Beginners

If you have never used JomSocial before, or you're coming back to it again to refresh your knowledge, the Beginners article will help you learn how to get started with best social network component for Joomla!.
Through this article, you will learn what JomSocial is, how to install and set it up, what are the most common mistakes that you should try to avoid, and much much more.

So, what is JomSocial?

We are glad that you ask.
JomSocial is award winning, best Joomla component for two (2) consecutive years, that turns any Joomla! website into fully fledged social networking hub in just a few minutes. It is way more than just a profile manager as it supports photo and video galleries, granular groups and events and so much more.
We believe that if image can speak thousand words, than video can speak million, so lets take a look at the introduction video.

Before you begin

JomSocial is component for Joomla, and it is absolutely required for Joomla to be installed before JomSocial can be deployed on the site.
However, there are few more things you need to take care of before installing JomSocial

What is Cron Job and why i need it?

Cron job is a process that runs on the server and can be used for multitude of different things.
With it, you can even turn on the alarm clock at the specific time if your server has one.
In JomSocial, we use cron jobs to trigger a text-based browser which will open a specific web page at your site, and within JomSocial component. This web page, once opened, triggers the script to:

  • Mark all emails to be sent out Be advised though that JomSocial does not send emails from your server. Joomla does it, not component for Joomla.
  • Move files If you use S3 Storage integration, it will move upload files to the cloud
  • Trigger video conversion When it's configured, it sends the "signal" back to server to start video conversion.
  • Other maintenance tasks Such are removing deleted photos, events etc...
Idea.png TIP: It is a good idea to check if you can run cron, and to set one up immediately after installation

Installation

Once you sure that minimum system requirements are met, and that you can run cron jobs, you can proceed with installation. For your convenience, we offer two type of installations for sites that never used JomSocial before and up to three (3) ways to update if you already have JomSocial installed.

  1. Using iJoomla installer (recommended) For new installations and updates
  2. Traditional way, same as any other Joomla component For new installations and updates
  3. Update using patch files Only available within same versions

Your community, your branding

JomSocial comes in three different editions.

  1. Standard have link back to www.jomsocial.com at the bottom of every page, and in every email generated by component. (Does not have backlinfk from Jomsoial version 4.5)
  2. Professional does not have link back
  3. Developer does not have link back

This is how linkback in emails will look like if you have Standard edition

Linkback2.png

And this is the sample of link back from the gallery page

Linkback.png
Warning-yellow.png Warning: Removing link back from Standard edition may revoke all access to support service

Although using Professional or Developer edition will get rid of these back-link's it still does not mean you have white label software installed.
Follow these steps to completely remove all references to JomSocial, regardless of what version you use.

  1. Edit the menu item When JomSocial is installed, it adds one menu. Look into Main menu and change both, alias and the title
  2. Do not show author of the app Applications that come with JomSocial have our branding, as naturally we are the authors of them.
  3. Change the signature in HTML emails Navigate to Components->JomSocail->Configuration->Site and change the Copyright text option
  4. Change frontpage title On a very same page, change Frontpage title option too.
  5. Change module names Every JomSocail module comes prefixed with name Community. While it is not JomSocial name, you may still want to change it.
  6. Change plugin names Similar with modules, you may want to change plugin names too. But unlike modules, you must do it in language files

Customize Profile Fields

With JomSocial you can have the set of different custom profile fields that are unique to every community.
Learn More about Custom Profile Fields

Choose between Real Name or Username

As an administrator of the site, it is your responsibility to decide between Real Names or Usernames being used on the site
You can simply do that in Components->JomSocial->Configuration->Layout by changing Display Name option. By default, it is set to Real Name.

Change Get Connected Image

JomSocial makes it very easy for administrators to change the hero image on the frontpage. Read more about how to do that easily

Setup Facebook Connect

Checkout the integration page to learn how to setup Facebook Connect as well as other types of integrations.

Tip from Developers

We hope this super quick guide will help you to get your awesome community going faster.
As a million dollar tip, you might want to consider creating localhost instance of your site where you can check, test and try everything you want without worrying that something may go wrong on a live site.
This is how we do our thing, and Joomla! cover this specific topic in several good articles like this one.

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