Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with joomla

Is this possible? Begging for some type of assistance!

TeachTheDead — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:04:37 -0800

Joomla 1.5 form puzzle. Looking for a way (either a plug-in or module) to let me create a custom form that will allow users to input a code and based on the day the code is inputted, assign a numeric value... Ok, so I have a bit of a conundrum, I have a site, built with Joomla 1.5 and I want to make a page where users can input receipt numbers for various things. Say you received a receipt from a store, and what we want to try and accomplish (as none of us are really certain if this is doable) is the customer would input this receipt, and based on the day the receipt is inputted, there would be a set assigned variable...

For instance, say the users receipt number is 77804 and he put this number into the form on a Monday. If you put a receipt in on a Monday, the receipt value would be 3, if it were a Friday it would be a 7...etc etc....

Is this possible using Joomla and if so, how can we accomplish this? I know there are dozens of form plugins for Joomla, we just don't know what ones would work the best and which ones can actually do this.

Finally, after the user inputs the receipts, we as the "end users" would get an email or something accessible where only the admins can see the results of the receipt totals.

Looking for any info on this as its something we have been trying to figure out for almost 2 months now and we are just not getting any where. Please, MiFi super geeks, nerds, Joomla advocates and designers, we are begging to find a way to make this work. We might even be able to give some type of trade or something for any help with this question....do I sound desperate enough!?

Fireboard plus Joomla: "Out of Memory" error.

darth_tedious — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:48:17 -0800

Joomla and Fireboard Memory Problem: Whenever I click on a post, Fireboard breaks and reports that it's out of memory. I've increased memory allocation with php.ini and .htaccess-- it's now at 64m-- and this has had no effect. I'm using Hostgator. Any suggestions on how to get Fireboard operating properly (or for that matter, a host which runs Fireboard easily)? Thanks.

Looking for a CMS with inline or front end editing.

bristolcat — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:48:33 -0800

A simple CMS with an inline or front end editor? I searched the archives and I was surprised that for all the questions about CMS solutions, there weren't many mentions of inline or front end editing (assuming those are the correct terms for what I'm looking for, of course).

My holy grail of web design right now is to find a CMS that is dependable, simple and dead easy for the client to edit. I usually use Joomla, but I'm finding that it is anything but simple for my average client to use.

The ideal solution would be a system in which the person in charge of content could edit directly on the page. It would also be necessary to be able to add images and video. An added bonus would be the ability to add new pages from a front end editor, but I don't know if that would work well or be any easier than logging into a backend.

I searched and found a reference to Plone, which seems a bit complicated and unfortunately isn't demo-ed on Open Source CMS. I haven't found much else. I remember a friend of mine using a simple ASP CMS back in 2003 that had inline editing, but I know that it changed its name and now I can't find it back.

I've seen some mentions here and there in searches of plugins that would do this for Wordpress. I'm not crazy about that idea, but it would work. Does anyone have any experience with them? I have also seen a plugin developed for Joomla that did this, but the developer I spoke with had it custom programmed for a private organization and wouldn't share any information about it.

Does anyone have any suggestions? It would preferably be either free or really worth the money. Any help or leads would be appreciated.

On preview, I'm seeing a few related questions with interesting solutions. Would like to see if anything new has come up in the last year since the previous question, though. Thanks

open source questions for ya

yonation — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:58:09 -0800

drupal vs joomla. some questions inside. 2 questions:

a) we're setting up a website for a film client who wants to be able to add a lot of multimedia (esp. video) to their site. bandwidth providing, which is the better CMS for this kind of serving?

b) which is easier to skin/template/etc? i'm quite comfortable with php/css and the concepts of of semantic skinning (eg wordpress and shopify). which of these follows more easily from knowing those two sites?

Joomla or WordPress Forum Integration

eightball — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:54:06 -0800

Integrating a forum into either Joomla 1.5 or WordPress 2.5.1 I'm trying to add a message board to a site. I installed Joomla 1.5 with the thought that it would be easy to add a forum, with the user functionality in Joomla integrated with the user login in the forum. I installed the SMF Forum, and the bridge which is supposed to link it to Joomla. (I followed the instructions directly from a Joomla book). A few PHP errors later, I found this. Apparently the bridge no longer works for Joomla 1.5?

So I got to thinking that Joomla is really overkill for the kind of site I'm building anyway. WordPress will do the job fine for the main pages. But I still need a forum. After googling around, I find either outdated tutorials, or people asking my same questions on forums with no responses.

Questions:
- Am I missing something obvious about Joomla and forum installation, or is it really as difficult as I'm finding it?

- If I need to go the WordPress route, is there a clear, up to date tutorial out there?

- Which forums integrate best with WordPress (Vanilla, SMF, PHPBB, etc...)?

- Is it possible to find a theme/template that will span WordPress and the forum?

What I'm reeeeeally looking for is someone to come along and say "Yeah, I tried this and had these problems, here's how I fixed them, and here's a tutorial from this year that walks you through it."

But of course any advice/links will help I'm sure. Thanks.

Can you please help me find a working script (CMS) that will allow easy implementation of a gallery & the ability to post Youtube videos.

cheero — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:58:17 -0800

Can you please help me find a working script (CMS) that will allow easy implementation of a gallery & the ability to post Youtube videos. I've wasted the past 4 days trying to get Joomla 1.5 to play nice with a RS2gallery module but that was a dead end. After Joomla I tried Wordpress (newest version) but quickly got frustrated due to its errors.

For example, on a fresh install of Wordpress, the categories and tags do not work, they go to a 404 page even though there is content within the category. No one on the Wordpress forums has any clue why that is so, they suggested that plugins might be the issue but the only plugin I have is Akismet.

Is it possible that a working script exists that will allow two simple things; a gallery of photos and youtube posts.

I am looking for a Joomla template that allows Flickr and Youtube embed posts and easy integration with Google Adsense

bostonhill — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:44:26 -0800

I am looking for a Joomla template that allows Flickr and Youtube embed posts and easy integration with Google Adsense, Can someone please recommend r a Joomla template that allows Flickr and Youtube embed posts and easy integration with Google Adsense?

Joomla - can anyone do it?

Baby_Balrog — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:46:29 -0800

CMSFilter: Joomla for a pseudo-beginner? Is this a good idea? I haven't developed a website since 2002 - I was very well versed in Dreamweaver MX, the adobe suite and Java and I'm very comfortable with html and css. Flash forward to today, and my boss wants to know how to get a website that's "hip" and "cool" for our church like the neighbor church's website. The thing looks pretty straight forward and frame-ish... I see that it was built with Joomla. Assuming that I have completely missed all revolutionary web developments (I mean, everything) over the past 5 to 6 years - will I be absolutely lost here? I don't want to waste my time with something that requires a current knowledge of web development to operate (I'd rather just hire somebody else to do it) but I thought I read somewhere that people have put together bang-up sites in a matter of hours with Joomla.

...also, I don't think I can handle working with a screen of code, anymore. I really need some form of WYSIWYG crutch to get things under control. Does Joomla offer that? Is it anything at all like Dreamweaver?

A site going from ASP to php/Drupal/Joomla? Is this madness?

mrhaydel — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 06:51:57 -0800

What's the best way to convert a site run on a Windows server, written in ASP/C#, to Drupal/Joomla? I'm going to be attempting to help someone transition their site from running on a Windows server to a Linux server and utilize Drupal or Joomla as well.

Essentially, in its current state, the site is written in ASP and C# and hosted on a Windows box. However, the hosting company that is being used is ridiculously expensive for what's provided, and whatever semblance of a CMS (one which I'm fairly certain was home grown) it's even using is extremely clunky and lacking. I feel like it's a perfect candidate for a decent CMS like Drupal and/or Joomla (your typical hierarchy of pages, a blog, forums, nothng super fancy), not to mention the lure of having a better host and being far cheaper.

My problem begins with the fact that I have no idea how much of what is already there can actually be put into any kind of format (I'm assuming HTML/php) that Drupal or Joomla can use. I mean, getting a rough skeleton of pages, implementing a blog and all that doesn't really worry me. The thing I'm most concerned with is all the content/functionality that's already been developed or built.

I'm by no means an expert in php or ASP, but I know enough to know such a transition may not even be possible, or at least not easy.

What are my options here? I realize this is almost akin to a complete overhaul of the site, but I feel like there must be a way to reuse as much of what is already built as possible. Are there tools out there that somehow make that kind of conversion...reasonable, for someone who's not a programmer by trade?

Suggestions please!

Help me find a website (non CMS/Blog) program/tool for my wife.

Leenie — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 01:31:15 -0800

My wife and I have a small family farm. While I run a few websites that are hand coded, Wordpress or Joomla based, with galleries and more, she can not handle that. We are trying to find a simple website creation program for her to maintain the farms website.

The one we are testing and it almost what we need is 'Website Baker'. It is a PHP web application that is somewhat WYSIWYG. The big gripe we have is image handling. If we have a large photo from a camera and want to place it on the website, it can not create thumbnails or a browser friendly size. You have to upload the images before you can use them on the page, etc. You can not have images float on the page to the right or left of the page, they have to be within a paragraph break.

We don't need commenting, blogging, ratings, voting or anything like that. We are looking for software that will let her create the website, a professional non crap looking page. I can do the templating, that is not the problem.

The software needs to be able to create a static page for an animal. That page will contain its recent genetics along with a few paragraphs about the animal. Photographs are required on the pages.

If the menu system can support sub pages/categories, that is great.
Example:
Breed 1
Animal 1
Animal 2
Animal 3
Breed 2
Animal 1
Animal 2

Nvu, Frontpage, Dreamweaver, etc. are not an option. Web based apps get bonus points. It will be on a Linux server running Apache web server with MySQL and all of the usual stuff.

Thanks for any, and I mean any, suggestions.

Search engine uses old meta description

clockworkjoe — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:28:10 -0800

Why does my site keep showing up on search engines with out of date met descriptions and keywords? I'm setting up a website for my parents' small press, using Joomla as a CMS. Here it is. http://www.beautifulozarks.com

However, whenever you search beautiful ozarks on Yahoo or Google, you get the the generic Joomla meta description "Joomla - the dynamic portal engine and content management system" instead of the new meta description "Ozark books and photographs on Ozarks history, travel, nature, the Irish Wilderness, and folk culture by Leland & Crystal Payton published by Lens & Pen Press."

It has been several days since I updated the meta description and keywords. Why don't the search engines use the new description? What am I doing wrong?

JoomlaRSSFilter - Joomla and nonstandard RSS elements

bhance — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:33:04 -0800

How to get 'nonstandard' RSS elements working in Joomla's unfamiliar, locked-down world of modules ... I'm trying to get an RSS feed displaying specific elements on a Joomla-driven site, but the stock RSS modules (MagpieRSS module for Joomla, Simple RSS Feed Reader) don't seem to play well with custom RSS elements.

Given a feed like

<item>
<title>Hey, look, I'm a title</title>
<link>http://server.com</link>
<cn:time>11/09/2007 12:10 am</cn:time>
<cn:thing1>Value 1</cn:thing1>
<cn:thing2>Value 2</cn:thing2>
<cn:thing3>Value 3</cn:thing3>
</item>

.. is there a module out there that'll give me access to elements cn:thing1-3 ? And perhaps do a little HTML work on them for linking, etc? Or am I stuck having to write my own module for this?

Content Management Systems (CMS) that play well with a PDA

DerekTheGeek — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:32:20 -0800

I really like CMS systems such as Joomla and DotNetNuke that allow me to host information I want to access remotely (blog posts, news, serial numbers, etc...). However, since I have my PDA with me all the time and not my notebook, I would really like to use a CMS that I can access via my PDA. My screen size is 320x240 pixels. Most of the CMS systems I have ever seen don't translate well to a PDA screen. Are there any out there that do? I am looking for a system that I can host on my own servers. Thanks!

How to collide new media and old media?

mkb — Tue, 29 May 2007 07:11:30 -0800

What features should I put into my new radio show's website? I'm thinking of forums or something, but ideally there should be something more, I think? I just started a new college radio show after almost a year of silence. I think I can get back into the groove of the actual show mechanics just fine on my own, but I'm at a loss as to how to best communicate with listeners about upcoming events, and past playlists, and other stuff.

I'm thinking that a message board is a signifcant part, plus a blog-type component

I'm using Joomla to put the site together, and I'm not too bad with PHP.

Joomla! or Wordpress Mu?

Davaal — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 18:50:08 -0800

I've started cobbling a blogging site out in WordpressMu. Today, i ran across Joomla. I think I want to switch - any ideas? i've started a blogsite using wordpress multiple user software. i currently have about 20 bloggers/users and i hope to add 50 or more. i've got a main site - though nowhere nearly as dynamiic or cool as some of the J! stuff i've seen today. thru this main page, users create or login to their own blogs and post. the problem with WPMU is that a lot of cool functionality just doesnt exist. everything i wanna do involves relentless searching thru less-than-friendly forums, heavy hacking of my core files and/or worse: an amateur attempt at hacking a Wordpress 2.0 plugin to work with WPMU.

i'm 2 weeks and nearly 100 hours into building this WPMU site. But even adding features that should be native to ANY blogsite - like global categories and tagging - requires hacking. I'm not lazy, but I've visited over 30 beautiful Joomla! sites today and every site owner claims to have done their work in a few days. if Joomla is the more powerful and effective answer than i'll switch ASAP.my question is thus: can i use Joomla in the same way? i've combed Joomla! forums and found extensions like MyHomePage and Xaneon Extensions' that seem as though they would do the same thing. i'm not looking for subdomains, subdirectories are fine: www.mysite.com/newuser. Can i create a blogsite with 50+ bloggers in Joomla!

your advice is appreciated.

Bulding A Joomla-Based Intranet

boombot — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:18:45 -0800

Is Joomla a good solution for the CMS of a mid-sized non-profit's intranet? I've taken a look at the product and think it would work, but would love to hear about any firsthand experiences.

Password access for Intranet Web site

bright77blue — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 06:25:23 -0800

How can one protect an Intranet web site while allowing access from the Internet. Internal users need to see the web site without typing in a password, but when users access it from the outside they need to type in a name and password - or even better still a HTTPS session. I can give more thn one internal IP to the server if I have to. Is htaccess the way to go? (Joomla website) Thanks!

Recommend me a CMS for my video podcast

tweebiscuit — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 12:36:27 -0800

I need a recommendation on what CMS / Blogging system to use for my video podcast. My big restriction: The main homepage of my site is flat HTML -- I want it to stay that way, but include a very abbreviated version of the blog (i.e., "links to the last five posts only") on it, via an iframe or something similar. What's the best system to use to do this? I'm on Dreamhost, which installs Wordpress and Joomla automatically, but since what I want is pretty simple (basically just links to videos, along with comments and the sort of post-sorting ability a CMS gives you), I don't want to install more than I need.

Needs:

* As above, I need to be able to include a set of the most recent posts, and be able to arbitrarily customize which information is included. This means that I need a CMS which will a) allow me to make some PHP calls from my homepage to get the necessary data, or b) allow me to create my own, dynamic CMS page with the structure I need, which I would then include via an iframe.

* I don't want it to look or be structured like a blog. One of the reasons I'm apprehensive about using WordPress is that I'm not just publishing a blog with video links in it -- semantically, I'm publishing videos. I'd prefer that, instead of shoehorning the video posts into the blog format, the CMS had a posting format that was specifically suited to videos (i.e., instead of fields like "Blog Post Title" and "Blog Post Text", I want "Title", "URL" and "Description".) Finally, I'm going to need the CMS to also function to some extent as a video library, and the blog format is obviously unsuited to this.

* Flexible RSS generation -- I've had problems before using RSS generators that didn't allow me to customize them sufficiently, resulting in output that wasn't sufficiently podcast-like. (I'll be running the feed through Feedburner, so 90% of the feed perks I need will be handled there.) Specifically, I need to be able to customize the homepage URL, which Feedburner doesn't allow.

Wordpress seems like a pretty ok bet, but as I said above I'm wary of using a straight blogging client (unless I can customize it as specified above). At the same time, I'm wary of jumping right into Joomla, which I suspect could get pretty complicated. Any suggestions?

CMS recommendations for a relatively simple site.

AmbroseChapel — Tue, 23 May 2006 14:24:32 -0800

CMSFilter -- recommendations and de-recommandations. Say I can get Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress installed with equal ease. Which do I want for a relatively simple site? The client is a friend and will be with Dreamhost. They have one-click installation of various CMS systems.

The requirements are relatively simple, but include a kind of database functionality.

They want to make lists of businesses in areas, so there would have to be some kind of free-form data attached to items so that we could generate lists of drycleaners, lists of drycleaners in the northern part of town, lists of all businesses in the northern part of town and so on. Plus a blog.

I have fiddled a bit with WordPress and didn't love it (particularly the documentation or lack thereof), but I'm thinking that the other two, which I've never worked with but constantly see recommended on the internets, might be overkill for a relatively simple site like this ... but of course the client will inevitably want something more complex down the track.

The other main consideration is that I can make it simple for the client to run the site without me, i.e. leave them with a simple interface which doesn't need fifty pages of documentation.

I can code Perl, PHP, JavaScript, HTML and CSS already but I wouldn't be scared to learn a new language if I had to, although that would obviously slow the process down a bit.

My only real experience with CMSs has been Movable Type and quick-and-dirty ones I've coded myself, plus a custom/proprietary one where I used to work which I can't tell you about without turning into Colonel Kurtz ... "the horror, the horror" ...

Practical Joomla Advice....

BigBrownBear — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 01:00:16 -0800

Seeking practical advice on starting with Joomla in Dreamhost. After asking about Dreamhost and reviewing different CMS', I've decided on Dreamhost and Joomla for a webpage I'm creating. I've worked a bit with Textpattern and designed some pages using HTML/CSS/Javascript, but I am still a bit of a beginner - especially with content management systems. I would appreciate any practical advice on how to get started or helpful links. I've read some of the stuff on the Joomla page but would appreciate more tips on getting started and intergrating google ads.

The page won't be very complex - it's just going to include reviews containg video and audio (probably youtube/odeo streaming) and some wayfaring maps. I just need something that's not a blog format.

If anyone really hates Joomla, I'd also like to hear that, although I don't like textpattern and am not too pleased with Drupal either.