Tools

20 helpful websites for Joomla admins

Written by Sudhi | 22 May 2009

In addition to extensions.joomla.org and forum.joomla.org, these sites are handy, helpful, useful resources for any Joomla admin toolbox.

Community

Linkedin.com/groups?gid=52867

The biggest and most active Joomla! group on Linkedin, with almost 2,000 members, this group is a great resource for Joomla! admins.

Extensions

Blog.joomlatools.eu

Almost a user-powered extension provider, you get to suggest new extensions and the team at JoomlaTools.eu might just build them.

Learning

Joomlaforbeginners.com

Video tutorials geared towards the novice user, but we could all probably learn something.

News and Blogs

Joomocracy.com

Community-powered Joomla! news. Vote up if you like it, down if you don't.

Bestofjoomla.com

An absolute resource for Joomla!, full of template releases, news, extensions, and a helpful template filtering function.

Compassdesigns.net

A great blog about everything Joomla. One of the original players in the Joomla! world.

Joomlafeed.com

Compiled news from the Joomla! community. It is important to state this site doesn't collect all news, just good news sources.

Template Design

Joomlabased.com

You can use this site as inspiration for your own designs because it is full of Joomla-powered sites.

Smashingmagazine.com

Lots of design advice, inspiration and free icons.

Validator.w3.org

We should all strive to be XHTML compliant, this validator informs you which (if any) pieces of your site are not compliant.

Jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator

Same as above, but this site checks CSS validity.

Promotion

Google.com/webmasters/tools

More data than you can shake a stick at. Try the sitemap tools which lets you see how Google sees your Joomla! site.

Google.com/analytics

Data coming out the ears. It integrates well with Joomla! in addition to working well with Adwords, Adsense and Webmaster Tools.

Pagerank.info

There are bigger things to worry about than pagerank, but if you are interested, this AJAX powered tool is helpful and fast.

Mashable.com

A super-popular blog that helps you capitalize on social media to publicize your content.

Alledia.com

A Joomla! SEO powerhouse, Alledia offers some great tips on their blog as well as a paid SEO package.

Pingomatic.com

Ping all the major blog tracking sites with a single click. Bookmark the result page for easy access in the future.

Mailchimp.com

Promote your site with a free newsletter from Mailchimp.com (up to 600 emails per month), then some pretty inexpensive paid options follow.

Swekey is a USB security device created by Musbe. Passwords are a thing of the past (sort of)... Swekey is the future of online security. When set up to do so, any online login will only work when your Swekey is connected. What's super cool about this tool is that Musbe is creating lots of different extensions to incorporate Swekey with you existing frameworks, including Joomla!

Musbe offers a free download of their Swekey component for Joomla. Setup is super easy as well. Simply log in to a site you want secured, plug in the Swekey and you will be prompted to add this site to your Swekey. Registering your Swekey is optional, but will provide a few valuable services. You can disable your Swekey remotely if lost or stolen, and even set up a URL to load each time your Swekey is plugged in.

Swekey works by requiring the small USB device be plugged in for login. A small Swekey icon next to the username field shows you whether or not the Swekey is plugged in and you can proceed with login. (See below) What's also great about the Joomla! component is it easily incorporates Swekey with both the admin and frontend login forms with no setup required.

The Swekey icon informing the user their Swekey is not plugged in.

The Swekey icon informing the user that authentication has occurred and they can login immediately.

Download the extension | Learn More

Joomocracy brings Joomla! news together

Written by Sudhi | 12 May 2009

We recently discussed ways to promote your Joomla! content. One of the methods we identified was Joomocracy.com - a user-powered Joomla! news aggregator. Read the article on promoting your content here. Joomocracy is actually powered by Pligg, another CMS built to encourage user registration and content sharing. Anyone can submit content and readers can vote for the content, pushing it higher on the list. A valuable news sharing tool for Joomla specific news.

8 Helpful tools for your Joomla site

Written by Sudhi | 30 April 2009

Joomla! is the most powerful web tool there is. But the following is a list of other tools that can be helpful in developing and managing your Joomla! site. Some of these are great for all webmasters, some just for Joomla! pros.

Ping update services whenever you update at Pingomatic.com.
Automatically back up your Joomla! site using a cron job and this tool. Note: not an extensions, install standalone.
Check your pagerank, backlinks and alexa rank quickly with AJAX and Pagerank.info.
Design and quickly slice a Joomla! template with the Dreamweaver Joomla! Template Kit.
Optimize standard Joomla! PNG's to speed up your site using the PNG-Lite tool.
Recover your admin password quickly with Joomla! Admin Recovery.
Increase your backlinks in a search engine friendly way at Automatic Backlinks.
Check your site for broken links using the Broken Link Checker.

Ways To Get Your Joomla Question Answered (besides the forum)

Written by Sudhi | 28 April 2009

It can sometimes seem there is no support option other than the Joomla! forum. The truth is, there are a number of other resources. These are just a few.

Joomla IRC

The official Joomls IRC channel, this is a great resource for when you need help immediately.
Visit

Joomla! Professional Users Group on Linkedin

The Joomla Professional Users Group on Linkedin is closely tied with this site. There is a very active community of over 1,700 Joomla users and developers. Like the rest of the resources here, they are free.
Visit