Joomla Web Sites

[Xenia]

I recently started my website with Joomla 1.5 and have struggled with getting it to look exactly like I want it to look. In another thread BillinSoFl talked about the extensions that he thought were worthwhile for Wordpress. I though it would be a good idea to start a new thread for Joomla.

In the past week I installed JCE Joomla Content Editor in place of Tiny MCE and I cannot tell you how much difference that made. Many more options and the abiltiy to do things with media that generally require more extensions.

Right now I would like to add a Guestbook/comments extension and I am looking at Easybook Reloaded. The bigest problem with EBR is that none of the instructions seem to be in english.

I am also looking at adding a shopping cart for when I have items for sale and I am currently looking at Simple Caddy.

What you favorite exrtension? How do you edit your CSS files. I found that if I made changes to my "free templates" they would be overwritten. I ftp into the file, changed the permissions and edited the file directly so that the author's routine in Joomla would not overwrite the file. I understand they want their advertisement to show at the bottom of the page, which does not work by the way, but all I wanted to do was change a backgound color.

By the way I am using Joomla 1.5 becasue that is what the hosting company supports. I asked them about upgrading and while they said they would eventually do the upgrade, I was free to load that version myself. I didn't have the time so I am settling for 1.5 for now.

[gunther]

Xenia, I've been using Joomla for about 4 years now for a non-profit website and have had great luck. I would really look at moving to version 2.5, as you won't find the latest extensions, or as much support for 1.5 if you run into problems. Even though your provider doesn't automatically provide it, installing 2.5 yourself takes less than an hour, with most of that time spent unzipping files.

[wbottomley]

My site is Joomla 1.5.26. Here's the best place for getting extensions: http://extensions.joomla.org/

As far as extensions, I have a long list of them. Keep in mind, they need to be updated so that adequate site security remains in place.

[BillinSoFL]

Whatever your back-end system I HIGHLY recommend you always move to the latest stable build otherwise your site could be vulnerable to attack.

The problem with many attacks is you don't need to know someone's password. You could simply click a link in an email or website and your compromised. Someone could use cross-site scripting to take over your site or SQL injection to delete data from your database without even needing a login.

[ctmal]

I am currently running Joomla 1.5. Simply due to the fact that I haven't gotten around to porting everything over to a newer release.
As for extensions, I use VCNT for my visitor counter, Easybook reloaded for my guestbook, fboxbot for thumbnail creation and EasyCalcCheck Plus as my antispam.

[JasonPortwood]

I would look into best practices for Joomla for securing your site. Track down a few articles on it and figure out what you can do to protect your site. There could be some extensions that help out too. If Joomla doesn't automatically notify you about updates (can't remember been a long time since I tried it) then see about signing up for email alerts from them.

That advice goes for any content management system of course.

-
Jason

[pmcpa]

Be very careful with 1.5.... I run a hosting company, and many of our clients never upgrade anything, and they get bitten, not by server holes, but because they never install security updates (for those clients that don't opt for a maintenance package that is). 1.5 has a lot of known holes, and I had one client that was hacked daily before we re-built their site (they opted to move to wordpress rather then deal with joomla again)

Any CMS system has it's holes, but one as old as Joomla 1.5 and isn't patched any more is a big issue

[dmcole]

Any CMS system has it's holes, but one as old as Joomla 1.5 and isn't patched any more is a big issue

1.5 eol is a ways away ... lemme look it up ... ah, sheesch, it's tomorrow ...

Anyway, the transition from 1.5 to 2.x is a bear ... there were some guys who tried to build tools to do it, but I could never get one to work. It's almost easier to switch to WP (and one of my clients did just that with a 2500-plus page site).

I certainly wouldn't have launched a new site within the last six months on anything but 2.x, but even as recently as a year ago now, 2.x was still pretty iffy ... I think the Joomla leadership really blew this one.

Anyway, I agree with PMCPA in general, but will be sticking with many of my 1.5.25 sites because the transition is just too much work.

\dmc

PS:

Right now I would like to add a Guestbook/comments extension and I am looking at Easybook Reloaded. The bigest problem with EBR is that none of the instructions seem to be in english.

This is, in fact, the biggest problem with the vast majority of Joomla extensions -- they're written by very bright people whose first language is not English. And while they are usually really good coders, their English isn't always as good as their coding skills (which is exacerbated by the fact that usually extension documentation is horrible because developers are one- or two-man bands with no writing or documentation background). I had a run-in with the developers of a Joomla extension earlier this month because while their English is good, their understanding of the United States is nil and they refused to believe something I told them (that a valid U.S. ZIP code has five numerals and can start with a leading zero).

[Xenia]

Ok, You all convinced me I should move to Joomla 2.5.4. It has been an interesting month. I upgrade my host site to Joomla 2.5.4 and planned to migrate my site template from 1.5 to 2.5.4. But wait ... of course the 1.5 template does not work in 2.5.4. Not problem ... I will convert it to 2.5.4 as there are several sites explaining how to do the conversion.

But try as i might the conversion does not work with my template. No problem, I will go to a new free template related to Christmas. Wait there are very few Christmas templates avaialable for 2.5.4. Ok, what's next -- I'll look at Artisteer 3 and develop my own template ... Nope, too expensive ... "must keep money for lights".

So next I look at Template creator Ck, but i just don't get it and don't like the feel of the software. Heh! ... Xenialights.com just became available, must grab it as it is shorter and more intuitive than Xenialightshow.com.

More research and I run accross a video tuorial on Cloudbase 2.0 by Cloudaccess.net. Cloudbase 2.0 is a blank template based on the Gantry 360 template system ... Huh?... Luckily there six tutorials on starting your own web site using the free Cloudbase 2.0 and did you hear me say it is free. Now we are talking!!

Interesting, everyone wonders why I seem so preoccupied at work, rumor is that i have some internal investigation going on .. It is good to be the King!... Heh, this Gantry based stuff is pretty cool, I think I can use the flash header from my old site. Now we are cooking!

Visit my new site at xenialights.com and let me know what you think, the basic structure is in place but there needs to be more content written --- I guess they will have to think the internal investigation is continuing.

[caretaker]

A must have for any Joomla site is Akeeba backup. I run 3 Joomla sites and can back up all of them from my desktop using Akeeba and the basic version is free! As others of said moving from Joomla 1.5 to 2.5 can be a pain but there is a tool called Jupgrade http://redcomponent.com/jupgrade that does a good job of upgrading your 1.5 site (back up first and have a 2.5 template available). Of course the best way to upgrade is to install 2.5 in another folder and then work on it till you get it right and then place it live. As far as shopping goes if you just need a simple "store" ROK quick cart works well and is available from the extension directory.