This task is normally handled by the website administrators as it requires special access to the Joomla back end interface. This guide is to remind / assist the Admins on the tasks involved.

1) Cleanup, organize, and prep all images. Select your images and resize them all to a max resolution of 1280 pixels wide or 1280 pixels high. We do this for multiple reasons;

  • loading time
  • server caching performance
  • web server storage limits
  • etc.

2) Login to the Joomla Admin portal.

  • It's available from the home page of the NORAC website
  • Look under the menu option Site Menu > Site Administrator

3) Create a new media folder and upload your images into the folder

  • Joomla Admin > Content > Media > Gallery
  • Create a new folder under the Gallery folder.
  • Folder naming convention is Year-EventName (example 2018-ChristmasParty) note there are no spaces in the name and only one dash.
  • Select and enter the new empty folder.
  • From within the folder select the Upload button and then select all the resized images that you intend to upload.

4) Create a new article that will host the Gallery

  • Joomla Admin > Content > Articles > Add New Article
  • Article naming convention is Gallery - Year Event Name (example Gallery - 2018 Christmas Party) note the use of spaces and the dash.
  • The article will be a News item by default, this can be left as is.
  • In the content (main-body) section of the article enter a single line of code. (gallery) Year-EventName(/gallery) the 'Year-EventName' must match the folder name in the Media Gallery folder.
  • An example of the code would be  (gallery)2018-ChristmasParty(/gallery)
  • IMPORTANT NOTE - The exact code string cannot be entered into non-gallery articles (including this one) without the system assuming that the article is a photo gallery and throwing errors. In the examples above I used conventional brackets ( ) instead of the actual code which requires curly brackets { } instead. You must use the curly brackets in your Gallery code for it to work. If this is confusing open an existing Gallery article and look at the code strong 
  • Save and close your article when completed.
  • At this point you should be able to go to the NORAC and see the News item on display and when you enter the article the photo gallery should be available to view and test.

5) Adding the new Gallery to the Photo Albums menu in Joomla

  • This is the part of the process I dread the most as if I make a mistake the long list of photo albums in the site menus can be messed up or out of order and needs to be fixed. A time consuming error.
  • Joomla Admin > Menus  > About NORAC > Add New Menu Item
  • Name the menu using the following naming convention - Year Event Name (example - 2018 Christmas Party)
  • Menu Item Type = Articles > Single Article
  • Select Article = Browse to the Gallery article you created in step 4 (Example Gallery - 2018 Christmas Party)
  • Menu = About Norac
  • Parent Item = - Photo Albums
  • Save and close your menu creation

6) Testing

  • Open the NORAC website
  • Refresh your browser
  • Does the article appear in the Recent News items?
  • When you open the article does the photo gallery appear?
  • When you select the Photo Albums tab or menu item does the new Gallery appear in the list and is it in the correct order/space on the list.