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.

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

Optimising Web Design for SEO

Here is what Google has to say about the file extensions: "At Google, we are able to index most types of pages and files with very few exceptions. File types we are able to index include: pdf, asp, jsp, html, shtml, xml, cfm, doc, xls, ppt, rtf, wks, lwp, wri, swf.“

Details on file types:

• Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf)
• Adobe PostScript (.ps)
• Atom and RSS feeds (.atom, .rss)
• Autodesk Design Web Format (.dwf)
• Google Earth (.kml, .kmz)
• Lotus 1-2-3 (.wk1, .wk2, .wk3, .wk4, .wk5, .wki, .wks, .wku)
• Lotus WordPro (.lwp)
• MacWrite (.mw)
• Microsoft Excel (.xls)
• Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt)
• Microsoft Word (.doc)
• Microsoft Works (.wks, .wps, .wdb)
• Microsoft Write (.wri)
• Open Document Format (.odt)
• Rich Text Format (.rtf)
• Shockwave Flash (.swf)
• Text (.ans, .txt)
• Wireless Markup Language (.wml, .wap)

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.

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.

As with any software, a new release often has bugs in it and it takes a couple of months to get it stabilized. In addition, it takes time for the Joomla website development community to upgrade existing extensions. There are over 6000 Joomla extensions! Granted, the most reputable and popular Joomla extensions do upgrade quickly, but this is software, and designers are only human, so mistakes always happen, bugs are always present, so it is wise to wait until the newly released version gets stabilized. 

With all that said, upgrading from Joomla 2.5+ to Joomla 3.0 is not difficult. And futher, from Joomla 3.0 to its subsequent sub-versions is promised to be a breeze.

If you have a Joomla 1.5 site, it is necessary to upgrade to Joomla 2.5 first and then from it to Joomla 3.0. The only alternative is to re-creare your site anew using Joomla 3.0. If your site is more than 3 years old, this maybe a good excuse to get a new website.

In other words, with new Joomla 3.0 version, upgrades should be fast and easy and can be done from the Joomla admin back-end. Joomla is saying they will be releasing a new version every 6 months. It will be hard for the extensions community to keep up with these new versions, so upgrading once a year should be sufficient. Note that not each new major Joomla version is good to upgrade to. Sometimes it is best to wait until it matures.

Yes, you will. All our web design packages provide this option.

We follow Google recommendations on how to approach mobile devices. A website created for view via mobile devices is called by Google a "responsive website". Responsive website design automatically changes the website layout to optimize to a desktop screen, tablet, or any smart phone. This is achieved via CSS coding at the back-end. 

This is a very good strategy for business owners because responsive web design eliminates the need for multiple versions of your site; you don't need to hire a developer to build an expensive app for your business; you no longer need an “app” because your website does what the app would (minus all the development and maintenance costs.) You have one website but with multiple versions at a much lower price than the cost of an app.

As opposed to many online marketing agencies and web design firms, who often put big words around small things, Joomla Bliss has different work ethics. We deliver high-end products but at the prices that even small and non-profit organizations can afford. With Joomla Bliss, our clients get a Ferrari for the price tag of a Toyota.

If quality is important to you but your budget is limited, Joomla Bliss is the right type of a service provider for you. We are a small and tight team who has been working very closely together for the last 6 years. As opposed to other agencies, we have no churn and our designers are not recent college grads. All our designers are University-educated professionals trained in technical fields, including software development, and our project manager is PMP certified. 

We take pride in providing outstanding customer support and approach all clients with the utmost care and attention.

And what is also fantastic about us is that we work on a fixed-term contract basis, where all your expenses are agreed upon in advance and never increase by the end of the project. This includes training and post-launch support. This, alone, is a rare thing in the web design industry.

Further, our methodology offers our clients a "ZERO-RISK" project development where clients are never presented with any surprises and satisfaction is always guaranteed. We will not release a website until you are satisfied, even if we have to redo it all over again.

How can we afford to operate inthis way? We are a small boutique firm, we do not rent physical office nor do we hire expensive Account Managers.

If you are planning a web design or redesign project, call Joomla Bliss at 613-231-6308 for a free consultation with no obligations.

If you love quality things that last - you will love Joomla Bliss.

We have three Service Level Agreement (SLA) options which can be signed for six or twelve months: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Please contact us to discuss the details.