Joomla: The “Hippie” CMS

Posted on Sep 6, 2011 by Joey to Web Development

Open-source content management systems WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal make up more than 75 percent of the market share, clearly dominating overpaid services like ExpressionEngine. Of these, WordPress makes the biggest splash; not only do 62 percent of the top million websites use the CMS, it has a recognizable face and voice in Matt Mullenweg. Second place Joomla, according to TechCrunch, seems to “fly a bit under the radar.” Why is this? And is Joomla a good choice for your business?

According to data from BuiltWith, Joomla powers about 1.4 million websites. It has recently hit its 23.5 million download mark. As TechCrunch’s Rip Empson points out, Joomla doesn’t have a single figurehead like WordPress does. Instead, it is run by its community of developers, as well as a team that includes OpenSourceMatters.org. This was done purposely to keep Joomla a community-oriented product and to ensure that it was always held accountable by developers and users.

President of OpenSourceMatters, Ryan Ozimek, says that Joomla has taken on a “hippie vibe” because of its image as the “little guy.” While it is relatively unknown in the US, Joomla does have a significant international presence. It is used in more than 200 countries, and what’s more: over 2500 international government agencies power their websites with Joomla. In the US, these include the US Army and Air Force, and NASA.

Joomla is not a money-maker; in fact, its revenue comes entirely from ad services and sponsorship, and it has no heavy-handed investors. This furthers its reputation and image as a hippie CMS, but what does make it a friend to the little guys, so to speak, is its ease of use. This makes Joomla a good fit for smaller companies or those without extensive technical experience because of this, and because it is free. A CMS like Drupal, by contrast, is more intricate and complex and would be a nightmare for the novice.

Joomla doesn’t see itself in competition with other open-source CMSs. Ozimek says that their competition is proprietary software. He adds, “We want to work towards a time when we’re all open coding.”

Tags: Drupal, Joomla, wordpress

Joomla Security Fix

Posted on Sep 5, 2011 by Taylor to Web Development

Joomla is run by a vast network of developers who work on the open-source CMS to offer better functionality, and of course, greater security, for users. One of the biggest drawbacks of opting to go with an open-source CMS is that these are more prone to security vulnerabilities than paid services. In its newly released version 1.6.4, Joomla addresses four security risks that affect versions 1.6.3 and lower.

Joomla 1.6.4, which is available for download, and its corrections include fixes for two cross-site scripting, or XSS, problems, inadequate permission checking that could lead to unauthorized access to sites, and a specific issue with inadequate filtering that led to information disclosure holes. Users are advised to upgrade to this new version to resolve these issues. Also, if you currently have 1.6 and want to upgrade to 1.7 in the future, you’ll need to upgrade to 1.6.4 first.

Joomla powers between 1.4 and 2 million websites and is the United State’ second most popular open-source CMS, behind WordPress. It is used in over 200 countries, and is trusted by governmental agencies, including NASA, the US Army, and the US Air Force. The security issues fixed by version 1.6.4 were all medium- to low-priority.

Version 1.6.4 is available for download via Joomla.org.

Tags: Joomla

Joomla Plugins for Security

Posted on Aug 13, 2011 by Joey to Web Development

Joomla is one of the most popular content management sites in the world; more than 14 million copies of its software have been downloaded since 2007, and Joomla estimates that it powers 2.7 percent of the biggest million websites in the world. Security is a concern for any business, no matter what CMS they use. Joomla provides a variety of plugins that can help you keep access to your site safe, and keep your site more secure. Here are some top choices:

Admin Tools. This is one of Joomla’s most popular security tools and is very highly regarded by users. The developers call it a “true Swiss Army knife for your site.” The plugin provides a variety of services, including detecting, notifying, and installing new releases as available, fixing your files’ and directories’ permissions, and protecting your admin directory with passwords, and more. Very easy to use, Admin Tools offers a host of benefits in its free version, and you can upgrade to Admin Tools Professional for a fee to access more features.

XCloner Backup and Restore. XCloner is able to backup sites running on not only Joomla, but also WordPress, Drupal, and other CMSs. You can create full or partial backups, simple or compressed backups, and incremental backups, manage backups, clone backups to other locations, restore simple and compressed archives, restore original files and directories permissions, exclude database from importing, and more.

RSFirewall. This protects your site from hacker attacks. What is best about RSFirewall is that it protects against new threats and vulnerabilities. The security program tracks and blocks intrusion attempts, seals up security leaks and third party vulnerabilities, filters requests, notifies you of alerts, denies administrator take-overs, and more.

These extensions and more are available for download via Jooma’s website.

Tags: Joomla, plugins

Which CMS is More Secure?

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Taylor to Web Development

Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress are three of the most popular content management systems, and each has strengths and advantages for users. While the CMS’s core applications are relatively safe, the plugins created for them can have vulnerabilities. According to the latest figures by HP, 70 percent of applications have some sort of security vulnerability, and half of those were identified as “serious.”

HP DVLabs manager of advanced security intelligence, Mike Dausin, says, “A lot of the vulnerabilities in the Content Management Systems have shifted away from the core applications themselves and have shifted to the plugins in those applications. This is actually an even broader security trend which we have also seen on the desktop.”

So which CMS was deemed the least secure? Dausin says that WordPress has “very few vulnerable installs.” Joomla installs, on the other hand, were nearly all vulnerable to security threats. “In the case of Joomla, it’s mostly the plugins that are vulnerable.”

Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal run fairly secure core systems, and Joomla’s release of 1.6 tackled several security issues; plugin developers, though, do not always hold themselves to these standards. Joomla’s security center allows users to report security vulnerabilities, and the “Strike Team” is continually working to resolve them.
To protect your site, keep up-to-date with the latest risks: Joomla, for instance, has a Vulnerable Extensions List that you can check. Also be sure that your CMS is updated to the latest version, so you can add another layer of protection.

Tags: cms, Drupal, Joomla, plugins, wordpress

Joomla Plugin Can Help You Reach the World

Posted on Apr 9, 2011 by Taylor to SEO, Web Development

The internet allows your site to have global reach, or the potential for global reach anyway. It is possible to reach people across the world to form a diverse traffic base, but language is a barrier to understanding, and ultimately, the success of your site globally. Is site translation crucial for every site? No. If you want to encourage traffic to your restaurant, you may want to concentrate on techniques to drive local traffic. But for many sites, visitors and consumers may want the same thing but need a different route to get there. A Joomla plugin can help.

Joomla SEF Auto Translator offers a variety of functions, including basic interface translation and translation of your menus, sections, menu items, and articles. It also comes with a “search engine friendly architecture,” which is crucial. Based on the Google Translator Engine, the Joomla plugin supports 43 languages.

One important difference is that Joomla SEF removes Google URLs from your translated pages so that they can be indexed in Google. This way, then can be counted towards your website’s total indexed pages. In addition, it creates search engine friendly URLs to help improve SEO efforts.

Another very important feature of Joomla SEF Auto Translator is that it caches your pages on your server. It doesn’t send translate requests to Google until updates appear, at which time Google Translator is called into action. This keeps the load much lighter on Google, which can keep your server IP address from being blocked by the search giant.

When you use Joomla SEF, you can easily expand your site’s appeal and reach. In an increasingly global world, this is crucial to the success of your business or site. This and other translator plugins are available for download at Joomla’s website.

Tags: Joomla, plugins

THAT Agency creates a new website for The American Graduate School in Paris

Posted on Dec 15, 2009 by Michelle to Projects

THAT Agency partnered with The American Graduate School in Paris to not only update their website’s look and feel, but to increase their online reach by expanding into untouched search markets.  The website design was constructed around the 960 grid system, which resulted in clean, educational design worthy of any University.

The American Graduate School in Paris requested the website be integrated with the robust and stable Joomla platform.  Utilizing the custom templates and menus, THAT Agency’s developers were able to bring to reality, the vision of both the school and the designers.  By creating custom modules, the Graduate School has the versatility to manage and update their site themselves, while still maintaining the uniformity the designers set in place.

In addition to designing and developing a beautiful website, THAT Agency was contracted by the American Graduate School in Paris for regular maintenance, as well as ongoing marketing efforts, including: search engine optimization, pay per click management and social media marketing.

Tags: Joomla, web design, Web Development