You have multiple content writers sending you their content, and you want to post their content using their name. The writers should not be able to add content themselves, but it is done by you.

The way Joomla! works, is that each user name has to have its own unique mail address, which is logical, but not very practical when they do not add their writings themselves. What you want is having multiple users sharing one mail address, so you do not have to set up mail addresses for all these users, which are not being used anyway.

There is a workaround to have Joomla! allow multiple users using the same mail address, but it requires a bit of changing code: 

• Fire up your favorite FTP application – I use CuteFTP – and go to your web server
• In your Joomla! install folder, go to folder libraries/joomla/database/table
• Download file user.php to your desktop (or a location you prefer) and create a safety copy of the original file (user-original.php or something similar)
• Open file user.php using Notepad and do a search for the phrase 'check for existing email'
• You will find the following code:

     // check for existing email
    $query = 'SELECT id'
     . ' FROM #__users '
     . ' WHERE email = '. $this->_db->Quote($this->email)
     . ' AND id != '. (int) $this->id
     ;
    $this->_db->setQuery( $query );
    $xid = intval( $this->_db->loadResult() );
    if ($xid && $xid != intval( $this->id )) {
     $this->setError( JText::_( 'WARNREG_EMAIL_INUSE' ) );
     return false;
    }
  

• Delete all of these lines (nothing more, nothing less) and save the file
• Upload file user.php to the server to the same location you retrieved it from – folder libraries/joomla/database/table – and overwrite the original file

Now Joomla! will allow multiple users using the same mail address!

Beware: when you update your Joomla! install, user.php will be overwritten and these changes will have to be done manually again!

Robin Roelofsen

"I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface."
Jaron Lanier

However, I set that site up in a temporary folder while my original site was still running on HTML. When I finished the Joomla! site, I backed up the site (using JoomlaPack, now changing names to Akeeba Backup), deleted the original site and extracted the backed-up site in the correct folder.

The problem with this way of setting up a site and copying it to another location is that Fantastico loses the connection with it, i.e. you won't see the copied site in Fantastico. This also means you will need to upgrade manually instead of using Fantastico's upgrade feature.

I hadn't upgraded Joomla! since version 1.5.15, and needed to upgrade it to the latest version, which is at the moment of this post version 1.5.17.

Luckily, when you are using cPanel, manually upgrading is peanuts!

• Backup your site and download the backup file
• Go to the Joomla! download page and download the desired upgrade package
• Open cPanel and go to File Manager
• In the root of your Joomla! installation, upload the package file using the Upload button
• When the file is uploaded, right click on the file and select Extract
• The extraction will overwrite the necessary files, and your Joomla! install will be upgraded!
• Remember to delete the uploaded file

It's as simple as that!

The only problem now is that, if you have made any changes in Joomla! proprietary files, these may have overwritten, and these changes will have to be made again. In the next post, I will describe one of these changes in more detail.

Happy upgrading!

Robin Roelofsen

"I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface."
Jaron Lanier

'Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site http://www.\<your site>/<your page>.html. Operation aborted'

I had this same problem happening on my site. I could not see the error myself as I am using IE 8, but visitors using a lower IE version frequently had this issue.

Apparently the error is caused by some scripting error, Microsoft admits there is a problem and recommends updating Internet Explorer to version 8, which solves the issue.

But not all users can update their IE version, or company policy prohibits to use a new, untested version on their company hardware. To accomodate all visitors, you will need to adjust your site to prevent this problem from interfering with your visitor's browsing experience.

I checked out this issue today after a visitor complaint, and came up with the following easy fix:

• Download component ReReplacer from the Joomla! Extensions site
• Install ReReplacer via Extensions | Install/Uninstall
• Go to the component via Components | ReReplacer
• Click the New icon to create a new item
• In the Name field in Details, type DomReady Replace (or something else to identify the item)
• In Search & Replace:
  • type domready in the Search box
  • type load in the Replace box

• In Search Areas, select Everywhere in the Enable in area dropdown box

• Click the Save icon, and check if the item is published
• Clean the cache by going to Tools | Clean Cache, select everything and click the Delete icon
• Clean the expired cache by going to Tools | Purge Expired Cache and click the Purge expired icon

The problem is now solved!

Robin Roelofsen

"I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface."
Jaron Lanier

My problem was a bit different: I want to clear all hits at the start of the month, so I can see which articles are most popular that month and so I can show the most popular ones on my site. Well… since I have sites with quite a lot of articles on them, I do not want to reset the hit counter for each article individually by hand, of course!

Browsing around a bit gave me the solution to this hits counter reset issue!

Most Joomla! sites will be hosted by a host providing cPanel. If not, you should have it!

The hits counter resides in your MySQL database in table jos_content. Of course, you need to know which database name you are using. You can find that in your Joomla! admin interface:

• Go to Site | Global Configuration
• Go to tab Server
• Under Database Settings, you can see the database name

Now to reset all counters for your Joomla! site:

• Log on to cPanel, scroll down to Databases and click on the phpMyAdmin icon
• In phpMyAdmin, go to tab SQL
• Type in the following command in the box:

use <full database-name>;
update jos_content set hits=0;

• … where the database name is the name you found in the Global Configuration
• Click the Start button

Example:

use johnny_jo100;
update jos_content set hits=0;

This will set all article hits counters to zero for that particular Joomla! site!

When you have multiple Joomla! sites residing on your host, you can set the hits counters for all sites to zero in one SQL query like this:

use <1st database name>;
update jos_content set hits=0;
use <2nd database name>;
update jos_content set hits=0;
use <3rd database name>;
update jos_content set hits=0;
use <4th database name>;
update jos_content set hits=0;
use <5th database name>;
update jos_content set hits=0;
use <6th database name>;
update jos_content set hits=0;

etcetera…

Save the commands in a text file, so you can use it next time as well.

The method is a bit tedious – Joomla! should have something like this built in, in my opinion, preferably with a time and date selection when the reset needs to happen – but at least it does the job!

Robin Roelofsen

"I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface."
Jaron Lanier

• subject line 'New entry added' to the administrator (me)
• subject line 'Your entry has been received' for the confirmation mail to the sender of the mail

There is no variable – yet – in the JForms interface to change that, and it looks quite unprofessional to the sender and is quite annoying for the admin when he or she runs multiple sites. The subject line should, in my humble opinion, at least give away the site name the mail is sent from, so the admin knows what action to take.

It took me some time, but I finally found the solution. It's requires going into a php file and changing stuff, but for most admins, that should not be a problem.

The solution

• Fire up your favorite FTP application (I use CuteFTP) and go to your Joomla! installation folder
• Go to folder /administrator/components/com_jforms/plugins/storage/Mail
• Download file mail.php to your desktop
• Make a security copy of the mail.php file, so you have a proper copy when things don't work out!
• Use a text editor (Notepad), make sure you turn Word Wrap off, and open the mail.php file
• Go to the following lines:

//$mail->setSender( array( $email, $name ) );
$mail->SetSubject(JText::_('New entry added'));
$mail->SetBody( $adminMessage );
$mail->Send();

• Change the text 'New entry added' in line $mail->SetSubject(JText::_('New entry added')); to the subject you want to use for the administrator mail. Make sure you do not delete the start or end quotes!
• Go to the following lines:

//$mail->setSender( array( $email, $name ) );
$mail->SetSubject(JText::_('Your entry has been received'));
$mail->SetBody($userMessage);
$mail->Send();

• Change the text 'Your entry has been received' in line $mail->SetSubject(JText::_('Your entry has been received')); to the subject you want to use for the confirmation mail the sender receives. Again, make sure you do not delete the start or end quotes!
• Save the mail.php file (WordWrap should be off, otherwise the file contents mash up!), open it again to ensure the file still looks good, and upload it to the folder you downloaded it from

This takes care of this tiny issue with JForms!

Robin Roelofsen

"I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface."
Jaron Lanier

When I went to my site and into one of the categories, everything looked as it should. However, when I refreshed the page using IE's Refresh button, all images on that page disappeared and did not return until I cleared my site's cache!

I was afraid it was a problem with the SEF (search engine friendly URLs) settings, and that was the case apparently. When I turned off sh404SEF, it did work correctly, but I wanted that plugin enabled, of course.

I went into the forums, and found the simple solution that solved the problem:

• In your Administrator interface, go to Extensions | Plugin Manager
• In the Select Type dropdown box on the right, select 'system'
• Make sure 'System – SEF' is the first plugin in the list of system plugins, so before the 'System – sh404sef' plugin

  

• Clear your cache and it all works correctly now!

I hope that, when you encounter the same issue with disappearing images in Joomla!, you can solve the problem using this fix as well!

Robin Roelofsen

"I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface."
Jaron Lanier

After a fresh install of Joomla! 1.5, I start adding my favorite extensions to the install. These are the extensions I use for each and every install, although I might run into an extension later I want to add to my main extensions list. In another post I will explain how you can install extensions into your Joomla! install.

My Favorite Joomla! Extensions

All of the extensions below will be explained in more detail later in the Extensions category on this blog, and will be linked to from this page. The extension name itself is linked to the extension’s page in the Joomla! extensions library.

sh404SEF
Joomla!’s URLs don’t look too good directly out of the box. You can select them to be more search engine friendly (SEF), but sh404SEF does the job a whole lot better. This extension is commercial nowadays, but it is worth the investment. I still use the free version, though.

JCE
The built-in editor in every Joomla! install is called TinyMCE. TinyMCE is workable, but when you want to have a decent editor with a lot more options and possibilities, look no further than JCE. There are a lot of extensions for JCE specifically (make sure to install the free JCE Utilities from JCE itself), so you can modify the editor to your liking.

JoomlaPack
Every website needs to be backed up, and JoomlaPack is the best for Joomla! websites. It also creates backups with an automatic installer, so you can prepare your site, back it up and install it in its final location.

Xmap
No website is complete without a site map, and Xmap creates them on the fly whenever the site is updated.

BIGSHOT Google Analytics
As a savvy webmaster, you will want to have a deeper insight in your traffic. Google Analytics provides that – for free – and BIGSHOT Google Analytics places it on your Joomla! pages easily.

SEO Simple
Joomla! does not give you the possibility to add meta tags to your section and category pages. SEO Simple automatically takes the first part of the text on your page and adds that to the page as a description tag.

Language Pack
When you’re building sites in another language than English, you will want to change the site’s frontend and – maybe – backend to the desired language. There are translations in loads of languages available via the link.

JForms
To build contact forms, JForms is the best! I tried several others, and – even though it has its flaws – I stopped at JForms.

JComments
The best way to keep visitors coming back is by allowing them to participate on your site. JComments does the best job here.

Ninja RSS Syndicator
This extension allows you to create custom RSS feeds for each and every section and category combination you want.

AddThis
When you want your visitors to list your site on social bookmarking sites, this extension gives them that opportunity straight from your site.

Banner Slider
I was looking to add banners to my site, but wanted to have them change during a visitor’s stay. Banner Slider provides an easy way of showing multiple banners in one spot where you want them to show up.

Front-end Font Size Adjuster
To facilitate the seniors and people with poor eye vision, it is great to enable them to increase or decrease the font size used on your site. This extension is the best I found.

Missing Metadata
When you create a lot of content, you will definitely sometimes forget to add the necessary metadata to an article. This extension shows you which articles’ meta data fields have not been filled.

MultiAds
To place Google Adsense ads (or any other types of ads) on your articles, MultiAds is the easiest and most versatile solution.

Simple RSS Feed Reader
I make use of many RSS feeds on my sites to give the visitors fresh content regularly. This extension does a great job doing that.

Phew! That was it! These are the main extensions I use on my sites. In future posts, I will explain the details of each extension, plus how you can best put them to use.

Robin Roelofsen

"I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface."
Jaron Lanier

There are two ways to go about this, depending on your preference and your host’s possibilities:

• Setting up Joomla! using the download from joomla.org
• Setting up Joomla! using your host’s cpanel interface

My only experience with setting up Joomla! (and the most convenient and easy option) is the latter: setting up Joomla! using cpanel.

Does your host not have cpanel or another interface that allows easy setup of Joomla!? In that case, you will have to use the manual install of Joomla! using the download the people from Joomla! provide. Via this page you can download the latest version of Joomla! plus the PDF Installation Manual and Quick Start Guide.

Using cPanel To Set Up Joomla! 1.5

I use a great and inexpensive host in the US to host all my websites called Hostgator. I can host all my sites using one account, the tech help is awesome, and the monthly fee is negligible.

Hostgator gives you access to cPanel to manage everything about your websites, from files to security, database management and a whole lot more. One of cPanel’s nifty features is a service called Fantastico DeLuxe.

Fantastico allows easy setup of all kinds of software onto your host, including blogs, forums, e-commerce solutions and wikis. The option we are interested in here is the possibility to set up a content management system to run our site. Fantastico gives a lot of possibilities here, but the one we are going to use is Joomla 1.5.

To enable me to show you what I am talking about in this blog I will set up a fresh Joomla! installation called joomlademo and refer to that in my posts. I expect you will have your own host set up with a domain name you can set up your installation on.

The first step is to click on the Joomla 1.5 link. Fantastico comes up with screen Installing Joomla 1.5 (1/3):

In this screen, you need to set:

• The domain you install Joomla! on ( I blurred the names in my setup for understandable reasons)
• The directory in which you want to install Joomla! (leave blank when you want Joomla! to install in the root of the domain)
• The administrator name (you can change this later on)
• The administrator password
• The administrator e-mail address
• The full name of the administrator (how you want to be called in Joomla!)
• The name of the site
• Install Sample Data: nice when you want to see how a site is set up, but for a new install you actually want to use, make sure you uncheck this box

Press the Install Joomla 1.5 button:

In this screen the install program shows you the location of the Joomla! install you have selected, plus the MySQL database name it created for this installation.

Press the Finish installation button:

Joomla! 1.5 has now been installed, and this screen gives you the necessary information to go to the administrator area.

For your administration, fill in your mail address and press Send E-mail to get all details for the installation, which will definitely come in handy when you want to manually adjust data in your MySQL database.

When you have finished, you can click the Back to Joomla 1.5 overview and close cPanel.

You can now visit the administrator area by going to http://www.yourdomain/administrator/, or – when you installed Joomla! in a separate directory – to http://www.yourdomain/directory/administrator/.

In the next post, we will start preparing Joomla! to get the best results possible!

Robin Roelofsen

"I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface."
Jaron Lanier

What is Joomla!?

Joomla! is the most popular Open Source Content Management System in the world at this moment.

Joomla! is on version 1.5 right now (at the time of this writing, it actually is on version 1.5.15), and efforts are being made to get version 1.6 out in the near future. I will concentrate on version 1.5 for now and get to 1.6 when it actually comes out.

I give you the definition of a content management system as it is given on the Joomla! website:

A content management system is software that keeps track of every piece of content on your Web site, much like your local public library keeps track of books and stores them. Content can be simple text, photos, music, video, documents, or just about anything you can think of. A major advantage of using a CMS is that it requires almost no technical skill or knowledge to manage. Since the CMS manages all your content, you don’t have to.

Joomla! can be used for all kinds of websites, including corporate websites, online newspapers, portals and personal websites.

If you want to know more about Joomla!, check out this link.

What is Open Source?

The definition of Open Source is (from SearchEnterpriseLinux.com):

1) In general, open source refers to any program whose source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit. Open source software is usually developed as a public collaboration and made freely available.

2) Open Source is a certification mark owned by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). Developers of software that is intended to be freely shared and possibly improved and redistributed by others can use the Open Source trademark if their distribution terms conform to the OSI’s Open Source Definition. To summarize, the Definition model of distribution terms require that:

The software being distributed must be redistributed to anyone else without any restriction.

The source code must be made available (so that the receiving party will be able to improve or modify it).

The license can require improved versions of the software to carry a different name or version from the original software.

My take on Joomla! is, that it is a great system to build beautiful, comprehensive websites, which gives you an easily manageable interface to set up the site the way you want it to look and work. The unbelievable amount of free and paid extensions makes Joomla! the most versatile CMS platform around!

Robin Roelofsen

"I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface."
Jaron Lanier

Robin Roelofsen

"I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface."
Jaron Lanier