Strict standards : Non-static methods called statically

modify your php.ini file as follow:

Change /opt/lampp/etc/php.ini 
set error_reporting to E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE
display_errors = Off

Then (very important because I missed this at first) you need to stop and start the lampp server (if you are not using lampp then bounce whichever webserver you are using).

I hope that helps.

20 New Things: Joomla 2.5 vs. Joomla 3.0

Joomla has recently released the Joomla 3.0.0 version on September 27th, 2012 with significant updates and major developments. Following right up with the immediate upgrade version Joomla 3.0.1 for security fix on October 9th, Joomla 3.0 is indeed the hot spot for this month. If you haven’t become familiar with it yet, here are the 20 things that are worth taking note in Joomla 3.0.

20 New Things: Joomla 2.5 vs. Joomla 3.0

1. Non-Responsive vs. Responsive

Yup, Joomla is now officially responsive – mobile device ready, due to the help of Bootstrap. The front-end will have the responsive built-in feature, the back-end also inherits this tweak. You will NOW officially be able to get your site under control even when you are ”on-the-go” with just a mobile device!

The Joomla 2.5 Front-end

The Responsive Joomla 3.0 Front-end

The Joomla 2.5 Back-end

The Responsive Joomla 3.0 Back-end

2. Without bootstrap vs. With bootstrap

The big word for Joomla 3.0 is Bootstrap. With basic CSS already integrated into Joomla 3.0, it is aiming for a much better UX for the end-user.

Bootstrap for Joomla 3.0

3. Non+ -LESS CSS vs. LESS CSS

LESS is a dynamic stylesheet language designed by Alexis Sellier and has recently been integrated into Joomla 3.0. The development of a template has significantly changed by the use of LESS. All the website templates and backend will include /less directory and template.less files. Those two are meant for importing both Bootstrap and JUI (less files and media/jui/less files). That enables the template designers to define which file should be applied to their template, and which one will be imported to the LESS JUI.

Without Less, Joomla 2.5 uses CSS to style

vs. Less in Joomla 3.0

4. Without JUI vs. With JUI (for Extension Developers)

The Joomla User Interface (JUI) library provides a common set of tools that enables component developers to share a common ground of elements, drastically reducing time in coding, without having to innovate and create their own library but still having a clean, nice looking interface. In addition, the loading time is dropped dramatically for users who are surfing around from one Joomla 3.0 site to another, as the javascript and css files are already loaded, adding an extra fast loading speed for the Joomla 3.0 CMS.

5. The Mambo days vs. the Great UX

No longer will you be bored with the old-fashioned interface, Joomla 3.0 did a major improvement on UX that would amaze and make all of us – the fans – fall in love all over again, starting with:

• The Main Menu
  

  The Joomla 2.5 main menu
  

  Main menu in Joomla 3.0 back-end
• Dashboard with the new look for administrator statistics module
  

  Joomla 2.5 dashboard
  

  Joomla 3.0 dashboard
• Administrator submenu is now located in the left panel
  

  The only menu style that you'll find in Joomla 2.5
  

  Complemented menu on the left panel in Joomla 3.0
• A redesigned footer menu for quick status view of your site and a new location for the preview link
  
  

  Footer menu in Joomla 3.0
• The right panel includes a list of commonly used features
  

  Commonly used features quick icons are located on the right panel in Joomla 3.0

6. 7 steps vs. the faster 3 steps installation

Right off the bat, you will immediately feel the ”difference" in UI of the complete redesigned installation screen in Joomla 3.0. The installation process is now simplified in only 3 steps compared to the 7 steps procedure we had with joomla 2.5.

Joomla 2.5 installation screen with the original 7 steps procedure

The 3 steps installation for Joomla 3.0

The installer will auto-detect your language from your browser and the "Yes | No" option is now designed in a color coded button: Yes (Green) | No (Yes)

The old days Yes | No check-box style

vs. New design for your Yes | No button

In this new version, Joomla supports five sample data sets instead of only three in Joomla 2.5.

3 sample data sets on Joomla 2.5

vs. 5 sample data sets on Joomla 3.0

The whole process has tremendously cut back installation time to less than 1 minute, which is a huge improvement for the installation process. Plus, you can save the installation settings for later use by sending it to your email address.

Get the installation settings sent to your inbox

7. Article Manager interface: boring vs. polished

In the back-end, you’ll find a completely refreshing look and feel starting with the Article Manager which now includes a better organized filtering system with more options available, and better defined icons.

The old Article Manager look

Filter friendly and defined icons in Article Manager

Article edit screen has had its own redesign with Publishing Options, Article Options and Metadata Options tabs moved from their usual right panel to the top, the text editor is now up-front and centered.

Article edit screen in Joomla 2.5

vs. Article edit screen in Joomla 3.0

8. Guest user group: Manually creating as needed vs. Automatically available by default

Now you don’t need to bother creating a “guest” level group in Joomla 3.0. It is now available as default upon installation.

There is no sign of Guest user group upon the complete installation of Joomla 2.5

Guest user group is present as default in Joomla 3.0

9. Non-responsive Front-end template vs. Responsive Front-end template

This new responsive minimal front-end template – Protostar – powered by Bootstrap that you’ll find to be versatile and it is simple to customize the template colors by taking advantage of the color picker. Google fonts are allowed in Protostar with a parameter for your heading tag (h1-h6) and site title. You can toggle on or off the parameter in deciding whether or not to use Google fonts for your site, meanwhile that means you are giving up a wide range selection of 500+ google fonts to choose from. Protostar also has a completely natively clean bootstrap customized grid-layout look, it sets a new standard for Joomla template itself.

Brand new Protostar template

Protostar offers a variety of customisation options for users

10. The same old admin template vs. The slick admin template

Joomla 3.0 named its new administrator template after the Egyptian goddess Isis. Compared to the Bluestork administrator template in Joomla 2.5, Isis has been perceivably designed differently. Since the Isis template is built using the flexible Bootstrap grid layout, the administrator interface Isis is also responsive.

Isis - The Joomla 3.0 administrator template

11. Template Beez3: Updated

If you would like the traditional look for the front end, an updated Beez3 template is the other template option which is still available.

Beez3 template in Joomla 3.0

12. Joomla Platform version 11.x vs. 12.x

The new Platform has removed numerous deprecated classes and methods from version 11.4. However, for extensions developers, your components would require reasonably small changes for compatibility with Joomla 3.0. It is advised to stop using deprecated classes as they are meant to be removed in a future version anyway. Several changes in extensions installation (usage of base tag in replacement for, stop supporting install/uninstall scripts, com_install/com_uninstall methods in promoting the usage of scriptfile instead, etc...), components (admin.*.php and toolbar.*.php are no longer supported), classes (renamed JFTP as JClientFtp, JLDAP as JClientLdap, JWebClient as JApplicationWebClient, removed and adjustment to number of classes), plugin events (onContentBeforeSave event receives $article by value not by reference as well as onContentAfterSave event), and etc... More details are listed at Joomla Documentation section.

13. Mootools vs. JQuery

Joomla 3.0 is packaged with JQuery in the core. Though the Mootools option is still available in the back-end, it will be initially available for the sake of backward compatibility and is no longer the primary javascript library interface.

14. Manual rearrangement vs. Drag & Drop feature

Thanks to JQuery, Joomla 3.0 finally supports a Drag & Drop sorting feature in the back-end.

Remember the time when we have to re-order it "manually" in Joomla 2.5?

Say "yes" to the new Drag & Drop feature for sorting elements in Joomla 3.0

15. Lower vs. Higher PHP/MySQL requirements

You must have PHP 5.3.1 and MySQL 5.1 or newer to get your Joomla 3.0 up and running while Joomla version 2.5.x only requires PHP 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0.1.

16. Normal settings vs. Advanced module option

The advanced module settings allow you to modify:

• Module tag: to change the div in section
• Bootstrap size: changing Bootstrap span grid class
• Header tag: which aims for better SEO
• Header class: adds the Bootstrap class in the page header
• Module style: to inherit the Joomla installed template for the module styling.

Your usual and limited module settings in Joomla 2.5

Advanced module settings in Joomla 3.0

17. Simple Pie vs. JFeed

Switch the feed management from SimplePie to JFeed to get rid of several existing strict error, due to the fact that Simple Pie has been quite old and no one has really done any update on its library for a while now. On the other hand, Simple Pie’s users are confronted with its crucial errors and lack of flexibility for the current version. This encourages Joomla 3.0 to step up with the use of Louis Landry's JFeed, which is claimed to be simple, extensible and native Joomla contribute to the enhancement of feeds generator in a better and powerful way that Simple Pie wouldn’t allow.

18. Non-supported vs. A new PostgreSQL driver is included

You are now able to run your Joomla 3.0 site using PostgreSQL database which further makes the platform ”database independence" for the very first time as it is only integrated with MySQL & SQL server by default.

19. Saving full-detailed articles vs. Saving blank articles

Surprisingly, Joomla 3.0 allows administrative users to create and save blank articles. This feature strives for support users to create articles with even images only and no text content as needed.

Articles with no content will not be allowed to save in Joomla 2.5

No worry! Saving blank articles are NOW acceptable with Joomla 3.0

20. Updated unit testing in CMS

Unit testing is aiming for testing small chunks of code (or we can call them units) on the lowest level possible, usually are methods without including any other classes or methods, to ensure those methods are working as expected. The old unit test was untouched sometimes between version 1.6 and 1.7 which suited the PHPUnit version 3.4. With the updating of CMS version Joomla 3.0 which requires the minimum of PHP 5.3.1 as a minimum version, the new unit test will be developed to prevent backward compatibility from being broken and other cases as necessary (e.g security problems). The Unit test has set its goal to automate the testing process and achieved 100% unit test coverage for the CMS library classes. Details on the phases of the unit testing for Joomla 3.0 can be found at Unit tests for CMS Working Group.

How to remove the locked status from items in Joomla 2.5

Site Maintenance Global Check-in Joomla 2.5

Component packaged with Joomla! 2.5 Core allows Administrators to "check-in" or unlock items currently "locked" or in-use by other users.

How to access

Select Site → Maintenance → Global Check-in from the drop-down menu of the Joomla! Administrator Panel.

 

Description

Selecting this menu option allows Joomla! administrators to perform a global check-in of all currently pending or locked items. It then shows the results of the Global Check-in. This is useful, for example, if an Article is locked by a User who opened it for editing and never finished the editing session. In this case, other Users are not able to edit this Article. Performing a Global Check-in releases all such items.

How to remove the locked status from items in Joomla

When an Article or other Item is not properly closed in Joomla Administration it leaves a Locked status for Others users and Current user as well.

To remove all these locks in one click go to Joomla Admin

And Click Tools -> Global Check-in 

as shown below

You will see a list of items from which locked status have been removed.

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Read more..

What do I do to remove the lock from an article?

When you are editing an article, if you ever click on your back button on your browser instead of clicking 'Close' or 'Save', this will lock your article. You'll see a padlock icon next to the article and you may not be able to open it anymore.

You shouldn't use the back button to close an article, but rather use your 'Save' or 'Close' buttons. To remove the lock on an article, simply go to Tools>Global Checkin.

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How do you put a module inside an article?

You will usually want to associate modules with articles in some way. The modules are allocated to module positions and the module positions appear somewhere on the Web page as determined by the template. However, it is sometimes useful to have a module actually embedded within the article.

To insert a module inside an article, use the {loadposition xx} command, as follows:

1. Create a module and set its position to any value that doesn't conflict with an existing template position. You can type in the position value instead of selecting it from the drop-down list. For example, use the position myposition.
2. Assign the module to the Menu Items that contain the articles that you want the module to show in. You can also just assign the module to all Menu Items.
3. Edit the articles where you want this module to appear and insert the text {loadposition myposition} in the article at the place where you want the module.

Note that this only works when the Content - Load Module plugin is enabled. If this plugin is disabled, the text {loadposition myposition} shows unchanged in the article.

 

Technorati Tags: put module inside article

How to speed up Joomla? (loading speed)

Jump to speed up your website..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simply..

Gzip your website!

HOW?

From your Joomla control panel..

You can set the GZip setting here:

Global Configuration > Server > Server Settings > GZIP Page Compression

Gzipping of ouptut html as well as other text files can indeed produce very noticeable speed increases - probably far more noticeable to the end user (site visitor) than speeding up the database server from .2 of a second to .1 of a second. For the majority of users the download is the bottleneck - reducing 100KB of css to 5 or 10KB has significant benefits.

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More..

A few tips to speed up your front end :

• Optimize all your images for the web, most should come in at under 10kb. This will reduce your overall page size and mean that users on a slower connection can visit your site faster.
• Remove "white space" from your template index.php file, all those esxtra white lines are doing nothing other than wasting bandwidth and meaning that Joomla takes longer to display. Remember the longer your site takes to load, the less people that will visit it, and stay reading for a beneficial amount of time.
• Optimize your Css, remove un-needed stuff that does not get used. Then run it through -http://flumpcakes.co.uk/css/optimiser/ . This will have the effect of tidying it all up and making it small, again reducing load times and also your overall bandwidth.
• Sort out your database, go into phpMyAdmin and select all the tables and repair and then optomise them. This will not damage your site and again it will make your pages load in a much quicker fashion.

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More..

One way to speed up Joomla (or any other CMS with as many options) is just to utilize fewer of the features.  Many people see all the different features that are standard to Joomla and they immediately publish all of them.  My first Joomla based site had the random image module, most popular, polls, and probably a few other features it did not need.  This problem is one of site design and in my case I have been able to calm down over the past couple years and make a slimmer site that still seems to convey more information than the original.  Publishing fewer modules or having fewer features enabled decreases the number of database inquires and reduces the amount of php code that must be processed for any given web page. 

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More..

Watch out for errors in your template. When you reference a file like arrow.gif and this file is non-existent, the performance of your server will drop immensly.
Take a look here and check for your websites performance:
www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
This page gives you a summary about your websites objects and has proposals how to improve it.
Joomla specific:
If your server has performance problems, don't enable gzip. This is meant to reduce the usage of bandwith, not the load on your server. The server has to encode all the files in order to send them, which only puts additional load on your page.
If you encounter serious problems and you have SEF enabled, disable it. It's often the source for performance problems
Probably most important of all: Keep your Joomla! version up-to-date!

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More..

On the subject of CSS you can force compression and caching by using a bit of code like this at the start of your Stylesheet:

Code:

<?php
ob_start ("ob_gzhandler");
header("Content-type: text/css");
header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate");
$offset = 60 * 60 * 24 * 7 ;
$ExpStr = "Expires: " .
gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s",
time() + $offset) . " GMT";
header($ExpStr);
?>
... rest of style sheet as normal here ...

Save your template as template_css.php and edit the reference to the template in /templates//index.php to reflect the new name

Code:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/<name-of-template>/css/template_css.php" />

As Hackwar said above don't force compression if your server is overloaded - but if it is not, go for it.
The normal rule of thumb with a web server is to worry about how long it is stressed, not how stressed it is.
Serving compressed content is often quicker than tying up the server for a longer period serving uncompressed content - but it varies from server to server.
Just to reiterate Hackwars comments about SEF and missing files (especially template images) with older versions of Joomla and $ambo, especially if you are using an older .htaccess file, if you have upgraded Joomla but not the .htaccess file then you should take a look at the newer htaccess files.

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More..

If you have root access, install a PHP accelerator like APC.  This server is running APC and serves up more pages than you want to even think about, but it handles it gracefully thanks to APC.

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More..

Actually the best way to gzip your css is just to create a file named 'template_css.php' and add the following code into it:

Code:

<?php
ob_start ("ob_gzhandler");
header("Content-type: text/css");
header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate");
$offset = 60 * 60 ;
$ExpStr = "Expires: " .
gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s",
time() + $offset) . " GMT";
header($ExpStr);
?>
<?php include ('template_css.css'); ?>

Then change your template to reflect the name as stated before:

Code:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/<name-of-template>/css/template_css.php" />

/templates//index.php
Where:
is a placeholder for the actual location of your joomla installation.
is a placeholder for the specific subfolder for your current template.

That way you can still edit your css file through the admin panel.

Source

You can also read more here

Technorati Tags: joomla speed,optimizing,speed up website,speed up joomla

500 an error has occurred return to control panel Joomla 1.7-2.5 [Solved]

check configuration.php

change the following settings as follows:

public $log_path = './logs';
public $tmp_path = './tmp';

Solve the ‘JFolder::create: Could not create directory’ Error in Joomla

Here is an image of error

SYNTAX :-

JFolder::create: Could not create directory

Warning! Failed to move file.

This error occurs when you move from one host to another host. It is because when we move a Joomla site from one server to another server, the log & tmp functions present in the configuration.php file contains the directory path where you had previously installed Joomla i.e. on the old server.

 

Fix for ‘JFolder::create: Could not create directory’ Error

Unlike other Errors, the fix for this error is pretty Simple. Follow the steps below to fix it.

#1 Goto your Hosting panel >> File Manager >> Select your Domain/Sub-Domain and then open theconfiguration.php file.

#2 Find var $log_path, it will contain the Directory path of your Old Server. Just replace the whole line with the code var $log_path = './logs';

#3 Find var $tmp_path, it will also have the Directory path of your Old Server. Replace the whole line with the code var $tmp_path = './tmp';

That’s it! Your problem will be solved with this small tweak in the code. Make sure that you properly copy paste the code. If you still face any problem then don’t hesitate to put in a Comment with your query.

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10 Best Free Joomla Extensions You Should Use!

Joomla is one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) in the world, used in over 30 million sites, with over 200,000 community users and endless amounts of extensions. There are extensions for almost every purpose: social networking, advanced comment services, checkout services, easy-to-setup photo albums, the list is endless.

So how do you sort through all of them to find those that can really improve your visitors’ experience? Here are some of the free Joomla extensions you shouldn’t be without.

Stalker – Social Network Mod

Most people nowadays use social networks to publicize their ideas and to bring in new visitors to their sites, so having an easy way for people to connect to you is becoming a “must have” for most sites. That’s where this perfectly named extension can be handy.

Stalker is the easiest Joomla extension to display links to all your social networks on your Joomla. It uses an attractive interface that is bound to attract your visitors. Stalker comes with approximately 45 social networks ready to go but you can add any new network you wish. It is easy to install and configure, comes with attractive icons and can be easily modified.

Acajoom – Mailing List Software

There are a lot of paid mailing services around but if you are just starting out, you might not need one just yet. Acajoom is the perfect Joomla extension for people who want to start expanding their list without the costs of paying for a mailing list website to host it for them. Acajoom allows you to personalize your newsletters, import subscribers from other newsletter systems and maintain a public archive.

Community Builder – Social Network Component

Community Builder allows you to create your own social networking community. With features such as user profiles, image upload, PMS, Newsletter, Forum and Galleries and a huge number of third party extensions that add even more features to this great component, Community Builder is the easiest way to create an environment that your visitors can personalize and use to share ideas.

Expose Flash Gallery – Photo Album Plugin

Expose is a classy and capable Joomla extension for displaying your images. It is not the simplest one to use, but its small learning curve is certainly worth the effort. It has a very small footprint for a Flash gallery and allows you to create several separate albums.

Virtuemart – Online Shopping Cart

If you would like to integrate a complete shopping cart to your Joomla, you should seriously consider Virtuemart. It has most features you can find in stand alone shopping cart such as order history for the customers, confirmation email, product ratings, downloadable products and 128-bit encryption. It also works with most payment gateways such as Paypal, Authorize.net and 2Checkout.

JComments – Communication Mod

Make your site more interactive and gather more information about your visitors by allowing them to comment on your articles and products. JComments allows them to participate while giving you full moderation control and encourages people to register. JComments includes anti-spam features and integration with many third-party extensions.

Jumi – Platform for Modules

Anyone who has tried adding JavaScript, custom PHP or HTML to Joomla has had to struggle getting it to work. Jumi is a great Joomla extension to integrate and create new components, customize plugins and run Javascript easily. It’s a great platform that allows you to try simple script files and to include extra banners, develop forms and include static html pages into module positions without any fuss. It’s perfect for the more advanced user who wants to expand Joomla’s capabilities.

Phoca Google Adsense Easy – Adsense Module

In this tough economy, it’s important to be able to monetize one’s site and help create some added income. Google Adsense is a great way to do that, but it’s difficult to integrate it within Joomla’s modules and place the ads where you want to display them. Phoca Google Adsense Easy offers an easy solution to that problem, allowing you to simply copy and paste the Adsense code and place it wherever you want into the site. It can also be used to add the Google Calendar and Google Search code.

Joomla Pack – Backup Software

Joomla Pack allows you to create a site backup that can be restored on any Joomla!-capable server. It creates a full backup of your site in a single archive. It can be used to move your site to a different host or simply as a safety back up that can be used to restore the site in case of problems or server timeouts.

JCE – WYSIWYG Editor

As many of you might have noticed, Joomla’s page editor is limited and awkward at times. JCE adds many formatting features that are missing from the original editor, such as background color, fonts and styles and better multimedia control. A great time saver for those who can edit the page code by hand and a must have for those who can’t.

With over almost 4000 extensions, Joomla has the support of the open source community and the constant influx of creative minds willing to offer their software for free. Try out the ten suggested here then go back and explore all the other tantalizing extensions you can find. You are sure to find one for almost every need you have.

Have we left out your favourite Joomla extensions? Share them with us in the comments!

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