Barnes & Noble's Nook eBook Developer website runs Joomla

05.05.11

I just came across a simple example of how Joomla's extensibility can offer brochure websites powerful integration with 3rd party services; USA Bookseller Barnes & Noble has used Joomla to create a website for developers to learn about their eBook reader, called a Nook.

The site's content is mainy public and offered through Joomla's de facto Article setup though it looks like they've used Community Builder to allow developers on the site to annotate their user accounts with marketing-useful information upon registration.  As well, the site shares a login with Zen Desk, a popular 3rd-party customer support/ticketing provider - so once logged in, Nook Developers can jump right into reading and posting any support queries hosted on the B&N Zen Desk account.

To integrate user login with Zen Desk, B&N may have used the Zen Desk Dropbox bridge plugin - I'm not sure...

Over the last five years Joomla has seen exponential growth.  We see this happening in not only the market share of sites that use Joomla, but also in the community that supports it.  Having a common goal of making Joomla better and a community structure that encourages each individual's creative spirit to be free has brought our CMS to places that were once only dreamed of.

During the joint summit in San Jose the growth and empowerment of the community was discussed.  Part of that discussion included the inherent need to document the structure and shared values for all people participating in the community.  The result of that documentation is below in the Community Code of Conduct.  Being part of a community like Joomla comes with great rewards - the largest of which is the satisfaction of knowing that you have done something positive to help society.  Anne Frank said, "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."  Each member of the community has this opportunity with Joomla.  To help bring the best positive methods of this to the forefront, this document was drafted.

Prior to this, only a Volunteer Code of Conduct existed.  What you see below has been taken from the Volunteer Code of Conduct and applied community-wide.  A seperate Volunteer Guidelines will be published at a later date for feedback and comments.  For now, however, please provide feedback and comments on this draft version of the Community Code of Conduct.  The goal is for this Community Code of Conduct to apply to all members of the community and all volunteers.

Community Code of Conduct

This document outlines the code of conduct for everyone interacting with other people on any of the official Joomla community resources. By participating, you agree to the following principles:

Be Considerate

You are interacting with people in the community, so be considerate of how your words and  actions affect others in the community.

Be Respectful

A community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. All members of Joomla community should be respectful when dealing with others in the community as well as with people from outside projects and initiatives.

Everyone can make a valuable contribution to Joomla.  We might all experience some frustration from time to time, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack; disagreement is not an excuse for poor behavior or poor manners.

Avoid becoming involved in flame wars, trolling, personal attacks, and repetitive arguments that are not respectful of others’ time. Take these matters "outside" (off-list, etc) if it helps resolve the situation. Do not use community resources for personal or business arguments or agendas.

Be Straightforward

In the Joomla community it is important that you speak for yourself in discussions.  Quoting other community members is often necessary, but be considerate of the fact that context is a very important part of the meaning of what others say. Avoid quoting if it creates a different meaning than what was originally said.

Be Collaborative

Joomla is free software and about collaboration and working together. Collaboration reduces redundancy of work done. It improves the quality of the software produced regardless of whether you are writing code or performing some other task.

When you disagree, consult others. Disagreements happen all the time, and Joomla is no exception. Disagreement, debate and constructive criticism is often how progress is made and is a necessary part of doing complex work in a team. The important goal is not to avoid disagreements or differing views, but to resolve them constructively.

Above all, don't make conflicts personal. Debate should never include reference to a person’s nationality, gender, orientation, beliefs, religion or other personal characteristics.

When you are unsure, ask for help. Nobody knows everything. Nobody is expected to be perfect. Asking questions avoids many problems down the road. Questions are encouraged. Those who are asked should be responsive and helpful. Working Group Coordinators and Team Leaders may be able to help you to decide which direction will be most acceptable. However, when asking a question do it in an appropriate forum. Off-topic questions, such as requests for help on a development mailing list, detract from productive discussion.

Click Here to add your Feedback and Comments or Ask Questions

There's a really simple new approach to defining what a site's default homepage is now with Joomla 1.5: All you have to do is go to Menus>mainmenuand, select the menu item you'd like to be the homepage and hit the new 'Default' button - you'll see a star appear in the table row for that item.  Now, whenever people land at your site they'll see that page/view/component!

Although its been a few weeks now, I still have not posted about what a great event the recent Joomla Day was in Brattleboro, Vermont. The organizing team did a great job with the event, and the lunch time barbecue was great.

There are slides and podcasts of all the presentations available...

Photos of the event (Thanks, Doug Patac, for doing these for us!) Elin's review of Joomla Day at Joomla.org Mitch Pirtle's slides from his extensions talk Barb Ackemann's resources for creatin[...]



When porting sites from Joomla 1.0 to Joomla 1.5, there were some fairly major code changes that had to be made to make templates functional. The change from Joomla 1.5 to 1.6 is less drastic, but there are still a few notable differences.

Want to sharpen your Web 2.0 marketing skills and learn some Joomla at the same time?

This spring I am co-teaching a 3 credit 15 week graduate course at Marlboro College Graduate Center with Jen McKibben (of New England User group fame).

The blurb reads:

"This course explores the power and practice of Web 2.0 marketing.
Including and going well beyond the simple "how to" of integrating
social networking sites into your campaign, this course challenges [...]

A while back I posted something about how Joomla is a great platform for not only blogging, but developing a website that does more than just a traditional blog.

Now that Joomla 1.5 is out , I've been considering how to go about relating my observations and impressions about it and I think picking up the thread on blogging w/Joomla is the way to go...

One thing you'll notice when you fire up Joomla 1.5 and jump into the content editing interface is that everything looks cleaner - gone are the comically large diskette, checkmark and red 'x' of yesteryear; moving around and getting things done happens more easily and quickly in 1.5 - two key components of blogging.

If you are reading this and currently maintain a blog using say, Wordpress, you'll understand when I say that uploading images, categorizing content and so on is cumbersome - confounded further by the fact that the editing interface is seperate from your nice templated front end.  Personally, I think that if the people publishing on a blog are offered the same interface as their readers, there's a higher chance their communication will be clearer (sort of like how a dinner party is always more fun when the host has an open kitchen and can talk to their guests whilst cooking... well, I'm not that great at the subtle art of metaphor but methinks you probably get it :) ).

Asides from more easily posting to a website, Joomla 1.5 has gotten better and letting you work solely in the front end.  Seen in the screenshot above, now you can choose both the section and category to place your content in front the front end interface.... That's pretty snazzy - and means that you can move posts around your site if need be.

In my next post on blogging with Joomla I'll get technical and walk you through the basics of how to blog well with Joomla - things like how you setup your content sections/categories can really affect both the administration of your blog and its navigability - plus, I'll review some new features in Joomla 1.5 like its improved media handling and interface. 

In mid-2011, the Production Leadership Team (PLT) announced a new release cycle for the Joomla CMS.  Rather than a "feature-based" release, which could take years for a new version to be released, the PLT chose a "time-based" release strategy.  Additionally, a new version numbering system was adopted to provide standardization to the versions.  If you are unfamiliar with this, or simply don't understand it fully, I recommend reading Mark Dexter's article in the Joomla Community Magazine this month.  The PLT's development strategy makes it clear that new versions will be released every 6 months and explains the goals behind this strategy.  The JED supports this strategy, however it has been a learning experience with new versions being released so quickly in comparison to the former release method.

Currently, you will see the version badges on listings for 1.5, 1.6, 1.7 and 2.5.  While this isn't ideal, it has helped developers and users incrementally move to the latest Long Term Support (LTS) version (2.5.4).  This cycle (from 1.5 to 2.5) has given the CLT the opportunity to review, in real-life, how the new cycle affects adoption rates on both Short Term Support (STS) and LTS versions and how best to adapt the JED to these new changes.  

The following outlines the way versions will be handled in the JED:

LTS versions will be listed in the directory for 180 days (6 months) after End of Life (EOL).

STS versions will NOT be listed in the directory, instead a "Series" will included both STS and LTS versions - which means that starting with version 3.0 you will see a badge for "Joomla 3x Series" and developers, if they mark that version as available on their listing, will need to ensure that the extension is compatible with the latest release of the series.

This means....

Version 1.5 - Will be listed in the directory for 6 months after it's EOL.

Version 1.6 - Will be removed (see below for more details)

Version 1.7 - Will be removed (see below for more details)

Version 2.5 - Will be listed in the directory for 6 months after it's EOL.

Joomla 3x Series - Will be listed in the directory for 6 months after the EOL of the LTS version in the series (version 3.5)

 

What happens with 1.6 and 1.7 badges?

The versions of 1.6 and 1.7, still currently in the directory, will be removed as of April 30, 2012.  There are still a substantial amount of listings that have not marked 2.5 compatibility and the JED would like to give these developers an opportunity to get caught up.  If you have a listing that isn't marked as 2.5 compatible but is marked as 1.6/1.7 compatible, you have until the end of the month to mark 2.5 compatibility

As of April 1, 2012, the JED will only accept listings that are compatible with the latest Joomla STS Version (2.5).  You may still mark the extension as 1.5 compatible, but no 1.5, 1.6, 1.7-only listings will be accepted any longer.

What happens with pending listings that are not 2.5 compatible?

These listing submissions will recieve an error code and won't be published until a 2.5 version is available and marked/uploaded on the listing.  Please remember that if you mark both 1.5 and 2.5 compatible icons, you must attach both versions to the listing and the download link must point to a page that includes both downloads.

 

To comment and discuss this blog, please visit the JPeople site at http://people.joomla.org/groups/viewdiscussion/1473-the-jed-and-version-support.html?groupid=714

Joint Summit Attendees:

CLT: Peter Martin, Paul Orwig, Wendy Robinson, Sandra Warren
OSM: Robert Deutz, Alice Grevet, Dianne Henning, Sandy Ordonez, Paul Orwig, Ryan Ozimek, Jacques Rentzke, Marijke Stuivenberg, Akarawuth Tamrareang, Altansukh Tumenjargal
PLT: Chris Davenport, Mark Dexter, Louis Landry, Sam Moffatt, Omar Ramos, Ron Severdia, Jean-Marie Simmonet, Andrea Tarr

Where we came from:

Topics Covered and Action Items (where applicable) Created

The following is a brief summary of the topics discussed. Detailed reports will be published as they are produced.

1. Removal of the AGPL license from the Joomla Contributor Agreement (JCA)
   
   It was unanimously voted to discontinue the AGPL license. This lessens restrictions and will open up the project to more contributors.
2. Restructuring
   
   The Joomla Leadership, including the Open Source Matters board, Community Leadership Team, and Production Leadership team, recognize that our current leadership structure could be more effective.  Communication between our teams and the community needs improvement, and oversight needs rethinking.  As a team, we strive to be more effective leaders for the community. To achieve this, we have begun extensive discussions about the project’s leadership structure. This discussion is early and on-going.  As we consider important changes to continue on a path towards more effectiveness, we intend to request community input and feedback to help us in this important effort.
3. Communications - External
   
   The communications breakout discussion was one of the most lengthy. Audiences and current communications channels were identified - there are many! A review was made of the document produced by the current communications team this past spring, defining what is communications. Roles and responsibilities for the communications team moving forward were listed. Action items include: condensing the 12 newly defined roles into a more manageable list and begin identifying potential owners for these roles. Candidates must have a passion for communications and experience in the specific area (marketing, branding, graphics, etc).
4. Communications Internal
   
   A working group will be started to bridge the gap when communication needs a boost between the community and the JUGs, the JED, events, merchandise and trademark. A comprehensive leadership directory wiki will be created for a better flow of leadership communication and troubleshooting. The communications team volunteers to disburse intra team communications, and facilitate intra team conflict resolution, including the creation of a FAQ list within the wiki for that purpose.
5. Internationalization
   
   While English is the common language in the software world, the majority of the world population does not speak English. To increase Joomla’s presence in a proactive way and recruit more non-English-speaking volunteers, the following action items will be implemented: concentrating our efforts in the different regions of the world by identifying one or two community coordinators / contact persons in each region; compiling a list of currently active local communities and JUGs and see if there are any groups which have not yet been accounted for; identifying their needs, the nature of their communities, and recruiting translation help to update the Joomla info pages.
6. Roadmap and Goals
   
   This discussion first explored the benefits of creating a public unified roadmap that encompasses the entire scope of the Joomla! project. After that, the discussion continued to define a process for creating a public unified roadmap that also includes periodic public progress updates from leadership.
   
   The process for creating a public unified roadmap involves: Leadership defines and publishes an overall mission statement for the project. This is high level and conceptual.
   
   Each leadership team defines and publishes their team’s mission statement, which should support the project’s overall mission. Each leadership team’s mission statement may need to be revised to insure that they all tie in well with the overall project mission statement. Each leadership team defines and publishes their annual goals which support their team’s mission statement. For each leadership team’s goals, the following supporting details will be added and published: milestones (achievement and target completion date); action items (each task required to progress toward achieving the milestone; resource(s): volunteer or paid workers, financial (specify the purpose and budget line item); features (if applicable), action items (if applicable), resources (if applicable). Each leadership team publishes periodic updates during the course of the year regarding their progress on each of their goals.
7. Volunteer Recruitment and Rentention
   
   The PLT discussed forming a Joomla Outreach Project (JOP), where a "bucket" of tasks is created by teams, using the wiki. Community members would be invited to join these teams, and they would work in alignment with development goals, under the guidance of the PLT. Incentives (such as T-shirts) would be awarded upon the completion of each set of tasks.
   
   Volunteer Now is a plan for recruiting new team members, because teams should be created to manage recurring, long-term tasks that require deeper knowledge. A volunteer engagement page will be created on the wiki, and a Volunteer Now button will link to it from the joomla.org home page. In the wiki a future volunteer will find documentation on how and why we build teams, and contacts for the projects major teams and assets.
   
   A concept will be drafted listing outreach ideas for engaging university students.
   
8. Process Improvement
   
   Regarding processes and messages in correspondence (for example, in areas of trademark, the JED and events), we often need more differentiation and adapted responses to specific situations.
   
   Action items include: reviewing our texts to verify if we are using a friendly approach aimed at optimizing communication; listing and identifying situations and creating responses adapted to them; simplifying language.
9. Review Developer Sponsorship Program
   
   We talked about the state of the Developer Sponsorship Program and how we handle the involvement of sponsored development time from companies and guide this process more effectively in the future. One Idea was to move from pre to post recognition and use a to-do list and let people pick from the “cookie jar” list to sponsor development time.
   
   Action items include: speaking with the existing sponsors about their experience and writing a report; deciding if a money only approach or money and development time approach is best, finding a volunteer to manage the cookie jar.
10. Certification
    
    A 1 - 2 plan of certification ideas and how to approach them will be drafted. Feedback from each leadership team will be gathered. The plan will include creating levels for web masters, designers and instructors of joomla, creating a curriculum and courses template for trainers, financial and licensing fees to create more revenue, a test database infrastructure.
11. Improving Recruitment of New Developers
    
    A story we want to help tell is that Joomla can provide students with CS degrees experience on a global team that goes far beyond just a curriculum. Action items include creating a spreadsheet where we can determine which events developers are attending, and writing a one page messaging document outlining persuasive reasons why the Joomla Platform and CMS are useful for developers, and target university students.
12. Long Term Roadmap
    
    We talked about the process for establishing goals and milestones for the Joomla project long term releases. Once every 6 months the PLT and developers will meet just before or after an existing event such as a Joomla Day or JandBeyond. We are hoping to do the first one this fall where milestones and goals for the July 2013 long term release will be discussed.

The entire leadership would like to thank eBay for the use of its offices for our summit, and Louis and Ron for coordinating with them. Thanks to Rochen we had tasty lunches, ordered with care by Wendy. And Gunner, our Summit Facilitator Extraordinaire kept us on target and on time!

For comments and feedback click here

A few years ago we created a site called JoomlaFeed - our mission was to create an online space where people interested in Joomla could catch up on news from across the Web; including snippets from the Core Team as well as extension developers, community advocates and a host of others.

The site's been successful in so far as having a number of people subscribe to its aggregated RSS feeds as well as visit joomlafeed.com regularly but I think it can do more.

So, we're taking the occasion for rebuilding JoomlaFeed in Joomla 1.5 as an opportunity to see what you all think of the site and would like from it.

Please visit http://www.joomlafeed.com and post your comments! (There's a link at the top of the site)

Until January 31st, Joomlashack University is giving new members an extra 1 month, 2 months, and 6 months of Joomla training time absolutely FREE! Get access to even more Joomla tutorials & lessons at no extra charge It's the "Buy Some, Get Some FREE" Sale, and here's how it works:

In an effort to mitigate the recent JED downtime (over the last few days) we've just completed a migration of this site to a new server. The new server has faster hard drives, as well as a higher performance processor (Quad Core).

We realize how important the JED is to the community, and have worked as hard and as fast as we could to identify and take action addressing the causes. In addition to the hardware upgrade, we also discovered what appeared to be a DDOS attack that was also contributing to the issues. Many of the IP's identified and blocked were most likely ordinary computers, their owners unaware they were being used to this end.

 

In any case, thanks for your patience, and for now we hope things will return back to normal. Special thanks to Ben and Chris from Rochen who have both worked around the clock, staying up late to sort some of these things out.

 

Head over to Copyblogger and you can grab a free 28 page report on SEO copyrighting. A great follow up to my post last week about our new Joomla SEO extension!



A couple of weeks ago I wrote a popular blog post about “Making Social Media Work”. I used some of those ideas in a presentation at Joomla Day New England (link has audio and video!) about how to use Social Media to get sticky traffic for your site. One recurring question was about Facebook etc buttons. The hard reality is that putting facebook buttons on your site isn’t going to do much. I used the example of cnn.com only getting a couple of hundred likes on a lead story. For most of us, we don’t have CNN’s traffic, and our buttons just end up un-liked and lonely. So what's a better way to use Facebook? Brian Teeman pointed out a great new feature in Joomla 1.7 that you can use with many of your articles. New formatting is offered for the Page Break feature, adding extra functionality for Joomla articles. Wordpress for Joomla! Training now available in Joomlashack University If you want to blog, Wordpress is a great platform. If you want a blog inside a bigger site, then you can certainly use Joomla for it, I do at www.compassdesigns.net. But why not harness the blogging power of Wordpress inside your Joomla site? Joomlashack just released a very informative, in-depth training lesson in Joomlashack University on how to set up and use the Wordpress for Joomla! extension by corePHP.

Source