Tips & Tutorials

Extending your Joomla com_content

What is CCK?

CCK stands for Content Construction Kits has its root in the Drupal CMS and been embraced by Drupal core. In this blog, we are going to focus on Joomla CCK itself and not other CCK system. A typical CCK in Joomla will generally allow you to:

1. Define the content types (content can be a blog entry, a recipe, a poll, etc.) along with modifying numerous custom fields.
2. The layout for each content type.

1. Overview

Let's learn about Joomla Global Check-in component

Global check-in is a Joomla built-in component allowing a Super Administrator to check-in i.e. unlock all items into editable status.

1. Overview

First, let’s get down to SEO definition. SEO or Search Engine Optimization can be referred to as “The process of optimizing your pages to give them high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) - including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines”. (Src: Joomla Glossary).

2. How to proceed

To use Inbuilt Joomla SEO settings feature, in your Joomla admin back-end, navigate through System >> Global Configuration.

1. Overview

Error Reporting is a useful Joomla function to troubleshoot PHP errors on your Joomla site. This function provides some clues about what and where the PHP problems are.

2. When to turn it on?

Got blank/ white screen in your Joomla site frontend? Well, that calls for turning on the error reporting feature. You may also want to disable the URL rewriting (htaccess method) using Apache mod_rewrite under the SEO settings for differential diagnosis of the issue as url rewriting with htaccess file in non-supported server (mod_rewrite not active) also renders blank pages.

lets start with the definition of Joomla Cache : “The mechanism that offers users a stored view of (part of) a web page so that does not have to be pulled from the database. Joomla core offers three levels of caching: Page caching, View caching and Module caching. By default, Joomla does not cache any content. When caching is switched on, the stored views for this are stored in the filesystem for Joomla ../cache/page/ folder”. (Source: Joomla Glossary)

Cache settings in Joomla

There are 3 places where one can access these settings.

1. Global configuration - Progessive / conservative cache
2. System plugin - Page caching / Browser caching
3. Module level cache for all modules

1. Overview

Mass Mail is a practical Joomla feature allowing you to send emails to all or specific group of registered users. It can be very handy to announce important news for the site users especially in the absence of newsletter subscriptions.

2. How to proceed

To use Mass Mail feature, in your Joomla admin back-end, navigate through Users >> Mass Mail Users.

Take a look at your website. No really. Chances are, you're quite pleased with it. It functions, brings in sales, even looks nice in the right lighting. But here's the problem: the web is changing. What worked and "looked nice" five years ago is now a relic of a bygone era that may repel as many visitors as it attracts. As trends and innovations unfold, prudent businesspeople are forced to recognize that "good" is a relative term, contingent on time and context.

While holiday shoppers are clipping coupons and bundling up for the cold, retailers are making their own preparations for the annual commercial boon. According to Forbes, holiday sales are expected to reach $78.7 billion this year, meriting a little extra attention from businesses both large and small. But while this volume represents a real opportunity for savvy businesses, tapping into it is a challenge all its own.

There was a time when houses had one computer, one phone line, 10 channels, and no Candy Crush Saga. When the Internet was but a little baby, the job of web designers was simple: develop a website for an Internet browser (probably Internet Explorer), and make it friendly to the keyboard and mouse interface. Bandwidth was low, so graphic assets were small and text design was about as simple as it could get.

Seemingly everyone has access to the Internet these days. What's in question is no longer the availability of a Wi-Fi connection, but how and why we're surfing the web. What do people want to see? How can we develop our website to best suit their needs and wants?

Navigating a small business is tricky, to say the least. The old adage "if it were easy, everyone would do it," comes to mind. Entrepreneurship is a challenge not only due to the investment of personal and professional resources but because of the fact that you, the business owner, are often the accountant, project manager, marketer, and web designer, all at the same time. Tough sledding for even the heartiest business-person.

As content floods the minds of casual and hardcore Internet users alike, competition for attention has become fierce. Google "productivity", "recipes", or "jewelry" and you will find literally thousands upon thousands of sites proffering their wares and wisdom, leading inevitably to the question of whom to trust.