Remove Extra jQuery files in Joomla With ReReplacer

rereplacerIf you have a Joomla site with many extensions and a sophisticated template, you may find yourself with a common problem: too many Javascript files.

It's not unusual for various templates and extensions to load their own libraries or even two different version of the same library.

The impact of this problem is that either the template or the extension may cease to work properly.

One solution is the jQuery Easy plugin. However, you can also solve this issue with Rereplacer by NoNumber. Both of the solutions will allow you fix duplicate Javascript problems without modifying any code.

Read more: Remove Extra jQuery files in Joomla With ReReplacer

Easily Test Joomla 3 Patches

Joomla 3.2 is coming soon. A beta release of 3.2 is due this week and so it's time for developers to start testing.joomla patches

The Joomla team says that,

"the amount of contributions for this release is amazingly high and we are most likely looking at the largest release of the CMS ever."

To make testing the change much easier, the Joomla team have released a component called "Patch Tester".

Read more: Easily Test Joomla 3 Patches

Easily Build Joomla Components with Component Creator

component-creatorDuring the last 8 years, developers have created 10,000's of components for Joomla.

Some of the work involved in creating an extension can be fairly tedious. There are installation packages to build, database tables to created and layout files to generate.

Component Creator from Jensen technologies allows you to automate all of those tedious tasks. It will help you to create your own installable components without typing a single line of code.

Here's how Component Creator works:

Read more: Easily Build Joomla Components with Component Creator

Delivering Joomla Email via Mandrill

joomla-mandrillWe send almost all of the emails from OSTraining via a service called Mandrill.

Why would we use a 3rd party to deliver the email that our site creates? 

In a word: Deliverability. Mandrill is run by the team at MailChimp and their entire business revolves around making sure that emails get delivered, rather han hitting the spam folder. We think that more of our site's users will get our emails if we rely on Mandrill. We weren't able to track stats with Joomla's default emails, but with Mandrill our deliverability is around 98.5%.

Here's how to use Mandrill on your Joomla site.

Read more: Delivering Joomla Email via Mandrill

Changing Your Joomla Template Background

Joomla rotate backgroundLately, I've received requests to implement a feature that will change the background of a website on each page visit.

I have to admit, it took me some time to learn how to do it by myself. I thought about sharing my experience with a larger audience.

This step-by-step tutorial explaining how to achieve this using a real template in a real situation.

Read more: Changing Your Joomla Template Background

TinyMCE is Much Improved in Joomla 3.2

Joomla TinyMCE 4Joomla 3.2 is shaping up to be one of my favorite Joomla updates.

There are some headline improvements such as the Joomla AppStore and also Versions for articles.

There are also some useful smaller improvements. One such improvement is the move from TinyMCE 3 to TinyMCE 4.

Read more: TinyMCE is Much Improved in Joomla 3.2

Retina.js: Support Retina Images in Joomla

retina jsYou can blame it on the iPad 3.

Ever since the launch of the iPad 3, really high resolution images have been a requirement for looking great on larger screens. 

Webdesigners have had different reactions to need for high resolution images, but the most common practice is to create two images:

Read more: Retina.js: Support Retina Images in Joomla

Akeeba Backup and Amazon Web Services

Akeeba BackupBacking up your site is an essential task, but it can also be difficult to do.

The best tool available for backing up your Joomla site is Akeeba Backup.

In this tutorial, we're going to show you how to use Akeeba to backup your site to a remote server. For security, your backups need to be kept on a completely different system than your site.

Read more: Akeeba Backup and Amazon Web Services

Stop Joomla Menu Links from Re-ordering

menu-reorderThere's a recurring problem that we've seen on several Joomla sites that have been migrated from Joomla 1.5.

Software such as a jUpgrade and SPUpgrade does a good job of moving site content and menu links.

However, the recurring problem is that the menu links on the migrated sites will re-order themselves. Often this happens when other menu links are changed or when extensions are installed.

Here's how to fix the problem.

Read more: Stop Joomla Menu Links from Re-ordering

Create Lightboxes in Joomla with Modals

modals

Are you looking to create a popup effect or turn a link into a popup window? These are also known as modals or lightboxes.

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to create a modal effect in Joomla.

We're going to use the NoNumber extension called Modals.

This tutorial will work with Joomla 2.5 and 3.