Blog Entries

How to setup language in Kunena Forums

georg@joomlapeople.com — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:09:18 +0100

By default, Kunena forum will follow the Joomla site selected language settings.

First of, have a look over here:

http://www.kunena.com/forum/107-translations

to see if someone else already translated Kunena to your desired language.If so, then download the existing file. If not, then you may download the translation toolkit:

http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/kunena/scmsvn/?action=browse&path=%2Ftrunk%2Ftools%2Ftranslators%2F

If you [...]

1st March, Springtime...

georg@joomlapeople.com — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:49:50 +0100

Yes, not that those stuck in airports or on the autobahn would appreciate this blog too much. But our calendars are indicating March the 1st and that's already a spell of hope... Oh, maybe this term is deprecated, then the spirit of sping, there you go!

Some little robot, named Spirit, very popular on our planet, got stuck on planet Mars, for months, and this not because of snows, though there are puddles on Mars. Okay, let's not veer too much, shall we? Springtime is here! Spirit (th [...]

Tips on Mass Uploading Inventory in Virtuemart with CSVi

georg@joomlapeople.com — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:31:30 +0100

Don't get scared, we're not gonna reproduce some online manual at hand. The tips listed below are coming from our hands-on experience with one or more customers. Joomla and VirtueMart is serving their online business sales and CSVi is the component that's making their mass data uploads a breeze.

Some lil things:

1. The [excel].xls file must be properly converted into csv and NO "$" sign in the price cells, because the mySQL data base requires numerical data in the [...]

RocketTheme's Launcher Subtle Installation to Dreamhost

georg@joomlapeople.com — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:28:50 +0100

As you probably know, RocketTheme's Joomla templates are coming with an added pack called RT Launcher. This contains the complete Joomla install, not just the template, pre-loaded with specially crafted sample data that make your new site a perfect clone of the Demo at RocketTheme.

Now, obviously you may install that little monster by SFTP, it's a no brainer. But how are you going to maintain this site?, in the case your client insists he, or she, wants to easily customize the a [...]

In Joomla the SEF Still Needs a Menu, Here's How to Hide It!

georg@joomlapeople.com — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:06:44 +0100

Consider the following scenario: your client wants a very simple, and fast loading, Joomla site. In fact the client's paying for a Content Management Site solution, where he can go in and edit his texts. He couldn't care less if it's a Joomla, a WordPress or a Drupal, he (or she) needs a CMS delivery from your part. So far so good. But the client has a headache understanding the backend "other" site, the /administrator area... No problem! You simply create a new menu item link to the user defaul [...]

Creative Password Guide

georg@joomlapeople.com — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:47:50 +0100

Another old and repeated saga: the simple dictionary passwords users cannot care less about. Comes yesterday, Sunday evening news on RTL. A short instructive survey indicates that the most used password is "123456" or... "password" - yes!, the word "password". And I thought that was a "Naked Gun" parody series gag by Leslie Nielsen... Turns out that reality is often times worse than parody. You may do a google for the string: "most used passwords" in order to discover more attrocious vari [...]

SEF and non-SEF URLs in Joomla Root

georg@joomlapeople.com — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:10:32 +0100

It's an important aspect of web development to have humane friendly, and googlebot friendly for that matter. Joomla 1.5 and later is having a core SEF setting. There's also the very well know sh404SEF third party component with so many extended features for the picky ones. No news to Joomla people, right? Right!

How about when you have to insert some monitoring application of sorts, unrelated to Joomla, yet instrumentally residing inside the Joomla root directory. Yes, that one a [...]

The Splash Page

georg@joomlapeople.com — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:54:15 +0100

Remember the cool '90s with the animated gif icons, the ugly Yahoo white page and no trace of Google... It was the HTML decade. The hyperlinks fad. The splash page epoch.

Now that we've got ourselves in the teens (2k-ten, right?) of another century, the splash page is no more than a nostalgia, or so we'd like to think. Because it still turns out some web people will insist on hiding their Joomla sites behind a splash page. They insist because they find that huge picture, or animation [...]

The Joomla!, The JCE and the Bottom [Read more] Button

georg@joomlapeople.com — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:43:54 +0100

Yes, today finally a tip-type blog. No more ranting, no more rambling. Hey, nothing sure this will last long. So enjoy the moment.

Since about the last Joomla upgrade to 1.5.15 some of us were hitting in vain the bottom button [Read more] when entering their articles in Joomla. That button became nothing more than a deco element. Sheesh, not good!

The cause, and the solution, is the JCE WYSIWYG editor, better than the Joomla TinyMCE editor, I'd say.

Instead of desperat [...]

Security First, Usability Second

georg@joomlapeople.com — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:47:56 +0100

Once upon a time, a client wanted us to merge his SugarCRM into one "single" site with his Joomla! These two are indeed two different beasts, from function to design. For one, the Sugar Customer Relationship Management system is basically a backend oriented site. It's not even a site, to some extent, but rather a staff centered marketing instrument. On the other hand, Joomla Content Management System is THE site, the frontend, the public face of the company.

Our client's intentio [...]

The T2, K2 and Their Inner Connecting Powers

georg@joomlapeople.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:32:42 +0100

Yes, we're in that age when anyone's gotta get connected with anyone. For what reason?! Err... well, that's not been thought of. At least not for now. Just let's connect, let's get in the hub, do some chatting about what we've done this morning. Ya know, waking up, bathroom, breakfast, bus (or train, or car), business, back home, boring stuff... Just put it up there and feel important. Some will (are already, wow?) definitely harvest(ing) all the trivia from the public hubs and build nice pro [...]

The Winning Formula

georg@joomlapeople.com — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:14:46 +0100

Remember yesterday's blog? It happened the same summer, lasted for a month, the building, and keeps on and on with regular maintenance ever since. Couple months ago we even did a major upgrade to it. This is, as you may already figure, another client. Still the provider team is exactly the same one: same web developer, same graphic designer, same web programmer. And this is a very successful web project we're gonna do a fast case blog about.

Our client is listed in [...]

A Failed Project

georg@joomlapeople.com — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:03:08 +0100

It began in the late summer of 2006. Joomla plus Virtuemart e-store for thousands to tens of thousands of items. Nothing special, nothing scaring. Yet it proved to be one of the worst ever project of the past decade. Why? Keep reading to see why:

1. The graphic designer brings the client to the web developer. They talk. They agree on the project then the web developer sends the specs to the web programmer. It was in August.

2. Early September comes when the prog [...]

The Back Button

georg@joomlapeople.com — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:26:46 +0100

Seems I can't help myself blogging back every morning. So yes, again the "back" tag. That's about to haunt the day again. Today about the back button in your browser. Theories of usability are divided.

Some sustain that users worldwide are mature enough not to loose your site from sight once they click an external link out. In simple words for the coder and the designer of web sites: What to do with external links? Code them to open in the parent window or in a new window? The former [...]

Fluid Web Designs

georg@joomlapeople.com — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:44:37 +0100

I'm back. New morning, new problem to fix. Or maybe the old one to re-fix. Yeah, just like some (few) clients used to: when you wake up early in the morning, then you ignite the computer, start your browser, load the project and haste in to write a mail to the developer, asking him to "move that back yet a little bit more"...

The "back" theme of my morning today will focus on fluid designs for web sites. It's that kind of menus, or columns, or divisions to be more general, that will s [...]

A Half of a Pixel, Please!

georg@joomlapeople.com — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:27:05 +0100

There are clients who think they 'know' how it works to build that site of theirs. The more they think they 'know', the less they do. How to recognize such a client from the very beginning:

1. He will slap a PDF file at you and demand a 'perfect' reproduction of the design in the PDF over the web site. Anyone having an idea about web design and Content Management Systems, or CMS, will smile at that demand.

2. He will send you color data in CMYK.

3. He will force you to [...]

List of vulnerable extensions

denes@joomlapeople.com — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:00:00 +0100

You installed latest extensions, followed the recommendations on Joomla security checklist, locked won your config file - so you can leave your site alone - you're safe!
Wrong. You must check at least one additional resource. Even most of the security-consciuscious Joomla webmasters aren't knowing the existence of this list, maintained at Joomla docs site. There are listed all components with known security problems (present and past versions!), and very important to know, the items once appe [...]

The K2 CCK Simple Image Gallery bugfix

georg@joomlapeople.com — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100

K2 comes as the Drupal-like content constructor kit for Joomla. A long awaited feature that, some say, will get in the core of next Joomla v.1.6...

But when you install K2 by the book, together with the All Videos plugin and the Simple Image Gallery plugin [both by the same excellent Greek creator] you'll notice that the respective Image Gallery tab in the Item creation interface is either empty or returning an error message. Here's what to do:

1. SFTP in to these paths:

[...]

Latest Security Threats and Joomla! Defense Strategies

georg@joomlapeople.com — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:25:16 +0100

It happened sometime around mid June on a Dreamhost user account, older than three years and bloated with quite some antiquated long forgotten web applications. All of a sudden, every site under the above mentioned unix user was displaying this:

undefined_hacker

on top left of a blank page. D'oh...

We're now gonna skip remembering the hassle of urgent chores moving live sites to newly created, separated unix users, naturally after restoring them from the backup [...]

Joomla! Everything for Everyone

georg@joomlapeople.com — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:48:10 +0100

Well, that's a statement to stay in the e-universe, of course...

Everything we do means: Joomla! installing, customization, hosting, maintenance, upgrading, migration; template code customization; component code customizing and new component creation; module code customizing and new module creation; search engine friendly (sef) URL installing, customization; SEO (aka Search Engine Optimization) consulting; PSD to XHTML hand code template creation; and... click here to ask for som [...]