Getting Started!

Welcome to Joomlapolis - The home of the Community Builder suite!

You have probably joined this site to learn more about the most popular Joomla extension - the Community Builder Suite (aka CB). And you probably have a million question. Please refrain from posting these questions to the forums before you have done some homework on your own. It is assumed that you are familiar with Joomla and its features and comprehend terms like component, module, mambot, etc.  If not, please take the time and familiarize yourself with all core Joomla features and concepts - otherwise you will have problems.

Since Joomlapolis is CB's home it has turned on and is using most of CB's features. You have probably experienced the different registration process and the additional application fields on the registration application (compared to the Joomla registration process). You have also received an email requesting you to confirm your email by clicking on a URL included in the email message. These (extended registration process and registration workflow) are some core CB features. When you login to Joomlapolis for the first time, you will see an empty avatar photo in the CB Login box (CB Login module). By clicking on this 'empty avatar' or by selecting the 'My CB Profile' item in the User Menu (left column of the front page after login) you will be taken to your very own CB profile on this site. The first thing you should do is to upload your profile image. Just select the Edit -> Update Your Image menu item from your CB Profile and upload your image. Make sure your image follows the size limits stated and the upload should be just fine. After you upload your image, you will see a pending approval status avatar in your profile. This is another core CB feature and your avatar needs to be approved by a CB Moderator. Once your uploaded image is reviewed and approved by a CB moderator, it will show up just fine in your profile (and also in the login module as a thumbnail).You will also see alot of extra tabs on your profile. Also try editing your profile by using the Edit -> Update Profile menu item on your profile. You should see some of the questions (CB fields) you already answered during the registration process and some more (that are part of your profile but were not required during registration).

In addition, you will see some more tabs in your Joomlapolis profile that have extra functionality and feaures. For example you see the articles tab (should site articles you have authored), the blog tab, the connection tab, the profilebook tab (once you have activated it - edit your profile and you will see how), the CB Gallery tab, the last visitor tab and many more. Most of these extra tabs are created by CB plugins that take advantage of the CB plugin framework intended to extend CB functionality without compromizing core code.

Once you login you can also visit the CB Lists functionality by selecting the CB Lists user menu item. This is also core CB functionality. Once you have selected a list you can just click on a row and see the corresponding CB profile. Once viewing a fellow Joomlapolitan's CB profile you will see additional CB functionality like the nice integration with third party PMS components (if you have no idea what this is then you should fo back to Joomla studying!)  and you will see more CB menu items (like request to connect or send pms, etc).

There are tons of features and many more CB extensions already waiting for you to play with. Also, there are many CB plugins under development - either by the CB team or by third party developers.

All this stuff has probably gotten you very excited by now and (if you haven't already done so) you are about to download the latest CB release and start pounding away. Before doing so please take the time to follow these steps:

  • download latest release from this site (see download section - CB Team Releases)
  • download installation pdf and READ it (see download section - Documentation)
  • unzip the release package you downloaded and READ the readme file carefully

It is always a good idea to start experimenting on a local test site. Follow all instructions, install and experiment. The backend of the CB component and the modules have many parameters - most of them self-explanitory. You just have to read - study - experiment. If you are lazy and want more detailed instructions you can subscribe to the detailed documentation service and download and read it along with your experimentation. The document is offered for 25 EUROS and should be viewed as a donation towards the CB team's efforts (see article here).

Suggested reading:

Finally, start searching the forums - the search button does wonders but unfortunately most of us just post away without investing any real effort in researching first. This results in many unanswered forum posts to questions that have been addressed many times before. And remember, there is no formal support team - its up to each one of us to help out!

Welcome again to Joomlapolis and the wonderful world of Community Building!

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