Joomla Extensions, Components, Modules, Plugins

Documentation of Central Administrator

General

Central Administrator comes in two parts: a) the 'parent' extension and b) the 'child' extension.

The 'parent' extension consists from a component (and a plugin). This extension monitors and collects information about the Joomla websites of the clients (childs). This extension needs to be installed only once on the website of the administrator who will monitor the websites of the clients. Of course, it can be installed more than once if needed.

The 'child' extension consists from a plugin. This extension has to be installed to each monitored Joomla website in order the Central Administrator component (parent) to be able to collect information from it. Each time the plugin is installed, some credentials have to be copied from the plugin to the component.

Ιnstallation

Installation of the parent extension

Usually the installation of the component will be needed to be done once. It has to be installed in the Joomla website that only the administrator has access to. This website will be called as administrator's website.

  1. Download the Central Administrator parent extension.
  2. In the Joomla control panel select: "Extensions" > "Manage" > "Install".
  3. In the "Upload Package File" tab click "Browse for file" and locate the file "central-administrator-parent-2.1.2.zip".

If you want to fill in the field 'PageSpeed Insights API Key' in the 'Settings' page you can take the API key from the page https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v4/first-app.

Installation of the child extension

The installation of the plugin has to be done to each monitored Joomla website. These websites are usually the websites of the customers. Each one of these websites will be called as client's website.

  1. Download the Central Administrator child extension.
  2. In the Joomla control panel select: "Extensions" > "Manage" > "Install".
  3. In the "Upload Package File" tab click "Browse for file" and locate the file "central-administrator-child-2.1.1.zip".

Add Monitored Website to Central Administrator (C.A.)

To add a website in Central Administrator (C.A.) in order to be monitored, you need to install the parent extension (component) and the child extension (plugin) of Central Administrator. See above how to do it and where to install each one.

  1. Go to the administration area of the administrator's website that has the C.A. parent extension (component) installed.
  2. Select "Components" > "Central Administrator" > "Websites".
  3. Click to the "Add Website" button and you will see the new page "Central Administrator - Add Website".
  4. Fill in the fields: Title, URL, Administrator's URL, Administrator's Username. Please be careful to fill in the correct values. In order to fill in the fields Website Key and Secret Key continue to the next steps.
  5. Open a new window in the browser and go to the administration area of the client's website that has the C.A. child extension (plugin) installed.
  6. Select "Extensions" > "Plugins" > "System - Central Administrator".
  7. Copy the values of the fields Website Key and Secret Key to the fields of page at step 4.
  8. Set the status of the plugin to Enabled and save the plugin.
  9. Click the Save button at the "Add Website" page.
  10. After you return to the main page of the C.A. component, you will see the new line of the new monitored website. Click to the arrow at the end of the line in order to start scanning the new monitored website.

Screenshots

Component

Component Parameters - Websites

Component Parameters - Add Website

Plugin

Plugin Parameters

Automatic Update

In order to be able to easily update the extension through the update system of Joomla, you need:

  • Your membership ID. This can be found in the email you received with the subscription information of this extension or in your profile in this website.
  • An active subscription of this extension. You can see your subscriptions in your profile as well.

Having the above fulfilled, do the following:

  1. Select "Extensions > Plugins".
  2. Locate in the list the line with name "Installer - Central Administrator" (the column 'Type' is equal to 'Installer') and click to it.
  3. Fill in your membership id in the parameters, enable the plugin and save.

Now you will be able to update the extension through the Joomla update system. But if you want, you can do it manually by downloading the latest version from this website.

Uninstall from Joomla

  1. Select "Extensions > Manage > Manage".
  2. Locate in the list the line with name "Central Administrator" where the column 'Type' is equal to 'Package'.
  3. Check the line and click "Uninstall". This will uninstall completely the extension.