Before you start with your new Mambo web site , you should spend some time planning your site.

You need to consider the overall "look and feel" of your site. What colors will you use? Do you want to use particular images, and if so, where do you want these to display on your "page"? The overall appearance of your web site is given through the use of templates .

Mambo comes with two default templates. You can choose to use one of these templates, or you may modify one, create your own, or download one of the many free open source templates that are available on the Web.

Now that you have an idea of how you want your site to look, you need to consider the content of your Mambo web site.

Planning your content is important.

Mambo uses a Menu-based navigation structure. You should spend some time planning the overall placement of the content within your site. Think about what menu items you want. Do you want to use just one menu? Where do you want it to be placed on your "page"? What do you want displayed by each menu item ? Consider what you want to show as the main content of your site and what needs to be considered as secondary content (such as copyright notices, news updates, banners , etc).

It helps to make a written plan. Time spent planning at the beginning will save you a lot of work later on!

Grab a sheet of paper and make a list of all the information you are going to show on your site. Organize this into topic groupings. If you think in terms of a site map, this will help you work out the structure you want for your data.

Now look at your groupings, and think about how they will fit into the Mambo structure, which uses Sections -> Categories -> Content Items.

What menu items will you use to present this information to your visitors?

Now that you have worked out WHAT you want to do, let's look at HOW you will achieve what you want.

Ok, so now you know WHAT you want in your site and how you want it to be placed.

Once you have your "engine" sorted out, its back to the template to arrange the placement. The template is essentially the HTML (or XHTML) container for your dynamic data. You can place your content anywhere you like within the template.

The best way to familiarize yourself with how Mambo's internal engine places content is by playing with it. Before you make any modifications to the default template, go to Modules -> Site Modules and select a module that is displaying content on your FrontPage . Experiment with the parameters and view your FrontPage in your browser.

I won't delve into all the options for module placement here as the options are really limited only by your imagination and your templating skills.

There is more information about working with templates and the CSS file in the Design section of the Mambo Manual - the community wiki

So, to summarise, planning is one of the most important tasks when setting up your new Mambo web site. Mambo is very flexible and your site can be presented in almost any way that you may want. Plan what you want to do, then look at how you can do it.

Control Panel

The Control Panel is the first page you see when you log into the Administrators area. At any time, you can return to it by clicking the "Home" menu item in the top menu bar.

Control Panel. has two states: Simple and Advanced. In Simple state, the Control Panel displays only 4 shortcut icons; Advanced state, displays 11 shortcut icons

From the Control Panel you can have easy access to the frequently used parts of the Administrator area.

Control Panel Icons:

Help: Click this icon to view an index of the locally available Help Screens. You can also have access to special help screens by pressing the help icon, found on the right top corner of each screen.
All Content Items: Click this icon to access the All Content Items screen. All Content Items lists all of your Content Items. Clicking on a Content Item , you can edit it.
Static Content Manager: Click this icon to access the Static Content Manager . You will be able to edit these type of items.
FrontPage : Click this icon to access the Front Page Manager. You will be able to edit Content items that appear on your FrontPage.
Sections: Click this icon to access the Section Manager. You will be able to edit your Sections.
Categories: Click this icon to access the Category Manager. You will be able to edit your Categories.
Media: Click this icon to access the Media Manager. you will be able to administer your media files.
Trash: Click this icon to access the Trash manager. You will be able to delete permanently or to restore any items in the Trash Manager.
Menus: Click this icon to access the Menu Manager. You will be able to edit any of your menus.
Users: Click this icon to access the Users Manager. You will be able to add, remove, administer users of your site .
Global Configuration: Click this icon to access the Global configuration. You will be able to edit any of your web site configurations.

On the right side of the screen there are five tabs:

Logged: This displays a list of users currently logged on (both in the Admin and the Front-end sections). Click a users' name to go to the User Edit page for that user.
Components : Click this shortcut tab to access any of the components and component links that you wish to edit.
Popular: Click this tab to access the screen which lists in order, the most popular Content Items on your site. This includes the date the Content Item was created and the number of hits. Click the Content Item name to edit that item.
Latest Items: Click this tab to access the screen which lists the most recently added Content Items. This includes the creation date and the author . Click the Content item name to edit that item.
Menu Stats: Click this tab to access the screen which lists all menus and the number of item links in each menu. The number of links is the total created, not the total published . Click the name of a menu to access the screen which lists the items for that menu.

- The Mambo support forum

Front Page Manager

This page shows a list of the Content Items assigned to the FrontPage Component. You may enter text in the "Filter" box to refine the list based on whether the text is found in the title of any Content Item . Type in any text and press Enter. You may also filter per category and/or section .

Display Columns

Title: This is the title of the Content Item . A padlock icon next to it shows that it is checked-out. To check-in, click the name to edit. You will not be able to edit a Content Item if it is checked out by another user. It must be checked back by an administrator . The administrator navigates to the Menu Item Systems->Global Checking in the Menu bar. It can also be checked back in by the User who has checked the item out by clicking the 'Edit' icon of the Content Item and then clicking either the 'Save' or 'Cancel' icon.
Published : This shows whether the Content Item is published. Hover over this icon to see a summary of the publishing information.
Reorder: This shows the order of Items in the list. Click the arrow icons to move the item up or down.
Order: Shows the order of items in the list. You may change it by editing 2 # conjointly and clicking on the Save Order icon next to the Column Heading Order. Note: The new ordering has an effect when the FrontPage Component is displayed.
Access: This is the user access level. Public, Registered or Special.
Section: This is the section the Item belongs to. Click to edit section.
Category: This is the category the item belongs to. Click to edit category.
Author : This is the name of the author of the Content Item. Click to edit author.

Toolbar Icons:

Publish and Unpublished: Click the 'Publish' or 'Unpublished' icons to publish or unpublished the selected Content Items on the FrontPage.
Archive : Click the 'Archive' icon to put the Content items into an archived state. They are still accessible to your FrontPage.
Remove: Click the 'Remove' icon to remove Content Items from the FrontPage Component.

Well, don't fear! Mambo is just the ticket for you!

Mambo takes the worry out of creating Web pages without having to understand how to program. If you know how to use a standard word processor, like Microsoft Word or Open Office Writer, then you can manage a Web site using Mambo! Through the Mambo Administrator Web Interface, just enter your content, add a picture or two and click the save button!

Simple... Quick... And easy!

What is Mambo?

Mambo is a simple and professional Open Source (OS) Content Management System (CMS) software that
that anyone can use for free to easily manage a Web site. It is simple enough for small Web sites, yet powerful enough for large-scale commercial Web sites. These are some of the advantages to using Mambo:

What is Open Source?

Open Source is a catch-all term, describing several parts of the Free Software license movement. Here are some organizations that have contributed to defining Open Source licenses:

What can I use Mambo for?

Mambo can be used for many different types of Web sites, such as:

The key feature is the ability to allow any authorized user to add and edit content directly on the Web. Multiple people can manage content within a Mambo Web site. They do not need to know any programming languages, such as HTML, to update their site because an 'online WYSIWYG editor' (What You See Is What You Get) is included for formatting the text and inserting images. There is no need to 'upload' your documents with hard to understand FTP (File Transfer Protocol) programs. Just Save and Publish your content and your Web page is online for everyone to see!

Mambo can be used for the following applications:

Manager:

The Manager Group is generally restricted to matters of content creation. A user in this group, in addition to the restrictions for an Administrator, cannot:

The site name and your location are shown on the Pathway, a textbox on the upper left side of the Admin page.
Messages, number of users online, and your username appear in the upper right.

The Workspace is the area immediately below the Menu bar and Toolbar that displays the controls for the menu item currently selected. The workspace updates when you make a menu selection or use a tool from the toolbar. The default setting is to the Control Panel

The left side of the Control Panel presents icons for the primary content management items:

The right side of the Control Panel presents tabs for access to the installed components' menus, a list of popular content items, information about the latest items added to the system (including the title, date, and author), and menu statistics.

All icons and text lines on the Control Panel are clickable and will bring the selected item's controls into the Workspace.

Publish: This icon is to publish your category or items. The visitors of your web can view these items on your web site.

Unpublish: This icon is to unpublish a category or item. Unpublishing removes the item from public view, but does not delete the category or item. To delete an item, select it and click the 'Delete' icon.

Edit: This icon edits a previously created item. Be sure to select an item before clicking this icon.

Delete or Remove: This icon deletes a category or item from your Web site. Note that this process is not reversible. To remove an item or category temporarily, click the "Unpublish" icon.

Trash: This icon removes an item and places it in the Trash Manager.
Note: You can restore trashed items to their previous states. Simply go to the Trash Manager under the Site menu.

Apply: This icon is to save your new content or changes with the page remaining open to continue editing

Save: This icon is to save your new content or configuration changes and be returned to the previous page.

Cancel: This icon is to cancel page creation or to cancel any unsaved modifications.

NOTE: If you want to cancel creation or editing you must use this button and not the back button on your browser as this will lock the item and other content manager will be unable to modify the page.

Preview: This icon is used to show, in a pop-up window, a preview of any changes you have made. If your web browser is set up to block pop-up windows or you are using pop-up blocking software, you
will need to change that setting or disable that software in order to see the preview.

NOTE: If you want to cancel creation or editing, you must use this button and not the back button on your browser in order to prevent locking "Checking Out" your page and preventing others from modifying it. When using 3rd-Party components alternative behaviors may be assigned to some of these icons.

Mambo has two main hierarchies for User Groups: one for access to the Front-end (so users can log in to the web site and view designated sections and pages) and one for Back-end Administration access.

The default groups provided are:

Public Front-end
| - Registered
| - - Author
| - - - Editor
| - - - - Publisher

Public Back-end
| - Manager
| - - Administrator
| - - - Super Administrator

Global Configuration is the main configuration center in Mambo. Changes made in this area will update your configuration.php file. This file needs to be writable in order for you to be able to edit your configuration. To do this please follow the instructions at the bottom of this item.

Make your Configuration editable:

* Open FTP and go to your site root
* ##chmod## the file ##configuration.php## to 777

For additional security return ##configuration.php## to ##chmod 644## after making changes. Additional information on ##chmod## and permissions can be found at:

Global Configuration provides the following 10 tabs for controlling your options:

Media Manager:

The initial view of the Media Manager screen presents all existing root directory media folders and images, and three text input fields. This manager allows you to perform 3 basic tasks:

In the Create Directory text box, enter a name for the new directory, and then click the 'Create' icon on the toolbar. The directory will then be created and available to you for storing your files. This will be a sub-directory under the main directory (initial view). It will be shown as a new folder in the Media Manager window.

NOTE: Creating directories is only possible if your server has 'safe mode off'! (You can check this setting from the Menu: System / System? Information: PHP settings) . If "Safe Mode" is on, you can ask to have this turned off by your Internet Service Provider. If this setting is 'ON', you will have to create your directories using your FTP software.

You can delete a directory by clicking on the 'Trash Can' icon under the image of the corresponding folder. Clicking the 'Folder' icon itself will switch to the contents of that directory.

Uploading a file:

To upload a file, either enter the location of the files on your hard drive into the text box, or click the 'Browse' button. The 'Browse' button will open a new pop-up window, from which you can navigate to the location on your hard drive to the file that you want to upload. Select the directory that you wish to upload the file to. Click the 'Upload' icon in the Toolbar. Your image or document will upload and then be available in the chosen directory.

Deleting a file:

To Delete a file, click the 'Trash Can' icon under the image of the file in the Media Manager window.

Retrieve a file's hyperlink:

Click the pencil icon of the file in the Media Manager screen. This will enter the hyperlink code into the 'Code' field'. This can then be used by copying and pasting the code into e.g., a content item or module text box.

NOTE: Make sure your files have the correct file extension for their image or document type. This will help you to organize the images or files within the Media Manager into appropriate directories.

A Site Preview function has been provided to enable you to view the progress of your work on your site. Choosing "Site --> Preview" from the Administrator menu gives you three choices:

Choosing any of these options, the home page of your site is displayed. The first choice, "New Window" opens a new window to view the Front-end of your site.

The second choice, "In-line", you you view your Front-end of your site inside an IFrame window within the existing window of your browser.

Templates are also assignable to different parts of your site, much like modules are. If you have several templates installed on your Mambo system, you can now take advantage of all of them. You are able to assign a template to a specific page (or pages) from Toolbar.

When you select a template to assign, you will be shown a list of pages to choose from. You can select multiple pages from the menu and assign them to a template. When assigned, the template will appear when a user clicks on these pages. This will override the default template.

If you want to remove an assigned template from one (or some) page(s), select the assigned template again (radio button), and click the a€assign€? icon in the Toolbar. Now either deselect the items you do not want assigned for this template anymore, or click "None" to completely remove the assignment for this template.

The Template Manager also allows you to switch the default template (using a€default€? button) which will appear on all pages for which specific assignment has not been made.

NOTE: Both assigned and default template will get overridden by the Template Selector module, if used.
NOTE: The Administrator Templates can be switched by hitting the "Publish" icon as well. They are not assignable to pages in the Administrator.

Module Positions and Positions Preview:

The Module Positions page allows you to enter details about the module positions you have used in your template. All the default module positions are already entered and in general it is unlikely you would need to change this.

Should you need positions that do not pre-exist in the default Mambo setup, you can simply add a new name of the module position and a description. The description is optional.

Once you have entered any additional positions you have created, click the "Save" icon in the Toolbar and the changes you have been made will be entered into Mambo. You are now able to assign modules to your newly created positions in the Module Manager.

The basic code to insert in your template (templates/name-of-your-template/index.php) to be able to assign modules to a specific position is:

....where the word 'position' is to be changed to whichever position defined on this page.
For more advanced techniques, see the the Developers manual.

If you wish to visualize your Template with blocks displaying the "Positions" used in the template assigned to your Home Page, then click "Site -> Preview -> Inline with Position".

Navigation and access to content in your Web site is provided through menus.

'Menus' in Mambo are groups of links to sections, categories, content items, components or external pages. These links are called 'Menu Items'. Each menu must have an identification name which is only used internally by Mambo. A menu only becomes visible on a site if it has a published mod_mainmenu module which references it.

A menu in Mambo is defined by 4 kinds of parameters.

2 parameters are accessed through the Menu Manager only :

1 parameter may be created through the Menu Manager and may be changed in the 'Modules Manager [site]': Modules -> Site Modules:

Note: If multiple copies of a Menu Module associated to the same Menu exist and all are deleted, it will not delete the Menu as defined in the Menu Manager (including its a€˜Menu Items€™).

The FrontPage Component

First of all, we will explain the concept of a€˜Home pageâ€™ and a€˜the a€˜FrontPage Component' in Mambo as many people easily confuse these two concepts.

Home page:
One way to think about the concept of 'Home page' is the place a user begins. When a visitor types in your url of your site, a€˜www.mysite.comâ€™ or when they navigate from another site, the 'Home page' is usually the first page they visit. The Home page itself is the first published item located in the 'mainmenu' section of the Menu Manager.

NOTE: Your "Home page" is the same as your "Front page".

Even if the 'mainmenu' Module is NOT published, your 'Home page' will still display the Menu Item on top of the 'mainmenu' list of Items.

FrontPage Component:
The FrontPage Component publishes content to your Home page (as long as the Front Page Component is the first Menu Item in your Main Menu). You can assign any Content Item to the Home page by checking the parameter "FrontPage" within the "Edit" Content Item page (in the Back-end as in the Front-end of your site).

The default configuration sets the link to the 'FrontPage Component' to the first published item in the 'mainmenu' menu. But, as any other component, it may be placed anywhere in your menus.

There are 2 ways to create such a link:
Go to Menu Manager -> [the-menu-you-want-to-edit].

If you have not defined parameters for the 'Component' FrontPage Component Menu Item, the default parameters will be used instead

The Content of your Mambo site is managed in the various Content Managers in the Content menu item on the horizontal Menu bar. They are: Content by Section, All Content Items, Static Content Manager, Section Manager, Category Manager, FrontPage Manager and Archive Manager.

In the default set-up, the News section contains a single category, called Latest News. Additional categories can be added using the Category Manager . A News item is the same as any other content item in structure (title, intro text and main body text). Publishing items in the News section means that they are displayed in the Latest News modules (see Modules) which controls the way the content items are displayed.

Newsflash Section:

In the default set-up, the Newsflash section contains a single category, also called Newsflash. Additional categories can be added using the Category Manager. A Newsflash item is the same as any other content item in structure (title, intro text and main body text). Publishing items in the Newsflash sections means that they are displayed in the Newsflash modules (see Modules) which controls the way the content items are displayed.

FAQs Section:

FAQs are Frequently Asked Questions. In this section you can publish your FAQs and their responses in an orderly fashion. In the default set-up, the FAQs section contains a single category called, "Example FAQs". Additional categories can be added using the Category Manager . A FAQs item is the same as any other content item in structure (title, intro text and main body text).

Static Content Manager:

The Static Content Manager is used to create and edit your content you have classified as a€˜static€™ (which means that it will change infrequently and only the main site Administrators will update it) . Static content is used for content items that do not fit into the usual section/category/item structure and will not be displayed as a€˜blog€™ or a€˜tableau€™ displays on the user pages of the site.

Section Manager:

The Section Manager is used to create sections for your content or to edit the details of existing sections. Sections will not be visible on your site unless the section has a published category in it and that category has a published item.

The Sections created and their status (published/unpublished) is shown in the Section manager. A section can have description text and an image associated with it. (screen shot of a€˜create sectionâ€™ page.

Category Manager:

The Category Manager is used to create categories for your content or to edit the details of existing categories. Categories will not be visible on your site unless the category is in a published section and that category has a published item.

The categories created and their status (published/unpublished) is shown in the Category Manager. A category can have description text and an image associated with it. (screen shot of a€˜create category€™ page.

FrontPage Manager:

The FrontPage Component shows all the published content items from your site marked 'Show on FrontPage (see Creating Items for more information). The FrontPage is similar to a blog content section with a special feature. The special feature is that you can display any content within your site on the FrontPage regardless of which section/category the content belongs. So you are not limited to only displaying one particular category on the Front page e.g. News, but you can display items from any content section such as News, Articles, or anything else you have published.

Adding content to the FrontPage:

To add content to the FrontPage you must set the corresponding flag within the content editing. To add the content to the FrontPage you either mark it in the overview table of your items or check the box for "Show on FrontPage" within the content editing form.

Select Components > FrontPage from the menu. This page shows you a list of the content items marked for the FrontPage.

Within this overview you can Publish, Unpublish, Archive, sort your display order, and Delete the Content Items, that are located on the FrontPage.

Configuring the FrontPage:

You may configure the display of the FrontPage by editing the menu item associated with it. You may configure:

The Archive manager shows all your content that you have a€˜archived€™ (see Content Manager). The Archive Manager allows you to restore or to trash your archived content.

Components are content specialized elements or applications. Mambo includes some core components and supports the possibility to enhance its features with additional 3rd party components. The built-in components, which are included with Mambo, are part of the core features. You will find third party components at www.mamboforge.net, as well as at various third party developer and community sites.

Additional configuration and help is usually provided within the component itself.

Components are modular in nature, which makes it possible to enhance the features of Mambo in any direction.

A component is typically linked to a Menu item. Visitors and/or Users are able to view the content of the component by clicking on the link of this Menu item. It is usually displayed in the main content area of the site.

Banner Component:

This component allows you to display banners in rotation on your site. It also allows some advanced features such as impressions management and custom code. Banners can be displayed on your site by simply publishing the banner once it has been created through the process below. It is also necessary to note that banners can be turned off in the Global Configuration (enabled by default) and their location is dependent upon the template being used for your site.

Banner Manager:

In this section, you control the actual banners. These are the graphical advertisements or messages that appears in a certain parts of your Mambo site.

Banner Client Manager:

This section allows you to set up accounts for clients that you are extending the privilege of banner placement to.

NOTE: Flash type banners may have possible issues with the Mambo Banner Component.

Contact Manager Component:

This Contact component can be found in the Admin Section by navigating on the Menu Bar to the menu item Components > Contact. This takes you to the Contact Manager screen.

The Contact Manager component provides you with the ability to manage a list of contacts for your site. Visitors can find you or your organization's contact information including name, mailing address, telephone and fax number. They can contact you or your organization by filling out the simple contact form and clicking the 'Send' icon.

You can have more than one contact item. Your visitors will select the contact from a drop down list when they are on the Contact Us page in the Front-end of your site. If you have only one contact then there is no drop down list.

Examples for different contacts would be to have separate contacts for sales, enquiries, or different departments within the organization, therefore making the contacting process more efficient.

Based on the standard list, you can manage all contacts within your database. Use the toolbar to create a New contact, Edit or Delete a contact. The information within the contact form is standardized. For each contact that has an email address, a contact form is automatically created. All published contacts will be shown in a dropdown list. You choose the default contact which will be first on the list in the dropdown list.

News feed Component:

News feeds are a way of sharing content between different sites. A growing number of content providers share parts of their content via RSS news feeds.

This sharing method is meant for creating a news introduction in the way the provider wants it and it normally has a link to the provider's web site. With some exceptions, such as moreover.com, you rarely have any control over how the news feeds will be displayed, links, colors etc, or where these links will go.

The News feed component gives you the ability to manage the existing news feeds, place them into Categories, and also change the linking information required to receive the news feeds from the different providers.

To share the content of your site you can integrate the News feeds module into your template which makes your own news available to others.

Newsflash Component:

A Newsflash is a dynamic message displayed on your site. It is often displayed in a text box to attract attention on your Front page. It gives your visitors a small piece of information, such as important news. You can have one Newsflash item or several.

If you have several, the Newsflash component will randomly pick one every time a page is generated. You can have several Newsflash modules attached to various pages on your Web site.

Poll Component:

This component allows you to manage and create different polls for your visitors. The questions you ask can be useful for information purposes.

Displaying polls on your site:

After publishing the poll you need to activate the Polls module. You can choose where you would like the poll to be published and on which page. The module will also provide a link to show the results of your poll.

Syndication Component:

The Syndication Component is used to publish a 'news feed' of your 'public' content items which you have published to your Front page in the Front-end of Mambo.

Editing your Syndication Settings:

To edit your Syndication settings, select Components > Syndication from the top menu in you Admin panel. Edit all fields to your preference then click the 'Save' icon at the top right hand corner of your screen.

Web Links Component:

The Web Links component is a collection of links such as favorite links, Mambo links, or whatever you like. The component makes it possible to count the number of clicks for each link and registered users can submit new links from the Front-end.

Management of Web Links:

To manage Web Links in the Administrator menu, select Components > Web Links. The sub menu provides you with two options to manage the Links, Items and Categories. For details on how to set this up, please check the information about setting up categories and items in the Content Section of this manual.

Displaying of Web Links in the Front-end:

To display the Web Links in the Front-end, you include the component in your menu structure. You must also ensure that it is published.

NOTE: Please refer to other Chapters for more information about FrontPage, Statistics, Templates, Modules, and Menus..

Modules are used to display various information and/or interactive features throughout your Mambo Site.

A Module can contain just about anything from simple plain text, to HTML, to complete standalone Third Party applications. Modules can also display interactive content, such as polls, tag boards, latest news, news feeds and more. Site Modules are different from Administrator Modules because they display their content on the Front-end of your site while Admin Modules pertain to various Administrative (or Back-end) tasks and/or features.

The management of the modules is always done in the Administrator (Admin Section). Go to Modules > Module Manager on the Menu Bar. There you can Install/Uninstall a module and modify the common configurations such as: the Name, the page/s it should appear on, the area it should be placed in, and the access level. From the list choose the module you want to configure.

The Module Manager is at first set to display a certain number of modules. At the bottom of the list you may see a pagination feature, which will allow you to navigate to the next set of modules in the list. You can also set the number of modules displayed on a page by selecting the number in the drop down box on the right of the screen.

Here you may find a list of all site modules instances set by default when installing Mambo. Each refers to a specific module type as defined above. Under the specific list headings are displayed the status of the Modules installed on your system.

Modules are defined by a Type (ex: mod_mainmenu). Many instances of a same module may be created by copying a specific module type, giving it a different title and different parameters to fit your needs.

You may create a custom module with a "User" Type by clicking on the 'New' icon. This is a very useful module which may be used to display Content (this content is not related to Sections, Categories or Static Content Items) or RSS Feed. It can be used as a text box or image module or even to include customized code.

The Home menu bar item covers personal settings that relate to the current user/administrator.

Control Panel:

The Control Panel provides an area to display useful information for the Site Administrator. The Control Panel is provided with an Administrator template that the administrator can customize to meet the needs of the Back-end.

There is a setting in the mainmenu item "Home" where you can define the number of items in your front page

Mambo Open Source CMS & Web Site Builder
Mambo is one of the finest open source Web Content Management Systems available.
Features include:

    * Ease of use. Most users can pick up the interface with little or no training. This means you or your users can be maintaining the site right away. If you can use a web browser, you can use Mambo Open Source.
    * Inline WYSIWYG content editors. Mambo Open Source uses HTMLArea.
    * Simple template engine for maximum layout flexibility.
    * Many built-in modules and components are included
    * Highly configurable news feed system
      RSS Syndicated News
    * Banner Management System
    * Newsflashes
    * Mass mailing to registered users
    * WebLink Manager
    * Database Backup and Restore
    * System Statistics (Browser & OS)
    * Built in Administration Help System
    * Easy administration of site wide images
    * Content Archiving
    * Content Versioning
    * Automatic publishing and expiration support of content based on date
    * Metadata support
    * Integrated search engine.
      Support for over 20 languages
    * Template management system allows for quick and powerful page layout changes.
      Package management system for modules and components
    * Flexible, Mambo Open Source 4.5 should run under any web server, on any operating system that supports PHP and MySQL.
    * Modular design so the code is easy to update, change, and replace.

The Mambo CMS allows you to easily create a dynamic web site . At its most simple, it can be installed through Fantastico on any web hosting space that offers cPanel hosting and you can quickly have a web site online with a minimum of effort and almost no programming or HTML skills.

Don't let this simplicity fool you though - Mambo is feature rich, highly extensible, and very powerful.

Mambo is used for everything from simple, single-page web sites to portals, intranets, and complex corporate applications.

What is a content management system?
It is simply a system for managing content.

Wikipedia defines a content management system (CMS) as a "system used to organize and facilitate collaborative creation of documents and other content"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system).

Essentially, a CMS allows you to gather, organize, maintain and serve content. With Mambo, you gather your content (text, images, scripts, etc) and add it to your site through a web browser interface. In other words, you logon to your Mambo site and add the content you want included in your site. This content is then stored in your database. Mambo allows you to determine the way your content will be served to your site visitors. Then, when a visitor comes to your site, Mambo determines which content will be served for the page the visitor has requested and delivers it.

We use the terms "dynamic" and "database-driven" to describe the way Mambo functions. Unlike traditional static web pages where all the content is hard-coded into each page, Mambo stores the content inside the database. The "page" does not exist until a visitor requests it. At that time, Mambo determines which content should be presented on that page and how it should be delivered. It is this use of database technology that makes Mambo such a powerful content management system.

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Mambo

Getting started - planning your site

Control Panel

Front Page Manager

The FrontPage Component