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Joomla! Developer Conference NYC 2009 Wrap-up notes

09.12.09

Its kind of long, and a little boring, but if you have time and are interested in finding out what people want Joomla to become, check out the wrap-up notes developers attending the 2009 Joomla Developers Conference in NYC recently shared:

Just finished my presentation about Black Belt Joomla at the 2011 New England Joomla day. It's an evolution of the talk I have given in previous years at CMS Expo and other Joomla days showing tricks and traps about Joomla you need to know to make your website more successful. This year I have added a whole new part about how to properly consider Social Networks like Facebooka and Twitter into your web strategy.

For some reason Joomla core has never natively been able to create custom forms - I'm not sure if this is due to it originally (pre-1.5 releases) allowing non-article content types to sit in the usual database tables that comprise your site, or something else... However, for years there have been multiple extensions floating around that could let you create forms out of basic elements, like text, email and file fields.

The most basic use of such extensions would be to get rid of Joomla's too-simple contact form system.  To do just that it seems that today there are a good 4 or 5 extensions sitting in the extensions directory that could help you out, though the more digging you do the more you'll find discrepancies between them.  Choosing the right form extension should be done with a balance of features to look for, such as:

• A highly active and focused extension developer,
• A multitude of fields already supported,
• A large user base,
• Development of the extension with long-term focus; if the extension has been created to allow the developer to just create 1 or 2 forms on his/her website, it may not be able to do more in the future (given that their initial need for it was satisfied).

Back in 2007 I mentioned the release of a new extension called Fabrik - after spending some time comparing notes between a bunch of form components just now I am back in love with it!  You see, Fabrik takes the approach of forms being essential things for application-building - meaning that with Fabrik, you can create forms to not only email somewhere but store in your database which in turn can be displayed as lists through your site - you you can, for example, use it to build things like a custom library listing of books.

Fabrik was around before last year's CCK-in-joomla copycating began and is interesting in not replacing Joomla's core article content-type but side-stepping it with a flexible system for handling custom content that supports custom theming and additional plug-in support (yes, you can make your own field types).

Already available fields for forms created with Fabrik include; user details, captcha (with recaptcha!), text areas/fields, file uploads, images, database joins and more (including text displays to annotate fields - for 'help' purpose)...

I highly recommend popping over to http://fabrikar.com and checking Fabrik out... Be sure to also pour through their forums to answer any queries you may have before installing/getting started.  If you think there's a simpler, more powerful, or otherwise better form extension out there drop a comment below!

One of the best online business models for these tough times is about to open again for membership - Teaching Sells. We all know how much information is out there about starting an online-based business. Systems. Tricks. Gimmicks. Teaching Sells from Brian Clark is definitely not one of those. They believe that creating a thriving business is a technique you can learn, not some kind of "gift" you have to be born with.



So a few weeks ago, my aging iphone bought the farm, and I started the search for a replacement. I eventually ended up choosing an Android phone - the Fascinate. AT&T had been a continual source of frustration, and the recent move to allow tethering, but to have to give up the unlimited data plan, (a move most considered a bait and switch) had me looking for another carrier. But anyway, back to the Android OS. Just a few minutes of playing with the phone made me realize how really restrictive the iphone universe is. With the Android Fascinate I could change my launcher/home page, use different players, get and install apps from anywhere, and even (if I were brave) root it and start modifying the programs at a lower level in a few minutes. With the iphone, you are locked into the Apple mindset, everything goes through itunes, development is highly regulated, the interface is virtually impossible to customize. Joomla is one of the most powerful open source content management systems on the planet. Its different versions have been downloaded millions of times and its used on millions of websites. Joomla 1.5 had many improvements over 1.0, but now, with the release of the new version 1.6, several important features have been added like ACL, infinite categories, automatic updates, a new highly usable wordpress-like backend and improved SEO. These features mean that Joomla is now on a level playing field with other CMS's like Drupal and Wordpress. Joomla has just released the new 1.5 stable version, please check it out and try a sample install on your own local pc and see how the SEF options also work in your windows based machine!

Post from: Joomla SEO Blog by Pathos-Seo.com

Embedding videos in Joomla content can be a little tricky sometimes; with a stock Joomla site you really just have one main content area to bung embed code into, but you usually have a wysiwyg editor installed so that code gets messed up in html translation mistakenly or otherwise doesn't display whilst editing your content etc...  Of course, to make the job easier, extensions have emerged as plugins that let you use special tags in your content (such as Allvideos), but well, who wants to remember how to properly reference a 3rd-party hosted clip right?

I've been excited about Kaltura for some time - its an Open-source video platform which works just like some of the major commercial ones (eg. Brightcove.) - only its cheaper (free?) and has some cool tools to let your community remix videos right in your website - using a huge assortment of samples; from your collection to anything hosted on Kaltura member sites.

Kaltura just released an extension for Joomla and it looks pretty amazing; with it, you can:

• upload/embed videos,
• embed flickr/myspace video/photo/audio media in your articles,
• manage media in a central control panel,
• customize the embed player on your site,
• edit and remix video to embed in your site and much more!

Now, Kaltura still doesn't solve the issue of embedding content from 3rd party hosts like youtube, vimeo, etc..; it seems to offer myspace video embeds (ahem, what?) and thats about it.. so you're still going to have to use somethign like the Allvideos plugin to easily embed them, but Kaltura can be a very easy way to upload and embed original video - you can upload video files or record directly from your webcam...

You are reading Basic Joomla 1.6 SEO Settings Do’s and Don’ts a post from: Joomla & SEO Blog.

Joomla 1.6 is stable and very good to start a new website on, but for Search Engine Optimization you have to set some basic parameters for optimal results. So here is a short overview of basic Joomla 1.6 Do’and Don’t for Search Engine Optimization. Let’s start with the Do’s… Global Configuration SEO Settings Like the … Continue reading

Want to read more? Check out Joomla & SEO Blog.

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

Simplweb is a Joomla hosting SaaS, and one aspect of the fully managed service we provide is helping small businesses with SEO. At Simplweb we encourage our customers to use fast templates for their site (and we include some blazingly-fast ones pre-installed). Why? Because Google loves websites that load fast. It's been a factor for some time in Adwords rankings, and last year they announced that page speed was a factor in the general search engine rankings. Do you have questions about Joomla? We know you do. Whether it's a question about how to do something, what the Joomla roadmap is, what the project has planned, how to contribute to the project, or anything else, we'd like to hear from you. Jen and Barrie will pick answers to address in the newsletter. Post your question in the comment thread below, and we'll work on getting some answers to you!

After three long days at the Joomla Leadership Summit, a team of eleven Open Source Matters members from four continents met in San Jose, California for our annual summit. Yes, much pizza was eaten. No, we didn’t spend too much time swimming in the hotel pool. Instead, we worked hard through seven sessions to pack as much Joomla goodness into two days as possible. We recognized that we couldn’t solve all our challenges in this short period, so we created small groups and focused on action items to help build momentum and progress.

Your OSM team, from left-to-right: Akarawuth Tamrareang, Thomas Hampton, Marijke Stuivenberg, Ryan Ozimek, Altansukh Tumenjargal, Robert Deutz, Alice Grevet, Jacques Rentzke, Sandy Ordonez, Paul Orwig, Dianne Henning

Now, for your viewing pleasure, here’s our report-back to the community.

It's 2011 and it's a great time to start a freelance web design business. What's even better is to do it providing services for open source CMSs, like, say, Joomla! To help a budding freelancer start 2011 firing on all cylinders, I have gathered a massive giveaway drawing packed with subscriptions, hosting, books and clubs worth thousands of dollars. Will you be the lucky one? Read on to find out how to enter the drawing. If you liked the tool mentioned in my previous post about Joomla and SEO, you might also want to read this article on my other Blog. This one is about the new Content analysis page in Google webmaster central: Google helps with Meta description and title errors Post from: Joomla SEO Blog by Pathos-Seo.com ©2009 Joomla SEO Blog by [...]

Post from: Joomla SEO Blog by Pathos-Seo.com

I love iContact because I believe it's the best email newsletter and marketing service
out there. I use it myself, and even built into Simplweb several
tools that make it easy to integrate a Joomla site with an iContact list.

We love to promote iContact as the perfect companion service to a Si [...]

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