The yearly Joomla conference J and Beyond is just weeks away. As I have since the start in 2010, I’ll be there to meet up with Joomla enthusiasts from all over the world. J and Beyond, or JAB among friends, has been a great opportunity for me to get to know people in the community. That’s the most valuable factor for me when going to JAB. Obviously, I always learn new stuff about Joomla, too. However, the social aspect of the event is really where J and Beyond shines. This year, the event takes place in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands from May 31st to June 2nd.
Every month, each of the major Joomla template clubs release a new template. In this post, I take another look at the premium business Joomla templates released. This time for the month of February 2013.
There are templates from Yootheme, RocketTheme, Joomla Bamboo, JoomlArt, JoomlaShack, JoomlaXTC and Shape5 on display this month. Enjoy!
During the last few weeks, readers have emailed me to ask what type of advertising extension I use on this blog. Actually, I'm not using a Joomla extension for it at all. Rather, this blog's ads are served using the buysellads.com service.
Buysellads.com is an ad network and service that helps you sell ads on your site. By setting up properties on your Joomla site, you can use the buysellads system to administer everything. That is, the sales page for the ads, how many ads are sold, receiving payments and more. After setting up an account, you can also buy ads through the network.
Every month, each of the major Joomla template clubs release a new template. In this post, I take another look at the premium business Joomla templates released. This time for the month of October 2012.
There are templates from Yootheme, RocketTheme, Joomla Bamboo, JoomlArt, JoomlaShack, JoomlaXTC and Shape5 on display this month. Enjoy!
Quite a while ago, the EU Cookie Law was passed. I'm not talking about a law concerning how much milk you should drink with your cookies, or the size and shape of cookies. No, this law was passed to protect the interest of web users in the EU. That was the intention, anyway. The EU Cookie Law, or the EU e-Privacy Directive, was set to come into action on 26th May 2012. This directive forces web site owners to get explicit concent to store cookies containing information about visitors to their web site. In short, the legislators want every single user of a web site to click "Accept" on the site to say they actively and conciously accept that third-party cookies will be stored.
As you might have read here on the blog earlier, I attended JoomlaDay Spain 2012 in Mérida. These last few days have been great fun and I even made some new friends.
Attending a JoomlaDay has always been a nice experience for me, and this was no exception. Read on for more about the event.
Google Tag Manager is a new, free service from Google that helps you set up and manage your web site code snippets. Tags, as Google call them, are code snippets like the Google Analytics tracking code and more. You can add any type of tags to the tag manager, not only Google related ones.
I have previously written about how to add Javascript snippets to your Joomla web sites. The tag manager makes this even easier, and you can get away with adding just one piece of code.
About a week ago, I received an email from an anonymous hacker. He had sent the same email to around 350 people in the Joomla community. They were all registered in the same affiliate system for a well-known software developer, and attached to the email was an Excel sheet with all of their contact info and user names. The hacker said he had extracted the info from an insecure system and offered "security services" to protect from similar hacks.
Apparently, people had been talking about this for a couple of days already on Twitter. Still, I wanted to check a little more what this guy was after.
JoomlaDay Spain 2012 takes place later this week in the town of Mérida. I was very happy when I got asked to do a presentation during this event. JoomlaDays are always great fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.
The JoomlaDay features a good variation of topics, presented by local and visiting speakers.
Every month, each of the major Joomla template clubs release a new template.
In this post, I take another look at the premium business Joomla templates released. This time for the month of August 2012.
There are templates from Yootheme, RocketTheme, Joomla Bamboo, JoomlArt, JoomlaShack, JoomlaXTC and Shape5 on display this month. Enjoy!
If you're like me, you have an iPhone or other type of smartphone. And chances are that you also use Instagram - that nifty, little app to capture, manipulate and share images. Now, you can combine the forces of Instagram and Joomla by using the Instagram servers to host your images.
InstaImages is a new extension for Joomla that gives you a whole new way using images on your Joomla web site. Snap a photo with your smartphone, and instantly use the image in your Joomla content without even uploading.
The speed at which your site loads is very important. Firstly, a fast loading site will have your readers stick around longer. If they are served content fast, it is more tempting to click on another link to read more. Nobody wants to wait for a slow site.
Secondly, speed has become a major issue when it comes to SEO. Search engines, and particularly Google, now take the loading speed of a page into consideration when ranking the page for result pages. In particular, slow loading sites will be pushed down in the search results. The reason is that Google wants to serve its users with the most relevant content available, and in the shortest time possible. Giving people links to slow sites is not a good idea, so fast-loading sites will now appear higher in the search engine result pages.
There are several things you can do to optimize your site for speed. One way is to limit the use of installed extensions. In this post, you’ll learn some more ways to improve the loading speed of your blog.
As you know, one of the strengths of Joomla lies in its extensibility. There are an incredible number of extensions and templates out there for you to chose from. You can find something for almost any purpose, and the number of extensions and solutions for Joomla increases every day.
From all of these, there are things you can add to the blog that will add value for your readers. Commenting, social media integration and RSS feeds are some of the things you can make use of. In the following chapter, I will discuss how you can find useful, value-adding features for your blog.
There are some things that just have to be part of a blog. Good content is obviously the most important aspect. In addition to that, however, there are some elements that make a blog successful, easy to read and will help you achieve your goals faster.
In this post, I'll go through some elements I consider essential to a blog.
Yesterday, the first Alpha version of Joomla 3.0 was released. The Alpha version is aimed at developers so they can start testing their extensions. The stable version is planned for release on September 24th 2012.
Read on to learn more about Joomla 3.0. What will mean to you, do you need to upgrade and how will the project get there?
Mobile Joomla is the most popular mobile solution listed on the Joomla Extension Directory. The Joomla component optimizes the display and delivery of Joomla websites for all mobile devices. These days, Mobile Joomla is announcing a Pro version of their service, due to launch within a few days. The Pro version is aimed at professional users who want more flexibility in customizing and maintaining their mobile sites.
I had a chance to catch up with Ugur Kaner and Miikka Kukkosuo to learn more about the release of Mobile Joomla Pro.
At J and Beyond 2012, I talked to Daniel Dimitrov, one of the excellent Joomla developers I have come to know during the last years. Hunched over the bar, we discussed all things Joomla, and he told me that he planned a series of Joomla related webinars. He felt there is a need for a masterclass type learning environment for those who want to learn more about Joomla.
As a developer, the most obvious for Daniel was to start by offering an Extension Development webinar. Since JAB, he's been working hard on the concept and now it's a reality!
After a lot of commotion online, the Joomla Production Leadership Team (PLT) released yet another version of Joomla yesterday. Version 2.5.6 fixes 12 issues that appeared in 2.5.5.
I have not seen any trouble with 2.5.5 myself, but it caused trouble for some site owners.
Yesterday, the Joomla project released version 2.5.5 of our favorite CMS. This version contains quite a few new features, most of which will save you time when working on Joomla sites.
You should also note that if you're on Joomla 2.5.4, this version should be updated using the new Joomla Update component, and not the Extensions Manager. Read on for step-by-step instructions on how to do this.
![Impressions from J and Beyond 2012 [VIDEO]](/media/k2/items/cache/24d767ce6c156eb07b1fc26c266211f5_S.jpg)
Like in previous years, I've put together a video with some impressions from J and Beyond. This year's video features some highlights from the third J and Beyond conference, which took place in Bad Nauheim, Germany, at the beautiful Dolce hotel.
You will see a bit of the venue, some interviews with attendees, and some highlights from the sessions and the J!OSCARs awards ceremony.
