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

Attack of the Plugins

Posted on Jul 18, 2011 by Joey to Web Development

Free, open source software is tremendously beneficial to a wide variety of businesses and websites. Not only is the price right, but because it is open source, there are scores of people working on the programs. You can easily find support, answers to your questions, and, of course, free plugins to create a more user-friendly, convenient, and efficient experience for you and your visitors. But when you use a free content management system, like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, there are risks. What do you do when plugins attack?

Hackers like open source software and CMSs as much as businesses do. It is easy for them to gather data and visitor information via a plugin or add-on. When you register to get a plugin, you are giving that developer access to personal information, including login information. Even if the plugin itself isn’t dangerous, that is a lot of data to give out, especially if you use that login in multiple places. If the plugin is, in fact, malicious, you may not realize it, especially if it is well-designed, until your information or that of your readers has been compromised.

But you can’t stop using plugins. They do add usability and customization that may be crucial to your site. It is important, though, to do your homework before you download a plugin. What should you look for?

• A reputable developer. Are they well-known? Are their plugins frequently used?

• Are there any known vulnerabilities or malicious behavior associated with this plugin or developer?

• Make sure you have the latest version of your CMS uploaded.

• Secure your site by adjusting your File Permission Settings.

WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and other open source programs allow your site to compete with the big boys even if you are on a budget. Just remember to exercise caution and be selective about your plugins. Take the few minutes necessary to check up on a specific plugin or developer and always be vigilant about security.

Tags: plugins

Visual Sticky Footer: Do You Need this WordPress Plugin?

Posted on Jul 4, 2011 by Joey to Web Development

The purpose of any good WordPress plugin is to create a better experience for bloggers and for their readers. And when they allow you to promote your blogs or other sites, they become even more useful. This is what you can expect from a new addition to WordPress’s lineup: Visual Sticky Footer.

Visual Sticky Footer, developed by Really Cheap Health Insurance, allows you to create a custom footer through which you can alert your readers to other posts, sites, social media profiles, or products. The footer can go on any page you choose, and it “follows” readers as they scroll down the page. That is, they will always see the footer, but it will not interfere with the readability of the page. This is a crucial feature because readers can be turned off by something that looks like an ad that won’t go away. At the top of the footer, there is an orange + and – sign. Readers can opt to close the footer, which, again, is an important feature.

You can choose from over 100 icons for upload on your own. You can also add text and links to other pages. This creates great functionality for your site. You can make a list of your best blog posts, highlight an upcoming event or important news, direct readers to an author bio, or post an ad. The developers say, “We make it easy to include advertisements or other content in your footer…Just enter an HTML hex color code and you can change the color of your footer or have it transparent.”

The plugin was developed for this insurance company, which uses the footer to display links to articles, such as “How to choose health insurance for your child.” The footer also has links for quotes, blog, search, and download. You can customize it to meet your needs and suit the style and tone of your site. You can download it here.

Tags: plugins, wordpress

WordPress Update Fixes Security Flaws

Posted on Jun 2, 2011 by Taylor to General, Web Development

Manufacturer HP recently released figures on the security of the most popular content management systems, as well as their plugins. While they found that the core applications of the CMSs themselves are relatively safe, they discovered that about 70 percent of the applications they tested were “vulnerable” to security risks. One of the best ways to keep your website safe is to regularly update your CMS to the latest version. WordPress has released an update that resolves several pressing security issues.

If you use WordPress, it is time to update to 3.1.1. The updated version makes 30 fixes, including three patches for serious risks (preventing PHP crashes, a cross site scripting vulnerability, and tightening up SCRF prevention). Downloading 3.1.1 is essential; WordPress is one of the most popular CMSs, managing everything from personal blogs to sophisticated commercial sites. Because of its popularity, it is a target for hackers, who work on security vulnerabilities in older versions.

As to technical details, the WordPress 3.1.1 developers released a little haiku: “Only the geeks know/ what half this stuff even means. /Don’t worry – update.” Easy enough. You can do this from WordPress’s website, as well as directly with your WordPress Dashboard. Other features of the update include:

• Security hardening to media uploads.
• Improvements in performance.
• IIS6 support fixes.
• Taxonomy and PATHINFO permalinks fixes.

You can download the updated version, WordPress 3.1.1 here.

Tags: cms, plugins, wordpress

WordPress Plugin for iPad

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Joey to Web Development

When the iPad was released in 2010, 300,000 tablets were sold; a year later, the iPad 2 outpaced its predecessor by 100,000 to 200,000. Mac and PC users both scooped up the tablets, which were sold out of retail stores almost immediately. The release of the second generation iPad was thought to be the most successful product launch in Apple’s history – which is saying a lot. Apple has the early lead in the tablet market, and WordPress has released a plugin that can help sites accommodate the growing number of iPad users.

A decade or so ago, businesses had to worry about how their sites looked on a desktop; then, they had to start thinking about smartphones. Now, another change: we are going to have to optimize for mobile devices, like the tablet computer. WordPress helps you do this with Onswipe, a plugin that makes content more appealing for iPads, and specifically their touch screens.

WordPress’s Nick Momrik says, “With the launch of Apple’s iPad we have seen the future of computing and it is touch.” The plugin helps you create an intuitive and sleek interface, complete with social sharing tools for Facebook and Twitter. Onswipe’s developers say that their plugin makes it “insanely easy for publishers of all sizes to make their content and advertising a beautiful experience on touch-enabled devices via Web browser.” Other features include:

• Accelerometer aware content. This means that your content will shift depending on how the user is holding the iPad.
• Homescreen icon.
• Loading screen.
• Cover image.
• Integrated WordPress comments.
• Built-in sharing.

You can download Onswipe from their website. With the growing number of iPad users, this could be a very useful tool for your site. WordPress says they are working on a similar plugin geared towards other tablets.

Tags: Apple, iPad, plugins, tablet computer, wordpress

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

SEO WordPress Plugins Available

Posted on Mar 24, 2011 by Joey to SEO

According to experts, there are over a hundred million blogs in the world. A few years ago, bloggers were intrepid, pioneers in this new online territory. Today, everyone and his business has at least one blog. Standing out among the crowd is tough, and this is where search engine optimization strategies can help. The SEO SmartLinks Premium Word Press Plugin is ready to help you gain visibility, primarily via linking.

What does the new SEO SmartLinks plugin do for your site?

• Automatically builds additional links within your own content or external content controlled by you.
• Creates automatic tags and connections between posts (after you set the criteria).
• Develops anchor text automatically based on content.
• Helps determine custom keywords and where to put them.
• Maintains interlinking and allows specific external links.
• Can add no-follow attributes.
• Provides UTF-8 support for foreign-language sites.

SEO SmartLinks can help strengthen SEO techniques and help potential traffic find different routes to your blog.

Bloggers who aren’t familiar with SEO can still benefit with the All in One SEO Pack, which works out of the box or with setting changes for more experienced users.

With the All in One plugin, you get:

• Advanced canonical URLs to make the search engines happy.
• SEO integration for WP e-commerce sites.
• Automatically optimized titles for search engines.
• Automatic meta tag generation.
• Support for custom post types.
• Support for CMS style WordPress blogs.
• Built-in API for added functionality and versatility.

This is a good solution for any blogger who knows that SEO is important and needs a place to start. Bloggers stand the very real chance of being lost in the fiercely competitive and saturated blogosphere; SEO can help your blog get noticed by the search engines – and more importantly, noticed by real, live actual readers.

Tags: plugins, SEO, wordpress

A useful list of JQuery Code and plugins – Part 1

Posted on Aug 18, 2008 by Rich to Web Development

I guess everyone out there has a list that is used by many. a top ___ (fill in the blank) list of some resource you use. Well why not me? I compiled a list of some cool jQuery plug-ins I found that have been used in our web development here at THAT Agency.

Now without further Adou, the list:

1. Pop-ups using JQuery

Now we all love pop ups right? well in an effort to keep the actual code clean, you can use this code that was written by Richard Wong

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$( document ).ready( function()
{
	$("a[rel='pop-up']").click(function () {
     	var features = "height=700,width=800,scrollTo,resizable=1,scrollbars=1,location=0";
      	newwindow=window.open(this.href, 'Popup', features);
      	return false;
	});
});

2. PDF links using JQuery
ok, so this one, I cant remember where I got it from, but its actually pretty handy when it comes to dealing with links to pdf’s.

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$(document).ready(function(){
	$("a[href*=.pdf]").click(function(){
		$(this).attr({"target":"_self"});
		return false;
	});
});

3. Rounded corners using JQuery

This was actually the first plugin I tried for Jquery and I have been pretty much hooked ever since. This is just a cool easy way to create rounded corners (plus more) with just jquery. No top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right images… none of that stuff. just quick and easy.

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$(function(){
   // round the boxes on the Main Nav Links
   $('.yourClassName').each(function()
   {
        $(this).corner("7px");
   });
});

Tags: jQuery, jQuery tutorial, plugins