Thinks new users should know

[mperkel]

What you really need to know to get started.

Here's a few things that new users should know from someone who is still very new to the installation process. And - I hope those who are designing the admin pages read this too.

First - this product is great, but I almost gave up on it several times thinking it can't do the job. That's because the administrator interface which looks deceptively simple isn't simple at all. Here's what you need to know first.

Understanding Blogs

One mistake I made was to assume that the front page manager had something to do with the front page - it doesn't. Mambo has the object called a "blog" and the center of the front page is one of these blogs.

The "blog" is a very unusual and powerful object once you understand it. By default the first object in the blog is full width (one column) and the next 4 object are 1/2 width (two column). After that - there are links to the next blog articles and pages of clusters of more blog items.

This blog thing is totally customizable ad if you want to actually use it as a blog what you do is change the settings. You do this by going into the menus and selecting the mainmenu. Then you configure it by changing the leading, intro, and colums settings. I just put in 999 into leading to get a one column vertical blog.

A blog also points to a collection of content items. There are both sections and categories that are collections. So a blog is associated with a list and you create the list of the content as a section and then have a blog object pointing to the list and put the blog object into the main menu and you have a new blog.

The Front Page

Whatever the first item in your main menu is - this item becomes your front page. Once you understand this it eliminates a lot of confusion. If you choose something for the first menu item other than the standard entry then the "front page manager" is totally useless because what is says is on the front page isn't - and what is on the front page isn't listed in the front page manager.

Overview of some system objects

OK - here's some of the big picture concepts. You have "content" which is text and HTML which represent articles you want to post. Content has propertues like if it is published or not, various features to be turned on and off, etc.

Content can be in sections or categories or static content. Static content is like a stand alone article about something. Content structured in sections and categories are content items that are associated in some manner.

Menus are lists of things that you can choose from. The Main Menu is generally in the upper left and the first item in the main menu is the front page. Memu itsems can point to lots of other things and there's a big list of things that menu's can point to. If you want to show a static article you add a menu item and point it to a static content item. A menu is a collection of menu items pointing to other things.

Blogs is kind of a disply element that connects a menu selection with a section or category to control how the list of articles is seen. You can have several blogs pointing to the same collection of stuff but with different settings it looks different. In addition to blogs, there are also Links and tables that display content lists differently.

Installing Addons

Mambo has 3 different types of add ons, Components, Modules, and MamBots. What these are is confusing and if you go to download them and install them it is not always obvious which installer to use. And if you use the wrong installer - it gives you a cryptic failure error that makes you thing you got a bad download. What you have to do sometimes is try all 3 installers until you foind one that works.

Lowering your Expectations

Once you realize how bad the Admin interface is and that it is totally misleading and not intuitive you can actually start to make it do more. I made the mistake in assuming that the Admin interface was done right and therefore assumed it didn't have features and power that it actually does have. Once you've lowered your expectations that this is going to be easy - then you can learn where the power really is and create a really great web site.

Conclusion

This software is extraordinarilly powerful. Far more powerful than it would seem initially. But - like most open source projects - it's not easy - docs are poor and hard to find - and the admin interface really needs to be rewritten from scratch. You will beat your head against the desk wondering why oh why can't it just work. Why does it have to be so complex. But, once you've learned it - it is very productive. But expect a steep learning curve.

Often once a person learns an application they forget the learning process and that it was so hard in the begining. I am still in the begining and I am not an expert on this at all. But I wanted to write this while I am still experiencing the pain and suffering of the learning process in hopes that the powers that be will read it and fix the admin interface, The back end of this product and the documentation are its weakest parts and it REALLY needs to be fixed.

It seems to me that the Open Source world should team up with colleges and universities who are training technical writers and make it their education to take open source projects and do the documentation. That would be a win/win relationship.

So - before this gets to long - I hope this thread will stay alive and make it into the right hands to improve an otherwise great software project. I'm glad I stuck with it.

[bensontel2]

I am attempting to write a simplified overview too. I am trying to draft a mambo for dummies kind of thing. I'll submit sections here. But my audience is the admin assistant who knows how to send email and write word documents, and that is about all.

I am trying to strip mambo down to have just one section. So far I'm not having luck with deleting sections because they contain categories that contain records. Even though I have deleted all content from the content manager(s). I still get errors saying there is content somewhere.

[kenmcd]

When your guides are done, please post me a note in this thread:
http://forum.mamboserver.com/showthread.php?t=42100
Thanks.


Mambo Documentation Resources
Print - links to over 100 Online, PDF, and DOC format guides and tutorials.
http://forum.mamboserver.com/showpos...07&postcount=1
Flash - links to over 100 Flash multimedia demos and tutorials.
http://forum.mamboserver.com/showpos...62&postcount=4

[bensontel2]

Will do but don't hold your breath. I am pretty slow. In fact I started www.slowdownnow.org.
This is the sort of draft I am working on:

Think about how a magazine is divided into sections. You might have an international news section, arts and sports sections. Inside the sports section there are articles arranged by the type of sport: football, golf, squash, ice-skating, and so on. For example, the golf section might have a category on tournaments and another on advice from the pro. Inside the tournaments category is where you would find individual stories about tournaments.

Using Mambo, you structure your content in the same way. Think first about what your major sections will be. Perhaps you will have only one section on a small site...
Christopher

[o2nyc]

Thanks for your overview- the part about the front-page being a blog by default caught my attention... I'm seeing this kind of behavior- like unwanted titles and authors and timestamps around my content. Do you know how to turn the blog off? I'd like the content to just show up on the front page as is...

(my site: http://www.o2nyc.net/mambo/)

rich

[mperkel]

Originally Posted by o2nyc

Thanks for your overview- the part about the front-page being a blog by default caught my attention... I'm seeing this kind of behavior- like unwanted titles and authors and timestamps around my content. Do you know how to turn the blog off? I'd like the content to just show up on the front page as is...

(my site: http://www.o2nyc.net/mambo/)

rich

The way you turn the "blog" off is that you create a link to a static content item and make it the first item in the maim menu. The first item in the main menu is the real front page.

[mperkel]

Originally Posted by bensontel2

I am attempting to write a simplified overview too. I am trying to draft a mambo for dummies kind of thing.

What really needs to happen is the admin stuff rewritten from scratch rather than documenting something that's confusing. It's so ironic that such otherwise great software is so crippled by an interface that is confusing.

[o2nyc]

Originally Posted by mperkel

The way you turn the "blog" off is that you create a link to a static content item and make it the first item in the maim menu. The first item in the main menu is the real front page.

That worked to get my content showing, but now my 'main menu' is gone... how can I get that to stick?

rich

[mperkel]

I don't know why your main menu is gone. I run into strange stuff like this a lot. If you mess with it long enough you'll find it. I'm still in the learning process myself.

[o2nyc]

yeah i actually fixed it by editing the 'main menu' module and selecting 'All' in the Menu Item Link(s) box. I guess this makes the menu show up on all pages (??). Thanks for your help anyway.

[mperkel]

Also - watch out for "time offset" in the global configuration. Leave it at "0" because it doesn't do what you think it does. I had "-8" for California and it was a BIG MISTAKE. I'm not sure what it really means but it isn't a time zone setting.

What would happen is that it would set start dates and other things wrong as if I had posted in the future and items that were supposed to show up didn't.

[MamboVimes]

Originally Posted by mperkel

Conclusion

This software is extraordinarilly powerful. Far more powerful than it would seem initially. But - like most open source projects - it's not easy - docs are poor and hard to find - and the admin interface really needs to be rewritten from scratch. You will beat your head against the desk wondering why oh why can't it just work. Why does it have to be so complex. But, once you've learned it - it is very productive. But expect a steep learning curve.

Laughing my wotsits off.

mperkel, I know how you feel. I've been using and developing for Mambo for about a year now. All things considered, it's a truely awesome application and I wish I had some cash to send to The Community by way of thanks for all their hard work but My God, it's a bugger to get a handle on.

There's no question about it, it beats the competitors (drupal, nuke etc) hands down, but I've been brought to tears by it more than a few times.

You gotta love Mambo for the entertainment value alone.

[bensontel2]

Originally Posted by mperkel

What really needs to happen is the admin stuff rewritten from scratch rather than documenting something that's confusing. It's so ironic that such otherwise great software is so crippled by an interface that is confusing.

That maybe true and I agree, it is confusing. But right now, this is what we have. A manual explains all the features and how they work, not necessarily why you would want to use them.

My goal is to write simple instuctions to create or modify new pages or plug in or modify a module only. I'm not trying to write an admin manual. There are others doing that, and probably very well.

Is Mambo a tool for webmasters or a tool that an office manager or administrative assistants can easily use? I think right now the emphasis is on webmasters but the promise of Mambo is that anyone can use it. The latter has great value in my opinion and that is why it needs to be simple. There is a simplified program called Limbo, it might be a good thing but having the huge user and support base gives me confidence in Mambo's future.
Christopher

[Smile Police]

I must admit I had a great luff at your post as. Everythink you said was so true.

It my fisr time i haver ever used something like this so I pretty new and really rely on instructions to use.

I've held off asking for questions on the forum until I had an idea of the jargon used and a basic understanding of the workings.

Im have a great deal of fun playing around with it.

Thanks for your comments it makes me feel awhole lot better that others are feeling the same pain.

[mperkel]

Glad it helped.

[jazztpt]

You are so right about the documentation and user interface being the weakest parts of Mambo. I started using Mambo a week ago, and also started writing my own tutorial (http://forum.mamboserver.com/showthread.php?t=43240). I am really enjoying reading this post, because I want to incorporate your perspective into my tips. Please let me know if you have any feedback on how to improve my little tutorial.

Thanks!
Anna

[mperkel]

You can of course use everything that I wrote as part of your tips.

[divamissx]

Forgive me if this problem has been resolved already... but my issue with the front page is that I need for my articles to rotate themselves thru the front page on a weekly basis.

If I add 20 new articles to the database, and I set 5 of them to display on the front page, those 5 will stay on the front page until I manually turn off the front page parameter for those 5 articles and then manually turn on the front page parameter for another 5 articles.

Setting the publishing dates is not an option because I don't want to unpublish the articles, I just want them to disappear from the front page.

[yunfeng51]

I think "blog" is in fact not a mambo object. It is only a menu item which links to all section. Mambo provide some default menu item like home, news, blogs, links and FAQ's etc. Blog is just one of them, no especially.

I am a beginner for mambo, maybe I misunderstand what you mean blog, But I
can't find any other blog on the mambo administration console.

Understanding Blogs

One mistake I made was to assume that the front page manager had something to do with the front page - it doesn't. Mambo has the object called a "blog" and the center of the front page is one of these blogs.

The "blog" is a very unusual and powerful object once you understand it. By default the first object in the blog is full width (one column) and the next 4 object are 1/2 width (two column). After that - there are links to the next blog articles and pages of clusters of more blog items.

This blog thing is totally customizable ad if you want to actually use it as a blog what you do is change the settings. You do this by going into the menus and selecting the mainmenu. Then you configure it by changing the leading, intro, and colums settings. I just put in 999 into leading to get a one column vertical blog.

A blog also points to a collection of content items. There are both sections and categories that are collections. So a blog is associated with a list and you create the list of the content as a section and then have a blog object pointing to the list and put the blog object into the main menu and you have a new blog.

[Nismorack]

I've been tackling mambo for some time now. I once created my own CMS (which wasn't as good as this), but obviously having something like mambo ready made will make my life so much easier. Or so I thought.

Now I'll be the first to admit that when it comes to webdesign. I'm a control freak. Through and through. I need to be in direct control over everything the code does and outputs. The first thing I had to accept were the tables. If I had my way I'd take apart the entire code and replace it with proper Divs and what not.

But yeah, my biggest issue was the completely counter intuitive admin interface. I spent over an hour just to figure out how to turn off columning of the news items. The solution wasn't in the module area but in the menu area.

Now obviously this ranting isn't doing anyone any good. So instead I'll (when I get the time between work, schoo, and other stuff) write up a document on how I 'think' the admin interface should look and work. And to throw around some paper, I'm following a Bachelors in Mutlimedia and Design. So userinterface design is one of the things we tackle.

That concludes this rant. I'll mostly be using the search tool if I come across a problem I want fixed.