I’ve been poking around, trying to catch up on the new developments surrounding J!1.5. The word “exciting” doesn’t begin to cover it. I’ve had to search out replacements to my favorite J!1.0 extensions.
Joomla! has its weaknesses. The dev team freely admits this, and they’re working to shore those up. However, site developers can’t wait until the next J! release to create sites that clients need. That’s where plugins and extensions come in.
There are abilities that J!1.0 had that are missing from J!1.5 - particularly the ability to sort Contacts into categories and display them in a coherent manner. DYContacts steps up to replace that functionality. It’s a tiny module that replaces the default Contacts module, and allows you to specify which contact categories are shown. I did need to do a bit of hacking to make it work like I wanted it to, however; the programmer wrote it to display in a module (small section of the site) and I wanted to display it as a full page and call it from my site menu. I edited the module’s display file to make it 100% of the page’s width, then inserted a {loadmodule} call to DYContacts into a normal Joomla! article. I then created a menu item pointing at that article. See it in action here.
A big weakness in all versions of Joomla! is the lack of granular user group controls. By default, Joomla! only has three levels of access on the frontend, and three on the admin backend. Not enough for your typical community or corporate portal.
JUGA is Joomla component that allows you finer control over what content is available to which users on both your Front-end AND Administrator Control Panel. It is NOT A HACK (like JACL); JUGA installs and uninstalls *easily* as a component. To activate/de-activate it, just install and publish/unpublish the JUGA Plugin/Mambot.
With JUGA, you can finally assign users to multiple groups. After installing JUGA, merely synchronize it with your site’s components and content. Then, define which items each group has access to. After assigning users to JUGA groups, activate the Plugin/Mambot and voila!
We have released a modified version of the Joomla! Main Menu Module. It has been modified to work with JUGA->Groups and hides menu items from view when a user doesn’t have access to them.
We also have a JUGA Content Plugin/Mambot. Now you can show certain portions of a content item to any/none/some/all JUGA->Groups. It works like JHide and RokAccess.
We also have an admin-side template for Joomla! 1.0 that extends JUGA’s controls over your J!1.0 Admin Control Panel. This template isn’t necessary for J!1.5 as the JUGA System Plugin will already control the admin-side for you.
Finally, we also have mod_hiddenbyjuga, a JUGA Module that allows you to HIDE OTHER MODULES based on the user’s JUGA Group!
This component only works with J!1.0 and J!1.5 in legacy mode at the moment. A native 1.5 version is in development. I do not know how much this costs; the site requires registration to view their downloads page.
I first used FacileForms when I needed to create customized polls on a potential Senatorial candidate’s website. I HATE developing forms; always have. FacileForms made it as easy as anything else I’ve used. It was still a time-consuming process, but I knew that the form would function properly in the end - that was the most important part.
FacileForms doesn’t work with J!1.5, however. But the FF dev team is working on BreezingForms. I can’t wait to play with this extension.
The Joomla! development team has rewritten JOomla! from the ground up, making a lot of changes to hopefully make the system more robust and easier to use.
Unfortunately the changes have made it so a webmaster can’t straight-up upgrade, they have to migrate their site to the new version. This means that they have to hand-import their data and make some changes to it in order to make Joomla! work properly.
If you read my last blog entry, you’ll know that I’m unhappy with the WHD’s current webhost, DH2.net. I’ve secured permission to move their site over to DownTownHost.com, the host my site is served by. I’ve been extremely happy with their service, especially when it comes to billing and tech support. I’ve never had access problems, and they have most of the software I could ever need. They just don’t have Joomla! 1.5 yet.
I’m in the process of migrating the Division’s site over to the upgraded Joomla! install. I’m kind of trying to do it one piece at a time, so I don’t lose anything - hopefully. *knocks wood* I started out with JEvents, an events calendar component. In researching alternatives (hell, I’m doing this from the ground up - why not make it ALL new?) I discovered there really wasn’t anything better that would run on 1.5, but JEvents was going through some upgrading of its own. I installed the component and imported the two database tables I KNEW were part of JEvents. JEvents showed nothing at all. I was looking at a couple of hours of re-entering some hundred or so events. I thought that the new version of JEvents had changed where it put all its information.
JEvents uses THREE places within the MySQL database to store its information: jos_categories, jos_events, and jos_events_categories. I’d managed to figure out the jos_events (where the actual events info is stored) and jos_events_categories (a sort of master table of the categories) bits. Nothing was showing up in JEvents, however. The missing piece was the jos_categories part - where the information for the category IDs listed in the jos_events_categories is stored. JEvents couldn’t link the categories to the events, and so wouldn’t show anything at all.
Once I got the jos_categories table imported, up popped my old events on the new site. Needless to say, I was very relieved. The rest of the categories I had set up on the old site show show up as well.
I manage another website, whdnmra.org. When it came time to find a new host because our original one went out of business, I really wanted to use DowntownHost.com, the company that hosts Touchground. I knew, however, that I would face some opposition from our BoD. So I tried to find a reasonable alternative.
At first, DH2.net seemed to be that alternative. The price was right and they got good reviews. I signed up and built our site on their servers. Everything was fine for about a year.
Then I discovered no one was receiving email from the site. I signed into the “Customer Care” section of the site and found a bulletin saying that they’d had to disable email forwarding because of spammers abusing the system. “Huh,” I thought. “That’s inconvenient. Our officers don’t want their ‘real’ email addresses on the site for the same reason.” No notice to us, the users.
I went along for a while. Then I tried to sign into the site using Dreamweaver, my usual method for FTP-ing to my sites. I couldn’t do it. The FTP login that had worked for over a year didn’t anymore.
I could still sign in through the web though, both into the Joomla install and the cPanel interface. Upon signing into cPanel, I discovered our FTP server address had changed. No notice from DH2.net, no email, no nothing. It didn’t affect the functioning of the site, but it meant that I was trying to sign onto the wrong server through Dreamweaver.
I changed the site info in Dreamweaver and everything was ok again.
Then I tried to use Joomla to upload a new component to add a club directory to the site. I couldn’t do it. “Uploads must be turned on,” the error message said. “What?” I thought. “This has always worked before.” I checked the configuration, and yes, uploads were turned on, but no joy in updating Joomla. I checked permissions of files and folders. I tried the “backdoor” way of uploading and installing a component. No matter what I tried, It WOULD NOT install.
I finally got mad and contacted our new BoD. I gave them the laundry list of issues and asked if I could move the site to DowntownHost. They unanimously said yes, despite losing some money to DH2.net - their hosting fees are non-refundable once paid. Our account with them doesn’t expire until September.
Now I’m trying to set up a new account with DowntownHost. So far it’s been pretty smooth (which I expected). I wanted to transfer our domain over to the new host to simplify things and cut all ties with DH2.net, but guess what - “Client transfer prohibited”. They have a freaking lock on our domain name through eNom. I can’t move it until it expires in March of 2009.
I would NOT recommend DH2.net as a hosting company.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. I’ve been on both sides: end user and (wife of) a freelance developer. It’s great when you can find something that’s free to provide functionality that the Joomla! core lacks, but sometimes you have to break out the wallet to get something that is stable enough for production.
I love using Joomla!. It makes sense to me.
What I’m worried about now is this: if it’s illegal to create a third-party extension and sell it, will it be illegal to create a website using Joomla! and charge for the service?
If that’s the case, I’m out of a job, and I’d better get my head wrapped around ASP.NET as quickly as possible.
EDIT: I was mistaken when I wrote that people can’t sell third-party extensions to the Joomla! code. What they CAN’T do is restrict access to their source code, or in other words, encrypt it to “protect” it.
A developer CAN sell their extensions, but they have to make their source available as well.
Can a business still offer Joomla site installation and design services and comply with the license that Joomla! is offered under?
The short answer is yes.
From Joomla’s Q&A:
Does the license allow someone to sell a copy of Joomla!?
Yes. The Preamble of the GNU GPL states “when we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.”
Also see: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLAllowMoney
Can I remove the Joomla! Copyright notice in the footer region (and other related questions)?
Yes, you can remove the Joomla! copyright notices from any part of the output that the Joomla! application generates. You may not remove the copyright notice from the source code itself.
Can I remove the Joomla! Copyright notice in the Meta information of a Joomla! website?
Yes, you can remove the copyright notices from any part of the output that the Joomla! application generates. You may not remove the copyright notice from the source code itself.
Original page: http://www.joomla.org/content/view/3510/1/
After spending an afternoon trying to synch my Excel method of time tracking with the ADP reporting used by Bass, and the other Excel spreadsheet HunTel wants me to use, I went searching for some “normal” time tracking software.
After a couple of false starts, I found Timesheets Xpress Free. What convinced me was the nearly identical, intuitive way TXF uses to record time as I was using in Excel. I had blocks in half-hour increments, and I’d just enter the clients’ name and the part of the project I was working on. The nice thing is this will generate reports, and calculate hours automatically. While I’m familiar with Excel enough to make a simple spreadsheet, entering functions that work correctly seems beyond me.
I spent an hour entering my time for the last month into it, and double-checked my ADP entries with it. Found a couple of mistakes.
My gripe is that the site almost feels like a bait-and-switch. The page for the free version links to what they call “TXFreeSetup.exe”, which is, in fact, the trial version of the full software with an $80 license fee. Needless to say I was a bit miffed and shot off an email to the sales department.
Within a couple of hours, I had an answer: “After the 35-day trial, you’ll be able to register the software as the free version.”
Hrmmph. So I have to deal with the “buy me now!” nags for the next 35 days? It’s just not cricket, ya’ll.
The software, however, works extremely well for what I plan to use it for, so I suppose it’s a small price to pay for the convenience.
Since Windows Vista was unleashed on the public, it seemed that Litestep, a replacement shell for Windows, has languished. I’ve been using LS since 2000 or so, and got so used to having everything MY way, that being forced to use a canned GUI rankled.
I tried installing LS using the trusty installer that I’d used for years - Omar’s. The desktop wouldn’t work properly, and the one theme I tried to install, Reluna, crashed horribly.
I sulked for a while, and railed (privately) against the LS community for abandoning us who had upgraded to Vista. More than a few members of the LS-Help mailing list said that they’d go Linux before subjecting themselves to Vista. Personally I don’t understand that - Vista’s a pretty decent OS, and offers more toys for a GUI designer to play with than XP or Linux does.
I finally got so frustrated last night about not having my customized popup menu that I went searching again. As a regular user, I was aware of most of the LS sites on the ‘Net, but because of my frustration after my Vista upgrade, I hadn’t visited many. Litestep.net doesn’t have the cachet it used to - it used to be THE site for LS info and updates. The torch seems to have been passed to ls-universe.info - a site I wasn’t very familiar with, and one whose design puts me off.
Anyway, I found a link to the LOSI (Litestep Open Source Installer). I’d tried it on XP and it was a mess. That’s why I stuck with Omar’s installer. They’d released a new version in January, so I thought maybe - just maybe - they’d fixed some problems with Vista compatibility. I installed it.
Worked perfectly, straight out of the box. I had to manually reset my wallpaper, but it WORKED. I held my breath and installed Reluna again. At first, I was concerned, but remembered something in the Readme about the theme automatically turning off Aero - I didn’t remember why. So I manually reset the window skin. It works.
It all works. I have Litestep again, and I can FINALLY arrange my PC the way I work best. I can even use Vista’s sidebar. Maybe I can even start theming again, when I find some time.
Now, if I can figure out why Reluna turns off Aero and make it so it doesn’t do that every time I switch themes, I’ll be set.
EDIT (June 18): No, I don’t. I uninstalled the mess after it kept giving me errors when I’d recycle to save changes I’d made to the config files. I had to reset my wallpaper every freaking time I restarted the computer. LS would crash at odd times. I gave up on it.
In typical designer fashion, I’m contemplating a site redesign. I’m not sure how far I’ll go, but there are some housekeeping items I need to take care of.
Add a blogroll
Uninstall the forum - no one uses it
Put the TUT quote into a module
New seasonal graphics/new theme
Rearrange Links section
The nice thing about Joomla! is that it allows for radical layout changes, but leaves the content untouched.
It seems that Joomla! 1.5 is becoming more of a reality - OSM has released Joomla! 1.5 Beta 2. It might not be a bad idea to give it a test run here, so I know what it’s capable of.
Ravenswood IT Services has put together a Joomla! testing server that can be run from a flash drive, allowing developers to show clients active versions of their sites without affecting the “live” site.
I’d also like to develop a “clean install” version of Joomla!, which would allow a developer to place a totally empty Joomla! site into their web server. It would be a huge time-saver, since all the default content would not have to be cleared before work can begin. I don’t know if I will make it available here or not.
At dinner last night, the family discussed my new job and how things will change (hardly at all from the kids’ point of view) and what my future plans were. My middle daughter, ever the pragmatist even at ten years old, asked if I wanted to go back to school.
I left when I had some twelve credits left in my Graphic Communication Arts degree left to finish. I had gotten frustrated, wondering if the level of education I was getting was equal to what I could expect in the real world. I didn’t feel it was. (Plus it’s much more difficult to schedule classes when you don’t have a live-in babysitter.)
I stammered a bit in the face of Sarah’s earnestness, trying to put into words what I felt about it. My new job offer was based on skills I learned on my own, outside of school. The University sends its undergrads to the community college for GCA classes. The community college offers nothing on Joomla!, and very little on HTML and CSS that I’m not already pretty familiar with or can look up.
My husband wants me to finish my degree, but I don’t see the sense in incurring the expense for a degree that will get me nothing in return - just like my first one. IF I were to go back to school, it would be to get more Web training, not to continue in print and art classes. I might take more photography classes - I enjoyed that immensely.
