January, 2008

Stepping down as project lead for the a8eJoomla project

a8eJoomla!

It has been tough but it's time for me to step down as a project lead for the a8joomla CMS due to not having enough time and other life's commitment.

However, as i said on my blog post on a8eJoomla, i'll still try and be around to provide some help where it's required when i can make time for it.  read more »

First Scottish Drupal Meetup last Tuesday...

Last Tuesday was the first Scottish Drupal Group Meetup. I turned up expecting just a few folks but it turned out there were three times more, yay!.  read more »

Drupal 6.0 RC3 released

We are proud to present the third release candidate of Drupal 6.0. We hope that this will be the final release candidate before we can make an official release of Drupal 6.0. Since the second release candidate, we have fixed various issues including JavaScript performance problems, cleaned up menu updates, added several improvements to the update.module, and added a memory requirements check to update.php.  read more »

Virtuemart 1.0.14 (security update) is out

VirtueMart 1.0.14 is a Security Release, so all users are urged to update to this version. For more information please read the VM Security Bulletin 2008-01-30-1 and VM Security Bulletin 2008-01-30-2.

Magento 0.7.15480 Available for Download

We are happy to announce the availability for download of Magento Preview version 0.7.15480. The major highlights of the release include sales order management (invoices, shipments, offline refunds), reorders, advanced search, support for Paypal Website Standard (see video) and design themes management per store, product or category (see related blog post).

Magento

The long awaited official stable release of Joomla 1.5

Joomla 1.5 stable release

Great news for all you Joomla users out there. The long awaited stable release is finally here for download after almost 2 and a half year in the making. This marks a complete shift away from Mambo and now Joomla can proudly stand up and say 'Joomla/Mambo' is definitely a thing of the past.

A big thanks to the core team and community for 'making it happen'.

Official Announcement: Ladies and Gentlemen...  read more »

Load mambot (plugins) for Virtuemart (Download)

Load mambots into VM product description

Out of a request from a user to allow 1pixelout player to be rendered in Virtuemart product description, I have created a hack. This was only way to load mambots into VM. The great thing about this hack is that it not only allow you to load 1pixelout into description but also any other mambots you have installed.

This hack was created for use with Joomla! 1.0.x & Virtuemart 1.0.12 & 1.0.13a only.

Credits to Greg Perkins.

Installation:

  • Backup your files
  • Unzip the file and replace your old files in /administrator/components/com_virtuemart/html/

UPDATE as of 31 Jan 2008

Added Load Mambot for Virtuemart 1.0.14 (For Joomla 1.0.x)

Installing Drupal 6 (by Lullabot)

This video shows you how to Install Drupal 6 and shows off the new, improved installer. It walks you through all the steps, including downloading Drupal, putting it on your site with FTP, setting up a database and running the installation script. It also looks at some common roadblocks and how to get around them.

Addison Berry

Videocast: http://www.lullabot.com/node/315/play

If you need to setup a web server for testing website on Mac then read my article.  read more »

Scottish Drupal Users Meetup - Edinburgh

Scottish Drupal Meetup

Come along and meet up with fellow Scottish users for our first meeting @ 7.30pm 29th Jan 2008.

The Forest Cafe
3 Bristo Place
Edinburgh
EH1 1EY

http://www.theforest.org.uk

If there are any Drupal Users reading this blog post from Edinburgh or around, come join us... All is welcome and i hope to see you all there :)

Wordpress template 'Dropshadow' ported to a8eJoomla

Dropshadow 1.0

This is a Wordpress template called Dropshadow 1.0 and is a minimalist modern design for blog sites. I really liked it and thought it would be nice to share it with other communities. So i ported it over to work with a8eJoomla (it may also work on Joomla! though i haven't tested it). Many thanks to Brian Gardner the original designer for his permission to allow me to port the theme to another CMS. This template was released last year.

You'll find the installation and setup notes in the zip file.

Enjoy,

Accessible Flash banner ad guidelines

Here are a few of our top tips for producing accessible Flash banner adverts. I’ve also included information about testing, compliance with WCAG, navigating Flash using Jaws and WindowEyes and some additional resources.

Note that the guidance here is just for banner adverts and not for more complex Flash animations that you may see on the web today.

RNIB

Read full article

OnePixelout Player Ported to Joomla 1.0.x

1pixelout player

--- UPDATE: 16th Jan 2008 ---

I have updated this player which fixed a couple of small minor issues. Also added a CSS class in case you may want to style it. The CSS class is: span.1pixelout {}

Please re-download it. Thanks,

-------------------------------------

This is a Flash audio player originally for Wordpress that i ported over for use with Joomla! and a8e.



This is a demo of 1pixelout player. The track being used is by Zoot Woman - The Model. Taken from their LP - Living in a magazine.

For Joomla 1.0.x Download: 1pixelout player BOT
Released back in May 2007

Works with web browser:

  • Firefox 1/2
  • IE 6/7
  • Safari
  • Opera

Requirements:

  • Joomla or a8eJoomla
  • Flash plugin
  • PHP 4/5

Installation:

  • Install it as a mambot (plugin)
  • Go to mambot manager and activate the 1pixelout player

Upgrade from previous version:

  • Uninstall 1pixelout mambot (plugin)
  • Then follow the installation steps from above

Usage

  • Create a folder called mp3 in /images/stories/ or where ever you like. This folder will be used to store and play your mp3 from. Upload your mp files using FTP program.
  • To link to mp3 file type this in your content item (Note, a forward slash at the beginning of the path is not required): {audio}images/stories/mp3/your_mp3_file{/audio}
  • It is now possible to stream mp3 hosted from an external server. To do this, just use a full URL to where the mp3 is hosted: {audio}http://domain-name.com/mp3/file_name.mp3{/audio}
  • You can also change the colour of your player, see mambot manager's page for 1pixelout player.
  • WARNING: PLEASE DO NOT USE BOLD on the {audio} {/audio}

Preventing double click on Flash in IE

If you are experiencing having to click twice to play an mp3 in IE, then install this mambot: bot_gznoclicktoactivate_1_01.zip. It is by Gerozahn.de

Be sure to place gzNoClickToActivate at the lower end of the mambot list as it has to modify any applet/object embeddings, both hand-coded or script-generated.

JCE Editor plugin for 1pixelout player

If you are using JCE Editor, you might want to include a button to your editor to add 1pixelout player (download it here or get it from below. Credits and thanks to filmanleitungen.de for creating this JCE plugin.

This JCE plugin was developed for JCE Editor 1.1.x

Installation:




Adding RSS Footer to Joomla! RSS

RSS Footer

I recieved an email from a user requesting for a Wordpress RSS Footer plugin by Joost De Valk to be ported to Joomla!

After having installed it on Wordpress to see what it was, it seems to be just a simple insert of a line of text that appears on each feed's description. So it didn't seem to be of any significant to port the plugin. Also, it would only require one line of code to be added.  read more »

Joomla! 1.0.14 RC1 Released for testing only

J!1.0.14RC1

The Joomla! team has released a security update for Joomla 1.0.x versions. You can help by downloading the patch or full version and submit any bugs you have encountered.

NOTE: Patch packages for 1.0.14 RC1 only exist going back to Joomla! version 1.0.12. If you need to upgrade from an earlier version you will need to first upgrade to 1.0.13 then upgrade to 1.0.14 RC1  read more »

Made for Drupal Themers

Drupal Dev Themer Module

Moshe Weitzman a Drupal developer (along with Jeff Robbins & dvessel) has helped put together a module that can only be described as being like Firebug for Firefox but used for Drupal theming.

It's release for the upcoming Drupal 6. I haven't yet tried it out but from the screencast it looks like it'll be another fantastic tool that can sit next to the developers tools for Firefox.

Having said that, i still think Drupal has got a long way to go to attract designers since they'll rather be spending time tweaking their design than to work out some PHP codes. However, if you have been theming in Drupal for a quite awhile, this is a dream tool for you. Now you don't have to worry or spend hours searching for the theme functions and etc.

Links:

Setting up a web server for testing in Mac OSX 10.4 "Tiger"

MAMPSetting up your own web server on Mac to test various open source CMS is a doodle, thanks to MAMP.

MAMP provides you with:

  • Apache 2
  • PHP 4 / 5
  • mySQL 5
  • eAccelerator
  • phpmyadmin

That is all you really need as a testing ground for web developement.

All you need to do is download MAMP (current version is 1.7.1). Once downloaded to your desktop, unpack and drag the icon to your applications folder and run it from your applications folder.

A control panel should appear that looks like this:

and then a webpage will popup in your default browser (screenshot below):

Now you can start to test your sites. Your web root folder is /Apllications/MAMP/htdocs

This is the folder where MAMP will be looking for any of your sites. This can be changed in your MAMP control panel by clicking on 'Preferences' though i would just leave as it. The thing you want to change in the 'preferences is the 'Ports' settings, click on 'Set to default Apache and MySQL ports so it should fill in as:

Apache Port: 80
MySQL Post: 3306

To save you all the hassle having to browse to your htdocs all the time, create an alias link to the folder. Do this by going to /Applications/MAMP/ find the folder /htdocs and right click on it then select 'Make Alias'. This should create a linked folder, drag this to your desktop.

If you need to make some changes to php.ini or the httpd.conf file you'll find them in Applications/MAMP/config folder.

MAMP allows you to switch between PHP 4 or 5, you find these settings in your preferences in the MAMP control panel. I would try and run PHP 5 at all times since PHP 4 support will be dropped by end of next month.

Each site you create should be placed in a folder in the web root. To access your sites use: http:localhost/{folder of site}/

By default, your mysql password is

user: root
password: root

If you are only using it on your Mac without public access then this is fine. But if you decide to open it up for public access then i highly recommend you change the mySQL password.

To do this, open up a terminal and enter:

/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqladmin -u root -p password < NEWPASSWORD >

Instead of < NEWPASSWORD > use the new password you want.

Once the password has changed, remember to also set the new password for phpmyadmin. To change this, navigate to

/Applications/MAMP/bin/phpMyAdmin-X.X.X/config.inc.php

and open up the file config.inc.php with a text editor of your choice. Find the line:
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = 'root';

and change 'root' to your new password.

That is all, let the fun begin...

Profile

Du Vien Trang is a freelance web designer/developer based in Scotland. He is focused on creating web standard compliant sites and quality designs. Web accessibility & usability is also a key factor in his work he produces.

He studied Art & Design at college before taking up a degree course studying Computer Networking & Web Development at Napier University in Edinburgh.

After graduation in 2003, he landed a job as a network support technician and later on some contracts and freelance work doing web projects, and assisting as a server administrator. Through working on various web projects he knew this was where his passion lies in the IT industry.

Du Vien is also experienced in developing websites using Open Source projects like Drupal. If you are interested and is looking to hire someone for one of your web project, he can be contacted using the contact form on this website. His work can be seen in the portfolio page.

When he's not developing websites or doing geeky stuff, you will find him taking photos with his Nikon D70s or relaxing in front of his cool 70's Marantz 1072 amplifier and Technics 1210s record turntable.

Installing WAMP server on Windows

WAMP is a package with Apache, mySQL, PHPmyAdmin and PHP 4 /5. It is what you need to run any dynamic websites in a testing environment.

Here is a videocast to show you how to install WAMP on Windows: http://quartz.syr.edu/rdlankes/Teaching/LAMP/WAMP/WAMPInstall.html

VirtueMart payment module for DIBS

Virtuemart DIBS

This is a payment module i updated to work with all versions of Virtuemart for the DIBS paying site.

Released last year (2007)
Download: VM DIBS 1.3

*** Full instructions on installing this payment module can be found in the download zip file (ie, readme_eng.txt or Reademe.1st file)

Site update - 11th Jan 2008

As you can see, i've now added a download section to this site so i'll post up some of my old files and scripts that i've created for Joomla! and a8eJoomla.  read more »

Search Engine Ranking

Here are some good search engine ranking tips.

Read full article: How to Get Great Search Engine Rankings

Drupal 5.6 (fixed security issues) and Drupal 6 RC2 has been released

DrupalWe are proud to present to you the second release candidate of Drupal 6.0. Although there are still a few known issues that we are working on fixing for you, we are confident that our code is stable enough for wider testing by the community. Since the first release candidate, we have fixed various issues including the security fixes that come with Drupal 5.6 and others involving caching filtered content, menu item inheritance, missing breadcrumbs, better error reporting in the installer and updates, some translatability issues and lots of code style cleanups, and other small fixes. The most notable usability improvement since Drupal 6.0 RC1 is that the files directory is now automatically created in sites/default.

Drupal.org

Download:

This site will be offline on 11th Jan 2008 (Fri 00:45)

I'm updating this site to Drupal 5.6 which has been released 30 minutes ago.

Will be back online very soon... thank you.

--- EDITED ---
Upgrade completed, site back online - 11th Jan 2008 Fri 01:37am

Migrate from Wordpress or Joomla! to Drupal

I've been planning on migrating a site that was using Wordpress to Drupal so started looking around the web. And damn! is there anything that isn't available for Drupal... :)

This was what i came across:

Both modules are from CMS Migrator website. I thought i'll also mention the Joomla to Drupal since both can be found on the same site and some of you may want to try it out.

I'll certainly be trying the modules out but tf anyone have experienced using these modules, i'll love to hear from you. Did it work and what issues did you encounter, if any?