Periodically (every few weeks it seems) Joomla issues new releases of its current version of Joomla software. As of this writing the most current version and release is Joomla 1.5.13. The Joomla version is 1.5 and the release is 13 or all together Joomla! 1.5.13.

 

Read more...

How to quickly setup blogs using Sections, Categories and Articles in Joomla! 1.5

Key Points

• You need to have at least one Section
• You need to have at least one Category under that Section
• You need to create a Menu Item to either the Section Blog or the Category Blog
• You can also setup a blog on your home page using the articles you have checked for your home page and a corresponding Menu item.

by Shelley Lowery

If you're looking for new ways to drive traffic to your web site, using social bookmarking sites may be your answer.

Social bookmarking is a system or network where members of the network are able to list or bookmark web sites that they like for various reasons. The members list is accessible by other members of the network. In addition, lists of sites can be created 'on the fly' by typing in keywords, known as tags in the world of social bookmarking. They may also find lists of sites based on categories, topics, or even random selections.

Many things can be bookmarked and accessed through social bookmarking, including web pages, feeds, videos, audios, shopping, maps, and more. The possibilities are virtually limitless.

Note from SonicFog:
All websites designed and built by SonicFog have the same capability that you see with this article with regards to Social Bookmarking.  You can see the social bookmarking icons below every article on SonicFog. We can add this functionality into your SonicFog designed site as well.

Read more...

by Shelley Lowery

Your key to success in online marketing and promotion is your web site. From your title, keywords, meta tags, and text, to your over all site design, each plays a very important role when optimizing your site. If your site doesn't rank in the top 10 or 20 when doing a keyword search at the top search engines, your target audience won't be able to find you. About 80 percent of all web site traffic originates from the eight major search engines. Most people will go to a search engine, type in a keyword or keyword phrase and look through the top 10 - 20 results. Most of the time they'll find what they're looking for in the first 10 results. The percentage of click throughs are even smaller. Listing near the top and grabbing the attention of your target audience is the top priority. There are many components of your web page that you should pay close attention to when preparing it for listing in a search engine. The first step towards improving your listing is selecting the best keywords and keyword phrases that best reflect your web page. Keywords are the foundation of your web presence in the search engines.
Read more...

This article is targeted toward Joomla developers.

The developers of Joomla! tout the new version (1.5) as a dream for extension developers because of of JFactory and how easy it is to access everything you need. That is probably true, but if you are a developer that is familiar with Joomla 1.0 you may be challenged, at least at first, to find the things you need.

This article tackles on aspect of finding the things you need as a Joomla! 1.5 extension developer, the JUser object.

Each time index.php is called the JFactory class of methods is invoked. This make a lot of extension classes available. One of these is JUser. You can call this class by using the following code.

<?php $user =& JFactory::getUser(); ?>

Read more...

If you are one of the many thousands of website owners using Joomla Content Management System ( CMS ) then you are probably considering upgrading from Joomla 1.0.1x to Joomla 1.5.x. If you do not upgrade then your Joomla website is stuck in 2008. No new templates, components, modules or plugins for your site. If you are perfectly happy with what you have now, good for you! Now for the rest of us.

Maybe you are thinking, "Don't you guys offer the upgrade service for $200? Aren't you giving away the secret sauce? Well, maybe but hey, its the age of collaboration. Some of you are going to work your way through this regardless of how easy or difficult it may seem. Others may realize from reading this that they are better off not putting the hours in on this. Either way, everyone wins.

Step 1 - Backup your entire website and database. There is a chance that you won't like the result, or that there will be a server glitch, or even that it's just taking too long, and you'll need to revert to your old website.
If you host your site with SonicFog, we store a daily backup for you which can easily be restored.
Read more...

How organizable (not static) content breaks down

Key Points:

• Every Joomla site must have one or more content Sections
• Each Section must have at least one (or more) Categories
• Content Items (or pages, or articles) fall into these Categories
• These Items can form into Blogs, News Pages, Journals, Directories, etc

Static (Stand Alone) Content from the Backend

Key Points:

• Static content does not belong to any Section or Category.
• Static content does not form into blogs, journals, news items or books.
• Static content items are stand-alone pages like Privacy Policy or About Us.

A content overview from the frontend.

Key Points:

• Two types of content
  • Categorized
  • Uncategorized - known in Joomla as "Static"
• Static Content stands alone. Not for use as news, journals, or blogs.
• Categorized Content breaks into:
  • Sections - there must be at least one content section
  • Categories - each section must have at least one category.
  • Items or articles
• Categorized Content Articles easily group into blogs, journals or news items.