What's the first thing you do when you decide to build a new website? Do you download and install Joomla!, do you go to a template supplier and select your template or do you do something else instead?
Whatever your process, it’s time to step back for a minute, grab a Pencil and Paper and start to Plan. You wouldn't dream of building a house without first drawing some plans and a website is no different.To build a successful website — and why would you want a failing website — then you need to follow these three Ps.
Welcome to the third incarnation of this blog.
When I first started this site - as well as sharing my thoughts on Joomla! and the web in general my intention was also to show how Joomla can be used to build a really great blog.
The first version was built with regular Joomla content and as soon as K2 was released the site was redesigned, rebuilt and given some K2 magic by the guys at JoomlaWorks. With the release of Joomla 2.5 it became clear to me that not only was it time to migrate my site to 2.5 it was also time for another experiment.
I have taken the opportunity with this rebuild to look at how you use this blog, how you find the content and the best way to satisfy your requirements. After studying the analytics and heat maps one thing was really obvious, the overwhelming majority of site visits are via Google and other direct links such as newsfeeds and social media. So did I need 15 categories, latest content modules, top content modules or tag clouds? It would appear that I did not.
Recently I have taken on some new work with an awesome little graphic design/branding house. They are great people and I'm really looking forward to working with them.
Previously they used their own in house employee for web work. The employee was a good person but probably lacked some real web skills and was at times out of his depth in regards to building sites with Joomla, which he used exclusively for all sites.
I was amazed to see that all the previous work done by this cool and funky design house were all completed using commercial templates and hence starts my first little "rant".
Well not just one site but one hundred all on the same server, all running under the same user and some defaced.
Shit happens and when it does you know you are in for some long hours fixing the problem.
On this server there were a mix of Joomla 1.0, 1.5 and 1.7 web sites some of which were live sites and others were old demo and test installations long since forgotten and woefully out of date.
Removing the defacement is actually pretty easy to do but that will often just mean that the naughty little toe rag will come back tomorrow and do it all again. You need to find the entry point to your server and kill it forever.
Joomla 2.5 was released earlier this week and I would like to publicly thanks everyone who helped to code and test this release. It truly is the next major step in the life of this awesome community software project.
The upgrade process from Joomla 1.7 is a very simple one-click process but there are a few things you should do immediately after performing the upgrade to ensure a smooth transition.
Of course it goes without saying that you should perform a full site backup before starting the upgrade process.
The advice below should be followed in this specific order.
"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains.The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."
William Arthur Ward
This year I have been fortunate to travel and speak about Joomla in 13 countries across almost all the continents on the planet. One thing I quickly learned is that despite increasing globalistaion and harmonisation we are all different.
I've written before about the obvious differences of language but there's much more too it than that. Local culture and economics play an important part as well in defining and differentiating the Joomla communities around the world.
Over 28,000 people have now seen the slides of the presentation but sadly only about five hundred have seen the presentation live in it's full glory.
Those of you who have seen one of my presentations before will know that the slides are only a small part of the presentation. It's just not the same without the full visual and audio experience.
Two weeks ago at JoomlaDay South Africa I gave the first presentation of my new talk "The Hidden Secrets of Joomla 1.7".
A lot of work went in to preparing that presentation and I hope to be taking it around the world in the coming months. (If you can't wait to see it live or for the video you can see the slides now.)
Reducing the "Hidden Secrets" to a 45 minute presentation sadly meant that some of them were dropped so I intend to write about them here instead.
