Health Related Theme

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  • seanetal Friend
    March 15, 2009 at 7:23 am #139148

    I run several mental health websites and would love a theme that allowed us to create more solid landing pages for particular illnesses and disorders. We’re using JA News and a slightly modified JA Villadi right now on our main site, but because of JA News’ limitations with Sections and Categories, we can’t assign a landing page for each indivual Disorder. Something that had the front page with a variety of modules and a very small focused area for new content would allow for a simpler creation of a portal site.

    wooohanetworks Friend
    March 15, 2009 at 11:23 am #296053

    So basically you need another new extension or a template with some better extension for article management, I would look in the JED at http://extensions.joomla.org first.:cool:

    Second, health related is, from my perspective only one aspect of the development of a template, as it refers to the layout and design, the colours, merely white and bright. So, the extension and article management would not be restricted to a health related site but to any type of site, even when it is a site about cakes, chips and television and where to get new Lazy Boy recliners with more than just doorstep delivery but including set up of the new furniture right next to the retro soda pop machine, popcorn maker and gas station style hot dog grill in the living room.;)

    I like the idea of a health related site, so when you have some links to sites that your refer to as definite health sites, just post, makes it easier to understand your request.:)

    seanetal Friend
    March 15, 2009 at 11:44 am #296061

    I looked at some options for page layout management but I need to explore it more. Was really hoping JA News would work and it’s ok for the front page, but won’t cut it for the section or category pages.
    As for health websites, here’s a few:

    Health Related:
    http://www.webmd.com/
    http://mayoclinic.com/
    http://health.discovery.com/

    Mental Health related:
    http://psychcentral.com/
    http://healthyplace.com/

    cgc0202 Friend
    March 15, 2009 at 2:43 pm #296088

    <em>@seanetal 117824 wrote:</em><blockquote>I run several mental health websites and would love a theme that allowed us to create more solid landing pages for particular illnesses and disorders. We’re using JA News and a slightly modified JA Villadi right now on our main site, but because of JA News’ limitations with Sections and Categories, we can’t assign a landing page for each indivual Disorder. Something that had the front page with a variety of modules and a very small focused area for new content would allow for a simpler creation of a portal site.</blockquote>

    Hi seanetal,

    There is nothing really special about a Health website — from other information rich website, you were just using the incorrect template.

    Personally, I do not buy the idea that a template layout has to be unique for each field (arts, health, travelog, business, etc.), Perhaps, a unique site might be commerce because they need the sophistication of purchase, but that added feature is really just an extension issue. A template can be made more specific field based on the specific “modules” or extensions that are included.

    What makes a “news-magazine” template a health template therefore are just the designations you placed in the Sections and Categories plus the articles you placed. For example, a section, like cancer have categories, like lung cancer, brain tumors, and all sorts of body locations, and you can also have other categories, like pediatric or gender related cancers, etc. However, there is no reason why groups like Pediatric Cancer, Women or Men related cancers could also be sections on their own.

    The question really is how complex the site has to be. The more topics you have, then the more easy for the visitor would be if these topics are grouped into subsections and sub-categories. This can be done in many ways. For example, in the standard Joomla template there are two levels. The top level is Section, further subdivided into categories. And the actual articles are placed in the appropriate category.

    This is the case with JA Villadi and basic Joomla templates. However, even if JA Villadi (or any of the basic Joomla templates) has Sections and categories in its JA News. its sections only have links to categories (and the number of articles in each), and the categories will have links to the articles.

    But this format is boring and not truly suited for information rich site. Who wants to see links to links? You want to see specific articles themselves when you go to a section or a category. Examples of that format are seen in most current commercial newspapers and magazines that cover many many big topics, and subsections in each of these topics.

    The health sites you cited (which are much older):

    <em>@seanetal 117851 wrote:</em><blockquote>
    Health Related:
    http://www.webmd.com/
    http://mayoclinic.com/
    http://health.discovery.com/

    Mental Health related:
    http://psychcentral.com/
    http://healthyplace.com/</blockquote>

    are not true news-magazine templates, with the layout sophistication that you see in commercial newspapers and magazines. Even if the CMS may not be Joomla, the above sites use a format similar to your basic Joomla template. Most likely, they are simply custom built.

    I forgot the name already but I have actually seen a health-science and technology website that is even more complex than you have indicated in your wish list. Its basic format is similar to the news-magazine format. I do not think it is Joomla based though, but I was not sure because the Editor did not respond to my inquiry.

    Obviously, the format for commercial papers — dubbed “news-magazine” template because they are the first to use it — is more difficult to script. To my knowledge, not too many of the Joomla templates companies have created such templates.

    One true Joomla news-magazine is Teline II with multilevel news sites. For your purpose, the Home page provides a “Headline or Feature news module” as well as news section — that can be tailored (or focused) to particular illnesses and disorders, one section for each.

    One difference of Teline II from most of JA Templates is that, it has a menu navigational site that will list as many Sections that you want. Under each section, the categories. The beauty and the difference of true news-magazine Joomla templates is that when you click on the section or the categories, you will not see links (like the basic Joomla tempage) but actual articles — title, date, author (or whateveer you want to appear) plus brief intro that will then lead you to the full articles.

    There are still a few Joomla news-magazine, including Teline II from Joomlart (I believe the first, April 2008), and Rocket Theme’s news magazine came out in June or July 2008. Gavick PRO has not made any news-magazine yet. Someone else claimed another news-magazine from another Joomla template company, but the one who sent me the link, and claims he reviewed the template, does not really know what he is talking about, nor have any idea what a news-magazine layout (as I outlined above) should be.

    I consider JA Teline II, one of the best, if not the best of the few news-magazine Joomla templates. I did look at the Rocket Theme’]s news template. It is a matter of choice but while it has some good features, like a big feature image module that is true navigational module — it points to the featured articles, not window dressing slide show. RT news-magazine also has several themes (like Joomlart). Some may like it, RT news-magazine has an accordion listing of its sections-categories, placed in the usual Headline News section (or JA News Frontpage in Teline II). I consider the said accordion listing feature too techy, a distraction (who really wants to see just links?) and a waste of the most important space in an online site.

    Joomla based news-magazine templates though are not yet as sophisticated as commercial news-magazines, like the New York Times. For example, most commercial online papers are capable of multiple linking of the same articles to different sections or categories. Right now for example, if you placed an article about testicular cancer under genito-uronal cancers, (based on body organs) the same article cannot be placed also under male related cancers.

    Be warned, while I chose JA Teline II, it has quite a few issues that needed to be improved. For example, the Video, Media and YouTube modules are too rudimentary. It requires too much manual manipulation to keep them updated. There are quite a few but too long to mention all here. Just compare features of very good sites, like the New York Times and compare them with Joomla news-magazine templates.

    I should cite that many Joomla 1.5.x templates, and especially so with many of the 1.5.x Joomlart templates are very slow. Not too many visitors might wait for a website that will take more than 15 – 20 seconds. This is a very great concern for me.

    Cornelio

    seanetal Friend
    March 16, 2009 at 2:12 am #296159

    Cornelio,

    I agree there isn’t much difference between a health portal and a standard content rich/category full website. The suggestion I was making was to try and get template designers thinking about the other types of sites that use Joomla. One of the sites I cited also uses Joomla (healthyplace.com) and while it is a completely custom template, it does still have the standard “joomla feel”.

    I guess the basic idea I’m trying to push is a theme with some front page, section page, and category page level control. The standard Category Blog and Category List options don’t allow for real flexibility here. When dealing with Medical Issues you have to pick and choose the structure that makes the most sense, and often that limits the way you can manage the content.

    I wish Joomla had a few features to help ease this, like stacked Sections (Section/Subsection/Category) instead of the Section/Category. This would go a long way to solving the needs of health and other large portal needs. That may be long time coming, so a way to deal with a Category page other than the standard Blog and List pages would be my biggest suggestion. Maybe this should be a feature suggestion for the upgrade to JA News instead of a template suggestion come to think of it.

    Much of it as you’ve said is the complexity of the content. With Mental Illness issues, the typical way to sort is as follows:

    Disorders (section)
    – Mood Disorders (subsection)
    – Depression (category)
    – Bipolar
    – Impulse-Control Disorders
    – ADHD
    Topics
    – Relationship Issues
    – Divorce
    – Domestic Violence
    – Parenting Issues

    The main problem is a layout option for deeper interior pages other than the standard blog and list options. If there is a better option than JA News, I’ll need to look there I suppose.

    Teline does look to be a good option, but we wanted something to set us apart from our competitors. Villadi gave us that, but I suppose not everything is going to be perfect no matter what you do.

    cgc0202 Friend
    March 16, 2009 at 3:42 am #296182

    <em>@seanetal 117974 wrote:</em><blockquote>Cornelio,

    I agree there isn’t much difference between a health portal and a standard content rich/category full website. The suggestion I was making was to try and get template designers thinking about the other types of sites that use Joomla. One of the sites I cited also uses Joomla (healthyplace.com) and while it is a completely custom template, it does still have the standard “joomla feel”.

    I guess the basic idea I’m trying to push is a theme with some front page, section page, and category page level control. The standard Category Blog and Category List options don’t allow for real flexibility here. When dealing with Medical Issues you have to pick and choose the structure that makes the most sense, and often that limits the way you can manage the content.

    I wish Joomla had a few features to help ease this, like stacked Sections (Section/Subsection/Category) instead of the Section/Category. This would go a long way to solving the needs of health and other large portal needs. That may be long time coming, so a way to deal with a Category page other than the standard Blog and List pages would be my biggest suggestion. Maybe this should be a feature suggestion for the upgrade to JA News instead of a template suggestion come to think of it.

    Much of it as you’ve said is the complexity of the content. With Mental Illness issues, the typical way to sort is as follows:

    Disorders (section)
    – Mood Disorders (subsection)
    – Depression (category)
    – Bipolar
    – Impulse-Control Disorders
    – ADHD
    Topics
    – Relationship Issues
    – Divorce
    – Domestic Violence
    – Parenting Issues

    The main problem is a layout option for deeper interior pages other than the standard blog and list options. If there is a better option than JA News, I’ll need to look there I suppose.

    Teline does look to be a good option, but we wanted something to set us apart from our competitors. Villadi gave us that, but I suppose not everything is going to be perfect no matter what you do.</blockquote>

    seanetal,

    The site you cited that used a Joomla template is like any ordinary Joomla template, not the more advanced templates that are truly news-magazine templates. Joomlart was the first to create one. Almost a year after Joomla created Teline II, to my knowledge there are only a few Joomla news-magazine templates.

    I am talking about Teline II, a news-magazine template while the original Teline, while it has the same name is just a news template, more like other JA Templates, Teline II is a class on its own, among the JA Templates created by Joomlart. Many Joomla users a news-magazine is identical to the previous Joomla magazine templates.

    To my knowledge, I have not seen any Joomla template that could stand to Teline II, even the one created by RocketTheme. Maybe I am biased. If you find anything better, I would be interested to know.

    The listing you showed is readily accommodated by the Teline II magazine menu. If you think “out of the box”, you will find that the multi-layered (beyond two) — that you see as limitation — just be more creative. I will let you discover it yourself, but a layer beyong two and more is possible. How you solve it will allow you to create something that will circumvent the issue. In discovering the solution, you might evolve something more creative.

    When I have more time, not sure when, I plan to create a more comprehensive Health Resources site that the one you outlined, and I can do it readily using the limitations of Teline II.

    Unless you are willing to pay big bucks, tens of thousands of dollars, do not expect leaps and bounds in the development of magazine templates. You might want to consider the iJoomla News and the separate iJoomla Magazine extensions. When I bought my copy of the iJoomla Magazine, I tried to persuade Merav to integrate the features of the two separate extensions. But, iJoomla was too slow in upgrading to Joomla 1.5.x. So, I do not wish to stake the accessibility of my sites to the ability of iJoomla to upgrade promptly. Maybe in the future iJoomla can get its act together. Note however that the iJoomla extensions are still template dependent.

    Cornelio

    seanetal Friend
    March 16, 2009 at 4:07 am #296186

    I was referring to Teline II, and while it’s a solid theme, it wasn’t different enough from some of our competitors. I know this can be done, I was simply trying to point out an area where I think there is a solid need. A magazine site that is a bit more glossy than Teline II may be the answer.

    I’m considering reworking the structure of the sections and categories, but with more than 100 categories in one section alone it’s not an easy choice to make. I’ll look further into iJoomla, but it still doesn’t seem to let you control category level pages which would make the difference.

    cgc0202 Friend
    March 16, 2009 at 6:45 am #296212

    <em>@seanetal 118003 wrote:</em><blockquote>I was referring to Teline II, and while it’s a solid theme, it wasn’t different enough from some of our competitors. I know this can be done, I was simply trying to point out an area where I think there is a solid need. A magazine site that is a bit more glossy than Teline II may be the answer.

    I’m considering reworking the structure of the sections and categories, but with more than 100 categories in one section alone it’s not an easy choice to make. I’ll look further into iJoomla, but it still doesn’t seem to let you control category level pages which would make the difference.</blockquote>

    seanetal,

    May I know what competition you are talking about and their sites?

    I assume this will be for commercial sites. If that is the kind of site that you are developing, it would help to invest actual hard money, and hire a skilled webdesigner with deep scripting skills, perhaps to customize whatever template you decide to use.

    You should note that the templates developed under Joomlart are terribly slow, and may get more slow when you add those glossy extension. It would require optimization.

    In the end, it is the content that matters and the reputation behind the site. The likes of Mayo Clinic may have a lackluster site, but whatever information they place there, most likely would be much linked in other sites.

    I guess I just prefer the simpler sites. As a user of health information, or a consolidator, I would focus more on online sites from reputable institutions — NIH, established medical institutions (Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Mayo, etc.), reputable associations (ACS, AHA, etc.) and other mostly non-profit assoications or organizations. Especially when it comes to health related information, as a matter of policy, it is unlikely I would link strictly commercial sites, especially if they are not affiliated with a well-known institution or organization..

    Good luck.

    Cornello

    1 user says Thank You to cgc0202 for this useful post

    1. seanetal
    seanetal Friend
    March 16, 2009 at 7:08 am #296216

    The competition is anyone running a mental health or psychology related website. Mostly these are white background, fairly void of color, and info heavy sites. The big players in the private arena are:

    http://psychcentral.com/
    http://mentalhealth.com/
    http://www.mentalhelp.net/

    Add in the govt sites and hospital sites that have their own info and you’ve covered most of them.

    We’re working on the content all the time, but improving the usability and administration of the site was a big factor in moving to Joomla. The real solid content we use comes from government sources and universities. We also have filler content from a variety of the freebie sources. What sets us apart, or used to, was the inclusion of articles from those dealing with the particular disorder. I’m trying to get the site back to that as a key part of our content. The short term goal is 40% Govt/Univ/Nonprofit, 30% Patient Driven, and 30% Filler – cross posted. Long term goal is about 40/40/20.

    I’ve decided to take the plunge with the iJoomla News Portal, I think we’ll see some improvements over JA News with it, and it does allow Category level design.

    I’d love to talk more but I think we’ve run this particular thread into the ground considering you’ve convinced me the request for a health related template was a poor one. Send a PM if you’re interested in communicating further and we can take this offsite.

    cgc0202 Friend
    March 18, 2009 at 5:16 am #296605

    <em>@seanetal 118035 wrote:</em><blockquote>The competition is anyone running a mental health or psychology related website. Mostly these are white background, fairly void of color, and info heavy sites. The big players in the private arena are:

    http://psychcentral.com/
    http://mentalhealth.com/
    http://www.mentalhelp.net/

    Add in the govt sites and hospital sites that have their own info and you’ve covered most of them.

    We’re working on the content all the time, but improving the usability and administration of the site was a big factor in moving to Joomla. The real solid content we use comes from government sources and universities. We also have filler content from a variety of the freebie sources. What sets us apart, or used to, was the inclusion of articles from those dealing with the particular disorder. I’m trying to get the site back to that as a key part of our content. The short term goal is 40% Govt/Univ/Nonprofit, 30% Patient Driven, and 30% Filler – cross posted. Long term goal is about 40/40/20.

    I’ve decided to take the plunge with the iJoomla News Portal, I think we’ll see some improvements over JA News with it, and it does allow Category level design.

    I’d love to talk more but I think we’ve run this particular thread into the ground considering you’ve convinced me the request for a health related template was a poor one. Send a PM if you’re interested in communicating further and we can take this offsite.</blockquote>

    seanetal,

    This should be a good closing of the discussion. I have a deaadline myself. I have to move all my contents in one site before the end of this week.

    Apart from the iJoomla News, they have a Magazine software. The ideal is to combine the features of both. I was trying to convince Merav to explore combining the features of both, or you can hire someone to integrate the scripts — and you almost have the equivalent of very powerful software almost like that of commercial online sites. I am amazed how fast New York Times is considering the scope of their content, and how often they refresh them. Of course, NYT might be too boring for your taste:).

    Just one final note. Maybe you are aware already that Joomla, for some reason has problems with security. There were several very grave hacks sometime in 2007, in spite of the close watch that they have done. Most of the updates in fact since Joomla 1.5.3 were security updates. These are apart from the vulnerabilities associated with servers, especially Windows servers.

    I think security is one area that many of us forget to give more attention to.

    Also, Joomla’s permissions system is not very granular in the front end (public, registered) or in the backend. I believe sometime in 2007, there were Joomla companies developing softwares that allow control access down to specific pages. The prices they were quoting were rather steep and very restricted, but it would be one good way to differentiate access by your writers, editors, adminstrators, readers or even generate money by having “premium access”.

    I wish you and your endeavor great success.

    Cornelio

    N.B. I never looked but does McLean Hospital here in Boston have a good site? They are part of the Psychiatric units of MGH/Harvard

    wooohanetworks Friend
    March 18, 2009 at 1:51 pm #296701

    Medscape should be a CMS.

    http://www.medscape.com

    Same with WebMD

    http://www.webmd.com

    seanetal Friend
    March 18, 2009 at 3:54 pm #296723

    The McLean Hospital site isn’t bad, but their home page is centered and the bulk of their content is along the left hand side of the browser, that’s a small issue but the one thing I think they should address.

    jonesboulstridge Friend
    June 26, 2012 at 9:14 am #458872

    http://www.lichenplanus.com
    JA Newss Moo module is used to display articles using Mootools on your Joomla! 1.5 and 1.6 website. It’s really useful tool for any website.

    celavey Friend
    July 5, 2012 at 3:03 am #459919

    Does JA Newss Moo also available in Joomla 2.5?

    Anonymous Moderator
    July 6, 2012 at 8:24 am #460067

    <em>@celavey 328712 wrote:</em><blockquote>Does JA Newss Moo also available in Joomla 2.5? </blockquote>

    Not yet. Pls keep an eye on our blog as all info could be announced there.

    Rgds,

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