Category Archives: Various Articles

Do you have a Joomla website for yourself or your business? If someone else built it for you, it’s important to be sure that it’s up to date. Any content management system that is not up to date, is at risk of being hacked. They don’t build these updates for nothing, you know…

Checking if your website is up to date is easier than you might think, as the version number is displayed in the administrator side of the website. The position of the version number depends on which version you were using.

Screenshot of Joomla! 1.5

If your administrator panel looks like in the image above, you are using Joomla! 1.5.  This is an older version of Joomla! for which updates no longer be available soon.

You can find the version number in the top right corner. If the version number says anything other than 1.5.25 it’s really, really outdated. In this example, it says “1.5.15″ – which makes it ancient.

Please note that 1.5.x will no longer receive any updates soon. If possible, have your site upgraded to the latest version.

Joomla! 1.7 in action

If your administrator panel looks like above, you are using Joomla! 1.6, 1.7 or 2.5.  To find the version number, you need to look at the bottom of the site.

If the version number says 1.6 you’re using a version which will no longer be updated. The same applies to 1.7.  We suggest you to upgrade to 1.7.3 . When Joomla! 2.5 is available, we suggest you to upgrade to that version instead. This should be easy, when you use the built-in feature or Admin Tools.

Related articles

• Free download: “Joomla 1.7 beginner Guide” by Hagen Graf (joomla-and-more.com)
• Upgrade to Joomla! 1.5.25 using AdminTools (joomla-and-more.com)

Merely moments ago, I banged my head against the nearest wall.  While my head still slightly hurts, I decided to share with you what happens mere moments ago.

I was just working on a website of mine, when I started to make a series of mistakes.  Well, two according to my twitter stream, but it seemed to be much worse.

I was creating a new Super Administrator account when I noticed I got a 403 error after saving. While I recognized the error screen from Admin Tools, I went to look for the solution elsewhere. Until kind Tweeps pointed out that I was “probably using Akeeba Admin Tools” and had an option enabled.

But it got worse.  After I tinkered with Admin Tools without reading the Fine Manual; I noticed something strange in my website. What ?! My URLS’ were broken! Certainly that had to be the fault of the SEO component I was using. I changed things. Nothing. Aaaaargh!

Then I noticed something else. Why was “Joomla” removed from all my menu items? At that point I had already stopped using my brain and came up with a brilliant conspiracy theory: it had to be because of Joomla! 1.5.24!

Once again, people who had read the manual told me to “think, you non-manual reading n00b.” Well, that’s what I would have told myself.  Had I perhaps enabled an option in Admin Tools, which removes “Joomla” everywhere in my site.

“Ehm, no, why would I do that?” (I did, and quickly went to check this, and made the necessary change. Suddenly, my links and menu items were “fixed” again.)

What have we learned today?

• If you’re using Admin Tools (or any extension of which you don’t know what it does), RTFM
• Breath! Think! Track back, what did you just do / screw up?

I plead guilty on the charge of “Not reading the Fine Manual” and “Tinkering with stuff of which I didn’t know what it’d do. May the judges be mild.

Joomla is very popular world wide, and the events that are held all around the world are living proof of that.  To make your event a success, it’s important to make sure that you’ve got some interesting speakers lined up.

Brian Teeman is one of those “interesting speakers”.  Don’t take our word for it.  Just watch any of his video’s and I’m sure you’ll agree with me.   He’s regularly invited to events all across the world, to “spread the Joomla!” love.  And you now have an opportunity to help him spread that love.

Travelling across the world isn’t cheap.  The rumor that Brian lives from the love of Joomla alone is false, so he needs toe at, drink and sleep too when travelling.  So, unless you own a private jet which he can borrow, or a chain of hotels worldwide, you can help him cover the costs of attending these Joomla! Events.

Brian speaks at Joomla! events for free.  Gratuit.  Gratis.   There’s nothing he’d rather do than constantly travelling the world to share his Joomla! secrets with you.  You don’t have to be a financial genius to understand that the less he has to spend on these travels, the more events he can attend – maybe one near you?

Okay, how do I help?

You can help, by buying an ad in the Slideshare presentation he’s working on.  This new presentation will be the sequel to the Slideshare hit “Hidden Joomla! Secrets”.  The original presentation was viewed over 30,000 times on Slideshare alone, and made it to the front page three times!

You can buy a spot in his new presentation – he’s reserving one spot per slide – or you can even buy the naming rights for the presentation.  Think about it.  Your company name in a title that’ll be read at least 30,000 times!

Interested?

If your company is looking for some quality advertising while spreading the Joomla! Love at the same time, this is an unique opportunity for you.   How unique?  Rumour has it that this is a one time offer, never to be repeated, and spots are going fast.

So what are you waiting for?  Go visit Brian Teeman’s blog, and find out all about what he’s offering!

Once in a while, people need to reflect on themselves.  Evaluate what they’ve been doing so far with their life.  Check where they made a wrong turn.  People usually do that after the start of the new year.   But not everyone follows the same calendar – and some people even follow multiple calenders (school year, regular year, fiscal year… you name it!)

I decided that JAB was a nice ‘marker’ for the Joomla! year.  Yes, I know.  I wasn’t there.  But that doesn’t mean that JAB isn’t a big mark on the Joomla! Calendar.  The start of Joomluary, perhaps?

Anyway…

What I was trying to say is that I’ve decided to write down some resolutions to start Joomluary.  I’ve looked back at the past Joomla! year and looked at what I did right, and what I did wrong.   I originally planned to write a long list of things I did wrong and right (but using too many words to say nothing was on the con side, so I decided against it).  So, instead, I present to you:  my JAB 2011 resolutions.

1. I’ll try to be less of a Twitter Terror.  In the past few months, I’ve been tweeting a lot and most of the time I was either critisizing something or complaining about something.  Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m not going to stop “critisizing”.  Or “complaining”.  But I now know I’ve got to find a nice “balance”.  A twitter stream of rants can be very annoying to follow.  So, I’ll work on that!

2. Strangely enough, my second resolution is strongly related to the first one!  I’ve been tweeting about contributing a lot.  About how Joomla! made it hard, if not difficult, while that was not always justified.  Sorry ‘bout that.  If you felt I wronged you (or your group)… my bad! 

   Instead of just tweeting about contributing, I’m going to put my energy to good use by actually contributing! I started doing that last week.  The Help Screens still need to be done, and after studying the format a bit, I’m now all over it!  My goal is to edit one help screen a day.   Join the fun!

   Another part where I hope to contribute, is the award winning Joomla Community Magazine.  The monthly magazine by, and for the community.  You might not know this, but I’m almost a veteran of sorts when it comes to writing articles!  I’ve written for IT sites for more than 6 years, and then started blogging. 

   Do you think my ‘style’ would suit the JCM?  I’m not sure, but I certainly hope they’re willing to give me a chance.  My bad boy reputation is seriously exaggerated! 

But what about you, guys?

Well, now you all know what my JAB11 resolutions are.  But I can’t be the only one with these resolutions!  I stole the idea from someone else, who had them for JAB10! 

Feel free to share your resolutions in the comments. Or blog about them (make sure to send me a link) to get a trend started.  Are you going to donate 50% of your income to Joomla!?  Do you promise to never use WordPress or Drupal again?  Will you replace all shirts with Joomla! shirts?  Let us know!