Joomla! 1.5 FAQ:Where is the Static Content Item?

Before Joomla! 1.5, the so called Mambo-Joomla connection version, there were two separate process of creating a content item.

Remember the two Types of Content Items for the “Mambo-Joomla connection version? They were known as Static Content Item usually used for About Us and the “Duh” Content Item which is associated with Sections and Categories …

Hands-on! exercise:
Create a Static Content Item? (About us | Mission Vision | Permanent Information
Create “Duh!” Content Item? (Ever changing contents, company updates)

With Joomla 1.5, the two entities have been combined. No more Static and no more “Duh” Content Item.

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How to Move Your Joomla! Site to a New Server

Why not use a fresh install?

In my case, I probably could have. I only had about 4 or 5 articles on the test site, and I am using relatively few 3rd party CMT's (JomComment, TagBot, and JoomlaXplorer). But, I decided it would be easier just to move the installation I had to the new server, so I did.

You will want to move your Joomla! installation rather than re-install if you fit one or all of the following parameters:
Your site has accumulated a large amount of data in the database over time (sections, categories, content items, contacts, newsfeeds, etc.).
Your site uses multiple 3rd-part extensions already configured and/or customized for your site.

You just feel like trying it out to see if you can do it.

Step 1: Backup everything!
The first thing you want to do is backup all files within your Joomla! installation. Create a folder on your local system, and download all files to that folder using your ftp client application. I used FileZilla as my ftp client application to download all of my files to a folder on my desktop I named "howtojoomla".

Step 2: Export your database
Note: For this step, it really helps if you have phpMyAdmin installed on your server. Most hosting companies have phpMyAdmin already installed. If you are unsure, ask your hosting provider.

The second thing you need to do is export your Joomla! database. The best thing to do is to export it into an SQL file, which makes importing it easier in a later step. An SQL file will contain all of the necessary SQL commands for creating your database tables and filling them with your data. Be sure you export the entire database.

Step 3: Modify configuration.php
This step is very important. Go to the folder on your local system to which you downloaded all of your Joomla! files. In the first level folder, you will find the file named "configuration.php". Open this file with a text editor and make the necessary changes. At the very least, you will probably need to change the following parameters:
$mosConfig_absolute_path: This is the absolute server path to your new Joomla! installation. It will probably look something like "/path/to/joomla/installation".
$mosConfig_cachepath: This is the absolute server path to the cache for your Joomla! installation. It will probably look something like "/path/to/joomla/installation/cache".
$mosConfig_live_site: This is your website's url. It will be something like "http://www.yoursite.com".
$mosConfig_host: This is the location of the server that hosts your MySQL database. For most instances, this value will be "localhost". If you are unsure, ask your hosting provider.
$mosConfig_db: This is the name of your MySQL database.
$mosConfig_user: This is the database user name. Make sure this user has all privileges on your database.
$mosConfig_password: This is the password for your MySQL database user.

Step 4: Upload all of your files to your new server
Using an ftp client application (like FileZilla), upload all of your files to the location on your new server where you want to install Joomla!.

Step 5: Import your database to your new MySQL server
Using phpMyAdmin (or console commands if you are an advanced database administrator) and the SQL file you generated in step 2, import your old database into your new database.

Step 6: Test your new installation
Your move should now be complete, but please don't take my word for it. Test your site to make sure that everything is in it's proper place and working the way you expect it to. For example, if you did not use relative url's for your links on your old site, they will not work properly on your new site.

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Top 10 Joomla! SEO Tips and Tricks

This is the best ways to improve your Joomla SEO.

1) Don't install any sample data while you set up a Joomla! site.,
2) Your Site Name should be your site’s name,
3) Turn off your PDF links,
4) Don't waste your site's link juice includes lots of social bookmarking links,
5) Redirect the www and non-www versions of your site to the same place,
6) Turn on your cache,
7) Enter a full description for all your sections and categories,
8) Less is often more: fewer pp can have better SEO than too many junk pp.,
9) Empty your global configuration metadata,
10) Be confident of Joomla's capabilities.

Wordpress + Joomla = ?

Wordpress is without any doubt the biggest (open source) blogging platform. Well known for it's ease of installation, ease of use and of course the incredible amount of extensions that are available. Joomla! on the other hand is a very powerfull system made out of a fully object oriented (and pattern based) application framework, and on top of that the well known CMS. Joomla! is extremely extensible, thousands of templates and extensions are available. And while it is perfectly possible to create a blogging site (JFoobar is just an example of that), Wordpress is without any discussion easier to set up and use as blogging solution. It holds way more features by default for blogging then Joomla! In short, it is more difficult to create a blogging solution in Joomla! (although far from impossible).

Past week I joined twitter...not really certain how it works, but I must admit I have found some interesting information there so for now it seems worth while the effort. Today a post about combining Joomla! and Wordpress was posted on the corephp website.

Shortly after the creation of the Joomla! project the first core team used a Wordpress bridge for blogging, so the concept is certainly not new. In the mean while the core team blogs have moved to the leadership area on the community site using a very basic Joomla! installation and a professional commenting solution. The question is why you would use the Wordpress platform and an extension to bridge between the two?

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Tips to Improve Joomla Performance

When you are using the Joomla content management system, the overall site performance could be affected by various factors. Moreover, if you have many site users, the page loading speed could be influenced by the simultaneous number of MySQL database queries.

In order to obtain the best results for the page loading speed (which is a key factor for the search engines rankings) and to maintain the best performance of your Joomla website, there are a few tips that could help you.

Enabling the Cache for Joomla

When you are using the Joomla content management system, the overall site performance could be affected by various factors. Moreover, if you have many site users, the page loading speed could be influenced by the simultaneous number of MySQL database queries. In order to obtain the best results for the page loading speed (which is a key factor for the search engines rankings) and to maintain the best performance of your Joomla website, there are a few tips that could help you.

The
recent studies show that Joomla is twice as fast when used with PHP 5.2.3 in comparison with PHP 4.4, as a consequence the use of the last PHP version (which is definitely improved) will always offer you the optimal Joomla performance.

If you turn on caching on the Cache tab from Joomla Global Configuration in Administration Panel, then static files or a cache of your website will be created. The file caching allows the system to find a certain page directly from hard disk and removes the delay induced by a MySQL query to retrieve the same page in the database. The speed of page loading will also be increased by enabling caching.

On the Cache tab, when enabling caching, you must not modify the default cache folder, but you can set a lower value for the cache time if you update the site contents often and a higher value if the content is changed rarely. There are also many modules from Joomla structure that support caching. It is recommended to enable caching for those modules. There are also components that improve the page caching process, such as Ircmaxell’s Page Cache.This component will have visible effects on page load speed in case of website with high traffic.

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Why Joomla Web Designing is a Better Option?

Joomla CMS is the latest rage in website designing. It is getting popularity due to its easy accessibility and dynamic features.

Hurray! I just completed creating a new website and that too ALL By my Own. Well thats the kind of freedom Joomla web designing has provided you. Your website will look and feel exactly the way you like it. You need not worry about designers fussing over your ideas, or the exuberant cost that you have to pay for good website designing.

Joomla Web Designing is a the easiest way so for being introduced for CMS (Content Mangement system of a website). For those who are still unaware of what Joomla exactly is, let me tell you, that Joomla is an open source content management system, that is used to build a website and used henceforth, for any editing that the website might require.

Small and Medium sized businesses that develop a medium sized website, are really really fond of this easy to use web designing technique. It is most suitable for those websites, that have a lot of content in their site, which needs regular changing and editing. Corporate websites, institutions, portals, and several others have used Joomla we designing successfully and have also declared it as the best web designing tool so far.

The reason why Joomla has been recognized with the best tool award is that it has an active community working for it and supporting it continuously. There are many plug-ins and extensions that come along with the Joomla package, to expand the functionalities of this CMS system. With Joomla you can make a simple 3-4 page website (the way I did for an experiment) or you can also create a forum or a blog from it. Manage client contacts, online library of documents, podcasts, calendars, gallery, booking system or videos.

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Content Search SEO Plugin for Joomla

A very useful joomla search SEO Plugin, it is based on the official search content plugin, and add some seo features. It will generate page title, meta description and meta keywords dynamicly according to the search keywords and search results.

Download plugin..

Ways to edit Joomla templates

You must have read a lot about editing a Joomla template. Here is how actually you can do this.

Prior to actually editing Joomla templates, you need to ask yourself why do you want to change or edit it. PinPoint what you actually want to change. Once you have come out with a conclusion, you can start off with your task.

Steps to follow:

Make a copy:
The wisest thing to do when editing the original Joomla templates is to make a copy of the original template. This will help you a lot in changing the original templates. There are many reasons available online for this.

Change the images:
When using Joomla templates; you would like to change some of the images that are already used as well as logos with your own. This is very easy to do. You don’t have to do much work when changing your images. In fact, you need to spend money when changing the whole of template to match your images. In case, you replace images, the best thing to do is to replace these with images of the same size.

Changing the content:
The content and the design of Joomla templates is completely separated. The content is actually present in the file ‘index.php’ and the design is in one or more of the CSS-files.

Change the style:
You need to change the CSS files. Here, you may have to edit more than one CSS files.

Changing Joomla templates is not easy if you follow all the instructions mentioned above.

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How to build a better RSS feed for your Joomla Blog

If you have already worked with Joomla, then you must be knowing about its’ syndication function. In case, you are not, you can go and publish the module known as ‘syndication’. However, you must have also seen it on the FrontPage and after an all-new Joomla installation.

Here are some ways to improve your Joomla Blog feeds:

- First, you can use a superb component known as DS-Syndication.
- DS-syndication is installed just as a normal component and thereafter comes with some superb features such as a button maker for all your RSS Icons.
- See how to get to the screen and then think of using some of the settings.
- Here, you will get a huge screen with lots of settings.
- You would get a lot of settings to choose from.
- The settings you get are as given below:
- RSS Type:
You can either leave this on set it to RSS2.0.
- Number of messages:
Set to what you exactly want. If it is for SEO purpose, opt for a number such as 12 or highest.
- FrontPage Only:
Try setting it to a ‘No’. This should be the case unless you really want a special FrontPage feed.
- Section:
This is where you can actually make a difference. Here, you need to opt for a section you have created for blogging.
- Exclusion:
In case, you really like, you can exclude a category from getting into the feed.

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Why should you write Joomla Blogs?

Many people are starting up new websites everyday and these people have gotten content management programs in order to help them build their websites. There are many content management programs that are on the market today in order for people to choose from. If you have tried the Joomla content management program and have good success with it, you should definitely write Joomla Blogs about your experience with the product in order to possibly help those people who are still in search for their own content management software program. You blogs could help them to find the type of program that they need the same way that you found it.

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Joomla! Joins Another List of Winners

EContent today published their EContent 100 List of Companies that Matter Most in the Digital Content Industry. You can see us right here under Open Source Matters along with other notable open source friends like Drupal and Wordpress. The EContent 100 winners will be honored at the Buying & Selling eContent Conference next April 5-6 in Scottsdale, AZ.

There are a variety of categories: classification & taxonomy; collaboration; content commerce; content creation, production, & digital publishing; content delivery; content management; content security; fee-based info services; intranets & portals; mobile content; search engines & technologies; and social media.

EContent said, "We are proud of this list and of the companies on it. Members of the EContent 100 List are the companies empowering the content that fuels business today. We hope that our readers find the list as valuable as we did the process of creating it." The Joomla Project is honored to be recognized as a high-calibre business solution.

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Creating Joomla plugin

Joomla! plugins serve a variety of purposes.They are like hook of Joomla!. As modules enhance the presentation of the final output of the Web site, plugins enhance the data and can also provide additional, installable functionality

The eight different types of plug-ins include the following:
1. Authentication — Provides user authentication functionality so that additional methods may be
added. Some of the authentication plug-ins included with Joomla are LDAP, OpenID, GMail,
and Joomla.

2. Content — Allows content to be modified after it is retrieved from the database and before it is sent to the user. This allows content to be modified (for applications such as email address cloaking to prevent spam) or supplemented with additional information (such as item rating, user comments, and page navigation features).

3. Editor — For content editors such as TinyMCE and XStandard Lite.

4. Editor button — These plug-ins extend the capabilities of the content editor with buttons that add functions such as the ability to insert an image or a page break. In previous versions of
Joomla, this type of plug-in was called an editor-xtd.

5. Search — Used to add search capabilities for a particular item type such as content, sections, contacts, Web links, newsfeeds, or categories.

6. System — Interfaces with the core Joomla system functions and allows control and modification over foundation tasks such as publishing, unpublishing, and even installation.

7. User —Used to synchronize a user database with another user privilege system such as Gallery2, Simple Machines Forum, and so on.

8. XML-RPC — Receives events directed through the XML Remote Procedure Call (RPC) communication protocol.

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Tata Motors Nano Car Website in Joomla

Over the last few months, we've had some fun spotting major companies that use Joomla.

Here's another ... earlier this year India's Tata Motors made a huge splash by unveiling their Nano car. It's designed to cost just $2500 and bring car ownership within reach of more Indian families. The car's website is built in Joomla.

Hat tip to Ivo Apostolov from Joomfish.

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Joomla 1.58 Released

Hot on the heels of the J1.57 release Joomla 1.5 has been upgraded to v1.58. From the looks of the docs and release notes the bug squad has been working overtime to bring us this release. Each revision means that Joomla 1.5 is becoming more and more stable and Joomla 1.0 is looking more and more old school. If you are running a 1.5 site be sure to upgrade as soon as possible to the 1.58 release.

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Google Analytic and Joomla

Google Analytics is a free website tracking tool which helps you understand your website’s visitor. We highly recommend it, and in this post will run you through how to add Google Analytics to either Joomla 1.5 or Joomla 1.0.1x.

We have broken down the answer of this question into two steps:

1. Create a Google Analytics account
2. Add the Analytics code to your Joomla template

Go to the Google Analytics website and sign up for account.
Once you’ve followed the registration process you will come to a page where you are given a tracking code to add to each page of your website. If you are given the choice to choose between the new tracking code (ga.js) or the old tracking code (urchin.js) choose the new tracking code.
Keep this webpage open with the tracking code on as we’re going to need it in a few minutes.

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Joomla 1.5.8 Released

The Joomla Project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Joomla 1.5.8 [Wohnaiki]. This release contains a number of bug fixes and two moderate-level security fixes. It has been around two months since Joomla 1.5.7 was released on September 9, 2008. The Development Working Group's goal is to continue to provide regular, frequent updates to the Joomla community.

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Open Source Shopping Cart for Joomla! and Mambo

VirtueMart is an Open Source E-Commerce solution to be used together with a Content Management System (CMS) called Joomla! (and Mambo). Joomla! and VirtueMart are written in PHP and made easy for use in a PHP/MySQL environment.

All you need is to download the latest Joomla distribution from www.joomla.org and the VirtueMart package from this site. Joomla provides the Core System and the Framework, which VirtueMart can use. So you can easily use a complete Shopping Cart Solution within your own dynamic Website (”Portal”), together with many other Plug-Ins, called Components and Modules, like Forums, FAQ, Guestbooks and Galleries.

VirtueMart is free software released under the GNU General Public License. No limitations exist for VirtueMart. You can create and maintain a site with an unlimited number of categories, products, orders, customers, etc.

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Open source shopping cart for Joomla!

VirtueMart is an Open Source E-Commerce solution to be used together with a Content Management System (CMS) called Joomla! (and Mambo). Joomla! and VirtueMart are written in PHP and made easy for use in a PHP/MySQL environment.

All you need is to download the latest Joomla distribution from www.joomla.org and the VirtueMart package from this site. Joomla provides the Core System and the Framework, which VirtueMart can use. So you can easily use a complete Shopping Cart Solution within your own dynamic Website (”Portal”), together with many other Plug-Ins, called Components and Modules, like Forums, FAQ, Guestbooks and Galleries.

VirtueMart is free software released under the GNU General Public License. No limitations exist for VirtueMart. You can create and maintain a site with an unlimited number of categories, products, orders, customers, etc.

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