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Category: Blog

Published: 25 June 2023

Hits: 2207

• joomla
• web hosting
• site development

You can create Joomla! websites just a­bout any­where; there are thou­sands of com­mercial web­hosting ser­vices to showcase your work to the world.  You can also host your websites using your own personal computer (before put­ting them “out there” on the world wide web).  So why do so many seem to have people have trouble maintaining their Joomla! websites?

There are many products you can install on your PC—de­pen­ding on the operating system—such as Wampserver, XAMPP, MAMP, LAMP.

See also Technical Requirements; for a com­pre­hen­sive list of additional PHP environmental settings used with Joomla, please see Optional Technical Requirements for J! 3.x or Optional Technical Requirements for J! 4.x (whichever applies to your particular circumstances).  Note that some of these “optional” requirements are actually needed!

I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve seen people begging for help on technical forums, saying, “I created a J! website and everything was fine until I tried to add a new extension (or update the software … or change something).  What could possibly be wrong?”  When we find out more about their hosting environment we discover that it’s a shambles.  Everything was not “fine” to begin with; if they’d made a couple of small changes to the hosting environment they wouldn’t have the mess that they now have.  Does this sound like you?  Would you like to know about four important PHP settings that can mean the difference between happy webcrafting and tear-your-hair-out frustration and misery?  If this sounds like you this article may just be a life-saver.

I’ve written before about a few of the important things people can do to maintain their Joomla! websites.  Let’s summarise a few important PHP settings that determine whether you can maintain your J! website or whether you can’t.  The following table lists those settings (and my recommendations for how you should use them):

Next up, “Memory Limit = -1” …

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User Rating: 4 / 5

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Category: Blog

Published: 21 August 2022

Hits: 2890

• tutorials
• joomla
• webcraft 101

You may have noticed when you scroll down the pages on this website that there's a green-coloured bar at the top of the page that moves.  This bar is sometimes called a “reading progress bar” and there are a number of extensions you can obtain that will do this.

I was inspired to write a simple module—don’t worry, there’s nothing you need to download or install—after reading this question posted at The Joomla! Forum™.

I've noticed something new … a blue progress bar … [corresponding to] the vertical scroll … and distance to bottom of page.forum user, Joomla forum,18-Aug-2022

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User Rating: 5 / 5

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Category: Blog

Published: 24 July 2022

Hits: 1079

• opinion
• forum management

Forum rules are meant to help people who do not know how to use forums.  Technical discussion forums, in particular, can be scary for novice users because every forum is different: forums develop their own unique culture, set of traditions (many of which are codified/laid down in a set of rules), behaviour and etiquette and it takes time for newcomers to understand how things are “done” before they’re ready to post their first question.  Forum rules should help people understand how they to go about obtaining information and asking for assistance with problems they may be having.  How often, therefore, do we read on various forums,

I saw some information somewhere on the internet that related to my problem but nothing worked ...

I remember seeing something on this forum but when I followed the instructions it did not help ...

According to my research, the documentation is wrong or non-existent ...

I’ve followed all the other tips about my problem but nothing helps ...

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