settings

• How to setup properly a 404 error page using Joomla 1.7+ and sh404SEF

  You might think, that this is an easy job, you just set up sh404SEF, and you're done! Maybe... but sometimes this might be really wrong. Especially if you have a multilingual site, and a properly built Joomla 1.7+ template.

• How to turn on the "?tp=1" trick in Joomla 1.7+?

  In a previous tip I enumerated couple of methods on how you can make visible the template positions in Joomla 1.7+.

  But there seems to be at least two different problems for some users.

• How to turn your error reporting level to maximum?

  Anyone who maintained/developed something with or for Joomla, or needed to troubleshoot something on a misbehaving Joomla site knows the feeling: something does not working, and the available error messages aren't showing enough information to help you track down the root of the issue.

  Any extra bit of info can help, so here is a tip for Joomla 1.7 which might help you got that.

• Increase the available memory for your page

  Did you added something to a perfectly working Joomla site, and you suddenly have a blank age instead your site? Chances are that you hit the memory limit allowed to you on your server. Memory limits help to keep scripts from running out of control or using up all of your free memory. This value is generally carefully set by your host's SYSADMIN to let the hosted sites to run smoothly without bottlenecking each other by overusing this precious system resource.

• Increase your Joomla site's SEO score with sh404SEF

  If you think, that is enough to build a nice site with a great content to have lots of visitors flowing to your site you're wrong. There are millions of webmasters trying to do the same. And Google and other search engines simply can't find, index and sort all of these sites, and show them to your potential visitors. So you need to do a little more to help these search engines - and to help yourself!

• Infinite loop detected in JError

  Today I have faced a strange, never seen before error. I have worked on recovering a server with couple of old Joomla sites after a major crash, when one of sites ceased to "fly" again, and showed up nothing else but a white screen with this text:

  Infinite loop detected in JError

• JFolder::create: Could not create directory

  The full error looks like this:

  JFolder::create: Could not create directory
  Warning! Failed to move file.

  You might see this nagging error every once you install something to your Joomla site. Apparently everything working, but - as any errors you see - should alert you: something isn't right with your site, and even if apparently everything works, you might have unexpected problems later!

• Joomla 3.x - How to create a multilingual site in 6 steps

• Joomla 3x Drop Down Submenu

• Joomla ACL

  ACL stands for access control levels. It refers to who has permission to do what on the website, including read, create, edit, delete, or log in, among other permissions.

  Many think of ACL as relating to the front end of a website only. For example, when I log into the website, what articles do I have available to me? And if someone else logs into the site, do they see the same articles, or do they see different ones?

• Joomla and Windows file permissions

  As I said elsewhere on the site one of key issues of running Joomla on a Windows server is to understand and apply correctly the Windows files and folders permissioning system to your Joomla install. Instead of writing my own compilation of how-tos, I reproduce here the excellent tutorial written by Russell Winter on the Joomla tutorials site. All kudos are going to him!

  ---

  For those of you that are either developing or delivering your Joomla! Web-Sites from the Windows environment, it is sometimes difficult to obtain relevant information regarding permissions. Unfortunately, it is a fact that most Web-Serving is offered under Unix and that Unix is pretty well documented within this environment. Hopefully the following information will go some way to clearing up any confusion and provide a little guidance.

• Joomla Hidden Menus

• Just turned SEF on and inner page images where gone

  Did you had this experience? Couple of days ago I just turned on SEF and the inner pages began to act weird - images disappeared, modules misbehaved, scripts weren't loaded...

  My first reaction was that I have set something wrong... or the SEF component I used have a flaw. After few days of digging I found that the issue has a much simpler cause.

• MAX_JOIN_SIZE problems

  Recently in more (usually cheap) hosts more of my clients reported a strange error, wich showed up recently, withouth notice.

  The error message is like this:

  1104 The SELECT would examine more than MAX_JOIN_SIZE rows; check your WHERE and use SET SQL_BIG_SELECTS=1 or SET SQL_MAX_JOIN_SIZE=# if the SELECT is okay

  followed by the failing query.

• Move your /temp and /log folders outside of webroot

  It's always a wise move to move your sensitive files outside of the so called WEBROOT, the directory which is used by Apache to show your website. This way you can be sure, that nobody else, but your Joomla core code can use these files.

  Moving some files/folders, like the main configuration.phpor the location of admin login may be tricky, but mowing these two key folders is relatively simple.

• Moving the location of admin login

  Most of attacks on the web - and Joomla sites aren't an exception - are made fully or in first phase at least by automated robots. These are using known entrance points as administrator logins to most used software solutions to try they chances to break in. So it's a wise move to change these well known locations. But wait! The need to upgrade compatibility may made this difficult, so, how we can do this without changing a line in Joomla code?

• Never-ending database installation

  If you’ve been trying to install a quickstart package received after a template purchase, and the installation freezes at the database creation/restoration step you might have to make few changes in the server/PHP environment in order to fix the issue.

• Options

  YOnce the basic setup is done, yo need to tweak your Joomla installation to behave as you need. you will need individual configuration settings for your website elements (components, plugins, modules, content pages, templates): in the Joomla lingo we call them options. These options are applied to the whole website, for users, categories, modules, components. Since Joomla 1.6 this has became standard: you will always find an icon named Options in the backend pages, which are providing you the interface to set your preferences for the given component.

  For example in the Joomla 1.6+ in the template manager you have in the Options a way to switch on or off the support for the well known trick to append "?tp=1", which reveals you the available module positions for your templates.

  Now you can block attempts to visualize by others these module positions by visiting the address:

  http ://yourdomain.com/index.php?tp=1

  BTW: The "tp" stands for template position and the trick is one of core Joomla tricks.

• Privacy tools suite for multilingual sites

  Joomla Privacy tools suite is a welcome addition for all Joomla webmasters- especially for those in EU. GDPR regulations make this not only a desirable asset, but a must have item.

  But what about multilingual sites? Looking to the configuration settings it is not obvius at all how you can use in your multilingual site properly.

• Protect yourself from clickjacking hack

  Clickjacking is a browser security issue and is a vulnerability across a variety of browsers and platforms. A clickjack takes the form of embedded code or a script that can execute without the user's knowledge, such as clicking on a button that appears to perform another function. The hacker installs an invisible layer over the existing site, hijacking the user's clicks. The suspicious-less user will perform this way actions they never intended to, from apparently inoffensive ones, as following someone on Twitter, to really nasty things, like password, credit card information theft, and anything else you might (not want to) do on a webpage.