Joomla Blog

A common question we receive is how to add raw HTML code to an article. Sometimes you might like to incorporate Flash, JavaScript or other HTML code into a Joomla article but find that the code is stripped or altered when you save the article. This is a safety mechanism built-in to the HTML editor to prevent you or anyone you allow to write articles containing bad or malicious code. If you are using the standard HTML editor that is supplied with Joomla, you can turn off this mechanism as follows.

We've recently updated this information for Joomla 2.5

I have mentioned the showcase forum at Joomla before but now there is a dedicated home for showing off your Joomla sites. The Joomla Showcase is a great place to check out what others are doing with Joomla. There are already over 200 listings and if you think your site is worthy, you should request it to be included.

One technique hackers use to determine if you're using a website content management system is to simply search your site for commonly used back-end access addresses such as /admin or in the case of Joomla /administrator. You can hide your Joomla Administrator login page by using an extension called, jSecure Authentication.

I have had a few emails from people asking how to change the title tag on the home page. By default this reads "Welcome to the Frontpage". Out of interest, I searched Google for this phrase and got 456,000 results! Most of these are sites that haven't changed this default setting so let's have a look at how it's done.

This post includes a video tutorial.

As of Joomla version 1.6, Sections have been removed from the Article management layout.  Nested Categories have replaced the Sections / Categories structure in versions 1.6 and above.

The following post has been left published for archival purposes.

As I demonstrate in lesson 7a of the Build a Joomla Website tutorials, you need to create sections and categories to store your articles. However there is another option. In the Section drop-down menu, choose "Uncategorised". This will save the article but it will not be stored in a section or category. This is handy if you have something like a privacy policy article that doesn't really belong anywhere else. To link to this article from a menu, use the Article Layout type.

There are a huge number of free and commercial templates for the front-end of Joomla but did you know you can also change the template used for the back-end Administrator? The clever folks at JoomlaPraise have released AdminPraise2 which gives your Administrator a new look and new functionality. I especially like the Activity Log which shows you who has made recent updates to your site and what they did.

By now you have no doubt become familiar with the HTML editor that appears in the Article editing window. For many people this is all you need but if you want more flexibility and features, you really should check out the alternatives on the Joomla Extension Directory. The most popular by far is JCE and it tends to be the first extension I install with any new site. It is easier to use, makes linking within your site a breeze and it even has a spell checker.

Have you created your first Joomla site yet? If so, you now possess some valuable knowledge that you can use to start your own website development business. It is so easy to sell businesses on the benefits of using Joomla for their site. But one of the difficulties is getting started and showing prospective clients a portfolio of completed sites.

Last week I told you why I love using templates. But they are not always the best approach so let's have a look at why I hate templates.

I have a love/hate affair with templates. All Joomla pages are displayed using a base file called a template. Free and commercial templates are available from various providers. You can also create your own templates if you know how and I will be producing some training on this process in the future. Let me tell you why I love using templates from specialist template providers when developing Joomla websites.