The Joomlashack Blog
Joomlashack University matriculates full charter class
- Written by Tom Elliott Tom Elliott
- Published: 27 October 2009 27 October 2009
The much anticipated launch of our interactive learning environment for Beginner Joomla, Joomlashack University, did not disappoint last week. In less than 24 hours we sold out all 100 seats in the inaugural Shack U class of October 2009- and then some!
Joomlashack University is our attempt to make learning Joomla online a fun, interactive, affordable, and "at your own pace" experience. Instructors Forest Linden and Barrie North are guiding the first class through the very basics of getting a Joomla website installed, set up, and built with compelling content.
Read more: Joomlashack University matriculates full charter class
New Online Joomla Training Course
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 07 October 2009 07 October 2009
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.
Joomlashack Loves NY Joomla Day
- Written by Tom Elliott Tom Elliott
- Published: 05 October 2009 05 October 2009
Start spreading the news... Joomlashack is coming to New York for the 3rd annual New York Joomla Day on Monday, October 12!
Joomlashack's Barrie North will present two workshops this year, "Black Belt Joomla" and "Search Engine Marketing Smackdown" along with our friend Steve Burge from Joomlashack.
Vote for Joomlashack's Inspirion Template
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 24 September 2009 24 September 2009
We are excited that the Packt Publishing Best Joomla! Theme award includes our own Joomla template Inspirion.
This Award features five finalist Joomla! themes and extensions that have been selected by the Joomla! project representatives.
Help us out and please head on over to Packt and vote!
Get A Free Copy of Our New Template
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 24 September 2009 24 September 2009
Its been awhile since we have had some X / Twitter Fun. A couple of months ago we had the The Great Joomlashack Tweetaway using X / Twitter.
This time, we have made it super simple..
Follow Joomlashack on X / Twitter and you'll get entered into a drawing for a free copy of our new template!
Joomlashack's New Joomla Template - eBusiness
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 24 September 2009 24 September 2009
Need a rock solid template and SEO platform for your Joomla website? You need the latest Joomla template from Joomlashack - JS eBusiness
JS eBusiness is a web 2.0 template with lots of white space, bold fonts and raw SEO power.
With a powerful CSS grid framework, flexible layouts and modules and a big bag of SEO tricks, JS eBusiness makes a perfect Joomla template for business and organizations launching themselves into the web 2.0 world.
Joomla Templates, Frameworks and the 960 Grid
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 18 September 2009 18 September 2009
Last week I blogged about the Fastest Joomla Template in the World. In a related topic, today I wanted to talk about how frameworks and grids are being used in our Joomla templates, and why we have come to adopt the 960 grid system for our future template releases.
At Joomlashack, we focus on clean, deceptively simple templates that are easy to customize, and look great. We've been using our own "framework" in use for a couple of years now, and included such Joomla template innovations such as dynamic width switchers and source ordering.
How to Create a Custom Module Graphic
- Written by TJ Baker TJ Baker
- Published: 16 September 2009 16 September 2009
This tutorial will show you how to make custom image based modules in Fireworks using masking techniques aimed at the Luhs template design. Navigate to your downloaded package to the Graphic Source Files folder and open custom_module_graphic.png in Fireworks.
If you would like to see a video of this tutorial as well you can download the QuickTime movie here.
Small 640x480 (1.5 mb)
Large H.264 1080 (13.5 mb)
You will see a screen similar to this one.
(click for larger)
Choose the SubSelect tool.
Draw a box over the shape just large enough to select the corner nodes as shown below.
The corner nodes are sub-selected.
Hold down Shift to keep the mouse straight or use the arrow keys to resize the shape vertically.
The shape is resized.
Choose the select tool.
and select the top shape.
Choose Edit > Cut.
The shape is loaded onto the clipboard.
Select the image and resize it. (Cmd+T)
You can temporarily lower the opacity in the layers palette to see the underlying shape.
Once resized, choose Modify > Mask > Paste as Mask.
You can return the opacity back up.
Use the text tool to add some graphic text to the image.
Select all by choosing (Cmd+A) , then right click the graphic and choose "Insert Rectangular Slice"
Whwn the popup appears asking you to choose Single or Multiple slices, choose "Single".
Name the slice in the properties palette to "custom_mod"
*If not shown choose Window > Properties to show the palette.
The last step is to export the image to a place on your local computer by choosing File > Export.
Choose "Images Only" and make sure the name of the file is "custom_mod.png"
To convert to a module just log in to your Joomla admin console and choose New.
Paste the code below into the editor ( in html edit mode) with these settings and save.
Show Title = No
Published = Yes
<div align="center"><img style="margin: 0px;" width="194" height="173" src="https://yourdomain.com/path/to/images/stories/custom_mod.png" alt="Alt Description" title="My Description" /></div>
Important. Modules in the Lush Template right hand position must be no larger than 194px wide!
The World's Fastest Joomla Template
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 14 September 2009 14 September 2009
Introducing the fastest template in the world!
From our popular Joomla template tutorial series, we are proud to announce that CSSTemplateTutorial2 clocks in at under 30KB, making it the fastest joomla template in the world!
And its free!
Joomlashack Gets 2nd place in iContact API Competition
- Written by Barrie North Barrie North
- Published: 01 September 2009 01 September 2009
iContact have recently released the second version of their API, and along with it, we upgraded our popular email component for Joomla we call JContact.
iContact were running a contest for API applications, and we are excited to announce that we grabbed second place!
Email marketing service iContact announced the winners of their API Challenge, a contest for partners and customers of iContact that asked them to build an integration between third party applications and iContact.
2nd place was given to Joomlashack, a team of designers, developers and technicians in the Joomla community, which came up with JContact. They received $2,000 cash. Barrie North, a user and designer of JContact explained: “We have been long-time fans of iContact. We built a component called JContact that leverages the new iContact API to integrate Joomla registration with iContact, and uses best industry opt-in practices to do so. We also gave it away for free!”
Read more: Joomlashack Gets 2nd place in iContact API Competition