The Joomlashack Blog
Add a List of Related Articles to Your Joomla Site
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 10 January 2010 10 January 2010
This tutorial will show you how to create a list of related articles for your Joomla website.
You can see an example on the right-hand side of this site in the "Related Articles" module. Joomla is analysing the keywords in the current article and automatically listing other articles that have the most matching keywords. Related articles lists are:
- ... good for Search Engine Optimization because the search engines can find accurate and descriptive links to other pages on your site.
- ... good for your users because they can find other articles similar to the one they're already reading ... which is good for you because they may stay on your site longer
In order to create our list, we're going to need three extensions: a component, a module and a plugin. Let's get them up and running on our Joomla site:
- Step 1: Click here to download the latest version of the "FJ Related" component.
- Step 2: Click here to download the latest version of the "FJ Related Articles Plus" module.
- Step 3: Click here to download the latest version of the "Add Keywords" plugin.
- Step 4: Go to the administrator area of your site, Extensions >> Install / Uninstall and upload all three.
- Step 5: Go to Extensions >> Plugin Manager and enable the "System - Add Keywords" plugin.
- Step 6: Go to Extensions >> Module Manager and enable the "Related Articles" module.
Once you've followed those six steps, your related articles list should start working.
A note of caution: the "Add Keywords" plugin will automatically generate keywords for all your articles. You don't have to do anything. However, to reduce the amount of work your site has to do, it may not create the keywords automatically. Have patience and the links will show reasonably quickly.
10 Must Have Joomla Extensions
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 10 January 2010 10 January 2010
- Joomla Content Editor (JCE). Far better than the normal content editor.
- Mass Content. Allows you to create large numbers of articles very quickly.
- Lazy Backup. Emails you a daily back up of your entire database.
- Joomlapack. Makes it simple to back up and also move a Joomla site.
- XMap. Makes creating sitemaps very, very easy.
- Jumi. Allows you to paste any kind of code into Joomla. Normally the editor makes a mess of Javascript, PHP and other code.
- eXtplorer. You can edit all your files directly from inside Joomla.
- K2. If you want something more sophisticated than Section / Category / Article, you need K2. The next version promises to be even better.
- Metamod. Much more flexibility for modules. You can set start and finish dates, show different modules for different countries and much more.
- Sobi2. Capable of handling almost any kind of directory. Need a listing of staff members? a business yellow pages? Sobi2 can handle it.
Coda Clips For Creating Joomla 1.5 Templates
- Written by James Hafner James Hafner
- Published: 28 December 2009 28 December 2009
This post is for all of you Mac fans out there, specifically those using the excellent Coda editor by Panic. I could preach all day long about how using a quality code editor like Coda can both speed up your coding as well as make your coding better.
One brilliant little function of Coda is that it has a built-in code snippet collector called 'Clips'. What's even more brilliant is that Coda gives developers a way to share groups of these clips with each other. I was inspired by our friend Jon from Zuno Studios when he released a few clip groups relating to Joomla 1.5 development a few months ago. His clips are specifically geared towards developers creating extensions, and if you're at that level I highly recommend checking out his handy clips.
Since more of my day-to-day work involves creating templates, I put together a set of clips that I use almost daily for creating Joomla 1.5 templates. Lucky for you Coda users out there, I've packaged them up in a tidy group that you can download.
X / Twitter Hacked - could it happen to you?
- Written by Tom Cannan Tom Cannan
- Published: 18 December 2009 18 December 2009
On 12/17/2008 around 7:00 PM EST , X / Twitter.com was hacked by a group claiming to be the Iranian Cyber Army. The actual attack was a DNS Hijacking (or DNS Poisoning) that resulted in X / Twitter Users being directed to a page of their choosing. In this example here is what they posted:
This old school defacement actually was conducted by 'hijacking' the sites DNS - how they accomplished this is still unknown, the fact is they did. What exactly is a DNS Poisoning or Hijacking?
How to Handle Request Variables in Joomla!
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 15 December 2009 15 December 2009
One of the most important aspects of extension development is gathering input from the user and manipulating it in a meaningful way. Many times, you will collect data with a form and then store it into a database table. Other times, you will decide how to order or display information to the user based on the query string of the URL. In either instance, you are taking and acting upon input from the user. Obviously, you hope that your users have good intentions in using your extension, but unfortunately, the reality is that not everyone has your best interests in mind. For that reason, you must be careful about the input that you allow into your extension.
What's that smell? It's Packets!
- Written by Tom Cannan Tom Cannan
- Published: 12 December 2009 12 December 2009
A detailed look at the Wireshark protocol analyzer
Greetings, In this article I want to discuss the other powerful tool a systems administrator should know about. It is called Wireshark (from Wireshark.org). Wireshark is in essence a sniffer, in that it can listen in on the packets on the wire and tell you whats what. Officially its called a protocol analyzer which is more true to its mission. In this article I want to share with you a few items of value about Wireshark, and why you should get to know this tool better.
I think that as technical people we get lulled into a dull sense of safety with tools, for example a reliance on a control panel tool that identifies bad guys by their actions and blocks their IP's. This is for sure a good thing, but it is not the only thing. With tools like Wireshark, we can peer into the activity of our server and see what is going on at the packet level. A client some months ago came to JoomlaRescue.com and was having a problem with continually being hacked. We tracked it down to a compromised (vulnerable) FTP software that had allowed them in. However we found they were using FTP through the use of Wireshark.
This is important because if you were unfortunate enough to have a bad guy insert this INTO your network he could eavesdrop on everything you do. However - in this use case, it is being demonstrated as diagnostic tool.
For the purposes of this article I ran Wireshark on MY personal machine only. It was never allowed outside my network, so in other words, everything you see here came to my machine using normal, everyday browsing techniques.
10 Spots Left in 2nd Joomlashack University Class
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 09 December 2009 09 December 2009
Joomlashack University - the fastest and easiest way to learn Joomla is about to close its doors for the second time.
If you haven't heard, Joomlashack University is our new Joomla training course. Its delivered 100% online so you can learn at your own pace, and in the comfort of your own home. Each month we open to only a few students, and then stop taking on subscribers. This makes sure our teacher-student ratio is low and everyone's questions are quickly answered.
In November we opened our doors for 200 students have have about 10 spots left. We will be stopping open enrollment next Monday 14th of December, but these last 10 spots will probably go by the end of today!
Read more: 10 Spots Left in 2nd Joomlashack University Class
How to Add CSS/Javascript to Your Joomla Extension
- Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
- Published: 07 December 2009 07 December 2009
This article applies to Joomla! 1.5 development. This information is subject to change in Joomla! 1.6.
When writing your custom component or module, more often than not, you will want to include your own CSS or Javascript code. If Joomla! did not provide an easy way to do this, you would be forced to use script tags throughout your code. While this approach would technically work, the best practice is to put all scripts inside the head tag of your page. How is that possible when the of your page is only seen on your template index.php file and you're developing a new module or component? The JDocument class is the answer. Let's look at the easiest way to go about doing this.
Read more: How to Add CSS/Javascript to Your Joomla Extension
Nmap In detail
- Written by Tom Cannan Tom Cannan
- Published: 06 December 2009 06 December 2009
In our previous articles, we discussed at a high level a few tools, the first of which was Nmap from insecure.org. In this article I want to give you a short primer on Nmap and some of the popular methods to use this powerful tool.
Joomla SEO Templates the Right Way
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 26 November 2009 26 November 2009
Since 2005, Joomlashack has been creating Joomla templates that are ideal for Search Engine Optimization of a Joomla website. Back in 2006 we wrote the first available guide for SEO for Joomla, and also a guide for creating source ordered templates that's been used by thousands of designers.
Our first SEO templates in 2006 were super-lightweight ones like Simplicity and Lightfast, that the competition took years to catch up with, but over the last few months we have developed a breed of special Joomla templates that provide a rock solid foundation for your site; Inspirion, eBusiness and now JS Community.
How do you set up SEO optimized Websites? Do you want to learn SEO? Would be interested in SEO lessons? SEO Courses? SEO video tutorials? SEO Training? Conversion optimization lessons? Conversion optimization courses. Conversion optimization video tutorials. Conversion optimization training.