You will get hacked

I hate to be all gloom and doom here, but it’s only a matter of time until your website get’s hacked. You might forget to apply a security update, or your webhost might not be as secure as it needs to be, or you are using an extension with a big security hole. Maybe your site just get’s really popular which put’s you directly into the spotlight, but it will happen. It will happen on a Friday night, when you are out with your mates, having a few drinks and you might not even notice it until Monday. Then you are sunk, with no escape route.

More common than you may think.

You don’t use a test or a staging site

Do you make changes to your site? Do you do it willy-nilly without testing? Do you install extensions right in the middle of the day on a live site? Inevitably you will install some sort of fancy/flippy/widgety/shiney thing on your site and suddenly your site is broken. You uninstall the extension but it fails and you are left with a site that no longer works.
In a perfect world we all have exact clones of our Joomla sites to test from. If all goes well, then we apply the changes to the live site, but not all of us live in this development utopia. If you are like me, you are juggling the management duties of a lot of Joomla sites and you don’t have time for things like testing, clones and staging builds.

My live sheep, and my development sheep

The cheap & easy solution

Akeeba Backup has quickly become the “go to” extension for backing up your Joomla site. There are plenty of other systems, and I’m sure they are lovely, but Akeeba is my favorite extension for simple, quick backups for your Joomla site. Akeeba can do daily, weekly, monthly backups, delete your old ones, push them offsite, help you move your site, clone your site, store your site, recover, repair and reinstall it. Best of all, it’s free.
Go, go get it, install it, and use it now.

Server level backups

Back that thing up gurl

What do you do?

These are my favorite solutions for backups. What system do you have in place? Do you have a better solution? Let us know in the comments.

This is our weekly installment of Joomla extensions to be aware of. There are so many new extensions that come out everyday, it’s hard to stay current on what is out there and what might help you with your Joomla site. This go round we will focus on extensions from NoNumber.nl.

ReReplacer

ReReplacer is a Joomla! component and system plugin that enables you to replace anything in your Joomla! site’s output with whatever you want.

ReReplacer will search the text (html) of your pages for your search request and replace it with whatever you want. These replacements are on the fly, which means they are not permanent. They are done every time you request a web page in your site. This might have a negative effect on your page loads times if you do too many of these, so keep an eye on that. This is a great plugin that provides you with loads of options when you need to replace things en masse. If you are familiar with regular expressions you will love this.

Keep in mind this is for HTML and NOT for articles or any content stored in the database. If you need to replace words or text in articles, try DB Replacer.

Learn more about ReReplacer at NoNumber.nl

DB Replacer

DB Replacer enables you to search and replace in any table in your database. Sometimes you need to replace something in all your articles. That takes hours doing it the conventional way. Open the article, change, save article, open next article and so forth. Now you can do it in a few seconds with this plugin. It supports searching with case sensitivity and using regular expressions. This is a great tool that will save you loads of time if you need to change a lot of articles at once.

Learn more about DB Replacer at NoNumber.nl

Advanced Module Manager

This is one of my all time favorite extensions to use. It allows you to show modules depending on a variety of conditions, ranging from what page you are on, if you are logged in, if you are an admin, if you are a spider, and much more.

• See what modules are active for the menu item you are editing
• Edit modules in modal popup windows
• Option to not show modules that have no output (handy for things like dynamic menus)
• Option to show modules on all pages, except the selected menu items (reverse functionality of normal selection)
• Many other publishing assignments for your modules! You can control publishing modules by (ALL / ANY):Menu Item, Sections / Categories, Articles, FLEXIcontent Categories, K2 Categories, Mighty Resource Categories, ZOO Categories, Components, URL, Date, User Group Levels, Users, Languages, Templates, PHP evaluation and more.

This is a great tool with both free and paid versions. I use this quite often on bigger websites when I need sidebar modules to only show in very specific locations or conditions. Joomla 1.0 and 1.5 never had a lot of control over the modules. Joomla 2.5 has recently added very basic module display control, but AMM goes well above and beyond what comes included in Joomla.

Learn more about Advanced Module Manager at NoNumber.nl

What are your must have extensions?

Those are some of my favorite extensions to use. What are some of yours?

Users love the “like”, “share” and “tweet” buttons

So how does it work? Just place the social buttons on your Joomla website. When users click them, they’re taken to the social media site (usually Facebook or Twitter) where they can post the link and even add a few words about the article. Their friends and followers can see the link and click through to the site. Brilliant!

Get free traffic with social media

There are two ways to add social buttons to your Joomla site:

Use a module

If you want to promote the entire site, rather than specific articles, you can install a Joomla social bookmarking module and place it “above the fold.” Your visitors won’t be able to miss it wherever they are on your site.

Use a plugin

If you want allow users to share specific articles, install one of the many available Joomla plugins that place social media buttons automatically on your articles. Some extensions even allow you to choose the sections and categories on which the plugin appears.

Here’s a video that explains how to add a social media module to your website. There are several available that work in roughly the same way, but PGT SocialWeb is my favorite.

Adding a social media module to your Joomla site:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/23812794[/vimeo]

This is how you do it:

1. Download and install the PGT SocialWeb module.
2. Go to Module Manager.
3. Filter by pgt.
4. Open the module and change the title.
5. Disable the title and enable the module.
6. On the right, hide all the buttons except for “share” and “tweet.”
7. Select “home page” as the URL.
8. Save/Apply.

Adding a social media plugin to your Joomla site:

To use a plugin that allows users to share specific articles, download any of the Joomla Social bookmarking plugins. You can find a full list here.

Do you use social bookmarking on your Joomla site? What’s your favorite module/plugin?

The best testimonials you can post are video testimonials

The best testimonials you can post are video testimonials. If you host events or meet clients, take a video recorder with you, even if it’s just your iPhone or a Flip cam. Before your clients leave the event, ask them to speak about your product or service and record their comments. The clip doesn’t have to be perfect but try to find a quiet corner with a solid background that’s not too busy.

Post the recording on your YouTube channel and  be sure to give it a good title description, something like: “iJoomla Ad Agency Testimonial and Review.” The title will help people who are looking for testimonials about your product to find them.

Once your video testimonial is on YouTube, you can easily post it on your site. Because that testimonial is one of the most compelling arguments for selling your product, I recommend putting it in a module position above the fold.

Adding a YouTube video testimonial to your Joomla site:

There are many ways you can add a YouTube video your Joomla website. You can download an install a Joomla YouTube video from ‘corePHP’, this module costs $7. Another great option is to use a component called Jumi. Jumi is a handy little extension that comes with a module that allows you to dump any code in it so you won’t risk your HTML editor stripping out important code.

How to add a video testimonial using Jumi:

• Download Jumi
• Install Jumi
• Go to Main Menu and unpublish the Jumi “hello world” menu item. (Jumi developers should really consider not overwriting our default menu item!)
• Go to extensions -> module manager
• Filter with the word “Jumi”
• Open the module and change the title to “Video testimonial”
• Enter the video embed code on the right
• Publish and save module
• Depending on the module position you’ve chosen you may have to resize the YouTube video by changing the width and height inside the embed code

Jumi allows you to dump any code into a module

So that’s how you can put a video testimonial on your site. But it’s much easier to get people to write a testimonial than to talk to a camera and you don’t always have access to your customers offline. If you can’t get a video testimonial, a written testimonial can work well too — ideally with a real full name, website URL and, most importantly, a photo. These give the testimonial much more credibility than text alone.

Adding written testimonials to your Joomla site

The simplest way to do this with core Joomla is:

• Create a new category called “testimonials”
• Add articles with the testimonials to the category
• Create a menu item to link to the list of testimonials in “category blog” style

It’s a method that’s simple and it works, but it’s not great because there is no easy way to enter fields like name, website, and photo, etc.

Adding testimonials using RSMonials extension

Thankfully, there is a Joomla component that does allow you to publish testimonials perfectly and even lets visitors submit their own. It’s called RSMonials and it’s free. A big thanks to Grace from the OC Joomla Meetup where I gave a presentation a couple of weeks ago for introducing me to it!

I love this extension because it works beautifully and without any major bugs. It’s pretty basic but it does the work, and any Joomla beginner can use it without too much difficulty. It comes with a component, a module and a testimonial scroller. If you want your testimonials to show without scrolling, install the regular module. If you want them to scroll, you’ll need to install that module.

RSMonials CPanel

Here’s how to get it up and running:

• Download RSmonial
• Install the  component
• Install the module or the scroller module
• Create a new menu item and link it to RSmonials
• Open the settings page and configure your testimonials (don’t forget to replace the admin email!)
• Publish the scroller module

Testimonial Page Created With RSMonials

A list of testimonials will appear on the testimonials page linked from your menu. The testimonials will be ordered by newest first and have a submit form at the bottom. Customers can send in their own testimonials and you can choose to auto-approve them.

You can easily make any changes to the styling and settings.

This is a great extension but it does come with a number of advantages and disadvantages:

Pros:

• Free.
• Easy to install.
• Works well.
• Scrolling testimonials are very appealing.
• Submit testimonial feature is very useful and even asks for a photo.

Cons:

• No way to re-order the testimonials. However you can change the posting date if you want to have control over which testimonials show on top.
• Many of the settings require me to type in “true” or “false” instead of choosing from a drop down menu.
• No way to hide submit date.
• When tested, I didn’t receive notification of a new testimonial.

We have installed it on iJoomla Ad Agency and we’re very happy with it. You can see it here with a scrolling testimonial on the left:

http://adagency.ijoomla.com/testimonials/

Do you have a testimonial page on your Joomla site? If so, how did you create it?

Joomla does have some blogging capabilities built in. You can create a category and a menu item that links to a list of articles in blog format. It’s simple enough, but it’s also missing many of the cool features available for WordPress, the most advanced blogging software available.

So how can you keep your Joomla site and still enjoy all of the benefits of WordPress?

It used to be difficult: you’d have to install WordPress and then somehow coax the two programs to work together. It wasn’t easy and it definitely wasn’t fun.

There is now a simple way to use WordPress on your Joomla site, and you don’t have to log in with two separate admin interfaces.

In fact, you don’t even have to install WordPress!

All you have to do is install the component WP4J! by corePHP! The WordPress admin interface will be right inside your Joomla admin!

But the component also comes with a bunch of neat modules like a list of categories and latest posts that are installed just like any other Joomla module.

Once you’re inside the WordPress interface, you’ll see all of the options that come with WordPress. You’ll be able to add a post, manage comments, place tags, and list categories, etc. It’s packed with goodies and extremely easy to use. Really, it’s no wonder that WordPress is such a popular tool.

Converting iJoomla’s blog to WordPress

I’ve decided to convert our iJoomla blog to WordPress using this component, because I was never quite happy with our blog the way it was. After I installed WP4J on iJoomla.com, I created a menu item to link to WordPress. It showed the default “hello world” post, which I was then able to edit. The default setup also included a sidebar under my posts and a “powered by” notice. I wanted to get rid of both, which I did with a little help from the corePHP team.

How to get rid of the sidebar and “powered by” video tutorial:

With the sidebar gone, I was able to start creating categories and adding my content. I had to copy all the 26 articles I already had into wordpress which took me about an hour to do (and I hear that they have import tools as well), and I love the result! So check it out and let me know what you think!

SEF and WordPress

The way SEF is handled by WordPress is impressive. You have many options to choose from, just go to settings->permalinks and choose the one that works for you. Remember to keep the structure of the URLs the same as your Joomla SEF structure, so that you don’t create duplicate pages with the same content (Google doesn’t like that). By default, WP4J works with the following SEF: Core Joomla, SEF Advanced, sh404, and there is even a plugin for Artio SEF (for a fee).

Summary and Suggestions

Overall then, I am extremely impressed with WP4J It’s well executed, easy to use, and adds a huge amount of great features to your Joomla site — and without having to manage or log in to another admin. But I do have a few comments and suggestions to help make the most of it:

1. WP4J is big so if you are having a problem installing the component, it’s likely that your server doesn’t accept such large files. You’ll have to install the alternative component, which is smaller, then upload the files with FTP. Read the README file that comes with the alternative file for the steps.
2. I’d really like to have the Joomla menu on the top instead of the “Back to joomla” link. That would let me access other areas with one click instead of two.
3. There is a problem adding links to pages on my site. I can’t see a list of my articles/menu items; I can only add a full URL. Maybe the guys at corePHP can find a solution to this so that I can create links inside my site easily.
4. No Joomla plugin support. If you are used to adding Joomla plugin tags to your articles to display videos, sidebars, etc. Then keep in mind, it won’t work here, it would be great if corePHP added support to Joomla plugins to the next version.

Find out more about WP4J! here!