Check Out This Video Introduction to Shack Article Manager

Shack Article Manager is one of the new extensions we released at Joomlashack in 2020.

Shack Article Manager is perfect for sites that don't want to allow users into the Joomla administrator area. You can allow users to write, edit, publish and manage articles from the frontend of Joomla sites.

I say this extension is "new", but the base of Shack Article Manager has been around since Joomla 1.5. The original version was called "User Article Manager" and it was really popular in early Joomla versions. Because so many Joomlashack users asked us to adopt this extension, we eventually agreed to take it onboard at Joomlashack.

Rod Martin and the team at OSTraining were kind enough to create a video introducing the features of Shack Article Manager.

If you like this video, check out OSTraining's other Joomla videos in the OSTips series on YouTube. This includes videos on Shack Article Layouts, Tabs and Sliders, and Shack Toolbox.

Read more: Check Out This Video Introduction to Shack Article Manager

Joomlashack is 15 Years Old!

Joomlashack is 15 Years Old!

It feels strange to write that title. But yes, Joomlashack is 15 years old this week.

This site was launched on September 2nd, 2005.

That's a long time for any software company to survive, particularly in the open-source world. In fact, this site could count as being older as it had a previous life as "Mamboshack.com".

We've celebrated 5 years, 10 years, and now here we are at 15.

Read more: Joomlashack is 15 Years Old!

How to Allow Frontend Article Submissions in Joomla

How to Allow Frontend Article Submissions in Joomla

One Joomlashack user came to us and asked this question:

"I want to allow some users to create Joomla articles from the frontend of our site. But, I don't want them to see articles written by other users".

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to do this with the Shack Article Manager extension.

If you haven't used Shack Article Manager before, these two videos will be a good introduction. You can then follow along with the rest of the tutorial and set up your publishing workflow.

Read more: How to Allow Frontend Article Submissions in Joomla

How to Sell Subscriptions to Joomlashack Extensions

Sell Subscriptions to Joomlashack Extensions

Over the last few years, we've managed to grow Joomlashack. Yes, we have some good extensions and templates, but one thing has made that growth possible: recurring subscriptions.

I am 250% convinced that the most stable businesses are subscription businesses.

Our 2020 aim at Joomlashack is to help you make the move to recurring revenue by creating a reliable subscription extension that's very easy-to-use.

Read more: How to Sell Subscriptions to Joomlashack Extensions

Shack HelpScout is Now Live at Joomlashack

Shack HelpScout is Now Live at Joomlashack

We are happy to announce that Shack HelpScout is now available for Joomlashack members. This is the 32nd extension available at Joomlashack.

Yes, you read that correctly. Joomlashack Everything Club members now get access to 32 extensions, plus 20 templates and hundreds of Joomla training videos!

Help Scout is one of the most popular and user-friendly ways to provide customer support. With the Shack HelpScout extension, you can closely integrate Help Scout with Joomla.

Shack HelpScout enables you to display Help Scout forms and user conversations directly inside your Joomla site. Your users will never realize that their questions are being answered from inside Help Scout.

We have happily been using Shack HelpScout on Joomlashack for years to manage customer support.

Read more: Shack HelpScout is Now Live at Joomlashack

Control Access to the Main Metadata Screen in OSMeta

How to Allow a Joomla User Backend Administration Access Only to OSMeta

This week, one of our customers asked how to give a Joomla user access only to the OSMeta component. They wanted to allow this user to update all the metadata on their site.

OSMeta is the best Joomla extension to efficiently edit metadata of your Joomla articles, categories, and menu items on a single screen.

In this blog post, you will learn how to create an OSMeta administrator with Joomla's built-in permissions systems.

Read more: Control Access to the Main Metadata Screen in OSMeta

How to Enroll Students in the Required Classes in OSCampus

How to Enroll Students in Required Classes in OSCampus

This week one customer asked how to offer a student an OSCampus course only after they finished another course. The idea was to give students access to courses one after another one instead of to all of them. 

OSCampus doesn't offer such functionality. However, if you have only a handful of courses you can do the job by manually deploying Joomla's core Access Control List:

  • Create new user groups, for example, "Class 01", "Class 02", etc
  • Create a new access level for each of the new group, for example, access level named "Class 01" for the user group "Class 01",  access level "Class 02" for the user group "Class 02" etc
  • Assign required access levels to the required classes
  • Assign required students to access required classes when needed.

Now to allow student access to their next class, all you will have to do is assigning the student to the user group assigned to this next class.

Let's take a look at this process in more detail.

Read more: How to Enroll Students in the Required Classes in OSCampus

How to Create a Joomla Site for Online Events with JCal Pro

How to Create an Online Events Joomla Site with JCal Pro

One of the questions from our customers this week was how to create an online events site with JCal Pro.

JCal Pro is the best Joomla extension for managing calendaring events. It offers simplicity, flexibility, a robust feature set, and gorgeous templates to fit virtually any Joomla site.

Creating an online events Joomla site with JCal Pro takes four steps:

  1. Install JCal Pro.
  2. Create required JCal Pro events.
  3. Enable events registrations.
  4. Set the events display.

Let's take a look at these steps in more detail.

Read more: How to Create a Joomla Site for Online Events with JCal Pro

Interview with Richard Hughes from GingerWeb.co.uk

This week, we had the chance to interview one interesting customer from our Everything Club. Richard Hughes has been a Joomlashack customer since 2011. He has been running gingerweb.co.uk and building websites for clients since 2004.

In this blog post, you will learn:

  • How banter with a work colleague led Richard to the launch of his Joomla business.
  • One rock-solid marketing technique Richard has been using to consistently find Joomla clients.
  • The goal Richard aims to achieve in every Joomla project.
  • His three super tips for anyone starting a Joomla website building business.

Read more: Interview with Richard Hughes from GingerWeb.co.uk

Why We Use Recurring Subscriptions at Joomlashack

Why We Use Recurring Subscriptions at Joomlashack

Yes, we do use recurring subscriptions here at Joomlashack.

The main reason is that extensions and templates require continuous maintenance and development. Our team needs to upgrade the code for every new Joomla version, even the minor ones. We are also constantly updating them to work with other Joomla extensions, to fix bugs, and to meet the needs of third-party services such as Google and Mailchimp.

Here are 5 other key reasons why we use subscriptions:

Read more: Why We Use Recurring Subscriptions at Joomlashack