This document will guide you through 4 basic steps to work with Cobalt. At first Cobalt may looks complicated because you will see a lot of parameters everywhere. But do not be scared, after you learn Cobalt concept, understand it is philosophy and learn those parameters you will love them. Believe me you will love every single parameter because every one of them will give you great flexibility. You will even ask for more adjustments options.

Step 1 - Create Joomla Menu Element

I think this have to be first step to create any new section in Cobalt. I will not describe how to do that. This is standard Joomla operation. You can create menu type separator. Then you do not have to enter any parameters.

Step 2 - Create Content Type

I will not explain all type parameters here, you can quickly look through them. You will find that 99% of them you do not need an explanation. It is very clear what it does.

1. Go to Cobalt > Types > New
2. Enter type name Blog Post. In parameters, find Menu item ID and set there menu element we create in first step.

3. Now open Submission slider. If you want other users submit from frontend, in Who can submit select public or registered. If you want only administrators to submit you can select special.

   Note! Records may be submitted only from frontend. There is no new record button in backend.

   This is why you have to set those parameters.

4. Now you have to decide if you will have categories in the section or not. If your section does not have categories then in Who can select category chose No one.

5. Click Save & Close button in toolbar.

Type is ready. Now we have to add there some fields.

1. Click on Fields (0) on the right of the type name to get to the list of the type fields.
2. Click New in toolbar.
3. Enter field name Post

4. Select field type HTML. You will see parameters of the field loaded. You may leave them as they are.

   If it would be other field type we could save if. But with HTML usually we need little bit more adjustments. Because we want it on the form and in the article to be full width.

5. In the General Parameters of the field on the right find Show label and set it to Hide Label. Then find Break after label and set it to Break on submit form and record full view.

Step 3 - Create Section

1. Go to Cobalt > Sections > New
2. Enter section name and title Blog. If you want little introduction, enter section description.
3. In the Itemid target parameter select menu element we created on first step.
4. Scroll down and find Submit Type parameter and select type we have just created.
5. Click Save & Close button in toolbar.
6. If you want to add categories, click Categories (0) on the left of the section name and add categories as you usually add any core Joomla categories.

Finalize

Now you only need to edit menu element you created and change its type to Cobalt > Section records list. Access this link in frontend, click Post Blog Post Here and submit new article. The list of articles may not looks like a real blog, but that is because we did not set templates. This is matter for another article.

Conclusion

Of course there is much more to learn, but look how simple is basic concept! Just in 5-10 minutes you have created your first section. You can now study one parameter after another to discover full power and opportunities Cobalt provides for you.

Video Tutorial