Blog entries tagged configuration

Conflict between Skype and XAMPP/WAMP in Windows Vista

Jen Kramer — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:54:21 +0100

For those of you still running Windows Vista, be aware of an interesting conflict between Skype and WAMP or XAMPP.

WAMP stands for Windows, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. It's used for running software like Joomla on your local computer, generally for development purposes. XAMPP stands for any operating system (they have versions for Mac and PC), Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl.

If you load Skype first (or if it's already running), and then you try to turn on WAMP or XAMPP, all you'll see...

Alternative Joomla Administrator Templates and Dancing Bears

Jen Kramer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:17:27 +0100

Dancing Bear Syndrome is a term coined by Jared Spool and Alan Cooper (among others in the usability community). Someone says, "Look! A dancing bear!" And you are amazed! The bear is dancing! How cool is that?

Of course, bears don't dance well. It's just amazing that they dance at all. The novelty of it all is what catches our attention, not the quality of the dancing.

Alternative Joomla administrator templates are dancing bears.

First off, what is a Joomla admin template...

Certificate in Open Source Web Development, featuring Joomla

Jen Kramer — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:00:00 +0100

The Marlboro College Graduate Center in Brattleboro, Vermont, just released its Open Source Web Development certificate in a wholly online format.

If you've been working with Joomla, but you want to know a lot more about it, this is the certificate program for you. The certificate introduces students to Joomla, as well as planning a website, understanding the code that runs it, and developing and executing an online marketing plan.

The certificate consists of 12 credits:

...

An interesting Joomla menu problem

Jen Kramer — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Earlier today I was working on a site with a single menu in the Menu Manager. That menu was split into a top navigation (the top level items) which would be image-based navigation (don't ask) and the left navigation would show the secondary and tertiary levels of nav, in the standard text format.

There were two templates on the site: a home page and an inside page.

There was one module running the primary nav everywhere, and the secondary nav modules changed with the section of the site....

Joomla 1.0 to 1.5 migrations: Should I? And why?

Jen Kramer — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:00:00 +0100

To migrate from Joomla 1.0 to Joomla 1.5: That is the question

One of the big questions we get asked these days is whether it's worthwhile to upgrade from Joomla 1.0 to Joomla 1.5. As with all web design and development questions, the correct answer is: It Depends.

There are generally two schools of thought on this.

The "If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It" school says that if you're site is working in Joomla 1.0, then why bother to migrate? It's doing what you want, so you...

Configuring Section and Category Blog Layouts

Jen Kramer — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:00:00 +0100

Category and section blog layouts are essentially the same thing. For a given section, or for a given section/category, all content items will show up on the page in "blog" format.

Obviously, the blog format can be used for... well, blogging. But think bigger than that when applying this to your website. Blog, in this case, is a functionality, not a technology. We routinely use the blog format for press releases, for example. The format works for anything where a client ne...

Blacklisting and Whitelisting HTML Tags in Joomla 1.5.8

Jen Kramer — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0100

I really love Joomla! User Group New England. We meet the 3rd Wednesday of each month. And it's amazing what happens when you put so many intelligent people in one room -- the problems we solve!

Earlier that day, I was working on a site that had just been upgraded to Joomla 1.5.8. I noticed that a script tag I had included in a piece of content was getting stripped out when I saved the article.

Step 1: examine the wysiwyg pro settings. Wysiwyg Pro is our prefered editor for Joomla...

Flash version 10

Bill Tomczak — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0100

There has been some buzz lately about Flash version 10 breaking the media manager in Joomla. This won't be fixed until after 1.5.8 so what to do in the meantime? Since it only affects the media manager in the administrator, at least the problem only affects your staff. Your choices are to either wait to upgrade Flash until Joomla fixes the problem. If it's too late for that, all you need to do is disable the media manager's flash uploader. Go to "Global Configuration/System" and rig...

Flash 10 causing problems in Joomla media manager

Jen Kramer — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:00:00 +0100

Flash 10 was released with the new Adobe CS4. I'm sure it does wonderful things for Adobe... but it's breaking a lot of Flash-based image uploaders out there, including Joomla's in the Media Manager.

More information on the Joomla site.

Basically, the Joomla team says that they will not be fixing this problem in 1.5.7 or 1.5.8, but will address it after that.

The workaround is to turn off the Flash uploader for the media manager. You can do this from the Global...

Launched! WineMaker Magazine!

Jen Kramer — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:00:00 +0100

We are thrilled to announce that we've launched a HUGE site we've been working on for the last few months, WineMaker Magazine.

WineMaker Magazine started in 1998, and it's about how to make wine at home, whether you start with fresh grapes, or whether you start with a kit. The main goal for the website is to push subscriptions and sell back issues of the magazine. The content surrounding that supports those goals.

Because the site supports a magazine, it should contain...

Joomla Tip #27: If you start installing Joomla, finish!

Jen Kramer — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:00:00 +0100

Installing Joomla can be pretty intimidating if you've never done it before, and if you don't have experience with your web host's control panel, setting up a database, unzipping files, etc.

How you install Joomla goes something like this:

Get a domain name at a domain name registrar (GoDaddy, 000Domains, etc).Get some web hosting. (MidPhase, BlueHost, eMarkHosting, there are many others)Make the domain name point to the web hosting. Wait for propagation to happen (24-48 hrs usually...

Media Manager and mod_security

Bill Tomczak — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:00:00 +0100

It is well known that the media manager, fabulous as it is, has a history of quirky and difficult problems. As we moved our sites to our new server, I found another fun one.

Slowly I discovered a new (to me anyway) creature called mod_security. Our new server has it, the old one didn't. Should you find yourself similarly stumped, see if mod_security is installed. In the Joomla administrator, select Help/System Info from the menu and look in PHP Information. It will show up in the list o...