JCalPro final Joomla 1.5 release coming soon

JCal ProJCal Pro, one of the best-known Joomla extensions and a Top Ten winner in Joomlashack's Ultimate Top Ten Joomla Extensions survey, has a new release that is worthy of great attention from the Joomlaverse.

JCal Pro is the rare Joomla 1.5 extension that is taking huge leaps forward while maintaining excellent support.

And oh yeah- after years of asking, the most requested feature in the history of the JCal Pro series is about to be released!

Read more: JCalPro final Joomla 1.5 release coming soon

New Joomla Resource Directory drives strong traffic

The Joomlaverse was abuzz a few weeks ago about the launch of the Joomla Resource Directory, the Joomla community's official directory of designers, developers, and Joomla-related service providers. The directory, replete with listings for Joomlashack, our hosted and supported Joomla-on-demand service Simplweb, and Compass Designs, can be found at https://resources.joomla.org

But here's the big question: Is the JRD driving traffic to Joomla providers?

Read more: New Joomla Resource Directory drives strong traffic

Review of New Joomla Security Extension

Be sure to read a full description of SecureJoomla on in our Joomla Extensions and Components store.

Once in a while a product for Joomla comes along and really makes me sit up and pay attention. One such recent product was a <https://www.joomlashack.com/extensions/388-securejoomla-joomla-security-system">new Joomla security component called SecureLive. A simple module that you can install on your site and immediately secure Joomla more effectively.

Now, I'll admit to not knowing much about the hard core details of server and Joomla 1.5 security, so, I contacted someone who did, Tom Canavan, the author of Joomla! Security and a frequent speaker at Joomla events on the subject. I thought that we could install SecureLive on a real production site and we'd see if Mr Canavan could break in.

Over to you Mr Canavan....

Read more: Review of New Joomla Security Extension

10 Hours of Joomla Video Training Released

We are very excited that some great new resources to learn how to Joomla are now available, Joomla! 1.5: A User's Guide: Building a Successful Joomla! Powered Website (2nd Edition) and Fundamentals of Joomla! (Video Training)! The author is Joomlashack's own Barrie North.

10 Hours of Joomla Video Training Released The second edition of the book is an update of the best selling book on Joomla, bringing it up to date with the latest version of Joomla 1.5. It also has a completely new chapter on marketing your site and SEO, two topics that change continuously.

The Joomla Video Training is a completely new release. Its a packed 9 hour training video on Joomla 1.5. You can listen as I explain some of the most difficult Joomla concepts, like sections and categories and creating your site navigation.

If you'd like to get some insight into the background behind these new releases, you can head over to cmswire and Dee-Ann LeBlanc's interview about them.

Read more: 10 Hours of Joomla Video Training Released

New Update to Inspirion Joomla Template

Inspirion Joomla TemplateJoomlashack's Inspirion Joomla Template is one of the most innovative templates currently on the market. Its built using the 960 grid, a CSS system that gives you a tableless layout and a fast loading site, great for SEO!

Its one of the first commercial professional templates to validate XHTML Strict. This is a high benchmark to meet, and provides a great foundation to help you site rank in search engines.

On top of that, Inspirion has a full set of core Joomla template overrides. This means that your Joomla 1.5 site will be shown with no tables at all and makes use of semantic headings (h1-h3). I'll give you one guess why that is good!

I think that the Inspirion template might be the best template around for SEO right now. Making sure your template helps your SEO efforts, rather than hurts them, involves lots of factors, tabless layouts, valid code, semantic headings, SEO-friendly logo replacement- Inspirion has it all.

Read more: New Update to Inspirion Joomla Template

Ultimate Top Ten Joomla Extensions REVEALED

Last month Joomlashack asked our community, "What are the Top Ten Joomla extensions?" So what did 2,591 voters and 12,642 votes reveal?

Announcing the Joomlashack Ultimate Top Ten Joomla Extensions, with cash prizes to the top two extensions. The grand prize winners:

#1 Virtuemart, "the complete e-Commerce shopping cart solution for Joomla" wins a $200 donation from Joomlashack!

#2 JoomlaPack, "an open-source backup component" wins a $100 donation from Joomlashack!

Congratulations to these two high-profile open source projects. Both of these extensions are licensed under the GPL and are available for free on their project websites.

Now, what about the other 120+ extensions suggested and voted on? And oh yeah- what's the Top Ten?

Read about the official Joomlashack Top Ten- with a tie!

Read more: Ultimate Top Ten Joomla Extensions REVEALED

Millions and Millions of Joomla Sites

The Joomla Project announced last weekend that Joomla has been downloaded from its site ten million times. An impressive number worthy of attention.

The more interesting question is how many Joomla-powered website are there?

Read more: Millions and Millions of Joomla Sites

Beginner Joomla Training June 11th 2009

Need to learn Joomla in the New England Area? Our upcoming Beginner Joomla training on June 11th in Burlington, Vermont, still has a few spots available!

You can find out more about the class at Beginner Joomla Training June 11th Burlington, VT

How to Apply a Module Class Suffix in Joomla! 1.5

This tutorial will explain how to apply a module class suffix in Joomla!. This tutorial depends on the available styles for individual templates. Some settings may be different. See the templates corresponding docmentation for more information.

Go to your Joomla! administration console

How to Apply a Module Class Suffix in Joomla! 1.5

Go the administration of your website at ww.yourjoomlasite.com/administrator/

Login to your Joomla! administration

How to Apply a Module Class Suffix in Joomla! 1.5

Enter the username and password you created when installing Joomla!

Go to the Module Manager

How to Apply a Module Class Suffix in Joomla! 1.5

Navigate to Extensions > Module Manager

Go to the module you want to edit

How to Apply a Module Class Suffix in Joomla! 1.5

Select the module you want to apply the Module style..

Apply the Module Class Suffix into the parameters to the right

How to Apply a Module Class Suffix in Joomla! 1.5

Apply the Module Class Suffix. (S1 example shown)

Save the Module Setting

How to Apply a Module Class Suffix in Joomla! 1.5

Click Save

Understanding the Module Manager

Modules are the blocks of content in your site and are distinctively separate from your main content area. For example, a module may appear to the left,right,above, or below your main article content. The Module Manager allows you to customize each module to your preference.

To access the Module Manager in Joomla! 1.0: Navigate to Modules - > Site Modules
To access the Module Manager in Joomla! 1.5: Navigate to Extensions - > Module Manager

Each module in Joomla! has some persistent features. Below are the fields you will see in every module. Modules have more individual parameters but these are the most important ones to understand first.

Note: Some of the terminology is different across Joomla! 1.0 & Joomla! 1.5 but they both have the same functionality.

  • Title
  • Show Title
  • Enabled (1.5) / Published (1.0)
  • Position
  • Module Class Suffix
  • Pages/Items (1.0) / Menu Assignment (1.5)
  • Ordering

Title:

The title of the module is displayed above the module on the frontend. It is also called a "Module Heading". After a module is saved, the module's title is also shown in the Joomla! backend administration.

Show Title:

This setting allows you to specify whether or not the module's title should be visible on the frontend.

Enabled (1.5) / Published (1.0):

Allows you to enable (or publish) the select module. To enable a module only on specific pages see below *Pages/Items (1.0) / Menu Assignment (1.5)

Position:

A module position may be labeled as left, right, bottom, top, etc.
Module positions are defined by the template. If a module is published in a position that is not supported by the template, it will not show up. It is important to be aware of your template's supported module positions. In Joomla! 1.5, only the module positions of the default template are available in the module manager.

Module Class Suffix:

A module class suffix allows you to specify a preset style which is defined by the template. You'll need to consult your individual template documentation to see what module styles/suffixes are available.
(See also: How to apply a Module Class Suffix)

Pages/Items (1.0) / Menu Assignment (1.5):

When a module is enabled/published it can be assigned to all pages or pages specified in the Pages/Items (1.0) / Menu Assignment (1.5) dialog. Modules can only assigned to pages that have menu items.

Ordering:

You can set the order of a module to appear in the ordering dialog as well as the module manager main page by clicking the up/down arrows.