abandoned and death row Staffordshire Terriers. They put the word out for some help with their web site and here we are in Joomla world.

The new site is being sand boxed at www.baretolerance.com

So if your got a spare couple of minutes and have opinions I would love to hear them.

Q. Dumping CB for "CBE for Joomla". Is there a better option. They currently use Windows Live. Its quite an active community.

Q Fixed width verses variable width. Anthony wants a wider page. Best reliable free wide template. Or something solid to pass on to Anthony.

Lots more to find out but Google is my friend. I have found its a lot of install trail and searching for something better.

I am keeping "Projectfork" project management extension. Its great. I'm keeping track of the project, tasks and time. Love it.

Yours sincerely
Kurt

Let me answer one of my own questions.

CB or not to CB. I am going to stay with Community Builder. The below link is worth a read about the different options available.

forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=470&t=354994

Kurt

Hi Kurt

re templates, it's a bit personal preference. Many of the fixed width templates are around 960 pixels, which is much smaller than many large screens could view. I think variable width is fine, as long as your template still works for smaller screens. With the upsurge of iPhone web browsing, that's another aspect to consider.

On this site we're currently using Rockettheme's free Afterburner template, where you can specify your own pixel width for the template (we're using 962) and also the column widths of left and right columns. It's also a very light and quick template.

hope that helps
Dex

yes, that forum post is a v interesting read indeed!

Thank you for the template. Ive used the theme and it works as a simple, fast layout. Its a good start. Ive gone with a fixed width of 1000px.

The only hitch being "The parameter file /templates/rt_afterburner_j15/params.ini is unwritable! " in the admin console. Today's Google.
FIXED. Changed the file permissions for the template in CPanel to "writeable 0755"
No I haven't FIXEDJust goes back. Bored of google for now.

I spent the night trying to get a full width wrapper working only to discover that Joomla and CB does not play nice with modules (CBloin and Users Menu) once you are logged in. Fortunately I probably don't need it.

Today I'm researching how to handle a photo library, cataloging individual dogs and the ability for users to add information about dogs they need to re home from a form. I need to make a simple to navigate, linkable and organized content entry system. Especially with the handling and organizing of photos. Down the track it would be good to have a small banner with thumbnails of dogs needing home scrolling and linkable. But that can wait.

Ive already explored AdManager and am playing with FlexiContent.

Then its time to set up Virtuemart to collect donations. Has anyone come across a good Donations system with Tax Receipts?

My tip. Make your own icon for the tab bar of Browsers. Its easy.
Get IcoFX from portableapps.com. Make an Icon
- To Change the favicon , you must replace favicon.ico file in templates/[template name] folder . Or just drop one in.
Done. I went with a paw print.

Lks

Frustrated..........

I swear Ive been swearing too much.
I choose Virtuemart because it had Australian Tax and shipping sorted out. It would allow us to collect set price donations and sell some merchandise. All good except that I cant find a way to have a community extension. Virtuemart now controls login. Any hope of creating a community and have integration seems to be lost.

Community Builder has a plugin CBSubs but it costs $130 upfront. No option to test it, just a 30day money back scheme. Not sure if it really does work with Virtuemart or will it also involve days of forum trolling and fixes. If any.

Eways like Vituemart, AustPost likes Virtuemart, Tax dept like virtuemart but that seems to be it.

I noticed that the developer who made the last integrator has now dumped Virtuemart and is going with Tienda. Its only in Alpha so as yet not a solution.

So I'm left with 2 solutions I can see.

1. Joomla content and community. Separate Shop. 2 separate logins.

1. Joomla and virtuemart with patched together community functions. One difficult login.

I feel your pain on that one!
I cant believe no-one out there has CB and VM running together.
Maybe you have to regress to Paypal buttons and CB? OK dont shoot me, it was just a thought

The Staffy Rescue Shop is just about ready to go live. See what we have done with your help. Demo at:

Staffy Rescue shop demo

Its no masterpiece but it is a DIY Joomla effort from start to finish. Thank you.

The main site is still a work in progress.