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Set Up a Blog in Joomla 1.5.x

Written by Marco Conti Sunday, 15 March 2009 18:51

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Recently, a "Gentle Reader"(as Dear Abby would say) pointed out to me that my old blog post on how to make a Blog in Joomla, had broken images and was somewhat difficult to read. Not to mention outdated. I wrote it over 3 years ago and when I moved it during my last redesign of the site from a Wordpress Blog and I must have misplaced my images. But it's time I wrote a new one anyway, since in Joomla 1.5 things are very different. They are also much easier and joomla 1.5.x is much more powerful than the old version.

UPDATE: I just found out about a new blogging project for Joomla that shows a lot of promise. It's called Tamka and along with 50+ add-ons and an advanced installer it solves the duplicate content issue I have been investigating recemntly and that has been a liability in Joomla for some time. Check it out.

However, the basic concept is the same: to make a blog in joomla the basic process is to create a category and write your posts in that category. If more than one person needs a blog on your site, each would get a category, name it with the name of their blog and publish it on the site.

I know, I know, you want step-by-step. Well here it is:

Create your Joomla Blog Section/Category

1. Go into your administration and click on (Menu) ==> Content ==> Section Manager
2. Create a new section and name it what you please (Blogs would a be a good one)
3. Now go to (menu) ==> Content ==> Category Manager
4. Click on "New" as you did with the section
5. Name your blog and make sure to choose the "Blogs" section you have just created in the popup below the title as the parent. Repeat as many times as necessary.

Set up your Joomla Blog Menu Link

Now, whenever you need to write a blog post, go to (menu) ==> Content ==> Article Manager and click on "new" (see a pattern here?)

Write away but remember to make sure to select the Section Blog and the category with your blog in the appropriate popups. You can also set the parameters just the way you like it, but the best thing is to set them up first in the Global Preferences (located in the Article Manager to the top right) but mostly in the link you create to point to your blog.

Since Joomla is a Menu driven website (meaning that until you create a menu structure you really have no navigation and most of your pages won't be reachable), the most important step you can do is to set up your menu links properly.

1. Go to you admin area and now click on menus ==> (your menu)
2. Click on "new"
3. Click on "Article Layout"
4. Click on "Category Blog" (now, if you wanted to create a blog where every author's posts showed up together chronologically, here you would create a "section Blog")
5. Now, title your link (Bob's Blog or whatever)
6. Go to the right side and leave most of the parameters alone, except for the "Author Name" (display) and "Created Day and Time" (Display). Also set any other parameters as you prefer but those two are important in blogs.
7. Click save and exit.

Create an RSS feed for your Joomla Blog

Now, Joomla has a nice RSS feed module that creates a small RSS button in any position you like.

To activate that, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Extension ==> Modules ==> New
2. There click on "Syndicate"
3. When the new module page opens, give the module a title and click on "Show title "no"
4. Choose a position appropriate to your template
5. In the "Menu Assignment" choose the page relative to your blog.
6. Save and exit.

Now, you are finally ready to start writing your blog. Remember to choose the right category and section and use the "read more" button to create a Title > Intro > Read more type of layout for your blog page.

Conclusion

There are also a number of useful modules such as calendars, blogrolls etc. you can use to dress up your blog and make it more compliant to what readers expect.

One good option would be to install a Ping-o-matic module (to automatically "ping" the blog directories every time you create a new post), although last time I looked for it I could not find it anymore. But in the Joomla world of extensions, things change rapidly so by the time you read this it may be available again.

I hope you found this article useful and feel free to let me know how I can improve it or any other article you would like to see.

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Thanks for tutorial

Excellent tutorial for joomla, i really like it, it is clear and everyone can follow these tips, clear and brillant, well done.

web design sydney , January 23, 2010 | url

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Correction on K2

I wanted to make a correction on the K2 component I suggested as an alternative for making a blog in Joomla. K2 indeed has "latest News" and "newsflash" type modules you can use . In fact, K2 also has a very nice categorization system, a "Tag" system (similar to Wordpress) and other niceties that make it a better option than the Joomla built in CMS for a good blog.

K2 also has a built in comment system that works quite well. The learning curve is minimal and I have just used it for a very large community website without much trouble (topic for a soon to be Screencast).

Marco Conti , November 20, 2009 | url

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...

Thanks for the list!

Flv Player , November 20, 2009 | url

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Great Info

Had some struggeling by trying other Blog modules - went back to your description and the whole stuff worked out on the fly... only problem - I am showing right now 10 articles (as it is a top 10 list) when I like to display less, and it comes to page 1 2 at the bottom of the page, the link to page 2 does not work.

Anyhow, thanks for your tutorial / Peter

Peter , November 19, 2009 | url

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Easy to use

Thanks for this - set it up and very easy to use - I've been confused about setting up a blog in joomla for ages! Cheers

Web Design Glasgow , October 09, 2009 | url

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Linking the menu link

Thank you for the comment. I am glad you found it useful.

When you say:

when you explain how to set up a menu item you don't say that you need to link to an article

Do you mean explain that you have to link it to the Category where the blog is? I guess I should have specified that, but it's not an article. It's a Category link to the category where you are setting up the blog. If you are using a section, then you have to link to the section.

Incidentally, I have had a couple of clients that misunderstood the concept and did link their blog to an article, then each time they went in and updated the same article. That's not a good way to do a blog. For one thing, nit won;t generate individual links to the articles but there are many other reason why it's not a good way to do it.
But I believe you meant link to the category. Am I right?
I'll do the edit as soon as I can.

Marco Conti , September 17, 2009 | url

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Useful for checking what i have already done

I had already set my blog section up but found this useful to check. One thing though i noticed - is that when you explain how to set up a menu item you dont say that you need to link to an article. This could do with clarifying.
An extended post on setting up extras for a joomla blog could be good if you ever got time.

Thanks!

philbolivia , September 16, 2009 | url

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Perfect - thanks!

Great tutorial! We used a DISQUS plugin to add comments to ours.

Sherrie , September 16, 2009 | url

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Easy to get

This was pretty easy even for me to understand, and I'm kinda blonde when it comes to reading other's directions. I actually used this on my last blog, but then decided to stop posting..so I shut it down. Thanks for the article though, if I ever start up another one, I'll use this!

Golf Blog , September 07, 2009 | url

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Allowing only registered users

By the way, I guess I went off a tangent and did not answer the question about how to allow only registered users to post comments. In Jom comment that's actually done in the preferences and it's very easy to implement. In K2, I have no idea yet. But I am working on a screencast about K2 that should be out in a week or so and I should be able to answer that.

Marco MC Conti , September 07, 2009 | url

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