This tutorial which will show you how to create a business directory or Yellow Pages on your Joomla site. We're going to use a component called Sobi2, which is available from www.sigsiu.net.

Installing Sobi2

1. Click here to download the Sobi2 component.
2. Go to Administrator >> Extensions >> Install / Uninstall and upload the Sobi2 files.
3. Click "Install Sobi2 data"
4. Go to Menus >> Main Menu and click "New"
5. Choose Sobi2 >> Frontpage or Selected Category for your menu link. Give the link a title such as "Directory" and click save.
6. Visit the front of your site and click on the new "Directory" link. It should look like the screenshot on the right:

Configuring Sobi2 With Your Site Details

The first thing we'll do is put our own website's information into Sobi2:

1. Go to Administrator >> Components >> Sobi2 >> General Configuration.
2. Under the "General" tab, change the first field "Component Name" to reflect the name of your directory.
3. Under the "Mainpage"tab, change the first field "Description of Component" to describe your directory.
4. Under the "Mainpage" tab, you may want to change "Image for Description" to "- Select an Image -" so that you can hide the default image.

Creating Business Categories

Next, we'll set up the categories we're going to use for the businesses:

1. Go to Administrator >> Components >> Sobi2 >> All Entries
2. Click on "Add Category" and start to create your structure.
3. If you already have a list of the categories you want to use, click "Add Multiple Categories" and you can insert a list.

Choosing Business Details

Depending on where and what kind of business listings you have, you'll need to collect different kinds of details. U.K. and Canadian sites might be happy with collecting "Post Code" but U.S. sites will need to change that to "Zip Code".

1. Go to Administrator >> Components >> Sobi2 >> Custom Fields Manager
2. Click on "Add New" in the top-right corner to add new details.
3. You can choose to charge for extra information. For example, business might be an extra $5 to have their phone number listed and an extra $10 for their website link.

Collecting Payment

Yes, we did mention that you can have paid listings. That service is free with Sobi2. Once you've set up your fields using the above steps, you can enter your payment information:

1. Go to Administrator >> Components >> Sobi2.
2. Click "Configuration" on the left-hand side and then "Payment Options" will appear.
3. PayPal is available by default so enter your business information including a Paypal email address in "Email Address" and a Thank You page link into "Return URL"