Toolbox for Joomla New Users

Presented by Danny Mittleman July 13, 2011 Presented at

Overview Where to find extensions  What’s in the Toolbox? 

      

Editor Security Site Backups SEF Url’s File Access Developing a site / Site Maintenance Other areas ○ Form / Data gathering Presented at

Where do extensions come from? 

Custom-built Extensions

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Third Party Developers  Variety of business models

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Joomla Extensions Directory  http://extensions.joomla.org  (More in two slides) Presented at

Third Party Developers Most extensions are developed by 3rd parties  Not all extensions from these developers are on the JED  Check the developers site of your favorite extensions for others you may not know about  Ask around for advice on good 3PD’s. 

Presented at

Some major third party developers Akeeba (8 admin extensions)  Anything Digital (6 extensions)  Azrul (5 comprehensive extensions)  CorePHP (about 20 extensions + Templates)  NinjaForge.com (42 extensions, about ½ free)  NoNumber.nl (21 extensions, many admin)  RSJoomla (15 extensions)  Stack Ideas (36 extensions, key ones cost) 

Where do extensions come from? Never download our products from file sharing websites like rapidshare, torrents or warez forums. There are reports of modified versions of our products that, once installed, steal sensitive information such as passwords, credit card information and more.

Joomla Extensions Directory 

Get started by creating an account  Need an account to write reviews or rate

extensions. This can help let developers know you like their products

How to spot reasonable extensions and avoid the “questionable” extensions  Always be safe and use a sandbox (development site) for testing 

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Free Advice: Don’t add it if you don’t need it • Keep your live site simple • Extension interactions can be unpredictable • Extra code may slow down your site • Extra code makes your site harder to upgrade • Each extension is another point for malicious entry • Maintain a log of what you’ve added to your site and how you are using it.

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Editors You WANT an advanced WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get)  Why not TinyMCE?  Suggestions: 

 JCE with file manager, advanced image

manager, media manager, and JCE Media box  JCK (used to be called JoomlaFCK) 

Both of these suggestions are free!!! Presented at

Security 

Why should I worry about security?

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Resources:  docs.joomla.org/category:security

(25 pages)

 developer.joomla.org/security.html  feeds.joomla.org/JoomlaSecurityNews

 www.howtojoomla.net/how-

tos/security/joomla-security-primer Presented at

Security 

Suggestions:  Admin Tools Pro from akeeba ○ www.akeebabackup.com ○ Adds another layer of security to help prevent unauthorized access to your site ○ This is a powertool!  Salvus Alerting (not an extension; subscription

service ($80 / yr)) ○ Gives updates when security issues are found with

an extension, Joomla, your server OS, etc. Good for developers who maintain many sites Presented at

Site Backups Why do I need to backup my site?  Why can’t I use the backup with my hosting company?  Why should I take my own and what do I do with it?  Suggestions: 

 Akeeba Backup Pro

 www.akeebabackup.com Presented at

SEF Urls Why do I need SEF urls?  Doesn’t Joomla do it for me by default?  Suggestions: 

 Core Joomla SEF generator

 sh404sef (paid, from Anything Digital)  JoomSEF Free (free)  Other third party products are available

Presented at

File Access Why do I need access to my files?  Can’t I get to my files through the the Joomla administrator and media manager?  Suggestions *: 

 eXtplorer – extplorer.sourceforge.net  Ninjaxplorer – www.ninjaforge.com

* Both suggestions are free! Presented at

Developing a Site / Site Maintenance Why should I have my site locked down or in offline mode when developing?  What’s the downside to just logging in offline mode?  Suggestions: 

 Offline Override (www.howtojoomla.net)  .htaccess protection of directory (not an

extension)  Create an offline template override that is customized for your company (not an extension) Presented at

Other Areas – Data Collection What’s this and why might I need it?  Doesn’t Joomla have some contact forms and why shouldn’t I use them?  Suggestions: 

 RS Forms / Forms Pro (www.rsjoomla.com)  Breezing Forms – www.crosstec.de

Presented at

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