Oopsy, I just haven't had the time to post recently. I've got several topics rumbling around my empty head to write about but for various reasons, some good some bad, I've just not been able to.

Right now I am hanging my head in shame at failing to blog but I will get back to blogging very very soon. It will be worth the wait.

Even though I am known to many as Mr Gadget man I don't own an iphone. I've just never seen the point!

My windows based mobile has done everything I wanted it to do, and I already own an mp3 player and digital camera.

But today perhaps this has all changed. As someone who is regularly out on the road I rely on my portable joomla training suite to keep me intouch with the world and more importantly in control of my clients web sites.

Now Joomla! administration has finally found its way to the iPhone with J Admin Mobile (JAM!)(iTunes link).  JAM! will allow you to manage many of the core Joomla! 1.5 features right from your iPhone!

As I don't have an iPhone yet, I've asked Kyle Ledbetter of JoomlaPraise to describe this hot new app in his own words.

For the first version, JAM! will allow you to:

• Add unlimited Joomla! 1.5 sites
• View/Add/Edit Articles
• View/Add/Edit Sections
• View/Add/Edit Categories
• View/Edit Users
• View/Edit Menus
• View/Edit Menu Items

All this is made possible with a Joomla! 1.5 xml/rpc plugin installed on each site.

JAM! performs well in a wifi setting and is actually usable on 3G.  JAM! works much faster for a small site, as there are currently no filters (though they are planned), so when you're viewing a large list of articles or users, performance decreases.  Another big feature that is needed is image handling in the articles.  Currently, there is none in JAM!

The team has lofty plans for upcoming features in future releases.  They plan to immediately start working on more features such as module and plugin management, and components eventually, but this is all pending the success of the initial release.  More resources and focus will be allocated as long as their is demand.

JAM! isn't the first iPhone app to support areas of Joomla!, but it's the first with this scope.  BlogPress, an app make for multiple blog platforms, allows you to add Joomla! articles, but isn't focused on managing an entire Joomla! site.  JoomlaDo has released a nice free and lite app mainly focused on users in Community Builder.  Syncleon has published the intention to create iSyncleon, an app to initially manage Articles, Users, and an Inbox, but as far I as I know this was just to gather requests and feedback.

The development team (Covert Apps) is mainly comprised of members from JoomlaPraise and CMS Market.  The JoomlaPraise team has developed a couple of custom templates for the Joomla! administrator site (AP1 & AP2), so they're quite familiar with the user interface.

Kyle has also kindly provided a few screenshots to wet the appetite. (Note: Jam in england is Jelly in the USA)

I was recommended an extension for joomla this week via twitter, so naturaly I had a look. The link provided to me was to the Joomla extensions directory where I saw that the extension was both licenced under the GPL and non-commercial.

I read the description and the reviews and it sounded promising so I hopped over to the developers web site to download it for myself and have a play.

And that is when my blood started to boil (again).

Now I am not anal about joomla extensions being licenced as GPL, it's my preferred option, but I can accept an extension having a different licence.

What I do really care about is that the extension has been released under the correct licence and that the developer has actually understood everything that that entails.

So what was the first thing that I saw on the developers web site that to paraphrase said

An advert link will be inserted at the bottom of every page created with this extension. It is illegal to remove this advert unless you pay a licence fee.

As an alternative to displaying this advert I am told that I can

hide the link in an invisible link

This hidden advert would of course have seo issues and really is not acceptible.

The reason I like the GPL, and most other Open Source licences, iis that they give me the freedom, amongst other things, to modify the source code and to be in full control of the code.

Of course if a developer really wants back links and adverts in their outputted code they can add them but I am perfectly entitled to remove them as well. The developer doesn't have to make it easy for me to do this but they can't make it "illegal" or brand me a "criminal" for doing so.

So despite the software being released under the GPL the developer was adding a restriction to my freedom that was contra to the license itself.

If you are wondering what extension I am referring to then don't look here for the answer. I don't believe in naming names, it's not my style. (Unless you are the UN)

I am really glad to report that the excellent Joomla Extensions Directory team took this matter seriously and that within 24 hours of it being reported to them the listing at JED has been updated to show Licence:other and that the code itself no longer states it is GPL but Creative Commons.

Whether CC licences are ever suitable for software is a different matter and for discussion in a different place but at least I will no longer be branded a criminal for doing something that the licence explicitly allowed.

So what's the moral of this story

If you are a developer then you need to look closely at the software licence that you have chosen and ensure that it satisfies your needs. If you don't like an aspect of the licence then you will have to chose another one

If you are a user and you see a restriction like this one just report it to the excellent JED team they do take this seriously and, at least in my experience, act very swiftly to rectify issues like this.

Last week I blogged about creating a large form with complex validation rules using bfForms.

But what do you do if you want to add an existing html form to your joomla site?

Perhaps you have a form created in dreamweaver, or you have purchased a form from an on-line library, or even have a form created in microsoft word that you want to add to your site.

There are two options:

1. Wrap your form into your site using the "wrapper" menu option.
2. Re-create your form with a joomla form component.

Option 1. Is ok, it keeps the existing layout, but you don't get any validation rules or advanced options like storing the results in the database.

Option 2. Is the best option but if its a large form be prepared for it to take you a while to recreate all the fields and you have to re-create the existing layout from scratch.

So how do you import an existing form into joomla?

bfForms has the answer in a hidden feature!

Don't ask why it's hidden I've been moaning at Phil Taylor to make it more obvious for a very long time. But once you've found it, and I'm spilling the beans here, you will be importing html forms directly into bfForm in seconds. Once the form is imported all you have to do is add any validation rules you require and the on-submit actions.

It's so easy to do you will be wondering why no one thought of it before.

It's actually quite hard for me to explain how to do this. Not hard to do just hard to explain. So to make it easier just watch this short walkthrough movie.

Dim lights Download Embed Embed this video on your site

How easy was that?