Joomla Templates Will Be Converted to Joomla 1.5

Tuesday, 08 April 2008 11:49

Well I have finally converted the Joomla template I use on my site and my entire Joomla template site to Joomla 1.5 and I have some goodies in store.

Soon I will be releasing a "file download" plugin which will work for Joomla 1.5 in Native mode as well as Joomla 1.0 series. This plugin will allow visitors to download files which would normally not download by clicking them. It does this by sending the file in small chunks. This would include any file, such as image files, video files, and audio files, that when you click them they usually start to open right in your browser instead of prompting you to download them. Normally when you link to an image file it will show the user that file because apache knows it is a file which can be parsed a certain way by the browser. With this plugin you will be able to include files for download with a link or button so that the user can simply click the file and be prompted to download it.

Another thing coming soon is a Joomla templates store with some high quality Joomla templates for Joomla 1.5 series created by me. They will be offered for a small fee due to the time it takes to make them and this will also allow me to support them properly. Sounds fair doesn't it? I think so. Many people have asked me for support and I simply cannot answer all of their questions. This is about to change. But for now I have just published the Professional Templates link again which will show you a bunch of other professionally created Joomla templates of other peoples.

I have installed a comment system so people can comment directly under articles and whatnot. I was going to remove it because it may slow page load times but I have left it in for now. It seems pretty sweet! I removed the hidden copyright because I fear it will result in some sort of search engine penalty which I really don't want. It had a hidden h4 tag so the author could put hidden links to their site at my expense.

I have installed a forum so that it is easier for people to get support and to post comments and bug reports, etc. I have decided to go with Fireboard for now because of its power and simplicity. I almost went with PHPBB with the RokBridge but I would prefer something that displays through Joomla and not through a Wrapper, and I haven't figured out how to make PHPBB do that yet. Besides Fireboard is much simpler to set up and has everything I could want.

And finally, I intend to update all my templates and extensions eventually so that they work in Joomla 1.5 Native mode. This will be a fairly large project because I also intend to fix some various bugs that have been mentioned to me over time. My apologies to anyone who has reported bugs and not received any fixes, etc. I am still working on things when I have time. I just tend to skip over emails if I have too many and am in a hurry.

I have begun to dedicate more time again to this Joomla website and to offering free Joomla templates as well as some higher quality Joomla templates. So you should bookmark this page and come back soon to see some nice changes and some great, new Joomla templates and Joomla extensions =)

Ryan

Adsense and Image Placement

Monday, 19 February 2007 08:34

Lately I have been seeing an increasing number of sites using AdSense and placing misleading images next to the ads. This is against their policies!

On the AdSense blog last December there was a post about this that I read and since then I have seen many, many sites using these and similar techniques that they must have learned somewhere to try and increase their click-through ratio.

"We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads." - Ad and image placement: a policy clarification

I fear this will eventually get some peoples AdSense accounts closed so I am just posting the above link so you can check and see if your site is in danger.

My Joomla Experience

Thursday, 19 January 2006 23:03

Joomla is undergoing some nice changes. I am glad it is secure and stable. There seems to be some major, as well as many minor issues fixed in this latest release and I am really quite happy about that.

As a Joomla template designer I am attempting to keep up with the latest trends and fashions to design these Joomla templates because I find it enjoyable but also while supporting myself sufficiently. What matters most is that I have fun doing what I do. I enjoy designing things and learning new things and so when I have that chance it is better than doing a repetitious pattern that makes me sleepy.

One thing I have noticed is that Joomla is changing a bit. Many of the names of functions and calls and whatnot will be changed to jos instead of mos. Things like that. This seems like it would obviously cause compatibility issues with older components and thus a new beginning and new things to learn. Well not really.

But one thing I must learn is the patTemplate system to create templates more efficiently and perhaps also a component that runs with Joomla. I could do anything I wanted if I just learned it.

Does anyone have any magical way of learning all of this? I want to learn a type of speed reading but I may have to somehow devise a scrolling screen of all the words so I can zone out. It is really neat. You can memorize a dictionary by going into a meditative state and looking at the words while intending to memorize them and retrieve them later on whenever you like. It works and I bet if you did it in a clear state of mind you would surprise yourself :) It is a form of speed reading.

So I am still working on some templates but they are unfortunately on hold for a moment while I finish off working for some clients before moving onto bigger and better things. I am not really going anywhere but I do have to go where the money is for the time being in order to support myself and I would be an idiot not to. However, since my goal is still in my mind, there is no way I can fail. All I gotta do is keep designing Joomla templates and installing them for sites and helping people use Joomla. I should be a "Joomla Expert" by now but I have used it and designed templates for it and made a couple of modules and a lot of modifications here and there but I still don't think that qualifies me as an expert. There are a lot of things to learn.

I am just reading in the Help - Developers section on Joomla.org and I have noticed I must continue learning and learning and learning, and though I knew this long ago, I never thought it would be so fast that I have to learn the next new thing to keep up. But it is possible and I think one must take the time to keep up to keep things running smoothly and quickly when it can.

I do hope to continue to add to my collection of free Joomla templates here at this site. At some point I am hoping to set up a store to sell some of the higher quality templates that took me extra time to make and I will offer a money back guarantee. I will charge for support though because there is no way to keep up with it all. How does 20 bucks an hour sound? Sounds fair to me considering most things wont even take an hour and will therefore be free. Woohoo!!

OK, well that is about it for now. There are tons and tons of Joomla components and Joomla templates and many other useful projects on the Joomla developer forge. Please keep in mind that some of these are not stable and may cause you some troubles. Always make sure to back up your sites first!

Have yourself a super wonderful day!

Ryan