Joomla hands-on training, Quezon City, Philippines

Conducted yet another comprehensive Joomla hands-on training last Dec. 12-13. Participants are already Joomla users so the sessions were adjusted for an advanced coverage of the topic include even Joomla security, SEO, analytics, and more.

If interested for such training in Metro Manila, which is very accessible (being located within the Cubao, Quezon City area), contact ACE I.T. Learning Solutions.

Apache, MySQL and PHP (AMP) for MAC = MAMP

Got an Adobe newsletter this week featuring MAMP which is an acronym that stands for Mac, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Article here: http://www.adobe.com/newsletters/edge/december2009/articles/article2/index.html?trackingid=FBTRR#item3

Just spreading the word...

To note:

"Be aware that the current WAMP installer includes PHP 5.3.0. (to date)... Joomla and Drupal are not yet compatible with PHP 5.3.0. WordPress is compatible with PHP 5.3.0, but you need to make a small edit to the php.ini file to manually set the time zone for your location.

In Drupal, the following error occurs when you run the installation wizard:

Deprecated: Function ereg() is deprecated in C:\wamp\www\drupal\includes\file.inc on line 895

If you are using WAMP, you can address this error by downloading the latest 5.2.x version of PHP. Click the WAMP icon in the system tray and choose PHP > Version > Get More. The current MAMP installer ships with PHP 5.2.10, so this issue does not affect MAMP and Mac users."

AMP on!

Joomla Website Security and Maintenance Training (IFES.org.ph)

Conducted a 2-day training on Joomla Website Security and Maintenance for IFES.org.ph (http://www.ifes.org.ph) staff with primary purpose of web backup and recovery processes.

Tools used and recommended:

• FileZilla
• Dreamweaver
• MySQL GUI Tools (administrator)
• Google Web tools and services (Optimizer, Analytics, etc.)
• XAMPP/WampServer
  

Cool office, lots of food :D, great company! Hope to work with you guys again...

E-Commerce Website project, review of CMS...

Am doing heavy research for an e-commerce pet project these days... to date the ff. are noteworthy:

Magento

Magento is an interesting platform for your e-commerce website. It's modular architecture and unprecedented flexibility means your business is no longer constrained by your eCommerce platform. Magento is total control.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is professional e-Commerce shopping cart software that you can download and use for free. It supports a lot of interesting features for a total control of your e-Commerce shop.

Drupal e-commerce

Drupal e-Commerce is a package of modules to let you create your own online store. It is totally free, open source, rich featured and flexible. The system can use PayPal, Authorize.net, eWAY, C.O.D. or you can roll your own.

Zen-Cart

Zen Cart truly is the art of e-commerce; free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart software. The ecommerce web site design program is being developed by group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think ecommerce web design could be and should be done differently.

CubeCart

CubeCart is an "out of the box" ecommerce shopping cart software solution which has been written to run on servers that have PHP & MySQL support. With CubeCart you can quickly setup a powerful online store which can be used to sell digital or tangible products to new and existing customers all over the world.

osCommerce

osCommerce is an Open Source online shop e-commerce solution that is available for free under the GNU General Public License. It features a rich set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain online stores with minimum effort and with no costs, fees, or limitations involved.

VirtueMart

VirtueMart is not a CMS but an Open Source E-Commerce solution to be used together with Joomla! (and Mambo). Joomla! and VirtueMart are written in PHP and made easy for use in a PHP/MySQL environment.

FatFreeCart

FatFreeCart is a free shopping cart developed by the team behind E-junkie shopping cart. It works inside your website, your blog and will even work from your MySpace page. It is simply a copy-paste cart and does not require you to register with us or install anything. It works with PayPal and Google Checkout. It supports product variations, shipping, handling and sales tax.

More issues to follow... am sure... :D

First Issue with PrestaShop, an E-Commerce CMS

http://www.prestashop.com/
Installer: prestashop 1.2.3

Problems:

- Stuck on Step 4, cannot proceed to Step 5; entering sitename/admin displays the login page but with below login error
- Installation > Step 4: Error: prestashop employee does not exist, or bad password

Checks done:

- PhpMyAdmin, ps_employee is empty despite having entered (and re-entered during re-installs) an admin e-mail/account

Fix:

- By avoided uploading any logo image, Step 5 follows through
- Logo change can easily be done manually in /img directory (logo.jpg)

More to follow as project progresses... Share some points here :D thanks!

A Drupal 6 Seminar, Ortigas, Pasig... more details at TPCEvents.Org

Drupal Seminar (Web Content Management System)
Date: Aug 23, 2009 - Sunday
Time: 9:00am - 1:00 pm
Speaker: Jerome A. Esperanza
Description:

Introduction

· Overview of Content Management Systems (CMS)
· Apache, MySQL and PHP Services as Requirements to Drupal
· Installing WAMPServer or XAMPP
· Brief Overview of Drupal

Drupal Proper

Installation

· Basic configurations (Frontend)

· Database

Administering the backend

· Content Management (comments, content types, settings, RSS publishing, taxonomy and categorization
· Blocks (content appears in your site\'s sidebars and other regions)
· Menus (navigation menus, primary links and secondary links, etc.)
· Modules (default and installation of added modules)
· Themes (installation of new themes and basic customization)
· User management (administering access rules, permissions, roles, user settings, users and user groups)
· Site configuration (Actions, Administration theme, Clean URLs, Date and time, Error reporting, File system, Image toolkit, Input formats, Logging and alerts, Performance, Site information, Site maintenance
· Reports (Recent log entries, View \'access denied\' errors (403s), View \'page not found\' errors (404s), Available updates of installed modules and themes, Status report)


Back-ups, Recovery, and Restoration

· Files and folders
· Database

Other Topics (Optional Topics, depending on time availability)

· Basic Search Optimization and Other Tips and Techniques
· Dreamweaver, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Drupal: Basic Tips and Techniques
· Firefox Add-ons and Other Tools for Drupal and Web Developers
· Web Analytics: Drupal and Google Analytics
Venue: Roofdeck 23 Capinpin Place Capinpin St. San Antonio Village Ortigas, Pasig, Philippines

More details at TPCEvents.Org

Images (or Logos) in the Weblinks for Joomla

The default web links core component of Joomla unfortunately has no option of assigning or uploading images or logos assigned respectively to each weblink item. I am running a organizational site that has a lot member of schools and institutions and having each of its member logos displayed alongside (or somewhere) beside its url or web link item seems a cool thing as. To date, it seems this is not a possible option yet for the current Joomla weblinks core component. Further googling seems to prove that.

Anyway, one component seem to serve that purpose, plus a few gem of layouts!

Try Simple Lists component, check it out here:

• About the developer and component http://opensource.jira.nl/projects/simplelists
• Demo: http://joomla1.demo.jira.nl/index.php?option=com_simplelists&view=simplelist&layout=toggle&category_id=34&Itemid=65

One setback only, you had to veer away from the weblinks component, as this might confuse your not so Joomla-proficient-web admin.

Joomla Hands-on Training

Conducted a Content Management System hands on training using Joomla at ACE I.T. Learning Center, Cubao, Q.C. last 10 May, 2009. Hands down... great and conducive facility... a learning experience as teacher and students alike shared new Joomla experiences, techniques and tips! Looking forward to another session...

Thanks to the ACE men, a cool bunch of folks... visit them here for more hands-on, relevant and useful courses: http://www.ace-itlearning.com.

TPCEvents.Org: Joomla Seminar

El Maestro! Cool crowd here, cool venue and organizers! Next stop... Drupal :D

Google Analytics in Joomla and Drupal (installating ga script or code)

Tried the different Joomla google analytics modules but instead of trying to figure out how each works or is configured, I opted to try the manual, classic way of installing Google Analytics script in Joomla (or Drupal, and other opensource CMS) which is more foolproof. In one Joomla 1.0 project, I did the ff:

1. Registered the site in my Google Analytics account (your personal account can host multiple sites each with its own unique google analytics script generated and provided after successful signup).
2. When code/script was generated, determined which template the site uses.
3. In the template's index page (.../site/templates/templatename/index.php), I inserted the generated Google Analytics code/script provided for this site account just before the body closing tag.

4. After inserting the script in Joomla's template index page, go back to Google Analytics > Analytics Settings > Profile Settings for the site concerned > then click check status (somewhere in the upper right corner of the page).
5. Notice will be displayed if ga script was installed successfully, hence a "receiving data" status is given. One should just wait for the statistics to be generated then. 24 hour period should be sufficient waiting time.

Enjoy! Hope this helps!

P.S. the same should work with Drupal and other dynamic CMS templates irregardless of versions (just always make a backup copy of the template's index page for easy restoration if something didn't quite work).

Joomla 1.5 installation error: Cookies do not appear to be enabled on your browser client

If during a Joomla 1.5 installation, the following error is encountered:

"An error has occurred:

Cookies do not appear to be enabled on your browser client. You will not be able to install the application with this feature disabled. Alternatively, there could also be a problem with the server's session.save_path. If this is the case, please consult your hosting provider if you don't know how to check or fix this yourself"

don't be alarmed!

And before rushing in and trying complicated steps and changing settings for Apache, PHP, and MySQL (like a few forum threads actually suggest), try simply the following:

• clear the browser's cache (you may not even need to go to advanced internet tools options for this),
• restart your Apache, MySQL and PHP services (you may need to request your webhost for this in live server settings, or in local machine your XAMPP, WAMPServer, etc. restart commands),
• then go back to Joomla installation.
  

Then again, just documenting my experiences... disclaimer applies :D

Joomla 1.5's Fatal error: Cannot instantiate non-existent class: jinstallationmodel in ../installation/installer/controller.php on line 161

Someone asked me about this error encountered during his Joomla 1.5 installation:

Fatal error: Cannot instantiate non-existent class: jinstallationmodel in ../installation/installer/controller.php on line 161

Download and install the latest stable updates and patches that should come with the corresponding installer used.

Check latest Joomla stable patch/update releases here:

http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseView&release_id=9911

What these patches basically do is to provide updated necessary Joomla files (and folders) which one can upload/save replacing previous default Joomla files and folders.

Patches normally come in zipped/compressed files, extract them first for uploading/saving.

"Reported Attack Site" displayed by Firefox as reported by Google

As one ‘developer’ of a site that has been labeled by Firefox’s latest rigid updated version of 3, I think this is unfair as this is commonly of no fault of the site developer/webhost.

We have all been great fans of Firefox for many years now, but I’m very disappointed with their automatic display of this warning. It just scares people off (useful) websites unnecessarily that have potentially become infected through no fault of their own.

Other browsers don’t show this degree of ’sensitivity’ (nor, insensitivity!!!) that this latest FF 3 update does; it simply is too much caution!

I don't know, but personally I think leave the security issues with the host, leave out the inconvenience from the users. We urge FF to disable this damaging and reckless feature; or provide other inconspicuous display of warning.

To manually disable this:

Go to Tools > Options > uncheck "Tell me if the site I'm visiting is a suspected attack site"

Suspected attack site??? Come on! I rest my case...

Sitemap online collaboration tool

Came across a useful online site map creator called WriteMaps Site Tool (http://writemaps.com) , which provides shared online collaboration among users. Cool! Simple, straightforward...

Screenshots below:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method JException::getNullDate() in ... /installation/installer/helper.php on line 290

Errors:

• Fatal error: Call to undefined method JException::getNullDate() in installation\installer\helper.php on line 290
• Fatal error: Call to undefined method JException::getNullDate() in /installation/installer/helper.php on line 290

During the installation of an undergoing Joomla 1.5 project, I deliberately hit the browser's back button during the initial installation steps (as part of Joomla 1.5 testing, one of those "what would happen if's"). Of course, data has to be resent, thus hitting the back button during the install steps produces this error.

Dilemma:

How to proceed with the installation, or do a re-install of Joomla 1.5 ?

Solutions:

1. Create a new and completely empty file, name it as configuration.php and upload or save it to your joomla root directory (e.g. .../www/joomla-folder/ or .../htdocs/joomla-folder, etc.) replacing the previous configuration.php.

Then go back to the installation process of Joomla 1.5 (http://joomla-site/installation/index.php, or http://www.joomla-site/installation/index.php). You will then have to enter (or re-enter) the details as the installation proceeds. This is part of what they call a manual installation

In my case, the previous installation (that have gone wrong) had reached the "Install sample data", so I had to also drop/delete the initial database created in phpmyadmin (http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ or similar mysql admin tool) to give way to the second, fresh installation.

2. Installation should basically work then. If not, recommended further steps can be found here http://help.joomla.org/content/view/1945/302/

Hope this helps!

Joomla 1.6 Error: "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded"

Testing Joomla 1.5 and a few initial observations:

Almost everything is the same with older versions of Joomla, except for the look and feel in the administrative interface, nothing really different that needs much adjusting

However, enabling all default (that come with the package) modules and components as part of the test, a "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded" dialog box error is displayed when refreshing the frontend page. And when clicking OK, the page is otherwise ok and displaying properly.

Don't be alarmed as this is not an issue really. The ff. can be noted which will resolve the error:

Culprit:

Wrapper module is published but has no URL specified to wrap. Earlier Joomla 1.5 versions has the wrapper module published or enabled by the default installation, while the latest Joomla 1.5 to date has this disabled.

Error/s:

"The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded" in Firefox. In IE7, page will simply not display. In my case, the error was visible immediately while in some this may not take effect immediately as your site will seem fine for a few days after installation, and will pop eventually.

"The address is not valid" is also displayed in Internet Explorer 7 when the sample data is deleted (when one needs to put in the real stuff).

Solution:

Fill in valid URL in the wrapper module, otherwise disable or unpublish the module until desired.

WAMP (WampServer) or XAMPP ?

I've been using XAMPP ever since and have followed it's development from one release to the next. Have experienced first-hand the bugs, errors, and fixes of 'em all. And presently, the latest version seems to work fine for me.

Am trying out WAMPServer and hopefully will find anything more useful or more convenient than XAMPP or other one-packaged installers.

Browsing through forums, can't find anything concrete on the pros and cons of one over the other. User preferences seem to be thing here :D

Background check (WAMP vs XAMPP) forum links:

• http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=119408
• http://www.dynamicdrive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35923

Anyway, will post if anything comes up!

Keep AMP'ing everyone!