Rubicon Warcraft Joomla World of Warcraft

On January 16, Blizzard Entertainment introduced the latest version of the successful game, World of Warcraft (WoW). The newest release is titled, “World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade”. WoW has millions of loyal fans around the world, and Joomla! is the perfect platform for establishing a community of WoW enthusiasts. For that reason, I will explain how to customize a Joomla! Template for WoW.

For this customization, I am using the Rubicon template from JoomlaShack because the elegantly simple design and dark hues make the perfect palette for creating a WoW-themed Joomla template. Here are the steps you can take to customize Rubicon for WoW.

Step 1: Install Rubicon

When you purchase Rubicon from JoomlaShack.com, you will receive a zip file called “RUBICON_001_UNZIP.zip”. Unzip that file, and you have two more zip files called “SOURCE.zip” and “js_rubicon.zip”. The latter (“js_rubicon.zip”) is your template installation file.

Log in to your Joomla! administrator panel, and click on “Site->Template Manager->Site Templates”.

Then, click the “New” button in the template manager toolbar.

On the following screen, click the “Browse...” button,

and browse your system for the “js_rubicon.zip” file.

Once you have selected the correct file, click the “Upload File & Install” button. You should see the following success message:

Click “Continue ...” and then set js_rubicon as your default template.

Step 2: Install the Extended Menus module, and publish it to the “top” position

Rubicon supports drop-down menus using the Extended Menus module. You can find information about the module in the Joomla! Extensions Directory at http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,163/Itemid,35/.

Publish the module to the “top” module position, making sure that it is the only module in the “top” position. You will also need to modify the module's configuration by setting “Menu Style” to “Flat List” and setting “Expand Menu” to “Yes”.

Step 3: Install JoomlaShack's WoW template kit for the Rubicon template

JoomlaShack is distributing a WoW template kit that I created especially for JoomlaShack's Rubicon template. I created the template using WoW's fansite kit, which you can download at:
http://download.blizzard.com/pub/wow/other/fansite_kit.zip.

The kit contains various images from the game including artwork and the WoW logo. I used artwork from the kit to customize the Rubicon template with a WoW theme. I modified the header, borders and background images, and the color scheme to give the template a WoW look and feel.

To install the kit, simply unzip the kit and upload it into the Rubicon template directory (yoursite.com/templates/js_rubicon/) using FTP or JoomlaXplorer, which you can get here: http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,102/Itemid,35/.

The kit follows the same directory structure as the Rubicon template, so be sure you place the files in their appropriate directories. You should overwrite Rubicon's “index.php” and “css/template_css.css” files with the ones in the kit. All the other files are unique to the kit, so they will not be overwriting old files.

As with anything coming from JoomlaShack, you have options with the WoW kit. Any WoW fan knows that there are two main sides: Horde and Alliance. There are three background images for each side available in the kit. For the Horde, there is a 3D render of an Orc Warrior, a 3D render of an Orc Hunter, and a picture of a Tauren and an Orc. For Alliance, There is an image of Night Elves, a Dwarf riding a Gryphon, and two Dwarves overlooking Ironforge.

There are a couple of options for setting which background image will appear on your site. The first option is to edit the “index.php” file that comes with the kit. On the 7th line of the file, you will see the following code:

$switchstyle = "nightelves";

You can change the word “nightelves” to change the background image. You have six options:

• Alliance
  • $switchstyle = “nightelves”;
  • $switchstyle = “ironforge”;
  • $switchstyle = “gryphon”;
• Horde
  • $switchstyle = “taurenorc”;
  • $switchstyle = “orchunter”;
  • $switchstyle = “orcwarrior”;

The second option is to change the background image dynamically by adding “?switchstyle=...” to the end of the links in your site. For example, if you want a page to contain a picture of Ironforge in the background, you would change the link from this:

http://yoursite.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=2&Itemid=4

to:

http://yoursite.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=2&Itemid=4&switchstyle=ironforge

Step 4: Customize your modules

For each module, there is a colored orb next to the module header. By default, this orb is blue, but you have the option to change that color to a red or green. To do this, you simply change the module class suffix in the module's configuration. For blue, you would leave the suffix blank or set it to “-blue”. For red, you change the suffix to “-red”, and for green, you change the suffix to...any guesses?... “-green”.

Step 5: Just add content

Now that your template has the look of a WoW site, you need to add your own content and build your own WoW fan community, guild website, or information portal. With the fansite kit I mentioned above, and with the tools available for Joomla!, you can add all sorts of WoW content to your site. The options are limitless!