Do you want to remove the meta tag “generator” from your Joomla site?  It’s very easy to do.


In this post I will show you how to do it with a plugin, and also how to do it with a single line of code.

Why do I want to remove it?

Ideally you do not want large amonts of unnecessary code in your website. You do not want to make it harder for Google and search engines to find what they need–you want to make it easier. Now I understand, this one line of code isn’t exactly a ton of bloat, but it all adds up over time. A bit of code here, an extra meta there, and all of a sudden you have a huge index file that takes ages to load. Keep things tidy.

Give me a plugin.  Code scares me.

By far the easiest way is to use the Joomla plugin ByeByeGenerator.  Install the plugin, enable it, verify the meta tag is removed in the source code and you are done.  Not only is the method the easiest, it will work for any version of Joomla.  1.5, 1.6, 1.7 & 2.5.  This method is also persistent, so if you change your templates a lot or do any updates, this plugin will always work and never get overridden.  But what if you are a purist?

I don’t want another plugin, just tell me how to do it manually

The method to removing the meta name generator tag for Joomla varies between versions.  On Joomla 2.5 you can simply add this code to your index.php file in your template.

JFactory::getDocument()->setGenerator('');

Put it just after the line //no direct access.  This method will vary greatly on what template you are using and from what company, so I cannot get too detailed.  For example YooThemes has a different template structure then RocketThemes.  You will have to noodle around a bit yourself in order to do this.  The main advantage of editing the template code instead of installing a plugin is less overhead.  The fewer plugins you have, the faster your site will be, and queries add up fast.

Conclusion

This is one of the few cases I’d suggest using a plugin over editing code.  This plugin totally removes the meta name generator tag, installs in no time at all and get’s the job done.  I use this plugin personally for the Joomla sites I build.  I heartily recommend it.

What is the Joomla 2.5 Beta for?

This beta is being released to allow the public to test and play with this new version. Developers can install it and test their extensions to make sure they work. Website administrators can download it and test the upgrade process from Joomla 1.7 to Joomla 2.5.0 on their development sites.
It’s important to note that this version should not be used on a live or a production site. Changes are still being made and running beta scripts such as this on a active site is poor form. Test it, play with it, try and break it, but don’t use it for Grandmas new muffin website.

I like my muffins fresh out of SVN

When will Joomla 2.5 come out of beta?

The Joomla Project people have stated that it will go stable around January 10th, 2012. New releases will come out every six months after that. ex: 2.5.1, 2.5.2 and so on. Of course these are not exact dates, remember Joomla is coded by volunteers.

Will Upgrading from Joomla 1.7 to Joomla 2.5 be hard?

Nope. Remember back a few months ago when Joomla 1.7 was released and we talked about it’s features? The most important new option was upgrades via the administration area. You can safely upgrade from Joomla 1.7 to Joomla 2.5 via a click of a button. Obviously you should test this in your sandbox first and not on a live site, but it will drastically speed up your upgrade process.

How can I upgrade Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5?

There is no upgrade path from J1.5 -> J2.5. You will have to migrate. There are a variety of changes from J1.5 to newer versions including changes to tables and the ACL (access control list) so a migration is the only way. If you are comfortable with migrating from different Joomla releases you probably have a system in place. If not, you can try out this extension. I personally have not tried it, but it seems pretty straightforward. Take all the usual precautions and backup your databases and files before doing something like this. Try it on your development site first and test the process before doing it on a live site.

Will iJoomla extensions work on Joomla 2.5?

We plan to keep up with the development and convert all the products that are 1.7 to 2.5.

Have you installed Joomla 2.5 beta yourself?

Let us know in the comments what your experiences have been and if you had any problems. We would love to know what you think.

The CMS Expo, held last week, was a great conference with fascinating presentations and a perfect ending: Ad Agency was named “The Best Joomla Commerce App”!

Merav Knafo showing her CMS Expo Award for iJoomla Ad Agency

We’re thrilled to win, and we’re celebrating. We’re slashing $50 from the price of the extension.

This is going to be a three-day celebration (yes, we know how to party!) so make sure you grab your copy for just $99.9, before we come back down to Earth and realize what we’ve done. It really is a HUGE discount. (But then an award from the CMS Expo really is a big deal!)

And Ad Agency just keeps getting better and better. If you’ve been humming and hawing about whether to buy it, here’s your chance to get it at a rock-bottom price — and still with a money back guarantee.

What’s New with Ad Agency?

The latest version of Ad Agency, 2.0.9, comes with a few bug fixes and enhancements. You can upgrade it here and find the full change log here.

What About a Version for Joomla 1.6?

We’ve had a lot of question about when Ad Agency will be ready for Joomla 1.6. We did want to start and finish the conversion a few months ago but most users are still using Joomla 1.5. We have to consider them before we stop the development on 1.5 completely.

So we’ve decided to add a few much-needed features and fix a few bugs on 1.5 while Joomla users continue to make the switch. One of these features is an optimized database with compacted expired campaigns; another is a limit to the number of ads that an advertiser can add to a campaign.

We hope to finish these two features and fix a few more minor bugs within the next couple of weeks. We’ll then release the Joomla 1.5 version and move on to conversion to Joomla 1.6.

Best Regards,

Joomla 1.6 Nested Categories and ACL Usability Testing Video

Brad’s first impression was positive. He liked the clean look and the fact that it appeared very similar to 1.5.

Testing the nested categories feature

To test the nested categories feature, I asked Brad to create a pets category, place inside it categories for cats and dogs, and add a few canine sub-categories. Brad had no problem doing this.

Conclusion: for experienced Joomla 1.5 users, creating nested categories is an easy and understandable process.

Testing the ACL feature

The second task was to use the ACL feature. I asked Brad to find the feature and see if he understood how to use it.

Brad looked at the top menu and found it under Users – >Access Level.

Brad assumed that Level Title meant a group. He wasn’t sure what the hierarchy meant and said that he thought an info icon was missing.

After creating a new access level, Brad became confused about the meaning of what he had just done. “I’m not really sure what’s going on here,” he commented. He tried the help but found it wasn’t ready yet.

After opening the “customer level” he became even more confused about the hierarchy. At this point, said he may have to Google it in order to figure it out.

Brad tried a few things to understand the ACL but never quite got it. He said he would look for documentation and test it to see how it works.

Conclusion: the ACL feature is not as clear as it could be.

I later found the parameters that allow me to set permissions for each group, which is very cool, but Brad didn’t even realize that there was a permission box, so I would recommend that there should at least be a link at the top of the page and a “tooltip” for each group that describes its permissions. You can see this in the mockup below. Those two additions would help a great deal.

How we can improve the usability of the ACL edit page on Joomla 1.6

What do you think about the new ACL feature? How would you improve it?

Thoughts:

• If you’re still working with Joomla 1.0, there is no real point for you to switch to Joomla 1.5, because soon, you will have to switch to Joomla 1.6