Hello folks,

Just a quick introduction and a thanks for the resources posted / made available to others. The video links to getting Joomla sites up and running from some of the user groups have been well worth while and I will be viewing a few more times in order to glean as much information as possible from them.

About me? Well, I used to use FrontPage to make a community website with loads of pics, however, after a few years, I welcomed the idea of taking a step back and letting trusted users input information.

Subsequent research, new computer, new software, the desire to use a database, standards compliant site, scratching at the surface of php, etc., all eventually led in the direction of Joomla (no real surprise there, eh?) - that, plus the recognition that I wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.

Several questions, if I may, that spring to mind:

1. My site, old as it is (www.customscollector.com), isn't in too much of a hurry to convert to Joomla at the moment - is it worth my time waiting till 1.6 is released (and use the intervening time to read and absorb more information) as I've got a testing platform at the moment that I am "learning the ropes with"?

2. I have identified several "things" (highly technical term, I know. I just want to avoid using incorrect terminology) that would be required for an international flavour community Joomla site, including:
*Translation ability for general visitors and administrators (I believe there is a google 'module' and / or joomfish 'module')
*Ability to auto thumbnail images - with relevant information alongside, as per my current site pages - do all images have to go in one directory, or can there be sub-directories with images (ie, for my site, I split images by country name, eg, an "Australian" folder with australian images, an Italian folder with Italian images)

3. In terms of backing up a Joomla site, or going from a testing environment to a live environment, when / how often / what type of backup regime is considered normal for a community site? Is this something that I must do, or does my hosting service do this on my behalf?

Sorry for the length of the post, just another typical noob...

Sincerely,
John de Belle

Hi John & welcome

Hmm - if you want to make a joomla site thsi year - I would be thinking 1.5 - but lets' see what the others say

Yes - joomfish is a translation component

Many addons will autothumbnail for you - sure you can use subdirectories - or the component can sort it out for you - it realy depends immensely on the finer details of what you a re after - but these things are very easy to find / set up - etc - atart here - extensions.joomla.org/search?q=gallery

Back up often - depends on your host - rochen (rochen.com) and others have a vault set up allowign for emergency restores - you'll have to ask around - but I advise and teach all my customser to do a manual back up and if they are using it a joomlapack backup (google akeeba) - but really frequencey depends on how often you are cahnging yoru site

Hi John,

Welcome to Joomla.

I have just created my first multi-lingual Joomla site using JoomFish. I will be talking very briefly about it at the next Sydney Joomla User Group on Tue 11 May if you are interested and able to come. The site URL is freeworldfoundation.org - you will notice that a number of the translations are incomplete - we use volunteer translators. Ask any questions you want and I will see if I can answer them.

I use JoomlaPack as my general site backup tool and believe it has a automated scheduling function though I have not used this yet. For most of my sites I do a monthly back up as well as one before I do any significant site change. More active content changes would suggest more frequent backups.

Cheers - David