Mambo

Sample site: http://www.umbc.edu/gradbusiness/mambo/

Note: the above site is just an initial proof-of-concept. Do not click any links on it yet.

1. Download the zip for Mambo from the website, http://mamboxchange.com/frs/?group_id=5
2. Unzip into the directory inwhich the webpage will exist.
3. Go to the index page of the directory inwhich you uploaded the files. http://www.umbc.edu/directory/
4. There will be a Mambo pre-installation check page, check to make sure proper access is set to all listed directories and change modes if necessary. Press next to go to the next step (upper right hand corner). If configuration file is not writable, don’t worry about it.
5. License, Mambo is free software released under the GNU/GPL License, check that you accept the terms of the agreement and press next to go to the next step.
6. MySQL Database Configuration, enter database connection information and press next.
7. Enter Name of Mambo Site
8. Confirm the site URL, path, admin e-mail and file/directory chmods
9. Save your Administrator Login information. If the configuration file wasn’t writable in Step 4, copy file information given to you into your configuration file an reupload it to the server. Make sure this file is called configuration.php and present on the server before moving on to step 10.
10. Delete the installation folder from the main dir of the website.

1. Return again to the root folder where you placed mambo. http://www.umbc.edu/directory/ This time, Mambo’s default Water & Stone template should appear.
2. Halfway down the page on the left side is a login form. Login as admin with the password given to you during installation.

You’re looking at an “editable” version of your current website. Mambo has put in layout and content for you. From this page you can edit any content you would like by clicking on the pad & pencil icon next to section titles. If you wish to change your password, go to the User Menu on the left hand side and click “User Details”.

To edit anything other than content, move to the left side of your screen and scroll all the way down. Click “Administrator”. This takes you to a back-end mambo login. Enter admin and your password to login to the backend. From here you can customize the site.

Add New Users by clicking the Users icon. These are people who will be able to edit the page. As an administrator, you can set permissions. Example: If you would like a member to only be able to login, and edit content, but not have access to backend functionality, under “Group” you would highlight “Publisher”. When you’re done click “Save” in the upper right-hand corner.

Change or Update Template From the menu along the top select Site > Template Manager > Site Templates. Here you can chose between two Mambo provided templates. You can also edit the HTML and CSS for them by using the iconic menu in the upper right-hand corner.

This link gives a tutorial of how to setup a mambo template in dreamweaver. http://www.allmambo.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=2

You can create a mambo template from an existing XHTML and CSS site design if you have the code for that design. Your design needs to have basic designated areas such as footer, main content, header, left and right columns.

1. Name your index page index.php and your style sheet template_css.css
2. Make sure you have Dreamweaver on your computer, if not you can http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=dreamweaver Download a free trial. You will also need to install the Dreamweaver Mambo Template Extension at http://mamboxchange.com/frs/?group_id=106&release_id=4008. Once downloaded, in Dreamweaver go to Commands > Extension Manager. Load in the zip file for the extension and then close Dreamweaver.
3. In Dreamweaver, go to Create a new dynamic page > PHP. Delete all the code above the closing head tag. With your cursor above the closing head tag, go to Insert > Mambo Solutions > Insert Head Code. This inserts mambos’ predefined header information.
4. After the body tag, paste all the code from your existing design (obviously only put in the code from your design that resides after the body tag, as well). Then switch to design view. Hopefully you see your design looking the way it should.
5. Locate the main content area in your design, and highlight any images or text. With those highlighted, go to Insert > Mambo Solutions > Insert Main Body. This will replace your changing content with a dynamic variable. Woot.
6. Similarly, find two other areas where you want the content to be dynamic/editable. Highlight those areas and respectively insert Left Module and Right Module using the Mambo Solutions inserts. Also create an insert for the footer area.
7. Underneath your Left Module, Insert user1 and underneath your right module insert user2. These will create specific areas labeled “user1” and “user2” in your admin area. Later, you will be able to assign things to appear in these areas by referring to them.
8. Following the same methods, you can add other areas, such as a search box, current date, breadcrumbs (called Pathway) or a banners area.
9. Save the file you’ve been working on as index.php in the main folder for your template.
10. Copy the following code into a txt file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?><mosinstall type="template">  
<name>tutorial_file_name</name>  
<creationDate>Apr 2006</creationDate>  
<author>Your Name</author>  
<copyright>This template is released under GNU/GPL License.</copyright>  
<authorEmail>your@email.com</authorEmail>  
<authorUrl>www.yourwebsite.com</authorUrl>  
<version>1.0</version>  
<description>A breif description of your template.</description>  
<files>    <filename>index.php</filename>    
</files>  
<css>    <filename>css/template_css.css</filename>  </css>
</mosinstall>

Replace the basic information with your own and save it as templateDetails.xml and place it in the same folder with index.php

Note: Make sure that you do not include any extraneous file references in this XML file. We copied the file from another source and it had references to other .gif and .jpg files. In a later step (upload), it gave us errors and we had to include those file, or delete their references from the XML.

11. Rename your CSS file template_css.css and place it in the CSS folder.

12. Save all images from your design and place them in the folder as well.

12. Place all these files into a zip: index.php, templateDetails.xml, template_css.css, and all attached images.

13. Enter the admin area on your mambo server. Go to Site > Template Manager > Install and upload your zip file. Voila!

14. You can set your template to the default template by going to Site > Template Manager > Site Templates. Check the radio box next to the name of your design then click “Default” in the top right menu. Now going to your website will bring up this new template.. hopefully.

Follow all the steps above. After uploading the template, click the radio button and go to “Assign” Here you can highlight which links from the main page take you to the interior template.

Footer Edit – From the main folder on the server, locate the “includes” folder. Edit “footer.php”.

Add Images – Site > Media Manager. Browse and upload using the Upload button in the upper right corner.

Set Content For Main Section – Content > All Content Items. Check or Uncheck an item from the “Front Page” column to have it appear in the main section.

All pages are made in a heirarchy. Content belongs to Catagories and Catagories belong to Sections. The only exception to this rule is Static Content, which exists outside of Sections or Catagories. New content that doesn’t fall under menu items should be made static.

To change whether posted date, author, etc is shown, you have to edit the configuration.php file via FTP or SSH

Modules are things that can change on a page, and you can place them anywhere. When you edit a module it lets you pick which section of the page you want it to appear based on where you placed PHP code. You can change the design and layout of any module, mambot or component by finding the php file for it in your administrator files. You can also change where it goes by adding sections to your HTML page with PHP code (see creating a Mambo Template, step 7)