Joomla Community

Pizza, Bugs, and Fun March 3, 2012

Monday, 30 January 2012 19:00

We are announcing a Joomla! Pizza Bugs and Fun event scheduled for Saturday, March 3, 2012. The event is global for virtual participants with local venues where ever they are organized. We squashed a lot of bugs last month, but as more people use a new release, we always find more. We'll also have documentation ready to be worked on.

Joomla ® 2.5 - ¡Características Extra! ¡Actualizaciones Fáciles!

Wednesday, 25 January 2012 10:52

joomla-los-que-para-una

Con el lanzamiento de Joomla! 2.5, la comunidad de usuarios ha puesto un gran énfasis en que la instalación del CMS y el proceso de gestión de cambios sean tan simples y directos como sea posible.

Esto permitirá a los usuarios migrar más fácilmente y con frecuencia a la última versión de Joomla!, y aprovechar todas las ventajas de seguridad asociadas con el funcionamiento del nuevo código. Creemos que los usuarios Joomla! de todo el mundo agradecerán realmente este nuevo proceso.

Comience ahora mismo:

Actualizaciones fáciles

La notificación automática desde el core de Joomla! y sus extensiones, es una nueva característica integrada que simplifica el mantenimiento del sitio y la gestión de actualizaciones:

-Disponible como un botón de acceso rápido en el panel de control de administración de su sitio web Joomla!, permite a los administradores actualizar un sitio a la última versión estable liberada de Joomla! con un solo click.
-Un segundo botón de acceso rápido que gestiona las actualizaciones de las extensiones Joomla! utilizadas.

Se trata de una mejora importante en la usabilidad, ya que esta característica de auto-actualización elimina la necesidad de transferir los archivos de forma manual y remplazarlos en el servidor, convirtiendo un proceso costoso en tiempo y propenso a errores, en una experiencia integrada y eficaz que ahorra tiempo.

LEER MÁS ... (english info)

Búsqueda Inteligente

Esta nueva característica ofrece una experiencia de búsqueda más rápida y amigable para sus visitantes. Dispone de búsqueda en lenguaje natural con auto-completado y derivados, lo que permite al usuario encontrar el contenido relevante con sólo escribir las primeras letras de una palabra.

Diseñado para la flexibilidad y la velocidad, este set de componente + plugins nativos de Joomla! le ofrece a usted indexación automática en un click de todos los elementos de contenido, categorías, enlaces, contactos, noticias, etc. Además ofrece una gran variedad de opciones configurables, incluyendo la longitud de la descripción del resultado, longitud de la URL, y filtros de fecha.

LEER MÁS ... (english info)

Soporte Multi-Base de Datos

El soporte a múltiples motores de bases de datos es una nueva característica que hace posible ejecutar el proyecto Joomla! CMS en muchas bases de datos diferentes, no sólo MySQL y MySQLi. Esto facilita la integración y los procesos de administración de actualizaciones. Joomla! ahora permite diferentes controladores que soportan diferentes versiones de bases de datos SQL. Los actuales controladores existen para bases de datos MySQL y MS SQL, mientras que para los motores PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQLite y DOP los controladores ya casi están listos.

Características adicionales

Incluídas en la nueva versión de la plataforma Joomla

CAPTCHA en el core.
Vinculación de nuevos menús con un Módulo.
Usar las imágenes y los campos de URL para crear sencillos diseños estandarizados.
Elegir si el Administrador recibe un correo electrónico cuando los nuevos usuarios se registran.
Notas en los elementos de Menú.
Filtros personalizados de texto.
Mayor flexibilidad de filtrado por categoría en el Administrador de Artículos.
Administrador de Idiomas Inválidos.
Notas de usuario.
Fuentes de Noticias ordenadas y flexibles.
Opción de Imagen para la página sin conexión (offline).
Opción de que el sitio aparezca como desconectado (offline) después de la instalación.
Mejor rendimiento en la página de Edición de Items de Menú.
Etiquetas meta alternativas para sitios multi-idioma
La mejora de SEO: Nuevo plugin del sistema: languagecode

Ver todas las nuevas características

NOTA: Este artículo es una traducción realizada por Óscar Valbuena del original: http://www.joomla.org/25

NOTE: Translation by Óscar Valbuena of this post: http://www.joomla.org/25

Joomla 2.5 Includes New Version of Joomla PHP Framework

Monday, 23 January 2012 12:50

the-and-joomla-developers-that

The Joomla Project’s latest CMS release includes a release of the project’s PHP Framework: Joomla Platform. In 2010 the project made plans to officially decouple the core of Joomla (now the Platform) from the CMS. This allows site implementers to utilize both the full featured CMS, and as well as allow developers to use the light but powerful Joomla Platform core to power web applications.
The Joomla 2.5 CMS release includes notable features that until now have been available only to those developers who have been using the Joomla Platform as a stand alone application. Among others, some of my favorites are:

JWeb
JImage
JWebClient
JGrid

Here's a brief explanation of each:

JWeb is a new base for both the platform and the CMS. This feature includes all the important parts of a web application that make it extensible and customizable. This keeps the platform in a position to be a lean, mean, web-application-powering machine.

JImage is a new special feature that Platform developers have included to really help developers with image handling. Many website implementers and third party extension site builders have been including their own interpretations of image management, which has lead to a lot of duplicated and repeated efforts. Since the main purpose of having a framework is to reduce duplication and repeated code, it made perfect sense to create a feature to help developers out in this regard.

JWebClient is the Joomla Project’s accolade to adopting mobile technology as trend that is here to stay. The project understands that with iPhones, iPads, Androids, and other tablets and cellphones, building a responsive website or web application is important, and something that users expect. JWebClient allows extension developers to detect important user viewing data such as their device, browser, and language, and make a decision based on that information. Mobile is here to stay, and the Joomla project welcomes it with open arms.

JGrid is an HTML generator that will save developers from repeatedly having to create their own methods of generating table layouts. Tables are used extensively in web applications for list layouts, and until now developers working in Joomla have had to create their own code to do this from scratch. Now with a class in the core, developers can minimize the amount of code they have to write themselves, saving time for them and letting them focus on innovation and creativity for their Joomla extensions and applications.

Marketing Material for Joomla 2.5

Sunday, 22 January 2012 19:00

you-your-the-customers-update

Joomla 2.5 is right around the corner. For those of you who want to blog about the launch, talk with your customers or update your extension / template information, here are some resources you can use:

New Features in 2.5 - Windows Azure support

Monday, 02 January 2012 12:56

the-azure-joomla-windows-and

The artcile New Features in 2.5 showcases several new features in Joomla 2.5. In addition to supporting MS SQL Databases covering SQLServer 2008 and SQLAZure, Joomla 2.5 supports Azure Storage CDN and Azure deployment. Windows Azure is the Cloud platform from Microsoft. To learn more, please visit Windows Azure. Sign up here for a Windows Azure Free Trial account. This article covers a use case to deploy new Joomla site on Windows Azure. I will follow up with another use case where we will cover migration of Joomla 2.5 site (Windows Server and SQLServer Database) to Windows Azure. Migration will require customizations to Joomla Scaffolder framework.

The Azure storage CDN is not part of the Joomla 2.5 core, but is available as a Joomla extension. The CDN can be downloaded from Azure Storage Extension. If deploying on a Windows Server, Joomla users/developers can leverage Azure Storage for image/video delivery to the site very similar to Amazon S3 or Rackspace Cloud files. However the real use case for Joomla with CDN extension is the deployment on Windows Azure Cloud platform.

We have made it easy to deploy Joomla on Windows Azure by providing a Joomla Scaffolder framework. The Joomla Scaffolder framework does everything for you such as

1. Download the Joomla2.5 beta from Official Joomla2.5 Beta release .

2. Download Azure CDN and package CDN

3. Generate Service configuration settings (cscfg) for Windows Azure

4. Generate Package file (cspkg) file for Windows Azure.

Let me outline instructions needed to build the Joomla Package ready to be deployed on Windows Azure.

Assumptions:

1. You need Windows Azure account. You can sign up here

2. Make sure the certificates are uploaded and fire wall rules added

3. Database and user credentials are configured for SQLAzure from Azure portal

4. Configure Storage account for Windows Azure

5. Download Azure Storage Explorer

6. Add storage account and create following containers

a. images (for Media Manager sync)

b. config (To upload cscfg and cspkg file for deployment)

Steps to build the Azurified Package

1. Download Joomla Scaffolder on your Windows machine.

2. Extract the downloaded zip file

3. Open build.bat file in your favorite editor

4. Edit line 18

call scaffolder run -out="%PWD%\build\Joomla" -s="%PWD%\build\Joomla.phar" -db jbase -user "demosql@xxx4XXXjiw" -password "Sam@123" -host "XXX.database.windows.net" -sample_data 1 -admin_user "admin" -admin_password "admin2222"

Modify -user, -password, -host as per your windows Azure account credentials shown within Microsoft Azure portal

The last three parameters

- sample_data -- 1 to install sample data

-admin_user - admin username for the site

-admin_password - admin password

5. Save the file build.bat.

6. Run the build.bat from comand line

Takes around 5-7 minutes to perform the following tasks

Download the Joomla2.5 beta from Official Joomla2.5 Beta release .
Download Azure CDN and package CDN
Generate Service configuration settings (cscfg) for Windows Azure
Generate Package file (cspkg) file for Windows Azure.

7. Upload the cscfg and cspkg file to the config container within your storage account.

8. Login to your windows Azure portal and create a new Hosted service (Staging or production, though "staging is preferred)

9. Provide the deployment name, browse and provide paths to the cscfg and cspkg files from storage explorer

10. Then your deployed service will go through 3 states

Initializing
Busy
Ready

Go back to the Azure portal and notice the status of the deployment. If deployment is in "Ready" state, then click on the link below DNS Name with Azure properties tab.

On click of the link, 3 things happen

1. Joomla.sql is installed

2. If sample_Data is set to "1" in build.bat sample_data is installed

3. admin username and password is created within Joomla database.

Note:

a. You can also upload cscfg/cspkg from your local machine, but it is time consuming, hence alternatively, upload the cscfg file and cspkg to storage will help reduce time to deploy Joomla on Azure.

b. You might get an alert that number of instance is 1 and need to be increased to more than 1. Ignore this alert by clicking on "Yes". You can modify instance count from Azure portal after the deployment.

c. Allow approximately 5 minutes for the deployment service to be in ready state.

That is it - your joomla is deployed on Windows Azure.

Login to the backend and configure Azure storage api credentials..
Click on Media manager. Now all images are rendered from Azure storage CDN and not from the images folder. If you upload images in article manager/category manager or from front end, all images are uploaded to Azure CDN and not to images folder under Windows Azure.

Development roadmap

1. Improve integration of Joomla Global configuration to support Windows Azure Service Configuration.

2. Bug fixes in Joomla 2.5 beta release to make Joomla 2.5 GA release production ready for Multidb and Windows Azure.

3. Joomla 2.5 should be integrated with Microsoft Web Matrix/Platfrom Installer very soon.

4. The Joomla CDN Extension for Azure will be available through Joomla Extension Directory.

5. Consolidate CDN capabilitieis with in community projects to support CDN natively in Joomla. Please note there are several CDN initiatives and is hard to adopt one implementation. Having CDN support as an extension is not a bad idea either.

6. Better control of Azure deployment (instance count, global configuration changes) from within Joomla Backend.

Resource for Windows Azure

1. Joomla Scaffolder

2. Azure Storage Extension

3. Windows Azure

4. Windows Azure Free Trial account

5. Azure CDN

6. Official Joomla2.5 Beta release .

Note: If you want to change the destination of the Joomla 2.5 or Azure CDN, then edit Config.class.php file in Joomla Scaffolder to provide the correct download links to both Joomla and Azure CDN.

Resource for Joomla to run on Windows

1.Web Platform Installer configures SQLServer Compact edition for you

1. SQLServer 2008 R2 Express

2. PHP Drivers for SQLServer

3. If SQLServer 2008 (Standard or Enterprise edition) you also need SQL Native client to be installed on the web server.

Note - you can use XAMPP, WAMP or IIS with Fast CGI with PHP 5.3 or later.

An example of Joomla extension supporting Multidb Joomla Ad Agency - Click here for more information

Please do help us test and improve Windows Azure support. Please do contact me if you have any suggestions, questions/concerns or comments, please share them on the group http://people.joomla.org/groups/viewdiscussion/1399-joomla-25-multidb-and-windows-azure.html?groupid=278. We will be sure and glad to improve your experience of Joomla deployments on Windows Azure and multidb.

Joomla needs more involvement from individuals and companies implementing Joomla solutions or services. Please get involved today in some capacity.