Create a Test Site Joomla 2.5 or 1.5

We all do it sometimes. We download and test out something new. It breaks something and we scream. We scream because we tested it out on our live site.
 
Testing something new on your live site is a recipe for disaster. You need a test site. Here's how to set one up with either Joomla 2.5 or 1.5.

Read more: Create a Test Site Joomla 2.5 or 1.5

How to Upgrade Joomla 1.6 to 2.5

You're still on Joomla 1.6? Yikes. Joomla 1.6 is over a year old now and isn't supported any more because there have been several new versions since then.

OK, I'm not going to give you too much of a hard time. You might have been busy, maybe you're taking over someone's website or you might be stuck on Joomla 1.6 for one of a hundred other reasons.

Let's focus on getting you upgraded to Joomla 2.5 which is the latest and most secure version.

Read more: How to Upgrade Joomla 1.6 to 2.5

jUpgrade Undefined Property and Pausing Problems


Now that Joomla 2.5 is upon us, and support for 1.5 will be going away, the decision to migrate is a hot topic.

Back in July, we wrote a very detailed tutorial on how to migrate using the jUpgrade extension. This tutorial is a follow-up. Migrating large sites can be a tricky task and in this tutorial we'll show you how to overcome two of the most frequently encountered problems with jUpgrade.

Read more: jUpgrade Undefined Property and Pausing Problems

25 Improvements in Joomla 2.5

joomla25Joomla 2.5 is the third version to be launched using Joomla's new release cycle. After the launch of 1.6 in January and 1.7 in July, the benefits of the new realease cycle are really becoming clear. Releases are on time, well organized and increasingly contain a lot of great improvements.

In this tutorial we're going to focus on the upgrades to the Joomla 2.5 administrator area. We've collected 25 of the most useful improvements.

Read more: 25 Improvements in Joomla 2.5

Editing Options for Joomla's Contacts Component

Is your Joomla contact form not showing correctly despite what you've selected to show? It could be your global options are overriding your options.

This tutorial will show you how to edit your Contacts options.

If you're new to Joomla and want to see how to create these forms, read this guide: How to create Joomla contact forms.

Read more: Editing Options for Joomla's Contacts Component

Ordering Articles, Menus and Modules in Joomla

Reordering Articles, Menus and Modules in Joomla

This is a tutorial that will show you how to reorder articles, menu links, modules in Joomla 1.5 and 2.5. The same technique also applies to sections, categories, plugins and more ... in fact almost anything that you'd want to reorder in a Joomla site.

The process is slightly different in both versions so we've divided the tutorial in two sections: one for 1.5 and another for 2.5.

Read more: Ordering Articles, Menus and Modules in Joomla

HikaShop - Ecommerce for Joomla

HikaShop is a relatively new shopping cart for Joomla. It's becoming a strong competitor to Virtuemart, and we're starting to get more and more questions about it from students. HikaShop comes in both a free version and two levels of commercial versions.

Since HikaShop is fully integrated with Joomla, you can get started very quickly. However, you do have to learn some new ideas on how to enter products. In this tutorial we'll show you everything you'll need to get up and running with HikaShop.

You can also read our tutorials on other Joomla ecommerce solutions: Virtuemart, RokQuickCart, SimpleCaddy, K2Mart and building a custom cart.

If you want to go further, we have a 20 video training class on Hikashop.

Read more: HikaShop - Ecommerce for Joomla

The Ultimate Joomla Admin Templates Guide

template thumbnailThe current Joomla admin template called Blue Stork has improvements over the 1.5 version, but that doesn't mean it can't be improved as well.

Joomla 1.6 / 1.7 is the first version to ship with more than one design for the admin area - it included Hathor in addition to Blue Stork. Several template designers have also created templates that aim to make it easier to use, look more attractive and have additional functionality.

In this guide we're going to show you all of the options that you have for redesigning your Joomla admin area.

Read more: The Ultimate Joomla Admin Templates Guide

How to Use the Gantry Framework for Joomla

Gantry is a very popular design framework that is available for both Joomla and WordPress. It is built on a 12 column, 960 Grid System layout (you can find out more about grid systems here).

All Rockettheme templates and themes are now based on Gantry because it offers a wide-range of features that don't have to be re-written for each design. Because of this, not only Rockettheme, but also quite a few independent designers use Gantry to speed up their work.

Read more: How to Use the Gantry Framework for Joomla

How to Use sh404SEF for Joomla

sh404sefFor years sh404SEF has been an important SEO extension for Joomla. It handles your URLs, your metadata and has even started to add features such as security, analytics and QR codes.

The purpose of this tutorial is to get you started with a quick setup and enough skill to manage sh404SEF successfully. A note before we start: this is a commercial extension.

Read more: How to Use sh404SEF for Joomla