Have you ever wished you could install all of your common Joomla! components on a site when you first set it up? Installing them all one by one can take a little while, and that's not a productive use of your time. Well I'm going to show you TWO ways to achieve your goal, depending on how you like to do things.
The first, is commonly used by some members of our user group. Create a site, install and configure everything, then create an Akeeba Backup file (other backup providers are available). Then they use Akeeba Kickstart to restore the site, and simply alter the template, add content. or do anything else you need to do.
Why do I do things differently?
The main reason I like to do things differently, is because I like to design the site first, then configure it afterwards. And the main reason I like to design the site first, is firstly, because the client sees some work happening, whereas often with configuration they do not see any visuals so don't understand where their money is going. The second is to save myself time, when I install a template from a template club, I usually use their kickstarter (or equivalent). This allows me to replicate the demo, see how things were created, if anything uses custom HTML I can alter it to use Joomla! and if using custom HTML, at least I didn't have to type all the HTML out again. I use http://www.joomla-extensions-packager.org/.
So how do I achieve this?
Joomla! Plugin Groups
There is no easy way to work out which group a plugin is, although often obvious. If you are still unsure, one way to check is via another site you have the plugin installed on. Go to Extensions > Plugins. Search for your plugin. The right hand column shows you which plugin group it is in.
- Authentication
- Captcha
- Content
- Editors
- Extensions
- Finder
- Quick Icons
- System
- User
Some glitches I noticed
- You must name the component/module/plugin/package correctly or it will not work
- Update doesn't work very well on some components
- Some components do not like to play well in a package
- Many of the main components I use do work
- Don't forget for additional time savings you can create Akeeba Backup & JCE profiles and import them
- If you get an error regarding a manifest file you can resolve the issue in two ways:
- Rename your zip file
- Go to administrator/manifests/ and delete the manifest file for your package
- Regular Labs Extension manager is called com_nonumbermanager, probably due to backwards compatibility
- If you are having issues with partial installs i.e. some of your extensions, you should try removing some to see which one is the issue. I found the most likely cause to be somehow setting it up incorrectly using the wrong name com_xxx or potentially the wrong plugin type. Check for typos and if you're still struggling remove extensions one at a time until you find the culprit. You should note that the error message does not always identify the right culprit.