Developing Web Site by Integrating Joomla, SMF and Community Builder

Here I provide you the step by step instructions that I carried last night to develop a web site for an IT professionals’ association in California, USA. They need a good news/content management system, a very good forum software and some sort of community/networking features other than regular static/dynamic functionalities that might be developed later phase by phase. I know Joomla (emerged from Mambo) PHP framework or CMS has many great extensions that I can use in developing web 2.0 sites. Although it has been long since I last used PHP, joomla made my work easy by mostly limiting me in configuration and installation efforts to develop a site. So I thaught to share it with you here. I wish there would be something similar in Java with all the extensions and easy to install features!

Pre-Requisite

A domain hosting space where you want to host your site. I chose hostmonster as they have support for PHP, MySQL, Fantastico, Joomla, SMF and many more.

Steps

1. Install Joomla! I logged into my hostmonster control panel, used Fantastico to install Joomla 1.0.12 in /cms directory. Keep the MySQL database, username and password handy with you as these will be needed in later steps.
2. Download SMF and Unzip it in your local workspace naming it forum. I downloaded SMF 1.1.2 from http://www.simplemachines.org/download
3. Upload the unzipped forum direcotry with all its contents to your web server’s /public_html directory.
4. Install SMF through the following URL – http://www.yourdomainname.com/forum/install.php and follow the wizard from there onwards.
5. Dont use the GZip compression output, uncheck that option in the wizard page.
6. Give the same MySQL database name, user name and password that you used for joomla installation. You can find these information in configuration.php file under your domain’s /cms directory. The 3 variables to check for the values are – $mosConfig_user, $mosConfig_password, $mosConfig_db .
   
7. Once you finish installation, you should get a success message and install.php file should be deleted for security reason.
8. Download community builder distribution. I downloaded CBuilder1_0_2_unzip1st.zip from – http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,210/Itemid,35/
9. Unzip the community builder zip file in your local hard drive. You will need cblogin.zip, comprofiler.zip, mod_comprofilermoderator.zip and mod_comprofileronline.zip files from this location in later steps.
10. Install comprofiler component. To do so, login to Joomla administrator (http://www.yourdomainname.com/cms/administrator) and select the Installers->Components menu item. Browse for the comprofiler.zip file inside your unizipped community builder directory and press upload file & install button.
11. Install cb login module. To do so, select the Installers->Modules menu item. Browse for the cblogin.zip file inside your unizipped community builder directory and press upload file & install button.
12. Install cb moderation module. To do so, select the Installers->Modules menu item. Browse for the mod_comprofilermoderator.zip file inside your unizipped community builder directory and press upload file & install button.
13. Install cb online module. To do so, select the Installers->Modules menu item. Browse for the mod_comprofileronline.zip file inside your unizipped community builder directory and press upload file & install button.
14. Add a new user menu item named Members List as a URL pointing to: index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=usersList
15. Add new menu item CB Details by clicking on Menu->usermenu->New button.
16. In New Menu Item page, select Component and press Next button.
17. Select Community Builder from the Component List.
18. Populate the Name field as CB Details.
19. Select Parent Item: Top, Access Level: Registered and Published: Yes.
20. Click on Save button to add this new menu item under user menu.
21. Activate the CB Login module. To activate select Modules->Site Modules, check from the list that CB Login module is set for Public Access viewing and then publish this module.
22. Deactivate mod_login module so that you can use only cb login form instead of joomla login form in your site. To deactivate, find out Modules->Site Modules->Login Form and unpublish it.
23. Use up arrow to bring the CB Login module up in the left navigation bar. You may also re-position all the modules as you need by setting module order and position.
24. Activate CB Workflows module. To activate, find out Modules->Site Modules->CB Workflows, check if its set to Registered access level and then publish it.
25. Now download Joomla SMF Bridge (JSMF) from http://www.joomlahacks.com/joomla/components/Joomla-SMF_Forum
26. Install JSMF component in Joomla. To install it, go to http://www.yourdomainname.com/cms/administrator and select the Installers->Components menu item. Browse for the com_smf_2_0_2.zip file inside your unizipped community builder directory and press upload file & install button.
27. After installation success message for JSMF, continue for JSMF Installation Page.
28. Provide the abosulte path for SMF directory which you can find after logging into SMF forum administration panel. An example value for this may be /home/aabeatco/public_html/forum
29. Provide SMF tables prefix as smf_
30. Click the Save button at the top right.
31. Click to patch Jomla Source Files.
32. Click to patch SMF Source Files.
33. Click verify link to synchronize users between Joomla and SMF.
34. Login to Joomla administrator.
35. Select Components->Community Builder->Plugin Management.
36. In Install New Plugin section, upload & install cb_plug_smf_2_0_3.zip file.

If you have followed the steps properly, you have enabled your site for visitors to register/login using CB Login form, roam around and give entries for the various news/polls/blogs entries, submit weblinks, do social networking with like minded community members etc. Your users should be able to roam around the joomla cms pages through the link – http://www.yourdomainname.com/cms and the forum either through http://www.yourdomainname.com/forum or from CMS home page’s Forum link.