Joomla Security Part 1

10 Minute Joomla! Tips Video Podcast

4 Written by Marco Conti Saturday, 24 July 2010 19:30

This episode on Joomla Security marks 10 Minute Joomla! Tips one year anniversary. Because of this milestone, I have decided to bring you a multi part Screencast about Joomla Security and what can be done to secure your Joomla website, your server, your computer and the way you work when building web sites.

NOTE: Please read the article below the video for more information, useful checklists, links and other resources discussed in the Screencast.

Assigning Joomla templates - URL syntax and sh404sef compatibility

The Conticreative Joomla Blog

4 Written by Marco Conti Saturday, 26 June 2010 12:31

Joomla has the ability to assign any template to any given page (as long as that page is linked from a menu) which is a very useful feature. However, often this trick does not work very well with sh404SEF turned on. At least not with the version currently in stable release (A new Beta version is coming out and I'll bring you a full review - hopefully in print and video - as soon as I have a chance to test it).

The other day I had a need to create an alternate template I could assign to a single page in the site. I needed a full set of modules to appear on the left column where normally the navigation and several other modules reside. Doing this is possible with a number of extensions, mostly modules like NoNumber.nl Advanced Module Manager, Metamod and others. However, in some cases swapping the template itself can be a more manageable solution (interestingly, the developer of Metamod has an extension called "MetaTemplate" that may have helped as well). In any case, for various reasons it was the solution I needed.

Jomla Vulnerable Extension list via Email

The Conticreative Joomla Blog

4 Written by Marco Conti Monday, 21 June 2010 20:01

Keeping your site secure can be a full time job. If your Joomla! site has many third party extensions, keeping track of their vulnerabilities and updates can be a full time job in itself.

Not keeping track can be very dangerous and potentially lethal for your site and your private data.

(Skip the article and go directly to the Vulnerable Extensions Feed:
http://feeds.joomla.org/JoomlaSecurityVulnerableExtensions make sure to use their "Subscribe by email" option)

Customize and simplify your Joomla administration panel

10 Minute Joomla! Tips Video Podcast

4 Written by Marco Conti Saturday, 12 June 2010 18:28

Do you get confused when you look at the Joomla administraton screen? Or worse, do your clients complain Joomla is to complicated and confusing? Learn to simplify your Joomla administration panel by getting rid of unused icons, add custom shorcuts, create inline help files to make your client's experience less frustrating.

Joomla! 1.5.17 is dead, long live Joomla 1.5.18!

The Conticreative Joomla Blog

4 Written by Marco Conti Saturday, 29 May 2010 22:24

What do you know? Just as soon as I managed to updated most of my client's sites to Joomla 1.5.17 (including those I had just updated to 1.5.16, for a few hours) Joomla 1.5.18 has come out.

Get the full skinny on Joomla.org here or download the joomla 1.5.18 full version here or get the joomla 1.5.18 patches here while they are still hot from the oven.

Discover Joomla 1.6 Beta

10 Minute Joomla! Tips Video Podcast

4 Written by Marco Conti Friday, 28 May 2010 17:28

In this 2 part issue of 10 Minute Joomla! Tips, your host Marco takes viewers for a tour of the new Beta version of Joomla 1.6.
Marco reviews the new User Access level feature in Joomla 1.6, the new configuration area, and many other new features of this groundbreaking version of Joomla.

A quick review of Joomla Forms by Blue Flame Ltd.

10 Minute Joomla! Tips Video Podcast

4 Written by Marco Conti Saturday, 01 May 2010 13:39

We all need forms for our sites. Even though Joomla provides a contact form in its basic installation, it is limited in scope and subject to SPAM unless countermeasures are taken.

Joomla Forms, by Blue Flame Ltd. is a powerful and easy to use Joomla component that allows anyone to create refined forms without having to learn how to code.

Joomla 1.5.17 released after only 3 days since 1.5.16

The Conticreative Joomla Blog

4 Written by Marco Conti Tuesday, 27 April 2010 13:36

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Joomla.org has just released today the new 1.5.17 patch to the short lived 1.5.16 patch they released on April 24 2010.

Something must have gone very wrong with the .16 patch but the bottom line is to hurry and patch your Joomla site to version 1.5.17 today.

If you need to know how to properly patch Joomla to the latest version please read the rest of this article.

Joomla 1.5.16 is out

The Conticreative Joomla Blog

4 Written by Marco Conti Saturday, 24 April 2010 15:15

EDIT: joomla 1.5.17 was released only 3 days after this patch. Please read the article about the 1.5.17 patch instead.

The Joomla Project has just released Joomla 1.5.16. A new security patch for the Joomla! CMS. Everyone is advised to upgrade as soon as possible their site to the new version.

The new patch is available here:
http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&frs_package_id=5184
The patch is currently available only for Joomla 1.5.15. Until older version patches are available the patching process will be in 2 steps (your version to 1.5.15 ==> 1.5.16)

How to patch Joomla

A few weeks ago I created a Screencast for 10 Minute Joomla! Tips on patching Joomla. For non Cpanel server the process is similar but in many cases uploading and expanding ZIP files and creating ZIP archives for backup purposes is not possible. Which is the reason why I prefer using Cpanel for all my sites and my client's.

TechSmith Snagit - Screen capture on steroids

Software Reviews

4 Written by Marco Conti Saturday, 24 April 2010 10:36

About a year ago I purchased Snagit from TechSmith to manage my Screen Captures. Until then I had been using either the good old "alt-print screen", the Vista/Win7 Capture utility or, for my Firefox Browser, I used the pro version of Fireshot, an add on for Firefox that ads full page scrolling to your browser's screenshots. [Read More...]