Every time we start building a Joomla template we use the same code over and over again. That’s why I decided to build a template that’s adaptable to my new workflow of mobile-first design and has all of the necessary tools for building a modern responsive template. You can use and modify the template since…
If we suddenly can’t login in our Joomla administrator or visit our site and see a strange page, then we got hacked! There are some great tools out there but the most important one of all is BACKUP. There is a new service out there that can help you clean up hacked Joomla sites. It…
Creating multilingual sites became a lot easier with the new core integration of supporting more languages. On top of that we have an option to change the language text right from inside Joomla Admin. There is no need to hack the language files or create our own we let Joomla handle it. Opening the language…
One of my recent problems with introducing Git to my web design&development work, was that I could not push the changes to the live server. It is bad enough that I have to Export/Import the database of Joomla from my local copy to the live one. I had to also selectively choose the files that…
In the past couple of months I did a lot of work in integrating the awesome Twitter Bootstrap into my Joomla website and probably into my workflow. With the help of Font Awesome some final touches were added, but the site is not finished and will evolve continuously. Transforming the site into responsive design Responsive…
Using menu item type layouts is probably one of the most useful techniques when designing custom Joomla templates. If you want to create a custom looking page, which is accessible through a menu link, this is the most appropriate solution. Alternative article and category layouts Before we dive in to creating a menu item type…
With the new Joomla! 2.5 out, it was time to upgrade my Joomla! 1.7 installation. You have the option to upgrade with a single click but before you do press the button, I advise you to try it on a local copy of your website. It was a smart move to follow when I did…
If we are designing our own templates in Joomla we are already using some of the php programming language. Apart from including our modules, components, scripts and css files, we can use php code to further extend the website. The following code should be placed in your template index.php file. It was tested on the…
Sometimes we need to change the display of Joomla articles and categories. Creating different layouts for articles and categories is almost identical to creating alternative module layouts. The use of layouts is more practical from the use of template overrides if we need to have more than one different layout presentation of our content. Copying…
In Joomla 1.6 and 1.7 we have the option to use several different alternative layouts for individual styling. Alternative layouts differ from standard Joomla overrides in that, you can have unlimited alternative layout files. We also use different naming conventions and we must enable the layout in the Alternative Layout option field. We can create…
When we strive to create different user experiences on our Joomla! websites we can take advantage of some of the options, that are available with the Joomla! overrides. One of those options is overriding the output of every Joomla! module that we install on our site. If we change the files in the original module…