The Joomlashack Blog
Say Hello to Shack Error Notify
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 18 March 2020 18 March 2020
Shack Error Notify is the 29th extension available at Joomlashack.
Yes, you read that correctly. Joomlashack Everything Club members now get access to 29 extensions. And we've got an additional extension to be released next week!
Shack Error Notify will rescue you from serious site problems. This plugin will send automatic notifications if anything goes wrong with your Joomla site.
We have used this plugin at Joomlashack for years, and it has saved us on many occasions. It is easy to miss site errors, but Shack Error Notify catches them all! You will get an email describing what went wrong on your site, and showing you where to fix it.
Click here to get Shack Error Notify, or click here to join the Everything Club.
How We Are NOT Responding to COVID-19
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 18 March 2020 18 March 2020
In the last couple of weeks, my inbox has been over-flowing with COVID-19 emails:
- "Hey, it's the hotel you visited five years ago. This is how we are responding to the virus."
- "We sold you some software in 2012. Here is some bland work-at-home advice."
- "We have no idea why we're emailing you. But our boss told us to send out a virus update."
To be honest, I don't have any great advice at all. We're trying to navigate day-to-day, just like you are. Events are moving so fast that even good advice today is likely to be out-of-date tomorrow.
Listen to the Joomla Podcasts from Watchful and JoomCast
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 09 March 2020 09 March 2020
If you are a podcast fan, you can find three active Joomla podcasts at the moment.
I'll start with a little self-promotion. One of the three is the Watchful podcast that features myself and Vic from Watchful. Our interviews focus on Joomla agencies: how they manage products, find customers, manage their cashflow and so on.
Another is JoomCast and it's a collaboration between Naveen from Joomdev and Tim from Basic Joomla. They interview people from around the Joomla world.
Also, if you speak Spanish, there's also Mastermind Joomla from Carlos Camara, who gave a great session at last year's Joomlashack Conference.
Read more: Listen to the Joomla Podcasts from Watchful and JoomCast
Your Beginners Guide to Multi-lingual Joomla Sites
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 24 February 2020 24 February 2020
If you would like your Joomla site to communicate in multiple languages, you need a multi-lingual Joomla site. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install a multi-lingual Joomla site with dummy content and localized menus.
Once you finish the installation, you will then be able to replace the dummy content for every language with your own.
Here is the process in a nutshell:
- Get ready for Joomla installation. Firstly, you want to upload and unpack the latest Joomla installation pack to your server and create a database for your Joomla site.
- Run the installation. Then you want to run the installation process for a multi-lingual Joomla site.
- Translate the dummy Joomla content and add new content for every required language.
Let's take a look at this process in more detail.
Read more: Your Beginners Guide to Multi-lingual Joomla Sites
OSMap Has a New Cache With Multilingual Support
- Written by Nick Savov Nick Savov
- Published: 06 February 2020 06 February 2020
OSMap Pro is now even faster! We've released a new version with a faster caching system that supports multilingual sites.
Almost four years ago, we added a caching system to OSMap Pro. That system increased the site load speed by 1000% for sites with large sitemaps. But, there were some issues with it:
- The caching didn't work well for multilingual sites.
- The caching codebase was complex and proved to be difficult to maintain.
So starting with OSMap Pro 4.2.25, you'll find a new and improved caching system.
How to Delete Articles from the Joomla Trash
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 31 January 2020 31 January 2020
Joomla allows you to delete articles, but in case you made a mistake, it doesn't permanenently delete them unless you to take another step.
Joomla's trash can is similar to those on PC's and Mac's. Sending items to the trash can is an action that can be undone.
In this short tutorial, I'm going to show you how to remove articles from the trash can and delete them forever.
What Analytics Tools Do You Use With Joomla?
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 17 January 2020 17 January 2020
This week, we've been working on improvements to Shack Analytics.
Joomla site owners often have scripts such as Google Analytics, Adwords, Clicky, Facebook, MailChimp and other sites. But those scripts are hidden away inside random modules, plugins or template files. Shack Analytics can help!
Shack Analytics is a single extension to manage all the analytics code on your sites. Here are guides for using some popular analytics scripts with Joomla:
After installing Shack Analytics, you'll see a single dashboard with room to add the analytics for your site.
Getting Started with the Download Form in OSDownloads Pro
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 15 January 2020 15 January 2020
OSDownloads is the easiest Joomla extension to add file downloads to your Joomla site. You can allow your site visitors to download files with one click, simply clicking the "Download" button. But what if you need to set a more advanced download form for them?
What if you, for example, would like to collect some information from your site visitors before they will be able to download a file? Or what if you wish to display them some information?
These are exact benefits that the "Download Form" feature in OSDownloads Pro offers you. In this blog post, I will give you a tour to the "Download Form" in OSDownloads Pro.
Read more: Getting Started with the Download Form in OSDownloads Pro
What Are JCal Pro Email Notifications?
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 10 January 2020 10 January 2020
With a robust set of features and intuitive interface, JCal Pro is one of Joomlashack's most sold extensions. With JCal Pro you can quickly and easily create an event calendar for your Joomla site.
But you don't have to create events yourself. JCal Pro allows you to delegate this job to an authorized frontend user. Once they create an event or someone registers for an event, JCal Pro will automatically send email notifications.
In this blog post, you will learn what those email notifications are and to whom they get sent.
JCal Pro Event Registrations Are Now Protected by Google Captchas
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 07 January 2020 07 January 2020
JCal Pro is the best calendaring Joomla extension. The new JCal Pro version released this week now allows you to protect the event registration pages against spam with Google's Captchas.
Setting this is a three-step process:
- Register your Joomla site to use Google's Captcha.
- Enable Joomla's captcha plugin.
- Enable Google's Captcha in JCal Pro.
In this blog post, I will give you a brief introduction to this new feature.
Read more: JCal Pro Event Registrations Are Now Protected by Google Captchas