New Online Joomla Training Course

Since 2005 Joomlashack has been a leader in Joomla education. Hundreds of thousands have read our original free joomla tutorials, and many have taken our live classes, or attended our sessions at Joomla events. But one question we keep getting asked is:

"So when can I take an online Joomla training class?"

We are excited to start lifting the wraps off a project that has been in development for a while, an online Joomla training course we are calling Joomlashack University.

Read more: New Online Joomla Training Course

10 Hours of Joomla Video Training Released

We are very excited that some great new resources to learn how to Joomla are now available, Joomla! 1.5: A User's Guide: Building a Successful Joomla! Powered Website (2nd Edition) and Fundamentals of Joomla! (Video Training)! The author is Joomlashack's own Barrie North.

10 Hours of Joomla Video Training Released The second edition of the book is an update of the best selling book on Joomla, bringing it up to date with the latest version of Joomla 1.5. It also has a completely new chapter on marketing your site and SEO, two topics that change continuously.

The Joomla Video Training is a completely new release. Its a packed 9 hour training video on Joomla 1.5. You can listen as I explain some of the most difficult Joomla concepts, like sections and categories and creating your site navigation.

If you'd like to get some insight into the background behind these new releases, you can head over to cmswire and Dee-Ann LeBlanc's interview about them.

Read more: 10 Hours of Joomla Video Training Released

Announcing Joomla Trainings in the US and UK Summer 2009

Joomla TrainingNeed Joomla training in 2009? Live in the U.S. or U.K.? You're in business!

Announcing the most complete tour of Joomla trainings ever- 25 sessions in 21 cities all spring and summer.

There are six sessions in New England with Joomlashack's own Barrie North (ok, five in New England and one in New York state), and a whopping 19 sessions all over the rest of the U.S. with our friends at JoomlaTraining.com

Most of the sessions are for beginners and intermediates, but there are some more advanced classes as well, in Joomla Template design and Joomla coding.

We're stoked for Joomlashack's master handyman and Joomla evangelist TJ Baker to teach two of the trainings in California, one in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco.

Need Joomla Training? Get going this spring and summer! More dates will be added, to keep coming back. It's a great time to invest in yourself and your Joomla skills.

2009 Joomla Training Survey

In 2008, our sister site, Compass Designs ran a series of successful single day training classes for Joomla across new England. One question we was asked again and again was "when will you be running classes in 2009?"

People had mentioned interest in different types of classes and perhaps different locations. So, we have created a survey for anyone interested in Joomla training to fill out, and from that we'll be determining the most popular combinations of location and class type.

If you are interested in expanding your Joomla knowledge in 2009 make sure you enter in your choices!

Read more: 2009 Joomla Training Survey

How to Redirect 1.0 URL's to Joomla 1.5

You may have noticed that Joomlashack is now running on Joomla 1.5. We did a stealth migration yesterday.

We had one problem we needed to address, and it took a while to figure out, so we thought we would share the solution for others.

Our old site used Joomla 1.0, as I have mentioned before, we wanted to make sure we did a 301 redirect of the Joomla URL's so Google would quickly pick up the new ones and pass the pagerank to the new pages. The problem however was that our 1.0 site used the raw URL:

https://www.joomlashack.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37

We rapidly discovered that mod-write unfortunately will basically ignore all the php parameters here. You can't get rewrite to pay any attention to them.

Read more: How to Redirect 1.0 URL's to Joomla 1.5

Joomla Training in New England

Joomla Training in New EnglandOur own Barrie North is running Joomla Training and education across New England. If you want:

  • Expert instructors with teacher certification AND deep Joomla expertise
  • One-on-one hands-on time to implement what you learn
  • Optional ongoing education and support to create a successful Joomla website
  • Small class sizes so you can ask questions one-on-one
  • An included copy of the best selling "Joomla - A User's Guide"

.... then you need to attend this training.

Read more: Joomla Training in New England

Joomla Training in Chicago

Its been a long time coming, but we are very excited to be able to announce our first Joomla training event in the US. Its going to be the day after the Joomla EXPO 2008 in Chicago.

The EXPO is on Friday 16th of May, and the training is on Saturday the 17th. The classrooms are right next to the hotel where the EXPO is being held!

Read more: Joomla Training in Chicago

Joomla! Jargon

Dictionary.com defines jargon like this:

1. jargon: -noun, the language, esp. the vocabulary, peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group: medical jargon.

It also defines jargon like this:

2. jargon: -noun, unintelligible or meaningless talk or writing; gibberish.

Joomla!'s roots go back a few years, and it definitely has a language all its own. Seasoned veterans are fluent in Joomla! jargon, but for "newbies", that second definition is probably the most appropriate definition for what Joomla! jargon really is. For that reason, I have decided to attempt to compile a list of the most commonly used words and/or phrases in Joomla!, and give them a definition that actually means something to a non-veteran Joomla! user.

Read more: Joomla! Jargon

How can I link to a content item without first creating a menu link?

Ever wonered how to link to a content item without first creating a menu item? Read on if you want to find out the shortcut.

Read more: How can I link to a content item without first creating a menu link?

How to use Google Adwords on a Joomla website

If you have a website (Joomla or otherwise), and you have a vague interest in getting traffic, then pay per click (PPC) need to be part of your Search Engine (SEM) strategy.

Why is pay per click so useful? If you put an ad in a magazine about your product, you pay the magazine the add fee and it goes in. At that point you are hoping that the ad is compelling enough to get people to call/email/visit your site. If you get no leads from the ad, then you still had to pay the magazine the fee.

Read more: How to use Google Adwords on a Joomla website