Richard Pearce

When I met Joomla, I had no idea how much it would impact my future. The relationship was frosty at first. Hostile in fact. I was happy the way things were, but Joomla insisted that life could be even better, if I was prepared to make some changes. The problem was, the path to our ultimate happiness required a solution that had not yet been built. And it was up to me to produce the solution. Okay - sure, Joomla did provide the materials, but no cohesive way of moulding it all together.

I made a tentative approach, but was sternly rebuked. Something about having inadequate permissions. I tried again but couldn't find a way to have even the most simple of conversations. Sadly we parted and I went back to my long-term partner, Dreamweaver.

But I knew I was missing out on something. It nagged me day and night until I decided to try again. It was easier this time. Things started to look bright and I was optimistic that I had found my lifelong partner. But alas we fell at the final hurdle. We had come so far, surely something seemingly so small as a menu item couldn't come between us. But is was so. And so tragically we separated again.

This time my reunion with my previous HTML editor was not so pleasant. We were never right for each other. So I knuckled down with a new determination to use the few resources I had to build a Joomla website. The details aren't important. All you need to know is that everything finally came together and now Joomla and I are best of friends.

I want you to enjoy this friendship too, so I have produced a methodical step-by-step solution to learning Joomla. Start with our free course The Basics. Then move on to our advanced courses. I also publish hints and tips via this blog. Your first steps might also be tentative, but with my help, you are guaranteed to save a lot of time and frustration.

Richard Pearce

Owner of Build a Joomla Website. Responsible for 1 wife, 3 kids and 17 fish.

Joomla ACL Actions Explained

Posted by Richard Pearce
Richard Pearce
Owner of Build a Joomla Website. Responsible for 1 wife, 3 kids and 17 fish.
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 17 May 2012
in General

Joomla ACL Actions ExplainedThe Joomla Access Control List feature allows site owners to place users into groups and those groups can be given permissions as to who can create and manage content. This post explains the different actions that groups can perform.

Tags: ACL
Hits: 406 1 Comment
0 votes

The 5 steps to securing Joomla content

Posted by Richard Pearce
Richard Pearce
Owner of Build a Joomla Website. Responsible for 1 wife, 3 kids and 17 fish.
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 10 May 2012
in General

Joomla ACLThe Joomla ACL provides two main functions; it can restrict who can view certain content and who can take action on content items, for example create an article. This post explains the basic steps for the first part - how to restrict which users can view content.

Tags: ACL
Hits: 753 2 Comments
0 votes

Multi Profiles Plugin

Posted by Richard Pearce
Richard Pearce
Owner of Build a Joomla Website. Responsible for 1 wife, 3 kids and 17 fish.
User is currently offline
on Monday, 7 May 2012
in Extensions

The Joomla ACL is incredibly flexible but there are a couple of areas where in some circumstances, it might not provide the features you need. For example the frontend registration option assigns users to a group that you specify. But what if you need to give your user the choice as to which group they can join? This post answers introduces you to an extensions that solves this dilemma.

Hits: 448 2 Comments
0 votes

First steps with the Joomla ACL

Posted by Richard Pearce
Richard Pearce
Owner of Build a Joomla Website. Responsible for 1 wife, 3 kids and 17 fish.
User is currently offline
on Friday, 4 May 2012
in General

Joomla version 1.6 was released in January last year and it heralded a vast array of improvements. The biggest change was to the access control list which is the feature that implements permissions that determine who can view certain content items and who can manage content. It is a powerful and flexible system, but it is not intuitive and requires good planning. This is the first of several articles discussing how to use the Joomla ACL.

Tags: ACL
Hits: 828 0 Comments
0 votes

AceShop Review: First Look

Posted by Richard Pearce
Richard Pearce
Owner of Build a Joomla Website. Responsible for 1 wife, 3 kids and 17 fish.
User is currently offline
on Saturday, 28 April 2012
in Review

aceshopThe latest contender for the Joomla ecommerce crown has arrived. AceShop integrates the popular OpenCart application into Joomla. Does the combination of the stable OpenCart platform and the flexibility of Joomla lead to the ultimate ecommerce solution? We decided to find out.

Hits: 1900 8 Comments
0 votes

Language overrides from Administrator

Posted by Richard Pearce
Richard Pearce
Owner of Build a Joomla Website. Responsible for 1 wife, 3 kids and 17 fish.
User is currently offline
on Friday, 20 April 2012
in Tutorial

Language file overrideVarious functions in Joomla require certain text to be displayed. These values are stored in various text files and previously you could only change the text by finding and downloading the correct file, changing the text and then uploading the file again. And then repeating the process if you got it wrong. Fortunately there is a much easier solution now and this post explains how to use the language override feature.

Hits: 690 3 Comments
0 votes

Awesome Joomla!Days Infographic

Posted by Richard Pearce
Richard Pearce
Owner of Build a Joomla Website. Responsible for 1 wife, 3 kids and 17 fish.
User is currently offline
on Friday, 20 April 2012
in General

JoomlaDay infographicThe first Joomla!Day was held in 2006 in The Netherlands. Discover some interesting facts about this and subsequent Dutch JoomlaDays in this amazing infographic. 

Tags: JoomlaDay
Hits: 249 0 Comments
0 votes

Joomla's greatest threat

Posted by Richard Pearce
Richard Pearce
Owner of Build a Joomla Website. Responsible for 1 wife, 3 kids and 17 fish.
User is currently offline
on Friday, 13 April 2012
in General

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities ThreatsIf you operate a business you may have run a SWOT analysis at some stage. This planning approach examines your organisation's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. When choosing a piece of software, or in our case a content management system, it's common to examine the first two – strengths and weaknesses. But what about the other two? Let's leave opportunities for another day and in this post ask the question "What is Joomla's greatest threat?"

Hits: 1983 13 Comments
0 votes

Picnik Replacement

Posted by Richard Pearce
Richard Pearce
Owner of Build a Joomla Website. Responsible for 1 wife, 3 kids and 17 fish.
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 3 April 2012
in Tutorial

Picnik alternativeThe tool we have previously recommended for resizing images is about to disappear. This post introduces you to a great replacement that's not only dead simple to use, but a lot of fun too.

Hits: 1642 5 Comments

Google Webmasters Warning

Posted by Richard Pearce
Richard Pearce
Owner of Build a Joomla Website. Responsible for 1 wife, 3 kids and 17 fish.
User is currently offline
on Monday, 2 April 2012
in General

Google is informing Joomla users of outdated versions of their sites.

Tags: Google, Security
Hits: 472 0 Comments
0 votes

Joomla Tutorials

Joomla Pro

Save a fortune on your web development or earn a second income by becoming a Joomla Pro. This course covers every Joomla feature plus you'll learn about ecommerce, membership sites, search engine optimisation and more.

Learn more

Beyond the Basics

Once you have learnt the theory, it's time to go Beyond the Basics. Watch as we build a Joomla website from scratch and learn how to include popular features such as feedback forms and Google Maps. You can also download the lessons.

Learn more

The Basics

If you're new to Joomla then start with The Basics. This free course teaches everything you need to know to build your first Joomla website. This is the easiest and fastest way to learn Joomla - and it won't cost you a cent! No registration required.

Learn more