Joomla Website Hosting Requirements

Many website hosting companies claim to support Joomla, but in reality they only support a plain vanilla version of Joomla, so when you add third-party components and extensions to your website to enable more complex features, it often happens that server configurations are not set up to support those advanced components properly.

When selecting a hosting company for your Joomla website, go for a specialized hosting companies like Rochen and Hostgator. Rochen is the official Joomla hosting company. They own their data centers. Hostgator is known to offer very good support and they own their own data centers as well. There are also companies like Cloudaccess and Hostpapa, but we can't vouch for them personally. Hostpapa is a reseller company, they don't own their data centers. We can't say much about Cloudaccess. Their packages seem very good but when we sent them an email inquiry, there was no reply, which is not a good sign for a hosting company. If they don't reply to a sales enquiry, then we don't have much hope for their support. 

In any case, at the very minimum, check that your hosting provider offers the following:

Moving to a new hosting company is very troublesome. So before you make your decision about where to host your Joomla website, please review our detailed Joomla hosting requirement page as well as the official Joomla's technical requirements page.

With each new version Joomla is getting easier and easier to use, so if you are wondering if the upgrade is worth it, the answer is definitely a big YES, especially if you are still using oldies like 1.5 or 1.7. Those versions are no longer supported officially (no security patches or big fixes are issued), and while your site can still work perfectly if you are not adding any new functionalities to it and only adding text and images – any new feature added, as small as RSS or a photo gallery, and you run a security risk. Plus, many plugins and components no longer run on the old versions. So, again, if your site is very simple and you are not adding any features to it, you can run your Joomla 1.5. version indefinitely. But if you plan on adding something functional to it, then you are running the risk of seeing the teeth of software security and compatibility.

Read more on the release of Joomla 3.3.1

5 Things you need to know about the Joomla upgrade

1. Upgrading to a subversion of a major release is a relatively simple task that your website manager can do with a click of a button (well, almost always), but we advise “walking one step behind”. Do not rush to upgrade to the latest subversion, wait until it becomes mature. We prefer to stay on the last but one subversion.
2. Upgrading to a major version is never a simple DIY task. Do not attempt to click that “upgrade now” button. If you really can’t help it, at least make sure to backup the site first (use Akeeba backup ).
3. If your site is more than a restaurant menu, upgrading to a major version is always worth it. Every new version of Joomla makes things easier for end-users. There are more new bells and whistles that come with it that can enhance your site’s functionalities for free. Security is less of a threat as new versions always improve on previously found vulnerabilities.
4. Before the upgrade, check what components, modules and plugins your site is using, create an inventory and then to go here and verify that each of these extensions supports the new Joomla version. If you are hiring a web design agency, they would do it for you.
5. When asking for quotes from web design agencies, you are likely to see a much larger variance between different quotes. The price can range 400%. We do not have a scientifically proven answer for why this is the case, but our guess – as arrogant as it maybe – is this is because some agencies d not have the right expertise and take much longer to do what needs to be done. The other possible reason is because they know there are no “standards” for upgrade projects and no typical range of hours that can be estimated, so they can crank up the price as much as they want. What’s interesting is that consumers are “afraid” of the low price. Whereas the funny part is that – with the upgrade projects, as opposed to the new site development, the risks are much fewer. At the end of the project, your site is either working or not. So if your site, which will be sitting on a development server, is working, which you can test by clicking around, then whether you paid $2000 or $4000 for the update is pretty much circumstantial.

Well, Google Plus is not intuitive at all. And the instructions are disconnected. Each step maybe described well, but the whole process - go and figure it out on your own. 

So here is what we did to enable Google "authorship" feature so that our blog posts appear on Google search results like this:

Create a Google+ Profile and Link it with Your Blog

1. First, you need to create your own personal profile with Google Plus. For that, you need to verify your email with Google.
2. Then you need to add a business page with your company profile and link your business page with your own personal profile. Follow Google's instructions on that. They are not very clear, but after a few pokes around, you will get it.
3. Google would want to verify your business and will send you a post card wtih a PIN number that you would need to enter into your business profile. Remember to view the pages as "yourself" or else you won't be able to edit any business info. The post card takes 2 weeks to arrive.
4. Then you need to confirm yourself as an author of your site with Google: https://plus.google.com/authorship
5. And now to get Google to identify a page as written by you, what it needs to see in a page is the following code:

   <a rel="author" href="/<your G+ profile link>">John Smith</a>

   For K2 articles; if you selected the option to 'show Author', it already creates the following:

   <a rel="author" href="/<link to K2 user page>">John Smith</a>

6. To make it show the G+ profile link, go to K2 > Users and add the profile link as the user URL. Then, go into component/com_k2/templates/blog/item.php and component.com_k2/templates/default/item.php

   Find under <!-- Item Author -->  the following code

   echo $this->item->author->link;

   and replace it with (save copies!)

   echo $this->item->author->profile->url;

7. For Joomla article, the following plugin should help:

   http://duben.org/joomla-english/sd-google-authorship-plugin-for-joomla or this: http://www.deconf.com/en/projects/how-to-set-up-google-authorship-markup-with-rel=author-in-joomla/

8. For those who like to use the code, it gets a little tricky to describe, as each template might have created its own version of the article display, and different version of Joomla also might have different display methods. In general, try to find in:

   templates/<your template>/html/com_content/article/default.php (if not found, copy from components/com_content/views/article/tmpl/default.php)

9. Find where it generates the author text (usually with a class called createdby or create_by), and replace it with the following:

   <?php
   //name of K2 user table
   $query = 'SELECT url FROM #__k2_users WHERE userID=' . $this->article->created_by;
   $db =& JFactory::getDBO();
   $db->setQuery($query);
   $authorlink = $db->loadResult();
   ?>

   This gives the variable $authorlink your Google Profile URL that you saved in K2 in the steps above.

10. Now change the author link to something along these lines:

    <a rel="author" href="/<?php echo $authorlink; ?>"><span class="createby">
    <?php some code from Joomla that shows the author name ?></a>
    </span></a>

    That should make authorship works on Joomla default articles too.

11. Finally, test on  http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets that you have authorship successfully linked.

Hope this works for you!

It takes a few days for Google to reindex your pages and start showing your "authorship".

Whether you are planning on having your website run on Joomla, Drupal, WordPress or any other content management system, if your website is expected to have some user activity - you need to create a set of main use cases before the design process can commence. 

Not Writing Use Cases Costs You

In practice what often happens is that when marketing managers source a web design agency they usually provide some basic description of what they would like the website to do and expect the design agency to recommend the best "flow". Later, after the flow has been completed by the design agency, clients often request "changes" because the recommended flow does not reflect their vision adequately, and then those changes can sometimes be very significant, which often leads to additional charges. In other words, clients first pay for the recommended flow and then for its adjustment to their vision.

There is a simple way to reduce this two-stage - unpleasant to the client - process to one: develop a set of uses cases before starting the design process. 

What is a Use Case

In web design a use case is a detailed description of how users will perform a particular task on your website. For example, download a whitepaper, post a resume, search for a job, complete a payment, register for an event. etc.

Each use case should begin with defining a goal of a particular task and then establishing a starting point for it. Each use case should end with the "last step" in the process - and not only from the user's perspective but also from the perspective of a website administrator who will be gathering and analyzing the website activity information on a regular basis.

In other words, for each use case you need to determine the following: what you want your users to do on your website and what they might want to do on your website (which is not the same thing!)

• Your goals or what you want users to do (e.g. download white paper and then call you to order your products)
• Specific sequence of steps you expected them to perform
• Users' goals for performing these tasks (e.g. read useful informaiton free of charge and not necessarily order anything)
• Users' expectations of what type of information they should be offered

When you determe both perspectives, you will be able to find "overlaps". And this will help you determine how the website should be structured and how it should respond to a user action.

How to Write a Use Case

The easiest way to write a use case is by writing text - with detailed description of what happens or should happen at what point. Your narrative would be exceptionally useful if you also find an example website that has the exact (or very similar) flow that you would like to have. 

But before you do that, you need to establish the main purpose/goal of your website. Is it to educate? to sell something? to promote something? Write down all your goals specifically and then proceed with defining those use cases that would affect your goals the most.

Here is a short list of how to write an effective use case:

• Identify the type of users you expect to use your website (accounters, students. board members of your company, event participants, etc)
• Create use cases for each type of users. Start with the most important one. TIP: To define the most important users, focus on the $$ or authority. Does a user type affect your revenue? Does it affect your company? Start with those users who affect these two things the most.
• Define what that user is expected to do on the site (download, register, buy, etc). Each one of those expectations will be a separate "goal" and it will have its own use case.
• For each use case, decide on the normal course of actions. For example, a user comes to a website via an email invitation by clicking on a link from that email. The user "lands" on a specific page where you present them with an option to register in order to receive something. The user registers (clicks the call-to-action button). What happens then?
• The user receives a thank-you email? What would that email contain? Will the website send one thank-you email or will it also send a follow-up auto-reminder of some kind?
• It is assumed that all user registration information will stored on your website, otherwise, why would you need a website? What kind of registration quesitons would you need to ask in order to generate more $$. 
• Would you allow sales people to call users who registered on your website to follow up? If yes, then you need to ask for the user's permission during the registration process.
• Can the user do more than one action?
• Can they create an account and view their activity history on your website? 
• Can this user come back and repeat the same action? 

All this information needs to be captured in a use case. That is why it is called "developing a use case", because it takes a few rounds to editting to establish the right amount of information. 

After you've developed a written text-based use case for each important (business-affecting) task and user type, it is best to provide an example website that utilizes something very similar to your goals.

After your web designers analyze your use cases, they might still have questions for you! And after they've clarified all the details, the will be able to create a use-case flow diagram.

Use Case Flow Diagram

Creating a flow diagram is a very important step and yet very few design agencies do that. A master diagram showing interconnections between various user types prevents a lot of miscommunications. It also simplifies Quality Assurance and Project Management. 

One of the easiest way to create a use case flow digram is to set it up in a series of PPT slides. Once you "glue" them together, you will be able to see where your "holes" or "missing steps" might be. 

If your site is simple, then a verbal text-base use case description might suffice. But if your site has several inter-connected user activities - a diagram in addition to the textual description is a must.

If your web design agency did not volunteer to create a master use case flow diagram, request that they do. Depending on your contract, there maybe a portion of the budget allocated for the "discovery stage". If it is the case, then the use case flow diagram should be provided to you. If there is no discovery phase covered by the budget, still request it from your designers. And if they refuse (unlikely!), then you need to create such a diagram yourself. 

What happens if you don't? Well, nothing terrible, the skies won't fall down on you. You will end up spending additional time writing emails, clarifying and explaining, calling and asking for revisions - and also paying for all additional changes. That's all.

If you are going to have a Joomla website, you will need to install several components to enable functionalities not supported by Joomla natively (not yet). For example, a Site Map is a must for SEO. Newsletter subscription is a must for lead generation. Google Analytics is a must for your understanding of your visitors' behaviour on your website. And there are a few more functionalities that most small business owners would find very useful. So we compiled a list of 10 free must-have Joomla extensions that even a toddler can get installed and enabled independently:

1. Xmap - automatically generates a Site Map element on your website. Every time you add or delete a page, your site map will get updated automatically.
2. AcyMailing - a simple newsletter component with subscriber list management capabilities. The free version has limitations, naturally, but those limitations might not be important to small businesses or individual consultants. To get more features, you can purchase the next levels starting from around $30 in total (without any monthly fees).
3. SimpleCalendar - this one is a darling! If you need to post a calendar of events on your website, for seminars, trade shows or whatever - this component is a sweetie pie. It even allows you to select your own colors. The only two things we found would have liked to change is a link back to the author (a tiny one, not invasive) and a "back" arrow icon displayed next to each listing. Those two are not necessary and should be displayed on demand only.
4. JComments  - this is a very popular component in the Joomla user community. It is used on this site, right here, in the blog section. It works well and looks well, so we highly recommend it to anyone having a blog on their Joomla site.
5. JCE editor - this is a very nice and simple article editor component. There are other - fancier - editors available for Joomla, but we love this one for one convenience it offers: ability to add links to your own articles via a drop-down drilling through your content as well as by copying a URL. The same goes for images too! The extension is very lightweight as well, a factor favoured by many website designers.
6. Gtranslate - this component provides translation of your pages into 50+ languages. It does not translate modules and plugins, but it works well. It might not work much better than Google translate, but it seems to be more customizable.
7. Akeeba Backup - this Joomla component is an absolute must. It allows you to backup your website online. Don't forget to click on the backed-up file and save it to your hard disk. The restoration of the backed-up file is not easy as the actual backup, but it works very well when you learn how to do it. Read the website instructions and use the kickstart file!
8. MassContent - if you need to publish several articles at once or simply have a lot to publish on a daily basis, this Joomla component is a must. You can publish a blog, a news release, a static article - all from one place. Sweet!
9. Google Verify - this Joomla plugin allows you to verify your Joomla website on the Google webmaster central. Google will generate a line of code for you which you will need to paste inside this plugin - and voila, you can get statistics about your website the way Google sees them (your links, your pages, your coding error, things like that).
10. BIGSHOT Google Analytics - this Joomla plugin allows you to enable Google Analytics website statistics tracking on your Joomla site.

Would like to add a free, very easy-to-use and very useful Joomla component to this list? Don't be shy, add your comment below.

Joomla’s Popularity Grew by 40% in 2011, with 3100 Government Agencies Using Joomla for Websites, Blogs and Intranets

We conducted a small feasibility study researching a possibility of creating dozens of web sites for link building purposes. Below are our findings. There are no major revelations away from what is already available on the net, but some important factors are clarified, so enjoy, and if you have something to add, don't be shy to use the Comments field.

In order to get success in developing PHP sites it is necessary to have a good development environment. While producing websites it is often necessary to edit HTML, CSS and JavaScript files. That is why usable IDE should supply all those file types and provide full set of tools for effective development.

This article includes reviews of the most popular IDEs: Codelobster PHP Edition, Eclipse PDT, Komodo IDE, NetBeans IDE, PHPStorm, NuSphere PhpED.

How to Translate Your Website Contents into Various Languages Using Joomla 1.7

Joomla 1.7 does not require JoomFish or other components to enable multilingual support. This support is built in Joomla 1.7 natively, although we don't find it particularly intuitive. There is a couple of steps that one needs to know to get it all going smoothly.

Below is a simple step-by-step summary of how to enable multilingual feature in Joomla 1.7:

Graphic Makeover for Your Website: Building a website is not unlike building a house. Supporting and growing your website is also very similar to decorating your house.

Website Graphics on a Shoestring : First of all, get used to the idea that there is no end to it.

You can always do more for your website! You can always find yet better images, better icons, better image rotators, newer plugins and modules to highlight various content elements on your site, and so on. You need to know where to stop. Remember, your revenue won't come from graphics. So long as your website looks nice, pleasant and professional - you are fine!

How to Create Product Catalogues Using Standard Joomla Blog View?

There are many product galleries extensions created for Joomla but it is always nice to see just how flexible Joomla! is if you know how to use it. Take a look at this product gallery, it was created using Joomla's standard blog view (Joomla 1.5)

How to Select Joomla Website Templates

One of the most common remarks we hear people make after looking at various Joomla website templates is "Joomla looks so cluttered". First all of all, do not confuse Joomla! with the templates you can upload onto it. Joomla is a very powerful web content management platform. It is like Windows or Linux. So you can upload different kinds of website templates into it. Simple, clean, cluttered - whatever your heart desires. You can even upload an empty page with just your name on it. In other words, the look and feel of the website template you use has nothing to do with Joomla's functionality as a CMS.

Then, when you analyze website templates designed by Joomlart or Rockettheme or Yootheme or other website template providers, you would notice that all these template power houses offer a large number of module positions on their templates: 17 module positions, 27 module positions, 40 module positions on a home page! When they showcase their templates, they fill all those module slots with some demo content, and as a result, the templates look very busy. But that does not mean you would need to use all those slots. Those module slots are there by design, but you don't have to use them, especially not all at once! All you have to do is "uncheck" the unnecessary modules inside your Joomla management panel, and the template layout will adjust automagically. You can decide to have only your main menu and one body column and nothing else, if you wish.

However, if in the future you would want to showcase different things on your home page and add something, you can use one of the available module slots by "checking" them back. No additional design work will be required. So, the more modular the template, the more efficient it is. You will never need a re-design. So, when you look at a website template, the busier it looks, the better it is. It is very easy to disable module positions, adding them is not as easy, it would require some additional redesign work.

Also pay attention to the type of modules available by default with a given template. Sure, it is not difficult to add and install various modules and components, but if you are building a new website by yourself, it is best to find a website template that would have 70% of your desired features by default (such as search, login, newsletter sign up, etc etc). Every new module and new component requires some degree of tweaking and testing. For a web designer, adding new modules and components is not difficult; for a person new to Joomla, it can cause some learning pains and unnecessary frustration.

To summarize, the more module slots you see on the template's home page, the better it is. And if those module slots display the type of features you need - fantastic!

Things NOT to pay attention to when selecting a website template

What you don't need to worry about are various visual elements of the website template:

• fonts type, size and colors
• color scheme of the menu
• shading, gradient effects, reflections
• background image
• ornaments or other stylistic details around boxes
• images, borders
• image galleries and their appearance
• graphical elements on individual modules

All these elements are very easy to change and customize. Joomla uses CSS files to control the look and feel of its website templates. There are dozens of image gallery components, so if you don't like the one you see in your base template, you can get another one installed instead of, but you would install it into the same module slot. Check out various Joomla extensions, there are thousands of free and commercial extensions from which you can select what you need. Free and commercials, there is an extension for every function you can possibly think of. But you do need to have a pre-designed slot in your template's layout where you'd display these extensions - and that's why the more modular the template is by default, the easier it will be for you to decide where and how to present various features on your site.

Top 10 Web Safe Fonts

Here is a list of 10 web safe fonts that are most popular with web designers:

1. Arial
2. Courier
3. Impact
4. Georgia
5. Lucida Console
6. Lucida San Serif
7. Tahoma
8. Times New Roman
9. Trebuchet
10. Verdana

In addition, the following 5 web safe fonts are gradually gaining popularity with web designers as well:

1. Arial Narrow
2. Century Gothic
3. Copperplate Gothic Light
4. Gill Sans
5. Palatino Linotype

The standard contact form in Joomla is used very frequently by most Joomla designers because it is so convenient, and it is already there! But have you ever noticed that the capitalization is a little flaky? For example:

• Enter your Name:
• Email address:
• Message Subject:

In other words, there is no consistency in the capitalization of these labels. Fixing this is pretty straightforward.

First I would recommend that you install the component eXtplorer for easy navigation of the file structure. The, go to the folder components > com_contact > views > contact > tmpl and edit the file "default_form.php".

You'll notice that the text in question is wrapped around the function call JText::_. Simply remove the function call and edit the label text to display as you prefer. Then save the file. That's it!

IMPORTANT: This does not work with the Joomfish component. It causes Joomfish to stop working on the Contact form, i.e. no translation of the Contact form will be available.

If you would like a fancier Contact form on your Joomla website, check out Breezing forms. NB: Use the 'Quick Mode' if you want to play with sleek display options. This component is not idiot-proof, but it is not difficult either. Once you get a hang of it, you'll love it.