Step One- Determine Your Site's Main Objective

What is the primary objective for your site?

Were going to refer to a scenario, involving George. George has a business selling Alaskan Ulu Knives to small tourist shops all throughout Alaska. George has a store and a listing in the paper, people know him well, and George feels like expanding some. George decides that he would like to try his chances via the internet, and wants to sell more knives to local distributors throughout the state. George would also need to be able to sell individual products to anyone who is legally eligible to purchase them.

So, based on this determination, our site's main objective is to sell Ulu Knives, and assist local distributors. Now we know what the main objective is, we can move on to Step Two- Create a function list.

Step Two- Brainstorm and Create a Function List

Pull out a pen and paper, or open a new document. Sit down and brainstorm a list of functionalities you wish to be on your site, when you are done creating a list, determine what is most important, and what is not as necessary. Scale it from 1-5 in importance. Build a realistic, solid list and go from there. More than likely you will have to come back to it for changes. Use this list as the rough draft for your programming requirements.

Example Function List

Login Form for Distributors/Affiliates

Shopping Cart for Customer

Ulu Knife Product Listing

Ulu Knife Customer Reviews

Events Calendar

Local Distributor Directory

Step Three- Determine the Full Extent of Functionality

Now that we have determined some basic functionality, we need to expand upon it a little bit more. We need to determine, what each function will do, and general settings for each.

Anything beyond the Joomla core will have to be addressed with an additive package. We call this added functionality an "extension", considering it "extends" the Joomla Core. Based on these specific requirements we can then proceed to determining the best extensions to use in our site.

Here is an example of what you would more than likely do with your function list and added specific requirements.

Example Function List (With Specific Requirements)

Login Form for Distributors/Affiliates

• New Users Can Create Account
• New Users Must Verify Email
• New Users Must Be Admin Approved

Shopping Cart for Customer

• One-Click to Product Cart
• Secure Billing Page
• Pay Pal as Payment Method
• UPS Shipping Notification
• Auto Tax Calculation Based on State

Ulu Knife Product Listing

• Multiple Category Listing
• Thumbnail

Ulu Knife Customer Reviews

• Individual Articles for Reviews
• Commenting from Visitors

Events Calenar

• Venue Listings for Each City/Event Location
• Event Description

• Individual Listing for Each Distributor
• Listing Searchable/Organized by Location
• Paid Entry Fee

Your list may or may not be as extensive as ours, but hopefully you get the general idea.

Conclusion

This has concluded the first steps to planning your Joomla site. We have been able to determine a few basic functions and a site purpose. We were also able to look at the individual function requirements. Now we can use that list when we go to select our extension lineup.