The Joomlashack Blog
How to Create a Custom Module Graphic
- Written by TJ Baker TJ Baker
- Published: 16 September 2009 16 September 2009
This tutorial will show you how to make custom image based modules in Fireworks using masking techniques aimed at the Luhs template design. Navigate to your downloaded package to the Graphic Source Files folder and open custom_module_graphic.png in Fireworks.
If you would like to see a video of this tutorial as well you can download the QuickTime movie here.
Small 640x480 (1.5 mb)
Large H.264 1080 (13.5 mb)
You will see a screen similar to this one.
(click for larger)
Choose the SubSelect tool.
Draw a box over the shape just large enough to select the corner nodes as shown below.
The corner nodes are sub-selected.
Hold down Shift to keep the mouse straight or use the arrow keys to resize the shape vertically.
The shape is resized.
Choose the select tool.
and select the top shape.
Choose Edit > Cut.
The shape is loaded onto the clipboard.
Select the image and resize it. (Cmd+T)
You can temporarily lower the opacity in the layers palette to see the underlying shape.
Once resized, choose Modify > Mask > Paste as Mask.
You can return the opacity back up.
Use the text tool to add some graphic text to the image.
Select all by choosing (Cmd+A) , then right click the graphic and choose "Insert Rectangular Slice"
Whwn the popup appears asking you to choose Single or Multiple slices, choose "Single".
Name the slice in the properties palette to "custom_mod"
*If not shown choose Window > Properties to show the palette.
The last step is to export the image to a place on your local computer by choosing File > Export.
Choose "Images Only" and make sure the name of the file is "custom_mod.png"
To convert to a module just log in to your Joomla admin console and choose New.
Paste the code below into the editor ( in html edit mode) with these settings and save.
Show Title = No
Published = Yes
<div align="center"><img style="margin: 0px;" width="194" height="173" src="http://yourdomain.com/path/to/images/stories/custom_mod.png" alt="Alt Description" title="My Description" /></div>
Important. Modules in the Lush Template right hand position must be no larger than 194px wide!
The World's Fastest Joomla Template
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 14 September 2009 14 September 2009
Introducing the fastest template in the world!
From our popular Joomla template tutorial series, we are proud to announce that CSSTemplateTutorial2 clocks in at under 30KB, making it the fastest joomla template in the world!
And its free!
Joomlashack Gets 2nd place in iContact API Competition
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 01 September 2009 01 September 2009
iContact have recently released the second version of their API, and along with it, we upgraded our popular email component for Joomla we call JContact.
iContact were running a contest for API applications, and we are excited to announce that we grabbed second place!
Email marketing service iContact announced the winners of their API Challenge, a contest for partners and customers of iContact that asked them to build an integration between third party applications and iContact.
2nd place was given to Joomlashack, a team of designers, developers and technicians in the Joomla community, which came up with JContact. They received $2,000 cash. Barrie North, a user and designer of JContact explained: “We have been long-time fans of iContact. We built a component called JContact that leverages the new iContact API to integrate Joomla registration with iContact, and uses best industry opt-in practices to do so. We also gave it away for free!”
Read more: Joomlashack Gets 2nd place in iContact API Competition
Save $150 on Joomla Training in Hartford CT
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 01 September 2009 01 September 2009
Today and tomorrow are the last chances to get the early bird pricing for the beginner/intermediate Joomla training class in Hartford, CT on September 17th.
If you book now, you'll get $150 off the regular price and reserve a spot for only $249.
As well as a full day of expert Joomla instruction, all students will leave with goodies worth over $400!
How To Get the World's Fastest Joomla! Admin Template
- Written by James Hafner James Hafner
- Published: 21 August 2009 21 August 2009
Today, the self-proclaimed "Fastest Joomla! Admin Template" was released to the public. What makes this especially exciting, is that it was released for free! The team at JoomlaPraise developed a 'lite' version of their ground-breaking AdminPraise2 Joomla! administrator template, called (you guessed it) AdminPraise Lite.
Read more: How To Get the World's Fastest Joomla! Admin Template
Tell us our next template and get a free copy
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 19 August 2009 19 August 2009
A few weeks ago we blogged about our adoption of Uservoice to get feedback from you to help us better meet your needs.
We have been working hard on some new Joomla templates, both free and commercial, but we also want you to tell us what kind of templates you want.
Simply head over to our template feedback and share your ideas for themes, site types, colors, extension, whatever you'd like to see.
joomlashack.uservoice.com/pages/20904-joomlashack-templates
We'll be be selecting 3 people at random for a free copy of our upcoming release!
Most popular Joomla sites debated
- Written by Tom Elliott Tom Elliott
- Published: 19 August 2009 19 August 2009
What Joomla-powered sites have the highest Google PageRank? (Hint: Joomlashack's PageRank is 9. Think we made the top tier?)
How many Joomla-powered websites in the world are there? And how many of them are highly trafficked, really successful sites?
A group of Joomlaheads led by Alex Red has set out to answers these any many other questions about the size, depth, and characteristics of the Joomlaverse. Their site is www.joomla.me
Joomla.me is a directory of Joomla-powered websites. The team analyzes and makes some interesting claims using data from the directory, including:
10 Steps to Mastering Joomla
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 19 August 2009 19 August 2009
So you want a website, and you have heard some of the buzz about open source.
Joomla, Drupal and Wordpress have all been mentioned, but you are lost and confused.
No problem, this guide is an easy 10 step process to getting started with building a website with Joomla and some insider tricks and tips to make sure you are making best use of it.
We are going to look at the following things:
- Why do you need a website, and why use Joomla?
- What actually is Joomla?
- How do I install Joomla?
- How should I set up my site?
- Picking a Template
- Organizing Content
- Creating Navigation
- How can I add features to my site?
- How can I make Joomla better for SEO?
- How do I keep my site updated, and what lies ahead (Joomla 1.6)
You think you need a website... but why?
Unless you have clear goals, your website will not have any focus, and not contribute to your organization's goals.
- A restaurant might want to increase onsite foot traffic
- A non-profit might want to increase donations
- A consultant might want to increase sales leads
- A school might want to communicate better with parents
But unless you identify your goals, you are building your site blindfolded!
But what shall I use?
Joomla, Drupal or Wordpress?
Joking aside, Joomla is an excellent solution that lies in the middle of Wordpress's ease of use and the flexibility of Drupal.
Resources
- How to Choose Between Joomla, Drupal and Wordpress (compassdesigns.net)
- Comparing Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal (CMS Report)
- Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal - Which CMS should you choose? (goodwebpractices.com)
Joomla is an open source content management system.
So what does that mean?
- Open Source means that anyone can contribute to the code, improve it, or distribute it. This means the platform is a living project being created and improved by a community of developers all over the world.
- A content management system uses a database to place content into designated places on the web page. Its dynamic and in real time.
Let's look at a forum as an example
Joomla works the same way, the template creates "buckets" or "placeholders" for content, and then the CMS pours content into them as needed.
Here, the articles are being dynamically generated as well as the bottom lists of links.
Joomla is
- Easy
- Powerful
- Cheap (not free!)
Barrie North's 80/20 rule
- 80% of what you want to do will take 20% of the effort
- You don’t really know what your site visitors want
Resources
- Official Joomla Project Site
- What is Joomla? (joomla.org)
- What is Joomla? A Website Developer's Perspective (netshinesoftware.com)
- What is Joomla? (joomlashack.com)
To install Joomla, you need a web account with a MySQL database.
Or you can set up what is know as a localhost.
- Download Joomla files
- Either
- Upload file package to server then extract
- Extract then upload individual files
- Create a database
- Browse to site and run installation wizard
- Pray to all you hold holy that permissions are ok
- Delete installation folder
Resources
- How to Install Joomla 1.5 (compassdesigns.net)
- How do you install Joomla! 1.5? (Joomla.org Documentation)
- Fundamentals of Joomla! (Video Training): How Do I Install Joomla (informit.com)
One of the hardest parts to Joomla is setting up the site. To start, there are so many options it an be overwhelming.
The three elements of a Joomla site are:
- Template (the look and feel)
- Content (the "beef")
- Modules (the gravy round the outside)
Joomla comes with three templates:
- Milky Way
- Beez
- Purity
To get started, just use one of these, then you can graduate to a 3rd party template of which there are thousands. You can get free ones or professional ones ranging from $25-$70
Of course www.joomlashack.com, but others of mention:
- www.joomlapraise.com
- www.rockettheme.com
- www.joomlart.com
- www.joomlajunkie.com
Commercial innovation has driven Joomla templates much quicker than some other content management systems.
The main "meat" content is made up of articles.
Content, or articles need containers, these are called Sections and Categories, and must be set up first.
- Section
- Category
- Article
- Category
Nothing can been seen on the webpage until it is linked to. Next you must set up navigation.
Joomla has thousands of 3rd party extensions, from forums and shopping carts to lacrosse league managers or women's menstrual cycle trackers.
Some are free, some are commercial. Some are GPL, some are proprietary (no, these are not the same thing!)
Lets add some extensions!
Resources
Joomla holds its own for SEO!
Joomla has something called SEF (Search Engine Friendly URL's) that turns complex url's into easy to understand ones.
Google doesn't care now anywhere, so SEO is not SEF.
- Keyword Use in Title Tag (4.9)
- Global Link Popularity of Site (4.5)
- Anchor Text of Inbound Link (4.4)
- Link Popularity within the Site's Internal Link Structure (4.1)
- Age of Site (4)
- Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site (3.9)
- Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community (3.9)
- Keyword Use in Body Text (3.9)
- Global Link Popularity of Linking Site (3.7)
- Topical Relationship of Linking Page (3.6)
Source:http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors
Concentrate on creating relevant titles for your articles
This will mean your pages have a strong foundation for SEO and will be accessible and usable.
Resources
- Joomla SEO Club (alledia.com)
- Top 10 Joomla SEO tips for Google (compassdesigns.net)
- Search Engine Optimization (Official Joomla SEO forum)
One of the challenges of open source is keeping up to date with the more frequent patches and security fixes. Someone on your team will have to know how to do these.
Joomla.org releases patches which are a bunch of files that need to be applied/ftp'ed onto your server.
Major releases come around every year or so with many new features. The current version is 1.5 and 1.6 will be released in the next 12 months.
There are some extensions and services that will keep you site updated for you.
Resources
Tell us what you want
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 05 August 2009 05 August 2009
What you really... really want!
Last week we launched our new promise of our 100% satisfaction guarantee.
This week we take another step in improving ourselves to better meet our customers needs.
We have launched our Uservoice feedback forum for the Joomlashack community. We want you to tell us what you'd like to see from Joomlashack, and we'll do our best to make it happen.
For general feedback, please post in our core forum: joomlashack.uservoice.com
Join the Joomlashack Email Test
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 04 August 2009 04 August 2009
There are lots of email marketing services: iContact, Mailchimp, Aweber etc etc.
But I don't think there has been a scientific test and review of how well they deliver, all of them give their deliverability rates, but how can we compare them?
I need your help to do this very test and compare these services, here's how...