Now is the time to familiarize yourself with Joomla 1.6. Although it is still in Alpha2 (not suitable for a live production website), there is no need to wait to install and setup Joomla 1.6 as your personal playground. With special thanks to CMSmarket, our Extension Development Partner, we have added a free "How To" Joomla 1.6 Tutorial, including a17 page PDF with bonus.
This Joomla 1.6 Tutorial is a step-by-step walkthrough to help you install and setup a Joomla 1.6 site in a freeLimeDomains hosting account. In about 15 to 30 minutes you'll create an account at LimeDomains, setup a free subdomain and install your Joomla 1.6 test site.
As soon as you're done, you'll have the opportunity to have a closer look at and play with both the Frontend and Backend of Joomla 1.6. You'll have your own fully functional Joomla 1.6 site to test out. And the best thing is: it's free!
Joomla 1.6 Frontend
Joomla 1.6 Administrator Backend
Learn More About Joomla 1.6
There are plenty of good sources for additional information about Joomla 1.6:
Download the latest Joomla 1.6 release from joomlacode.org
Although several e-Commerce solutions are available for Joomla, none of them seem to meet the powerful features of the open source Magento eCommerce Platform.
As a rule of thumb, I would advise you to use a software solution for what it is intended to. Go Joomla if you want to create and maintain a web site with ease, go Magento in case you need a fully fledged webshop. And here is exactly where issues may arise: you might need a shopping cart solution in Joomla or you may need additional content management features in a Magento store. Here is where MageBridge comes in!.
MageBridge: a Magento bridge for Joomla
Last Friday I had the pleasure to join Yireo, one of our Extension Development Partner, at a MageBridge Demo and really got impressed by their approach to bridge Magento to Joomla. With MageBridge they offer a powerful and flexible architecture to combine best of both worlds.
MageBridge is a Joomla component that visually integrates Magento in your Joomla site. This allows you to use the Magento backend for managing your webshop and present your catalogue, products and cart or any Magento block in Joomla seamlessly.
All Magento links will read as Joomla links
Loginshare: when logged in in Joomla, you will be logged in in Magento as well
Any seaches in Joomla will also search in Magento products
Seperated databases, Magento and Joomla can be hosted at different geographical locations
Magento’s SEO features are fully integrated
... and much more ...
Why Integrate Magento in Joomla
Magento + Magento has very advanced eCommerce features, maintaining product attributes is a breeze + Magento integrates with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) through its Application Programming Interface (API) -/- Magento is not a Content Management System (CMS)
Joomla + Joomla has full CMS capabilities + Joomla is both extendable and scalable -/- Joomla is not a cart
What Do You Get
MageBridge is a commercial suit of Joomla extensions, the license is selling at EUR 195. To allow you to stage both your Magento store and Joomla CMS, the MageBridge license is for 6 domains and includes:
Joomla 1.5 native Component
8 Joomla modules
8 Joomla Plugins
8 MageBridge ‘connectors’, which are extension specific ‘plugins’ or ‘addons’
The bundled MageBridge specific extensions turns your Joomla site in a plug-and-play Magento-powered store. The MageBridge Custom Block module allows you to add any Magento block to a Joomla module position. The MageBridge Content Plugin allows you to add any Magento content to any Joomla content through special Magento CMS-tags. MageBridge Connectors ties in Magento to Joomla even further. These connecters have a minimum of code and (as an example) will allow you to:
Trigger events in Joomla based on Magento sales, like: - Add a client to a JomSocial Group - Add a client to a DOCman Group to allow access to downloads
Additional Options
Yireo offers a complete set of additional solutions to get you up to speed. Some examples:
Vm2Mage: a migration-tool to migrate your webshop from VirtueMart to Magento
MageBridge is an ideal tool for webdesigners and developers to setup an open source based eCommerce ‘marketing machine’ and Content Management System.
For experienced Joomla template designers Magento theming may be challenging. And since MageBridge visually integrates Magento theming in a Joomla site, you may run into all sorts of Javascript issues, since Magento’s Javascript library is based on ProtoType, which is not compatible with Joomla’s Mootools library. This can easily be solved by using jQuery, since both ProtoType and Mootools are compatible with jQuery.
MageBridge offers an integrated workaround for Javascript issues by allowing you to enable/disable scripts in the Theme Configuration Setup. Next to that, you may want to just decide to only use jQuery based Joomla modules or templates in combination with Magento/MageBridge.
Although we'll strive for jargon free answers and solutions, a feature rich and therefore complex solution like Magento requires expert skills from our support staff engineers, especially for customization in Magento theming. There might be only be a few "easy answers". Setting up a feature rich eCommerce solution is not for the faint hearted.
MageBridge may help save you a lot of money. When you compare the features of the Magento Enterprise Edition (currently selling at USD 11,125 per year) and the free Magento Community Edition, you'll find out that some Enterprise Edition features (like CMS+ or Category View Permissions) can be achieved by using Joomla and additional Joomla Extensions instead. If you don't need all Enterprise Edition features, it's definetely worth to consider using Joomla, Magento's Community Edition and MageBridge!
Learn More About MageBridge
Visit yireo.com for a complete overview of MageBridge, like
MageBridge Demo: This "defaults" demo-website contains a default Joomla installation and a default Magento installation
Until now we used a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to secure this website, all pages had 'HTTPS' in the URL, with the extra 'S' for 'Secure'.
When embedding HTML-code from non-secure sources (like YouTube) we would have both our own SSL secured page and a non-secured source in that same page/URL, which resulted in errors in some browsers.
Yireo, one of our Extension Development Partners developed a SSL Redirect Plugin for Joomla for us to solve this issue. We can now use SSL for those pages that needs extra security, like the Online Helpdesk and the Shop. Other pages now run through regular HTTP.
How to Use the SSL Redirect Plugin for Joomla
The Joomla Global Configuration allows you to configure SSL. However, when you enter a Joomla page through non-HTTPS, you will not be redirected automatically. Using the Global Configuration you cannot enable SSL for just one or two pages and have all other pages run through regular HTTP.
This is where the Plugin comes in, without having to make complicated changes to your htaccess file.
The Plugin parameters allow you to select Menu Items for which SSL should be enabled. The Plugin automatically applies non-SSL to all other Menu Items. When a Joomla page is not accessible through a Menu Item (in other words: there is no Itemid) you can add these pages using the textarea 'Custom pages' to add its URL manually.
Free Download
Please visit Yireo.com for further information and updates. You can download the SSL Redirect Plugin for free here.
Follow Yireo on twitter @yireo for other interesting news and updates.
Building Joomla websites is getting easier and easier. More often the not, your biggest task is creating content for your clients new websites, so they look like active and populated websites. The problem is, these clients do not always have the website copy ready for you. Typically smashing keyboard buttons for a few seconds with a few copious spaces and paragraph breaks works, but is not the classiest solution available.
Use Dummy Plugins For Images And Text
This is why we have developed two new and free plugins for you. Dummy Image Plugin and Dummy Text Plugin. Both of these plugins will allow you to create and build a website substantially faster;
Dummy Image Plugin has a variety of options available to make an image bigger, smaller, whatever color you wish, and even with or without a border. See examples.
Dummy Text Plugin let a single line of code render a full "Lorum Ipsum" dummy text. You can also do ordered and unordered lists or just single words. See examples
Have you ever been in any of these situations?
The client wants a website, but find it hard to put into words what they do, or what their website will be about.
You are building a site, but have not received any images from your client yet.
You want to whip up a quick mockup for a quote, but need to fill it with dummy text and images of some sort.
You want to see what size header will work on the site, but you don't want to make 4 or 5 images just to test it.
You are making a demo site, or an example site, but want your work to stand out, not the content.
All great reasons to take advantage of these plugins we are offering up to you for free.
Frequently we get requests from clients to setup their new Joomla template a specific way, or to setup the framework of the site so the client can come back later and fill in the site with content and information. This is actually rather hard to do without content, so we developed these plugins. Now when a client asks for a Joomla install with various modules on and off and headers set in specific ways, we can quickly and easily do it with these handy plugins.
Free Download
Remember, these plugins are free, and a terrific addition to your toolbox. Go grab them now.
Do you have other ways you enter dummy content into your development sites? Let us know in the comments. We always love to learn and share a new trick or two.
J and Beyond, May 30 - June 1, 2010, is a three day Joomla conference in Wiesbaden, Germany, that is fully focused on the needs of it's attendees. This event is very different than most, due to how the hosts have chosen to set it up. J and Beyond wants to cater to your needs by providing you with a very open style Joomla event with no conventional timetables or schedules initially.
For and By Attendees
When you register, you will have the opportunity to suggest topics to various speakers. You can also select seminars that you are most interested in and be part of a public selection process of the nearly 50 sessions and learning tracks J and Beyond will be providing. This conference will allow the unique opportunity to get the information that will be most benificial to you. On top of all that, J and Beyond will also have a open expo area that will present you with a wide range of Joomla extensions, templates and other related solutions. The expo will be three days of great learning, excellent people and an overall wonderful experience. All this for only EUR 99.
Consultants, security experts, site integrators, and web agengies will all be available to chat about topics such as Search Engine Optimization, eCommerce solutions and more. This is turning into a high quality conference with international attendees ranging from Europe, USA, to South Africa. All four corners of the globe wil be in attendance.
I have proposed a talk to share with you how to take responsibility for open source initiatives to ensure you have the right support structures and contracts in place before launch. If you'd like me to present "Great, But How's The Support?" at J and Beyond, please don't forget to hit the vote buttons here. (Proposed talks with the most votes will be scheduled for the event). I am looking forward to meet an international Joomlacrowd in person in Germany!
Conference Snapshot:
• Hosted By: Mambo e.V. (soon to be renamed as Joomla Supporters Club) • 2010 Theme: "Around the Joomla Wolrd in 72 Hours" • Audience: Web Designers, Developers, Administrators & Businesspeople • Business Sectors: Entrepreneurs, Corporate, Non-Profit, Government, Education • Venue:Wilhelm-Kempf-Haus, Wiesbaden-Nauroth, Germany
With Joomla 1.6 rapidly approaching the Joomlasphere is buzzing about the cool new changes that are going into version 1.6. Joomla developers have listened to what people want to see changed in Joomla, and this is proof. A few months back in July we talked about some of the changes that were coming in 1.6 in this post. It is now February and at Joomla Day in Melbourne, Australia on the 13th, Andrew Eddie, a lead developer on the Joomla project, talked in depth about some of the changes coming and how they might affect you.
Here are some of the high points you should be aware of. They are slightly revised from our previous post, as the update for 1.6 is still under development.
Joomla has new hosting requirements You must have at least PHP 5.2.4+ as well as MySQL 5.0.4+. If your webhost is still running PHP4, it is time to contact them and see when they plan on upgrading, or start to shop for a better equipped host.
No more Legacy mode If you have any older extensions that ran only on Joomla 1.0 or Joomla 1.5 in Legacy mode, you need to reach out to the developer to see if they have a Joomla 1.5 native solution.
Sections will be replaced with nested categories Users have asked for this for years, and it is finally come to fruition. No more confusing sections, simply nested categories with tagging. This will provide less confusion to new users, as well as present articles in a fashion that is more intuitive. How to keep existing URLs intact is still under construction.
More consistent user interface New icons for Apply, Save and New, Save as Copy will allow you to create and manage your content much faster, with a more straightforward and consistent look.
Integrated Trash You will no longer have to empty multiple trash cans, or search around for lost articles. The trash can is now integrated into one. And it will allow you to retrieve items from the trash in case you made a mistake.
Template styles for template system You will easily be able to slightly modify a style or tweak a templates look per page. In the past you had to copy the entire template, and assign it to one page do do this. This will allow you to make subtle tweaks very easily.
Module manager tweaks They have added great new features to modules to allow you to publish/unpublish based on the date, as well as enhanced how you show what module, on what page.
Three new templates will be included There will be a blogger style template, a corporate style template, as well as a plain jane template that will help you learn to make your own.
Built in redirection feature You will no longer have to install a plugin to handle automatic redirects of old (or dead) links. 1.6 has it included.
Access Control Levels (ACL) This is the big one. You can now have multiple levels of access control over your users. Historically Joomla gives you guest, registered, special and admin. With the new ACL you can create different groups, with different permissions to be able to use different areas of the site. This is a big improvement for Joomla and people are excited.
Where Does Joomla 1.6 Stands Today
Currently the upgrade path for Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 1.6 is not clear. Andrew pointed out that because Joomla is dropping sections and using only categories it will have an affect on your existing articles on the web. The worst case scenerio will rely heavily on the new built in redirection feature they touted. When a user comes to your site and cannot find the page they are looking for, the redirect tool will kick in and find the most appropriate article to send them to. In addition to that you should look over your logs and see if there are a high amount of errors or 404's.
If you are worried about errors (or at a later stage: upgrading) or need help or advice, keep in mind we can help you with all of those concerns.
Are You Interested In Playing With Joomla 1.6 Now?
You can always download the Alpha2 release he is referring to for free from JoomlaCode. Make sure to not install use this on a live site as it is Alpha code and is not stabilized yet.
We just recently have had a couple of Support Requests from clients asking about recommendations for an email newsletter solution for Joomla. Obviously this largely depends on specific requirements you might have. For one specific aspect, the timing of your email drop offs, an interesting new solution has been introduced by Mailchimp, one of the leading email newsletter service providers.
Plan Your Email Drop Offs
Planning the best time for an email drop off is like planning a twitter message. As stated before, you might not actually have anybody reading your tweets. You'll only get 5 minutes of fame on Twitter. Being aware of what is the best time to send out your newsletters is very similar.
Let's say you created an informative newsletter and planned on sending it out as soon as you completed it. If you live in the USA and sent the letters out at 6PM EST, your email will hit mailboxes in Europe sometime after midnight. Your European clients will wake up and rush through their morning emails and skim your well crafted newsletter, never to re-read it. This is less then ideal. You might want to hit them when they least expect it. You want them to first notice your newsletter when they have free time to read it and act on it. This is very similar to how you might time a eBay auction to end. You don't want it to close at 3am, you want it to finish up at noon on a Sunday. It's all about exposure.
Geo-targeting for Email Marketing
Mailchimp Version 5 (V5) has this feature built right in. Mailchimp is a web based application that helps you design send and track your email marketing campaigns. It offers you the ability to set your newsletters to hit your Euro or Yen subscribers at 10am even though you send it at 3pm your time. This video explains it in more detail.
Sending emails to your existing web site members via newsletters is an invaluable tool in your marketing belt. It's a great way to develop repeat sales, as well as keeping your target audience informed and up to speed.
With Mailchimp you can design brilliant looking emails with zero knowledge of HTML or PHP. Simply point, click, send and you will be able to reach up to 500 subscribers and send up to 3,000 emails a month, absolutly free. With the new Mailchimp V5 release they are bringing some new technology to the table by adding Time Warp, Geo-Locate, Geo Targetting and Auto-Translate. It will help you geo-locate, geo target and translate email marketing efforts. You can find out more at their Mailchimp V5 site. One thing is for sure, Mailchimp is one of the most powerful email marketing tools available today. Best of all, it starts with a free subscription for you to test.
How To Bring Mailchimp To Joomla
Like other email newsletter service providers, Mailchimp has the option to create a subscription form for you to embed on your site. Simply point and click what fields you need (First Name, Last Name, Email Address or any other info you need for managing your subscribers), and select styling options like the background color of the subscription form. Mailchimp will generate the HTML code for you to embed in a regular Joomla Custom HTML-module. Please check our free Tutorial Video to see How to Create Content in a Custom HTML-module.
Free Plugin
CorePHP, one of our Partners, have developed a plugin that will allow your new Joomla users to automatically be added to your Mailchimp database. You can pick this plugin up in CorePHP's free downloads area and install it like any other Joomla Extensions. Please check our free Tutorial Video on How to Install an Extension in Joomla 1.5.
Now, when visitors register on your Joomla site, they will automatically be added to Mailchimp, and allow you to send out very targeted and specific emails to your users, without putting any additional stress on your website.
We want to know what you use for your email campaigns. Do you use Mailchimp? Do you use a Joomla extension? What works best for you? Feel free to leave your comment.
Now is the time to familiarize yourself with 
Although several e-Commerce solutions are available for 
Until now we used a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to secure this website, all pages had '
Dummy Image Plugin has a variety of options available to make an image bigger, smaller, whatever color you wish, and even with or without a border. 
Dummy Text Plugin let a single line of code render a full "Lorum Ipsum" dummy text. You can also do ordered and unordered lists or just single words. 
With 
We just recently have had a couple of 
CorePHP, one of our 
