Archive for the ‘Joomla’ Category

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Joomla articles without menu items

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Sometimes you need additional articles in your Joomla website that don’t have direct access through your menus. In example you want to provide an ‘additional resources’ link within an article, or perhaps you just want an article for internal use that does not have a public link. Here are the simple steps to make this article linkable from within another article or module in your site, or from another website.

First create a new menu and call it “hidden” or something useful for yourself to remember. Do not create a corresponding module for this menu, alternatively you can create a module but mark it as ‘registered’ or ’special’ so it will not be seen by the public.

Using this new menu you can create links to articles, or any other available menu item choice. When you create the menu item there is a field called “Link” that is automatically populated when you create the item. This is the relative URL of the page (add http://yourdomain.com/ in front of it for a complete URL to use on another site). If you are using Joomla SEO settings, you can use the alias field to create user friendly links to this menu item.

Note: Though this menu is not published, you can still set your modules to show or not to show on the pages of this menu, or you could even create a different template for these pages.

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Posted in Joomla, tips | No Comments »

WordPress: Two Plugin Reviews

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

I’ve been doing a lot of work for a client using WordPress this week. Briefly, WordPress is an open source platform for blogging. It also offers many more features than just a simple blog. Here, I review a couple of optional plugins that you can use on WordPress. These plugins offer your WordPress site visitors a photo gallery (Webpsilon Morfeo Gallery) or an email subscription option (Subscribe2).

A WordPress Plugin Review: Webpsilon Morfeo Gallery

Here at LDW, Morfeo Show has been one of our favorite plugins for our clients’ Joomla! sites. Thanks to Webpsilson Morfeo Gallery is also available for WordPress.  I find the WordPress version every bit as user-friendly as the Joomla! version. It provides for basic image needs very well.

While the Joomla! version is more advanced and offers a wider range of gallery themes, I do not believe the WordPress version is limiting. It’s meant to display within blogs, whereas the Joomla! version has been developed to be very versatile for websites’ many needs.

There’s one limiting factor with Morfeo on WordPress: you have to get your photos to the site using ftp, and many bloggers are not familiar or comfortable with the ftp side of a website. There is a workarround for this by changing your default upload location to the Morfeo image folder, but you have to remember to switch it back to the default once you are done.  Even with this limitation I feel that this is a plugin worth mentioning.

Thanks to the developers of Webpsilon Morfeo Gallery—it was just what I was looking for.

A WordPress Plugin Review: Subscribe2

The Subscribe2 plugin is a way for your WordPress visitors to sign up to receive an email subscription to your blog. You can configure the frequency with which subscribers receive emails: every time you post something new, weekly, daily or even hourly if you prefer. I set mine to only send out an email when there is something new to read.

My goal was to create a separate page on a WordPress site which would give the visitor a place to sign up for the subscription. I was provided with two options: I could manually insert the Subscribe2 token into a newly created page, or I could simply press the Subscribe2 button in the WYSIWYG and it would be inserted on the new page. I picked the latter, and there it was. Subscribe2 also has a widget option, in case you would prefer a widget on your blog’s sidebar rather than having a separate page for email subscriptions.

I really enjoyed working with this software. Plugins can sometimes be a struggle to get to work, but with Subscribe2 this was not the case. I am happy with this plugin’s performance and would recommend it as a simple and effective way to handle email subscriptions on a WordPress site.

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Posted in Joomla, The Latest, WordPress, plugins | 2 Comments »

Review of JFusion

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

My goal was to incorporate a discussion forum into one of our Joomla sites. In order to do this we would use a piece of software called phpBB as well as Joomla. PhpBB usually runs as it’s own website. However, we needed to visually integrate phpBB into Joomla creating what would appear to be one site with a forum included.

The component I chose to handle this chore was JFusion. It offers web administrators a way to integrate a variety of software into a Joomla site without the stress of core hacks or bridging the two. Some of the currently supported software is phpBB, myBB, Moodle, docuwiki, Oscommerce, Magento, and vBulletin. After seeing this list and the good reviews that Jfusion received I thought that it would be a worthwhile component to get familiar with.

I found Jfusion to be easy to install. The documentation provided was easy to follow and easy to understand. All the information that I needed on the project at hand could be found on Jfusions web site. This is a very well supported project and one that I will use again.

If you are a person interested in installing Jfusion I would warn that the initial learning process is time consuming but worth it. Once you have read the documentation and been through the setup you will feel that you understand Jfusion. I know that future installs and setup will go very quickly now that I have learned this process. It is definitely worth reading the documentation and understanding the software you are trying to integrate before jumping in.

All in all I feel that Jfusion is the only way to go when attempting an integration. If you have a Joomla site and are interested in adding a forum or other software to it please contact us. We would be happy to help you through the process.

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Posted in Fixes, Joomla, Joomla Add-ons, LDW Clients, New project, The Latest, tips | No Comments »

Why Joomla (CMS)

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

While working in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina, there was demand for a lot of new websites to raise awareness and funds for the rebuilding effort. Through trial and error I learned that a content management system (CMS) was the best way to help my new clients interact and present themselves on the internet.

Upon arrival in New Orleans as a web designer I realized that I could easily become overwhelmed with the amount of work. The first organization I began work with already had a website running on Drupal. They asked for my assistance with the site so I dug in and learned more about content management systems. I had seen and heard about CMS websites, but until then had always coded static sites in html and css. The downside of websites such as I had been working with is that clients had to either learn html, or contact me every time they needed something edited.

So, the combination of the what could become overwhelming workload in New Orleans and this introduction to CMS, Most non-techies avoid learning html like cats avoid leashes. I soon saw the great benefit of my many New Orleans clients using a CMS. Each client was different. Each client had different needs. With a CMS I was able to streamline all of my clients into a content management system that could be tailored to each individual client’s needs. At the same time I was able to avoid cats, leashes and frustrated clients on the outer rim of html learning curves.

CMS websites, are also often called – for good reason – . Once designed and configured the website is built in such a way that anyone who is provided access can use a simple wysiwyg editor (or MS Word, open office, or any other rich text editor) and make updates and manage the website. The use of CMS means that clients can take ownership of their websites in a day to day fashion, leaving us time to roll out the clients’ broader design ideas.

Designers involved with CMS websites add features such as calendars, forms, photo galleries. All of these new features can be easily accessed and updated by clients. Upon looking at the extensions available I soon realized that my CMS websites could accomplish so much more than my previous statically designed websites. This is why I have converted almost all of my previous clients websites over to Joomla.

Now finally we get to the title of this blog Why Joomla.. Drupal (the first CMS I learned) is very powerful. However, over time and with help of friends (Thanks Nick!) I came around the use of Joomla as my primary CMS. I have seen that Joomla has an easier user interface within demo sites. For this reason Joomla is less intimidating than Drupal for my clients.

I have since realized that with Joomla there is a huge variety of available templates. I have learned how to apply my html and css skills to create custom templates and even take a client’s existing website and convert it to Joomla. In this way the site visitors see no difference, but the client can easily log in and edit their site.

I am happy to report that the sites we rolled out in New Orleans have been met with great success. Though we still help with content updates on some sites, other clients have thrived with their new sites. I love to my clients’ sites and see all the new and changing content! These clients contact us for support, design changes, or to add new features. In this way we are left with more time to build and work on new sites.

The CMS movement is radically changing how we as designers interact with our clients and how our clients ultimately interact with the world.

Thanks to Sean David Hobbs for editing this article

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Posted in Joomla, Joomla Add-ons, LDW Clients, The Latest, collective, web | No Comments »

Message to GPL and Open Source developers.

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Thought I’d spend a few minutes tonight giving thanks to all the developers of great software like Joomla and Wordpress,  and all of their fantastic extensions and beautiful templates that have so helped us move forward in our goal to help people set up great looking and very functional websites. Many of these resources come to us under the GPL or General Public License.

Since migrating to content management websites, we have been able to plug into all the great resources that have been made available to anyone who would like to develop a website. We used to develop our sites in html and css which meant that we, like other web developers held the control over the website. If a client wanted to learn these languages, they could take over their site and start creating and editing themselves, but this really was not practical so the client felt at mercy to the designer, and it limited the amount of work we could take on. Now, that we have made our move to open source content management systems, we can help the client build the website themselves, and as their organization grows, they have the means to grow their website without having to turn back to us, the designers. We remain available, but our goal is that the client will take control of their own website.

This would not be possible if it were not for all the great work that has been done by so many writers of code that have developed the content management systems, and the huge variety of resources to create so much more than just a website.

Always keep in mind that these folks need to feed their families, be sure to visit their sites, support their other services, make a donation, or at least give them thanks. Look for the credits links on our websites for a list of resources that went into building the site.

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Content Management Systems, Open Source and “Free Software”.

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Open source content management systems (CMS) are growing in popularity. Why? What gives them an advantage over a traditional web site? Here are a few reasons.

First, they give you control over your own site. You don’t need to depend upon a webmaster to maintain your site, nor do you need to rely upon an outside professional whenever you need to edit or add content. With a little training, you’ll be able to keep your site up-to-date without the fear of messing up its design or underlying structure.

Second, Open Source CMSs are as affordable as you can get: they are “Free Software“!  Setting up a website, hiring a regular webmaster, and paying to optimize your search engine results—these can add up to a lot of money, money that small organizations often don’t have. CMSs enable people with smaller tech budgets to set up and maintain a web site. Initially it’s still helpful to hire a professional to help with setup and to customize your site to create the look and feel you prefer. A good designer will guide you through initial setup and provide training on site maintenance. But from there, with a CMS you will rarely need to call on a professional, so you’ll eliminate the need to pay a webmaster’s monthly fee.

Third, CMSs allow web work to be performed by more than one person. This is especially helpful if your group is a collective or a community-based organization. Multiple contributors, with differing levels of access if need be, can add and/or change content.

Finally: By choosing an open source CMS, we are not only utilizing Open Source and “Free Software“—we’re contributing to it, too. The Free Software Movement is a community of programmers and users committed to user freedom and sharing, not hoarding, information and ideas to create a better product. The result is better quality software developed by the people who use it. This was the original model for software development, and luckily it’s a model that still thrives even in a world dominated by profit.

Note to the reader:  There are some very important philosophical differences between Open Source and Free Software if you would like to learn more about the differences please visit their sites or wait for my upcoming blog on the subject.

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How to pick a Joomla template

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

A good template provides a solid base for your site. The closer the template is to your final vision, the smoother the rest of your web construction will go. Picking a Joomla template can be difficult, as there are thousands of these things out there. I’ve picked three this week, and that’s enough for a little while! Still, it gets easier each time. Here are a few pointers that helped me streamline the process.

First, make sure you’re choosing the right kind of template. I spent a couple hours looking for a template for my dad’s church website before I realized I’d been browsing Joomla 1.5 Legacy templates… but we want a Joomla 1.5 template, and there is a difference. Legacy templates were built for Joomla 1.0 but can be made to work in 1.5 using a plug-in. It’s better to find a template native to 1.5; things will work better in the long run.

It also made choosing easier when I had an idea of what I wanted before I started looking. For one site, I knew I wanted a dark template, one column, and no banner. These three attributes significantly narrowed an otherwise overwhelming list of 3,000 possible templates. (To see the template I chose, visit www.lowthiandesign.com,)

Alternatively, you can first find a template that you like and then develop your layout around it. I find this more burdensome than the above method, but I am sure it works well for some. This may be a good tactic if you are unable to come up with a good layout beforehand. The template demo sites spark ideas and let you know what is possible with each template.

Sometimes you will find a template you like, but you have to pay to remove the developer’s watermark. If the template is exactly what you are looking for, and you have the cash, then by all means buy it. They usually cost between $25 and $65. Otherwise, free and open source templates are great alternatives. To find these, you need to make sure your template of choice is licensed as free or open source. One such license to look for is GNU GPL.

Finally, here are my favorite places to look for templates: tinyurl.com/lowthian2 and bestofjoomla.com. Good luck and happy picking!

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Posted in Joomla, Joomla Add-ons, The Latest | 2 Comments »

Website Security Measures

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

I want to cover some basic security measures for folks using Joomla Websites. This article however applies to any content management system, which include most websites. Please also review my more general security post where I discuss vulnerabilities with sites like Facebook.

Why We Need To Be Careful

It is easy to say “well I’m not really worried if someone knows my login,” however this is really no longer in any way acceptable. Unfortunately as the internet grows, so do those with malicious motivations. There are various reasons somebody would try to achieve access to your website, one would be to harvest information that might lead them to greater treasures such as your username and password that might be the same as say your bank account? Or even if you are using a different username and password, somebody might gain access to the website through your account but then get the usernames and passwords of everyone else that has an account in your website, and somebody else might not be as careful as you. It is also possible to install malicious software on a website once access is obtained. This could turn your website into a spam generating machine or worse, which could have lasting consequences with the trust in your website or even organizational name.

Basic Security Measures

Create a username and password that is unique to your website, and change it periodically. Don’t forget the usual rules of adding some numbers, capital letters and special characters. There is software that will try all common words, so if you are using a word in the dictionary, or a common name, change it immediately.

Change the Admin login to a name different than ‘admin.’ This is the first login name that a malicious programmer will try to use. Note to our clients: We have changed all the admin accounts in our clients sites, please contact us for your new admin login; your own login name has not been changed, however you can do so at any time, if you have questions please contact us.

Be careful in public spaces and on public computers. There is software that can be installed that can track what you type, or your wireless signal can become compromised.

Create a backup routine. Make sure you have in place a tested backup routine including the backup of your mySQL database and your hosted files. This way if your site is attacked, you will be able to recover quickly and easily. Note to our clients: we are taking care of this for you, please contact us immediately if you suspect anything unusual about your website.

Advanced Security Measures

There are other levels of security that can be taken, if you are a client please contact us so we can discuss these measures, especially if you are regularly logging into your website from different computers or in public places, or if you just want to be extra careful. If you know of additional security measures, please add your comment.


HACKING IS EASY! from Airwave Ranger on Vimeo.

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Posted in Joomla, LDW Clients, Security, tips, web | No Comments »

Comparing how three Joomla editors handle images, text, code and cofiguration.

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

Each Joomla editor has its pros and cons. Though We haven’t tried them all here at LDW, there are three that we use regularly. I will compare how JoomlaFCK, JCE and TinyMCE handle images, text, code and configuration.

Images:

FCK is my first choice as an image editor. It offers many options the other editors lacked. For instance, with FCK you can search/upload photos from your local machine to the server from within the WYSIWYG. Once uploaded you can search the server for an image and add it to your article. You can resize an image and preview the text wrap after the resize. And adding links to your photo is simple with FCK.

Tiny MCE has the slimmest layout. No extra options here: the editor does not allow you to load from your local machine, you can’t search the server, instead you must know a photo’s exact URL in order to display it. It’s clearly my last choice for images.

JCE has image preview and resizing options, and you’re able to search and upload for images from your local machine. JCE is comparable to FCK, but I find FCK more intuitive, plus it has a few more options.

Text:

JCE is my first choice for adding content and editing text. The icon layout is very clear and the default WYSIWYG offers all the tools that I usually need, omitting seldom-used ones. If there is something I need that JCE does not have there are additional plug-ins available as well.

Tiny MCE offers the clearest layout with no extras to get in your way. It offers no way to add from Word or add in plain text, but could be a great editor for people who are only adding text and who are not familiar with the other editors and their extras.

FCK offers template choices, background colors, spell check, emoticons, rows, columns, and much more. A very good choice for people familiar with Word and/or Open Office who would like to utilize tools such as tables, columns, rows and layout templates.

Source Code:

All of the editors offer an easy way to edit source—it’s a three-way tie.

So which is the best editor for clear, clean, standard compliant code? Sorry to say, this is an open source shortcoming. All the choices fall short of this goal. Out of the three editors, the worst one is Tiny MCE. The other two offer plain text and paste from Word options, and FCK also offers a blockquote button and some options to turn off auto-formatting, which helps with the code. As to which editor does the least damage, JCE and FCK are a toss-up.

Plug-in Configuration:

JCE offers many great configurations under components. You can choose to not let the editor clean up html It also uses gzip. The best thing is the plug-ins. You can enable and disable whichever plug-ins you want the editor to use, and even install new open source or proprietary plug-ins for JCE. The customization options seem endless. As a result, the user is able to create their preferred, most useful WYSIWYG. A+!

Tiny MCE is my second choice for configuration capabilities. It has many options for the buttons you do or don’t use, though even with all of them enabled, it’s still a slim editor. You can choose to clean code or not.

With FCK, what you see is truly what you get as far as configuration is concerned. I did find a couple of nice features: you can turn off auto-formatting for source code, and you can set default directories for your images.

Results, in a nutshell:

If you want to add some content, use JCE.

If you want to add an image, use FCK.

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Posted in Joomla, Joomla Add-ons, The Latest, web | 1 Comment »

Joomla Flash Uploader broke…

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Flash uploader was a nice way to upload multiple images at the same time. Unfortunately when Flash 10 was released, it stopped working. Therefore if a site has the ‘enable flash uploader’ option set to yes, the button does not work and therefor nothing happens when you click on it.

You need to go to the Global Configuration, System Tab and disable it.

This leaves you with the ability to just upload one file at a time. JCE has a nice image uploader that still allows you to choose multiple images. It can be downloaded here (I would recommend uninstalling JCE first and then installing the ‘Single installation package.’

The buttons don’t have that MS Office look that you may be used to with JoomlaFCK, but the image uploader has a lot of nice features and a great look. It also allows you to use the image button with the other wysiwyg buttons rather than going to the bottom. If you are a LDW client, we can set this up for you, just let us know if you’d like to try the switch.

Another option is to downgrade your Flash version to version 9 which for Windows, as of now you can still get here. Be sure to read the readme.html file, and I would recommend uninstalling flash 10 first. I haven’t tested this package yet as I am on an Ubuntu machine, so leave a comment if you try it.

Apparently we are not alone, other flash uploaders for other types of software also stopped functioning and Adobe knows about the issue, so hopefully the next version of Flash will have fixed this issue.

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Posted in Fixes, Joomla, Joomla Add-ons | 1 Comment »

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