Tag Archives: Joomla

Packt Publishing 2010 Open Source Awards Winners

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The Packt Publishing Open Source Award 2010 winners are know known!

Open Source CMS

  1. Winner: CMS Made Simple
  2. 1st Runner up:  SilverStripe
  3. 2nd Runner up:  MODx

Hall of Fame CMS

  1. Winner: WordPress
  2. 1st Runner up:  Drupal
  3. 2nd Runner up:  Joomla!

Most Promising Open Source Project

Open Source E-Commerce Applications

  1. Winner: PrestaShop
  2. 1st Runner up: OpenCart
  3. 2nd Runner up: Tomato Cart  

Open Source Graphics Software

  1. Winner: Blender
  2. 1st Runner up: GIMP
  3. 2nd Runner up: Inkscape

Open Source JavaScript Libraries  

  1. Winner: jQuery
  2. 1st Runner up: Mootools and Raphaël

More information can be found at http://www.packtpub.com/open-source-awards-home

Joomla! 1.5 Cookbook

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Next month I will be reviewing the Joomla! 1.5 Cookbook by Packt Publishing.
This book has the same structure as the Joomla! 1.5 Templates Cookbook I reviewed earlier this year.

The book contains over 60 practical recipes covering a range of site management and core Joomla! activities and guides to use several handy Joomla! plugins.

This book is written for beginning and intermediate users of Joomla! 1.5 and 1.6 with or without knowledge about webdesign.

What you will learn from this book :

  • Install Joomla! on two different but common types of hosting; setting up the database on two common hosting platforms, cPanel® and GoDaddy.com®
  • Know your way around phpMyAdmin for some of the tasks you may face.
  • Install your template, assign it as the default and make changes to it.
  • Setup the basics of a Section and a Category to hold and manage content with.
  • Manage links, users and media
  • Install, assign, and create Modules and Components
  • Install and use K2
  • Install, configure and use of some select extensions.
  • Learn how to do the easy and medium difficulty tasks, designed to eliminate  a few of the issues you may experience.
  • Look at recipes that cover the portions of Joomla! 1.6 that are brand new

More information about the book can be found at Packt Publishings product page.

You can expect the review on my site within a month from today.

Joomla! 1.5 Templates Cookbook review

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I will be reviewing  the “Joomla! 1.5 Templates Cookbook” by Richard Carter, published by Packt Publishing. This book is about modifying Joomla! 1.5 Templates.

Packt Publishing asked me to review this book since it’s in my line of expertise.

A little about me:
I am Ramon “Ramoonus” van Belzen. A 22 year old web designer (HTML, CSS, microformats, JavaScript, AJAX, jQuery, PHP/MySQL) and hobby programmer (Visual Basic). I’ve been creating webpages since 1997.
I’ve been playing with Joomla! for more than three years now. I currently own no sites which run on Joomla! but I don’t see a reason why I shouldn’t be using it for one of my sites.
You can find my website on http://www.ramoonus.nl

The Joomla! 1.5 Templates Cookbook is one of Packt Publishing’s cookbook series meaning it contains loads of recipes. Each recipe is a small articles/paragraphs with an idea and how to work it out. Just like a regular cookbook.

As the title reveals this book is about Joomla! 1.5 templates. A template is the design which displays the Joomla! site. Without a template no content is displayed, you will only see blank pages.
This book can also be used for the future Joomla! 1.6, which is currently in beta status.

Continue reading →

Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development (Update)

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Packt Publishing released the book “Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development (Update)” which is an updated version of the original.

This book will guide you through the complexities of implementing add-ons, components, modules, and plugins in Joomla! 1.5. After learning the basics the books teaches you the more advanced stuff like modifying the database and building 3rd party applications using the API.

The book is written for PHP programmers and experience with the MVC design pattern is usefull.

What you will learn from this book :

  • Understand the structure and design of the Joomla! 1.5 framework and how it operates at its core to develop efficient and well-designed extensions for Joomla!
  • Extend the database conventions for the database schema and common fields
  • Access and manipulate the database with the help of JDatabase and JTable classes
  • Design extensions that work within the Joomla! structure
  • Incorporate User, Session, Request, and Browser classes in extensions
  • Organize your code with the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern
  • Build your own components to manage and present a specific set of data
  • Enhance our component by creating a module, which will add new functionality to our frontend
  • Modify your system’s functionality without the need to alter existing code
  • Discover how to add pagination, ordering, filtering, and searching to make your extensions more user-friendly, and increase the chances of having successfully created a commercially winning or freely available extension
  • Improve your extensions by customizing the document properties, adding multilingual capabilities, and providing an interactive user experience
  • Access remote third-party services from an application with Joomla!’s API (Application Programming Interface) and web service
  • Master the techniques of error handling and access control to prevent malicious attacks on your systems

If you`re interested in the book I`ve got the following article for you: Customize backend Component in Joomla! 1.5.

Joomla! 1.5 Templates Cookbook

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In the near future (next week) I will be reviewing “Joomla! 1.5 Templates Cookbook” by Packt Publishing.
The book teaches the reader how to modify and adapt Joomla! 1.5 templates to their wishes and optimise a template.

The book consists of a series of self-contained step-by-step recipes that cover everything from common tasks such as changing your site’s logo or favicon and altering color schemes, to custom error pages and template overrides.

The book is written for webdesigners and Joomla! users with experience in (X)HTML and CSS.

What you will learn from this book :

  • Get to grips with the basics of template design for Joomla! such as changing the logo and altering color schemes for your templates
  • Understand Joomla! concepts such as module chrome and template positions
  • Add a multilingual aspect to your website to cater to a larger audience
  • Create custom error templates and generate revenue by displaying advertisements on your website
  • Style Joomla!’s search results and customize Joomla!’s breadcrumb trail
  • Create attractive and functional print styles for your website to make your content printer-friendly
  • Customize the look and feel of your Joomla! website’s administration panel to match either your business or client identity
  • Create social bookmarks, embed videos, and add a shoutbox to your Joomla! website to make it more user-friendly
  • Integrate Joomla! with social media such as Twitter and YouTube
  • Create and specify mobile stylesheets for you Joomla! website to style your Joomla! website more effectively for mobile users
  • Use JavaScript to enhance your Joomla! templates
  • A wide range of miscellaneous tips, tricks, and tasks to help get your Joomla! website one step closer to perfection

This book should be available in your local book store at this time.