Here are some interesting Joomla blog posts I found during week 48:
• Do you use Social Media?
• Getting Ready for Mutli-Database Support
• CCK Capabilities: In the Core, How to Discuss?
• Basic Rules for creating a core CCK for Joomla
• Sorting out Joomla DB before moving to a CCK
• DOCman Secrets: Large file distribution
• Upgrade Joomla template from old version in a detail guideline
• Beautiful JoomlaShine templates customization with popular Joomla Extensions
• K2 v2.5.4 (maintenance release) now available
Written by Brian Teeman
It seems that almost everyday there is a new social media opportunity appearing online which is immediately followed by an inevitable land grab phase. But before jumping on the bandwagon of the latest and greatest thing to hit the net take a moment to think. Are you getting the maximum benefits you could from your current social media streams? Are there some that just didn't work for you? Are you missing opportunities because you just don't get it or did you not put in the time and effort and create a consistent social media presence.
Getting Ready for Mutli-Database Support
Written by Elin Waring
There was some big news this week in Joomla! CMS development with the merging of massive rewriting of queries. Why? And why rewrite? Because this makes it possible to run the Joomla! CMS on many different databases, not just MySQL and MySQLi as in the past. As people who follow these things know, for many years there has been a goal to make Joomla! “database agnostic” which is to say to allow Joomla to run on any database. For a while the Platform has had drivers for Microsoft databases SQLSrv and SQLAzure . There are also pull requests (that is, requests to merge code into the platform) on Postgresql, Oracle, SQLite and PDO drivers. Great work by Gabriele Pongelli (Postgres), Sudhi Seshachala and the team at Hoodooku (Microsoft databases) and Omar Ramos (Oracle, SQLite and PDO).
CCK Capabilities: In the Core, How to Discuss?
Written by Matthew Schenker
For some time now, there has been heated discussions in the Joomla world about the need for "CCK" capabilities in the core installation. There are different opinions about what "CCK capabilities" means, but in my opinion it involves at least the following:
* Capability to create custom fields for Joomla content rather than having to only use built-in fields
* Capability to accept front-end content submissions through forms comprised of the custom fields
* Capability to search based on material submitted through the form fields
Basic Rules for creating a core CCK for Joomla
Written by Joss Sanglier
As Content Management Systems mature and become more and more a part of day to day website development, so the pressure is on to create systems that can be tailored for their end users requirements rather than swamp the user (and for that matter the developer) with so much functionality that the entire system becomes fragmented and unweildy. Content Contruction Kits (CCK) are one way of extending a system that allows the developer (and even user) to create templates and customised data fields so that content can be stored in exactly the way that it needs to be written. Advanced CCK systems even allow the development of simple applications from the data sets to add more power and functionality.
Sorting out Joomla DB before moving to a CCK
Written by Joss Sanglier
Since the release of Seblod CCK (GA) I have been playing around with it on a personal website. I am generally very impressed with what they are doing, though I am concerned that some of their approach (especially with regards to templates) maybe unnecessarily complicated. In using it, the one thing that has occured to me is that before you even start with a CCK are the existing fields in the Joomla default database complete enough? In this case I am thinking primarily about #_content. In setting up my personal Seblod based site, I have first of all added to #_content (using seblod) some pretty obvious fields that probably should have been there in the first place:
DOCman Secrets: Large file distribution
Written by Krisstoffer
DOCman is well known for its ability to be used for small file distribution. But did you know that DOCman is as equally adept at serving large files without a huge resource gain? In this edition of DOCman secrets, we give you a few tips and configuration changes that will help you use DOCman to deliver Gigabyte files with ease while maintaining the usual DOCman blend you are accustomed to.
Two roads for large files
There are two roads when we define large files. The first of these roads would be the 0-150MB road and the second would be the 150MB to 8GB and beyond. The first road is the most simple and does not require too much sacrifice in terms of features.
Upgrade Joomla template from old version in a detail guideline
Written by Tuan
The problem for how to upgrade template to a new version is very important when we use Joomla templateto build our website. I have written blog article for this task and Ihope it’ll be helpful for users who begin to use Joomla. For this blog we’re using JSN Epic (Pro Unlimited).
Step1: Get the files modification list
Before you want to upgrade, you can see from my blog title, you need to prepare a list of files that you have modified in the old template version. JSN Epic provides a function that allows you to see files that you modified; you can find this function in the details, on thetab “About” and the link to the function is “Check for files modification”.
Beautiful JoomlaShine templates customization with popular Joomla Extensions
Written by Nhung
Building a great website is what everyone hopes for when they startbuild their own. But it is hard to create a complete and attractivewebsite without the excellent support of Joomla Extensions. We at JoomlaShine know that, and today in my story I will tell you howgraceful and elegant JoomlaShine Templates and Joomla extensions can be! You can do the Joomla templates customization by your self. It would be too much if we listed all templates and extensions so inthis article I will only focus on the featured productsbelow:
K2 v2.5.4 (maintenance release) now available
Written by Fotis Evangelou
# Fixed JavaScript bug which prevented inline comment editing in the backend
# Fixed PHP notices/warnings
# Comments from users with administrative permissions are now auto-published in the frontend, even if comment moderation is enabled.
# Fixed issue preventing managers from changing author in item edit form (under Joomla! 1.5)
# Fixed sh404SEF issue with K2 feeds sh404SEF
 now available
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