A post I pu ton the Second Life Forums

This is from post I put at: http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=195217&highlight=joomlasl
(please respond there to show your support)

I have a question,

Why oh why oh why, are we, as a development community, duplicating, triplicating, and quadruplicating our efforts when it comes to connecting our resident run websites to SL?

Wouldn't it be much better say if, one of us who found a webservices solution could easily share it with everyone else in the community in an EASY way, instead of having to hire his or her own full on development team?

Welcome to the JoomlaSL Project.
http://www.joomlasl.blogspot.com

The JoomlaSL project is an effort to work together as a community provide easy implementation paths for SL companies (and the world) to connect their website with SL and provide webservices back and for in a simple way -

(want the same functionality as Bloghud.com added to your site?)
(want users to submit blogs directly from SL to your website)
(want social networking on your website that hooks into SL??)
Well, lets pool our resources and create them together!

Good news is - it's all possible!

So .. instead of re-creating the wheel each time, how about considering a professional CMS (content management system) for your website.

Ever heard of Drupal, Mambo, or Joomla? These are content management systems you can install on your webserver to deliver your webpage to your visitors.

Once installed, and connected with your servers MYSQL database, you simply need to spend your time designing, or selecting a good presentation template - (there are thousands) and then enter your content in your sites database.

Then, when a visitor visits your website, the CMS will deliver your content IN the template you chose -

voila! a nice website where content is separated from design. Don't like your design? Dont wan't to re-enter all your content again? No problem, just select a new template or move your website joomla modules around (modules are the place holders for your data on the template)

--- the benefit of choosing a CMS to handle your website are many. Joomla is my preferred CMS because it has been it has a HUGE developer community, there are hundreds of components and modules you can add to extend the features of your website EASILY, it is opensource, it's FREE! AND it has been rated as the #1 CMS in the world for the past 5 years!
See http://www.joomla.org

-- there are already several SL sites running Joomla - mine is http://www.eslteacherlink.com - but its still quite underdeveloped cuz I simply haven't had the time to work on it more seriously... ill post more links to other sites later

so here's the idea...

I challenge SL community to embrace these CMS technologies and jointly work together to bridge the SL 3D virtual world with the old archaic 2D web.
More specifically, I challenge the SL community to **** embrace Joomla! **** It's better we all concentrate on one specific one, instead of all 3!

If we do, we can start jointly producing Modules and Components to provide open web service solutions to share and totally expand SL where we need it to be.

So, you agree - good... now how do you start?
Well, if you are a developer, you need to download Joomla from Joomla.org. Currently there are two versions 1.012, and 1.5
1.5 rocks the casba cuz it has been TOTALLY re-written from the ground up - BUT - its not stable yet for production use, so, download 1.012
1.5 download: http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/jo...package_id=2282
1.012 download: http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/

Just upload it to your webserver, and load the page [url]www.yoursite.com/install.php[/ url]

A really nice installer will take you through the steps of setting it up, just need to specify your database user names and passwords. Then it takes care of the rest. If you are successful, you will be able to login and start adding the content and selecting your template etc.

You'll next need to go through the hello world tutorials of how to make a module, and component.
http://help.joomla.org/content/view/774/125/
Here is a template tutorial: (but do a search for Joomla templates and you'll find tones already available): http://dev.joomla.org/content/view/1136/79/

Once you get familiar with that, you can package your wonderful PHP creations into modules and components - and contribute to the efforts of bridging SL with the 2D web.. and we can all live happier lives.

Next, you'll have to try and glue the community together - like I am - so we can all help each other -

Here is the user guide for joomla: http://help.joomla.org/images/User_...0%2021%2006.pdf
Here is the developer page: http://dev.joomla.org/
Here is a link to all the wonderful extensions: http://extensions.joomla.org/

Good news: Out of the gate running!
Fortunetally, we have a bit of a head start, a few months ago, I planted this same seed in the Joomla.org forums, and luckily a few people actually picked up the seed and plated it! GP Runo, has made an SL "JoomlaSL" Terminal for Joomla 1.5 that authenticates the avatar with his joomla webpage! And - he's released it Open source.

Here is the code Joomla 1.5 Authentication Code
http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/jo...package_id=2435

He's also take then time to draw an XML authentication chart.
[img]http://www.box.net/shared/idkbbu6yso[img]

Ive also drafted a chart that is a roadmap for an authentication system for Joomla 1.012.
http://www.box.net/shared/hdrh4gcce3

Ive also created a blog for interested developers at: joomlaSL.blogspot.com. If you start joomlaSL development, contact me, and ill add you as an author to the blog. http://joomlasl.blogspot.com/

I've also created a facebook group called JoomlaSL to facilitate the group.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2387164946

AND - ive allocated space for the JoomlaSL Opensource headquarters on my island at English Village.
http://www.box.net/shared/gyv5f3l0jk

Convinced yet! Let's bridge the gap and work together!!!

One last thing:
here is the original Forum thread I planted in the joomla Forums:
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/t....html#msg860583
And here is the active one: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/t....html#msg877949

See you soon!
Fire