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• 1&1 SEF URL's problem reloaded

  A while ago I already posted an article about problems getting SEF URL's work on 1&1-s servers and thought I know how to deal with the idiosyncrasies of 1&1's (very unprofessional) server settings. I was wrong...

• Avoid easy Joomla version detection

  There is a surprisingly easy way to detect your Joomla version - and one don't need sophisticated tools, like BlindElephant or his siblings to do it. And this information can be used by hackers to make you scream...

• Component Output Types and Layout Overrides

  A powerful tool to style your site is to use layout overrides to style any MVC compliant component's output in your template. May sound very scary, but shouldn't - a versed Joomla webmaster like you  will handle the challenge easily.

• Cross Site Scripting (XSS)

  Cross Site Scripting is a hacking technique whereby malicious scripting code (usually javascript) is injected into user input forms (in a similar way to SQL injection attacks) or incorporated in a URL query string.

• Duplicate content penalty

  In the world of dynamic sites generally, and, of course among the webmasters runing Joomla sites there is often a lot of worry about duplicate content penalties since so many different URLs can point to the same exact page.

• Dynamic vs. Static URLs

  Joomla, as a PHP/MySQL powered solution is inserting the content into a webpage by way of a script. This type of site is considered to be dynamic. The advantage is obvious - that's why you and me have been chosen Joomla Tongue out. But what's the drawback?

• Enhance your security with .htaccess rules

  One of often overlooked security (and not only) resource for any Joomla site is under your fingertips! With each Joomla install (even from the old Mambo days) you have a file named htaccess.txt in your site's root directory. In most cases is never touched, and left as is - most weekend webmasters don't even know what is for. A few are using it to help Joomla or the specialized SEF URL builders to make those pretty SEF URL's for their site. And that's pretty easy - in most cases it's enough to rename it to .htaccess, and you are set. But there is much more power hidden there...

• Finding module positions on a Joomla 1.7 page

  In the Joomla 1.5 world things where relatively simple: you just added "&tp=1" to the live site homepage's URL, and the available module positions where shown, with a red border and the module position's name in the top left - unless the template's author didn't applied some tricks from preventing you doing that. But what about Joomla 1.7? Anyone tried to do the trick even on a default install can see, that the trick apparently does not works here. Why?

• Full Path Disclosure

  Full Path Disclosure (FPD) vulnerabilities enable the attacker to see the path to the webroot/file. e.g.: /home/omg/htdocs/file/. Certain vulnerabilities, such as using the load_file() (within a SQL Injection ) query to view the page source, require the attacker to have the full path to the file they wish to view. Then the attacker can use this info to perform other type of attacks based on the obtained information.

• Home menu problem with Joom!Fish and sh404SEF

  If you use Joom!Fish to create a multi-language Joomla site and use sh404SEF to manage your SEF URL's you might have seen this problem:

  When you are in one non-default language and click on the Home menu item (the default menu item, which should lead you to the default site page on that language) you are arriving on the default home page - in the default language, and not the default page in your active language!

• How to Create SEF URL's for ChronoForms with sh404SEF (or any other SEF component)

  The sh404SEF component is a terrific tool for creating and maintaining SEF URL's for your Joomla site - and to make it more Google - and user - friendly, with one condition: to have a SEF plugin for your components already delivered to you with the sh404SEF or to find one ready-made on the web.

  Luckily most of popular components are already covered by the component itself, or there are geeks on the net (like me) publishing the needed add-ons. One of notable exceptions is the popular form component, Chronoforms.

• How to install Joomla to GoDaddy

  Even if hosting Joomla on GoDaddy can be challenging, and anybody ever built a site on their servers will tell you to turn to some better Joomla host, many people still choose them because of the excellent price/offering ratio. Here are a few tips that will help you get Joomla running on GoDaddy with minimum fuss.

• 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!

• Joomla update warnings via Google Webmaster Tools

  Now you have one more extra reason to use Google's very useful Webmaster Tools. Recently Google added to his arsenal of Joomla related enhancements a useful one: In the Google Webmaster Tools you will see a warning with useful details on what to do each time yor Joomla site gets outdated!

• Layout

  Components, as you already know, are fairly complex and have the ability to display different information in different ways.

• Misterious "Bad Certificate" error when you click on certain inner links

  One of my clients, who have serious Joomla background complained recently, that on his brand new Joomla site when he clicked on one of menu items his browser raised the well known "Bad Certificate" error. The site obviously worked well, but for some reason the link to that inner page was created using the https:// prefix.

  Obviously, he had no valid security certificate in place - as many sides does not have these days, but the menu entry being an inner, Joomla generated link he (and myself, for some... 5 minutes approx) was dazzled, what might happened?

• 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?

• Redirect users after a successful login

  If you use the core login module, redirecting the user to a given page (more precisely, to a menu item) is a breeze. But what if you want to do a trickier thing? For example what if you have a custom component/plugin which has a view with restricted parts, available only for logged in users, and you want the user to remain on the same page after the login (for example from a login box shown in a modal box)?

  Tricky, eh? Took me some hours of trial and error, digging around forums and such, but here is the Joomla coding trick which will offer you a simple solution:

• SEO DOs And DONT’s, According To Google

  Changes to Google’s algorithm have the ability to make or break businesses. Google is sending out the signal that you should worry less about the current SEO trends, and more about producing great content, and that they’re “leveling the playing field” for sites that don’t pay as much attention to SEO. Obviously great content is a positive, but at the same time, Google is showing us each month all of the changes it is making, and all the while, providing tips about how to do certain SEO things better.

• Testing the site on multiple mobile devices

  These days is not enough to test your brand new site on couple of screen resolution/operating system/browser combinations, you need to test your new sites on a large number of mobile devices, covering a wide variety of operating systems, screen sizes and resolutions, from  the iPhone 320×480 to the Nook Color 600×1024. To make the matter worse, these devices can be held vertically or horizontally. What you can do?