The Joomlashack Blog
Create Multi-Category Image Galleries With ACL, RokBox and OSContent
- Written by Ed Andrea Ed Andrea
- Published: 12 September 2011 12 September 2011
Before Joomla 1.7 if you wanted to publish picture galleries, you needed to get a special component with plugins and modules. Now with the expanded nesting categories, ACL and a free plugin, you can duplicate most of the functionality of a gallery component.
I've done this with three free plugins, Simple Image Gallery by JoomlaWorks and Rok Box by Rockettheme both work for this, and have different display options in case you want to customize.. You can use the native ACL management to control user access, but you may also want to use the ACL Manager plugin to simplify the task. Our extension, OSContent will make organization even easier.
Read more: Create Multi-Category Image Galleries With ACL, RokBox and OSContent
ACL Manager makes Joomla access control easier
- Written by Ed Andrea Ed Andrea
- Published: 12 September 2011 12 September 2011
The most wanted feature of Joomla 2.5 was the new permission system, called Access Control List (ACL). Since Joomla 1.6, ACL enables to define who has permission to do what on the website.
The assignable actions are: Site Login, Admin Login, Offline Access, Super Admin, Access Component, Create, Delete, Edit, Edit State and Edit Own.
Unfortunately the Joomla ACL is difficult to comprehend. The inheritance of permissions between groups and levels and the need to check the settings for a group on 4 levels makes it hard to keep an overview of your settings.
This module adds an easier to use interface for keeping track of access controls.
Step 1. Download and install the extension
You can get the plugin from https://www.aclmanager.net/
After download, go to Extensions > Extension Manager and then browse for the extension on your computer. Click Upload& Install to finish the installation.
Step 2. After Installation, Open the ACL Manager
Go to Components > ACL manager
Step 4. Select A Group To Manage
You won't see much until you select something to manage.
Step 5. Refine your list.
Using the dropdown menus ot the upper right of the screen, you can drill down to combinations of specific groups, components and categories and so you deal with them in an orderly manner.
Deleted items will show in the Asset TItle list. When you mouse over them you see the trash icon, so you know they are deleted items.
Step 6. You Can Reduce Clutter By Setting Options
I initially installed this site with sample data. All of the items I deleted still show, even though they are in the trash. Even if you empty the trash, the items may show. It's just a minor bug in Joomla that will get fixed eventually. But until then you can hide the trashed items by clicking the Options button and choosing to hide the trashed items.
You can hide the Trashed objects as well as other items that show by default. Below is what that same Asset Title list looks like after Trashed objects are hidden.
Step 7. Set Permissions
You will now have a graphical view of permissions and be able to organize them more easily.
Event Booking and Registration in Joomla
- Written by Ed Andrea Ed Andrea
- Published: 12 September 2011 12 September 2011
One of our online students requested a tutorial on this extension. Event Registration is an important function for many sites.
Event Booking is an extension which allows you to create events and allows users register for these events (both Free and Paid events). There are payment gateway plugins for several different payment gateways.
How to Buy Piano Page Dissected for SEO Learning
- Written by Dan Maynard Dan Maynard
- Published: 31 August 2011 31 August 2011
Chasing the SEO Dragon Tail
If you've ever had the chance to observe a dog's tail or if you were so lucky the tail of a Komodo dragon, you would observe how it wavers from side to side as it moves along. There's no forward motion, only sideway motion.
Having seen a Komodo dragon on the move on TV the other day, conjured up compelling images of another analog, that of the search engine optimization enthusiast trying to get top rankings in the search engines by ingesting gobs of often contravening information from various SEO forums. These forums in some cases are rife with misinformation, albeit for the most part unintended.
The Tale of the SEO Tail
SEO enthusiasts are known to scour the forums looking for tidbits of information that will help them exploit potential loopholes or weaknesses in the search algorithms that could provide a temporal but unfair search ranking advantage. Once the loophole becomes widespread the search engines quickly close up the loophole.
You Need to be on YouTube
- Written by Dan Maynard Dan Maynard
- Published: 31 August 2011 31 August 2011
YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine on the Internet only surpassed by Google itself. So if you're not creating videos using YouTube then you're missing out on a marketing opportunity to drive even more traffic to your website.
Many people think that you need to put yourself on camera and talk, which in many cases makes people uneasy in front of the camera. But the truth is you really don't have to be in front of the camera on YouTube in order to be successful. In fact, many marketers and business owners don't put their faces on YouTube.
So how can that be? Quite simply, you can create a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation and records that as a video using such software as Camtasia or if you are using a Mac computer then ScreenFlow. These software programs simply record what's on your display including recording your presentation.
It's really quite easy to record your presentation using these software programs. Once you've recorded your program you can edit what you've captured and then export that as a movie file which you can upload to YouTube.
Bugshooting Search Engine Friendly URLs in Joomla 2.5
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 24 August 2011 24 August 2011
Sometimes Joomla URLs can be tricky to set up and this tutorial will show you how to bugshoot problems with them in Joomla 2.5.
Installations on your computers are particularly problematic and my advice would be "don't worry about Search Engine Friendly URLs on your computer". After all, search engines don't index your computer.
Here are some possible solutions if you are having URL problems on your live server:
Read more: Bugshooting Search Engine Friendly URLs in Joomla 2.5
Blogging With Joomla: EasyBlog from StackIdeas
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 24 August 2011 24 August 2011
Video on building a blog with Joomla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bqG2iXiQOc
There are a lot of blogging extensions on the Joomla Extensions Directory, but one stands head-and-shoulders above the others when it comes to user feedback: EasyBlog.
Here's our review of the extension. Let's see if it really is a worthwhile option for people blogging in Joomla.
About EasyBlog
Build a Shopping Cart in Joomla
- Written by Ed Andrea Ed Andrea
- Published: 12 August 2011 12 August 2011
Not everybody needs the ultimate shopping cart. Small businesses with simple products don't need all the options, but they still need a quick way to handle products.
We're going to take two plugins, and combine them with Joomla's core articles to create a great, easy to manage shopping cart.
SimpleCaddy - PayPal Shopping Cart for Joomla
- Written by Ed Andrea Ed Andrea
- Published: 12 August 2011 12 August 2011
Simple Caddy is a simple yet powerful shopping cart solution for Joomla 1.5 (They are working on an upgrade to 1.7 be published soon).
It uses standard content to show the products' details and a small plugin on that page to present the "Add to Cart" functionality.
Content Templater - Reusable Layouts for Joomla Articles
- Written by Ed Andrea Ed Andrea
- Published: 12 August 2011 12 August 2011
Content Templater is a simple to use tool that lets you create standard layouts for frequently used text or layouts. You can use it to create a product listing, a directory listing, or calendar entry that you need to repeat over and over.
It adds a button to the bottom of your article editing window, one click and the saved layout is added to your article or module. Update the information and you're done.
With Content Templater you can create predefined reusable content templates. Not only can you make complete standard page layouts, you can also use Content Templater for text snippets. So any piece of text you want to use more than once, just make a content template of it!
1. Download and install the plugin
Download Content Templater from this link https://www.nonumber.nl/extensions/contenttemplater
Save it to your local computer in a place you can find it easily.
As of this writing this is only for J15, but an updated version is in the works for 1.7
2. Upload to your site
Go to Extensions > install/Uninstall
In the Extension Manager use Browse and find the downloaded file on your computer then click Upload File & Install.
3. Configure Content Templater
Go to Components > Content Templater
Click Parameters
The Parameters are simple. The defaults work really well. You can return to this if you want to fine tune the behavior of the plugin. Save your changes, if any, and you're ready to start creating templates.
4. Create a template
Click New to start.
5. Add the descriptive information
Start by choosing the view you want to use. The default setting is Normal. You can change this to whatever works best for you in the configuration step.
Give the template a descriptive name. This is not going to show in your article. It's for your use.
Give the template a description. This is also for administrators, and will not show anywhere on your site.
6. Use the editor to actually create the layout
Create a layout standard template. Use placeholder pictures, you'll be replacing them and sample text. Format it with all the fonts, styling or colors you want to use.
This could be a single item like the example above or an entire page layout. What you put here is only restricted by your imagination.
Now you're ready to use it.
7. Decide whether you want the template to auto load
If a template is set to Auto Load, it will be automatically inserted as soon as you create the article. If you don't set it to Auto Load, you will see a button at the bottom of the editing window when you create the article, and using the button will allow you to choose which template you want. Clicking the button will insert the template.
If the template is unpublished, you won't see it as a choice when you use the Insert Template button.
8. Create a new article in the Article Manager
Go to Content > Article Manager then click the New button
Or
Just click the Add New Article icon in the dashboard.
Your article editor will open up and the template will already be in place. If you chose not to auto load the template, you can do so from the Insert Template Button.
9. Use the Insert Template button to insert a template
Choose the one you want. You can insert more than one template by repeating the process. Just click the name of the template.
A copy of the template will be placed on the page. Now all you need to do is replace the placeholder pictures and change the content as needed.
