Steve’s Blog

socialicons

Send Joomla Updates to Twitter, Facebook and More

socialiconsWould you like to be able to update your Joomla site and automatically send that update to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, MySpace, Ning and dozens of other sites?

This tutorial will show you how.

Our first part will be to create an RSS feed to export all our new posts. From there we’ll use Twitterfeed.com and Ping.fm to distribute the posts to all our social networks.

Continue reading “Send Joomla Updates to Twitter, Facebook and More”

Read MoreSend Joomla Updates to Twitter, Facebook and More

Improving Drupal URLs with the Pathauto Module

This tutorial was requested by a student who is learning the Drupal basics. They turned on “Clean URLs” in the Drupal admin area and were surprised to see that the URLs remained largely unchanged:

  • Old: /?q=node/3
  • New: /node/3

The student’s comment was:

“that’s still a silly address for my About Us page. I want the address to be /about-us/.”

The solution is the “Pathauto” module and let’s show you how to set it up:

Continue reading “Improving Drupal URLs with the Pathauto Module”

Read MoreImproving Drupal URLs with the Pathauto Module

Importing RSS Feeds Into Joomla Articles

This tutorial will show you how to take an RSS feed and import it into your  Joomla site. Each item on the RSS feed will become a separate Joomla article. We use this technique for a couple purposes:

  • Distributing our content to other Joomla sites. For example, we use this technique to showing these tutorials on Alledia.com.
  • Importing blogs and news on a particular topic from other sites. This way people can read them all in one place.

We’re going to use a component called 4RSS from 4RSS.com.

Continue reading “Importing RSS Feeds Into Joomla Articles”

Read MoreImporting RSS Feeds Into Joomla Articles

Thoughts on Being Elected to Open Source Matters

Last week I was fortunate enough to be elected to the Open Source Matters board along with 5 others. After having a very U.S.-centric board, it’s great to see such a wide diversity of new members. Add a Aussie and a penguin and we’d have someone from all seven continents 🙂

  • Marko Milenovic – Serbia
  • Javier Gomez – Spain
  • Jacques Rentzke – South Africa
  • Robert Deutz – Germany
  • Akarawuth Tamrareang – Thailand

Continue reading “Thoughts on Being Elected to Open Source Matters”

Read MoreThoughts on Being Elected to Open Source Matters

Importing RSS Feeds Into WordPress Posts

This tutorial will show you how to take an RSS feed and import it into your WordPress site. Each item on the RSS feed will become a separate WordPress post. We use this technique for a couple purposes:

  • Distributing our content to other WordPress sites.
  • Importing blogs and news on a particular topic from other sites. This way people can read them all in one place.

We’re going to use a plugin called FeedWordPress.

Continue reading “Importing RSS Feeds Into WordPress Posts”

Read MoreImporting RSS Feeds Into WordPress Posts
joomla seo sef box

Review of RSSEO Suite by RSJoomla.com

joomla seo sef boxI must admit I knew nothing about RSSeo before starting this review despite having used other RSJoomla products before.

After few minutes of using it, I realised it was very familiar: RSSeo is similar in many ways to iJoomla SEO which we reviewed last last year. Both are essentially quick and easy ways to manage your site’s metadata, plus some additional SEO tools.

Whereas there were very few metadata options available last year, RSSeo joins iJoomla SEO as a worthy option.

Continue reading “Review of RSSEO Suite by RSJoomla.com”

Read MoreReview of RSSEO Suite by RSJoomla.com

Printer-friendly Versions of Drupal Articles

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to add a “Print This Page” button to Drupal. The main reason you’d want to do this is as a courtesy for your readers. Many still print things they read online and you don’t want them to waste that expensive printer ink just to print your logo and theme as well as the article.

This is a themed tutorial because our sister newsletter with WordPress tutorials is covering the same topic this week: Creating Printer-friendly Versions of WordPress Posts.

Without this solution you’d likely need to create a separate CSS file with styles specifically for the printed page.  Fortunately the Print Module makes this much easier. It will automatically create a printer-friendly version of each page. As an added bonus and it can also do “Email to a Friend” and “Download as a PDF” link (if your server has the correct features).
Read MorePrinter-friendly Versions of Drupal Articles

Creating Printer-friendly Versions of WordPress Posts

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to place add “Print This Post” button to WordPress. The main reason you’d want do this is as a courtesy for your readers. Many still print things they read online and you don’t want them to waste that expensive printer ink just to print your logo and theme as well as the post.

This is a themed tutorial because our sister newsletter with Drupal tutorials is covering the same topic this week: Creating Printer-friendly Versions of Drupal Articles.

Without this solution you’d likely need to create a separate CSS file with styles specifically for the printed page.  Fortunately the WP-Print plugin makes this much easier. It will automatically create a printer-friendly version of each post.

Continue reading “Creating Printer-friendly Versions of WordPress Posts”

Read MoreCreating Printer-friendly Versions of WordPress Posts

5 Useful JCE Features That People Miss

It’s no secret that Joomla’s default editor lacks quite a few features. We often recommend that people upgrade to Joomla Content Editor (JCE). You can click here to find full instructions on how to install JCE, including a video.

What we’re going to cover in this tutorial are 5 really great features of JCE that people often don’t realise are there:

1) Cut and Paste Images Into Different Folders

One common complaint about Joomla’s default Media Manager is that you can’t move images around. Once you’ve uploaded an image to one location, you’ll need to delete it and re-upload it if you want it in a different folder. JCE allows you to do that:

Continue reading “5 Useful JCE Features That People Miss”

Read More5 Useful JCE Features That People Miss
LiteJazzRegions

Joomla is a Hotbed of Innovation. Be Proud.

Since we expanded into Drupal and WordPress training quite a few people have asked variations on these questions:

  • “Are you abandoning Joomla?”
  • “Do you think Drupal and WordPress are now better than Joomla?”

The simple answers are no and no. Last summer we discussed how smart companies were now supporting several CMS platforms and gave some reasons why. I like to think we’re just following our own advice.

I’ve another reason to add … Joomla companies are remarkably dynamic and entrepreneurial. Looking back over the last few years, Joomla has been a remarkable hotbed of innovation, particularly when it comes two areas, business models and design:

Continue reading “Joomla is a Hotbed of Innovation. Be Proud.”

Read MoreJoomla is a Hotbed of Innovation. Be Proud.

3 Reasons to Hire a Content Writer

Building an online reputation begins with your website. It is the first place people go to “check you out,” even if you have been highly recommended by clients or peers.  So, crafting an effective and powerful message in conjunction with an aesthetically pleasing site, a well-organized site and one with a clear call to action sometimes means hiring a good writer.

There are a bunch of reasons to hire a good content writer, but I will only mention the three I think are most pertinent to web site progress.

  1. You hate to write!  That’s a no brainer in my opinion.
  2. Your website project has come to a screeching halt!  Your web developer has told you that he/she cannot move forward without your content and you don’t have time to deal with that right now.
  3. You have run out of creative ideas! If you are working solo – this just happens unless you have collaborative partners.

Continue reading “3 Reasons to Hire a Content Writer”

Read More3 Reasons to Hire a Content Writer

Our Joomla Training Classes Are Now Available Online

Remember that big countdown clock on the side of our site … this is what it was leading up to:

We’ve become the #1 Joomla training company by running 100’s of training classes in over 30 cities from Alaska to London, including 18 classes in the last week of January alone. However, we still get plenty of emails like this:

  • “Will you be holding any classes in North Dakota?”
  • “Any chance of a Joomla session in Australia?”
  • “Do you offer Joomla training in the Middle East?”

We could never go to all those places in person, so we’ve made the logical decision to put our classes online.

Continue reading “Our Joomla Training Classes Are Now Available Online”

Read MoreOur Joomla Training Classes Are Now Available Online