Want to Make Geeklog Theme? Here’s How

March 18th, 2010

When it comes to anything relating to the web or just computers and technology in general, you can count on the fact that there will always be products designed for those who are extremely talented with all things hi tech such as sites powered by Geeklog. However, there will likely also always be the products for those who just want impressive results the easiest was possible.. The portal software solution by Geeklog is definitely geared to the geekier end of the user spectrum and by this we mean that the software is powerful enough to just about anything any other CMS can do, especially with the right Geeklog plugins, but it is not designed to coddle a new user along. Before using this type of software, you really will need to make sure that you are willing to learn by trial and error if you do not already have a good grasp of php file editing and MySQL database configuration.

We’re serious, Geeklog is not the type of system where you can simply ask an enormous community of users all sorts of beginner questions if you get stuck or turn to loads of well written documentation. That isn’t to say that the community shuns anyone of lesser experience, but it is important to make that distinction between what Geeklog offers and what another more popular solution would offer. That being said, with a range of features created by extensions like the Geeklog media gallery, this script can definitely keep up with what nearly any other CMS would offer and it’s also not going be bloated with lots of code you may or may not need. There are pros and cons, but for those who do choose Geeklog then you will notice right away that there are not too many variations in what Geeklog sites tend to look like. Let’s take a look at how to change that.

The main reason that Geeklog sites look alike is due to the fact that it’s not exactly ‘point and click’ to change the look. Still, it’s not terribly difficult to do, provided you know your way around editing HTML files. For the best results, one should steer clear of the WYSIWYG editors like FrontPage or Dreamweaver and stick with a text based editor such as NotePad2 or a similar product.

Right off the bad, most advice for how to create a theme for Geeklog centers around the concept of choosing an existing theme and altering it. This is the main way that nearly all site owners go about making their own theme. Obviously, you want to try and be as different as you can in order to respect the work of those who created the theme you are modifying. You’ll be placing your altered theme in a directory like this:

/geeklog/public_html/layout/My_Own_Geeklog_Theme

My_Own_Geeklog_Theme will of course be named whatever you’d like. All you need to do is upload your base theme there and you can begin modifying it. If you prefer, you can modify it on your own computer first and then upload the changes.

Here are the files you will want to change:

header.thtml
footer.thtml
blockheader.thtml
blockfooter.thtml
storytext.thtml
storybodytext.thtml
featuredstorytext.thtml
featuredstorybodytext.thtml
archivestorytext.thtml
archivestorybodytext.thtml
style.css

Once you have these set up the way you want, you’ll have you very own Geeklog theme. There are plenty of resources online that can teach you the specifics of fine tuning these files, but most of those who have a basic understanding of html are going to see right away that when it comes to Geeklog themes, your only real limit is your own imagination.

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Tags: by geeklog, geeklog media gallery, geeklog plugins, powered by geeklog
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Installing YaBBSE is a Cinch

March 17th, 2010

When it comes to forum packages, there are a great deal of easy to install open source solutions that aren’t going to cost you a dime. YaBBSE is one of the longest running bulletin boards out there. It is also the seed from which the Simple Machines Forum (SMF) package was developed. Compared to YaBBSE phpBB is much more popular these days, but a lot of folks enjoy the software that they are used to and that is why YaBBSE is still the choice of so many. Provided that you are skilled at keeping your server protected, ie a veteran of the forum modding world who would know your way around the YaBBSE index php file, then this could be a decent choice, but it must be noted that due to its age, the software certainly has some drawbacks that are important to understand.

The primary concern for most who would otherwise run YaBBSE is that the program has some regrettable security holes which make it easier for would be trouble makers to exploit the software if one is not careful. This cross site scripting security hole in YaBBSE index leaves the site open to issues that need to be addressed right away if one plans to run this forum software. So long as the operator feels comfortable addressing this security flaw and fixing it themselves, then it can be a rewarding experience to run YaBBSE, one of the most beloved bulletin board packages on the net to date.

Installation of this package is quite simple and is best performed after making sure that you have at least one MySQL database available on your account. Since some hosts limit the number of databases available to you, ensure that you have this first.

Next, log into Fantastico on your web server and select YaBBSE beneath the category ‘Discussion Boards’ in the list of selections along the left hand side of your screen. You’ll select your version and hit New Installation. After reading the Terms of Service, tick the box to accept them and click Continue. Now, select the domain name upon which you wish to install YaBBSE and below this, there is a box where you can choose to install the package in its own directory or place it on the root of your domain. The difference is that if you want your domain name itself to load the YaBBSE forum, you leave this blank for root. Otherwise, users will need to navigate to the directory you have chosen.

Example: If you have chosen to install the script a directory named ‘bulletinboard’ and your domain is www.YourDomainName then users will need to visit http://www.YourDomainName.com/bulletinboard to access your YaBBSE installation.

Now, put in a user name and password for your administrator access account on YaBBSE. It is best not to use ‘admin’ because this is a popular login name and easy for a malicious hacker to discover. Another name (that you will easily remember) would be best. Your email address, personal name (alias or real name) and name of your site are the next fields to fill in. After this, the MySQL database will be configured for you and Fantastico will show you how to access your installation of this script. Click Finish Installation to finalize your choices and install the program.

That’s all you need to do and now YaBBSE is on your server! Be sure to log in under your administrator account and configure your board how you would like it to function.

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5 Signs Your Web Provider May Not Care About Your Business

March 17th, 2010

In our age of digital opportunities there are a wide array of choices when it comes to not only information, but businesses we can work with. Due to the ease of setting up an online business, the doors have been swung open not only for entrepreneurs with good intentions who really do want to provide the best products and services that they can, but those who are out to score a quick buck with little regard for their customers. It is crucial that you be able to determine the difference between fly by night companies and those that have been established to provide the best quality hosting they can.

Here are five quick signs you can check for when you want to find a web host solution that’s worth your time, effort and the money you have put into your website:

5) Sluggish Communications – This can be one of the most frustrating aspects of a poor web host. The fact is, when you run a website, you need quality customer interaction in a short amount of time. Waiting a few hours or even a day for a response from a particularly large web hosting firm might make sense during certain parts of the year, but if you find that all of your emails end up coming back to only after several days of waiting? Then it is time to move on. As a webmaster, you deserve tech support, customer care and billing help that is rapid. There is no excuse for hosts that need to take up days of your life waiting for solutions. An automated receipt of your email is not real help so don’t be fooled into thinking that the “We have received your email and are looking into your problem” replies are anything other than a machine generated response.

4) Offering Discounts Only for First Time Customers – Any business worth its salt knows that long term, loyal customers are the heart of their business enterprise. This is especially true in the website hosting industry. The true professionals realize that their competition is only a click away and that when you want to leave them, all you have to do is sign up for one of their many competitors. If your web host only offers discounts to get people to sign up and then never rewards them with financial incentives to stay on board? Once again, it is time to take your business elsewhere. After being with any host for a year or more, you should receive at least a nominal discount that is proof the company appreciates your business. If you can’t find information on their site, why not send them an email asking if they offer discounts for long time customers? It never hurts to ask!

3) A Lack of Easy to Follow Online Help – Many webmasters prefer to at least try things on their own before they engage technical support. If you want to be able to set up your site with new software packages, particularly those that are industry standards, then you ought to be able to get custom help documents online in the form of guides or FAQs. Your web host wants your business, normally, so they should provide you with the help you need to get the most from the service they provide. They know that when you succeed with your website, you will be pleased with their performance. If they don’t offer you plenty of self help opportunities then you definitely need to find a host that is willing to put in the work to get these created for its user base.

2) Careless Billing Practices – Mistakes are bound to happen from time to time in any business. A small overcharge is not generally something nefarious and even double billing errors happen from time to time. However, if you continually get billing mistakes or wind up being charged huge amounts of money in bandwidth fees after having no warning from your web host? You guessed it! This is a sign your web host wants to gather the gold at all cost and isn’t concerned about driving you into debt through their efforts to maximize their own profits. You definitely need to jump ship and find a new host – quickly.

1) An Online Reputation in Shambles – This is the number one sign that your web hosting service doesn’t care about your business and it’s also the easiest thing to check before you ever sign up with a company. Do a quick search over the most popular search engines for the company’s name. If you find forum post after forum post, blogs posts and even tweets about the company doing bad business then stay away! A company that doesn’t research its own reputation online or does nothing to satisfy infuriated customers who take the time to complain about it in forums across the web is definitely a company you want to run from just as quickly as you can. Don’t be lured into thinking that you will be the exception to the rule because chances are good you’ll be joining those folks in outrage if you sign up for a company that cultivates an image of apathy.

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Create a Template for Joomla 1.5 – Getting Started

March 11th, 2010

Those who have looked over a Joomla 1.5 review likely already realize that this is quite a well established script for the making of websites with plenty of capabilities. While you can use the community builder Joomla 1.5 to create a membership site, a lot of times all we want is our own template over the basic installation. For those expanding the program with a Joomla 1.5 phpbb3 combination then having your own template can help you make your site flow together visually in a far more appealing way.

The basics of theme creation of Joomla are far more about graphic design and CSS experience than any sort of Joomla specific knowledge. There are Joomla 1.5 YouTube tutorials, but that is a bit of overkill when the proces is not that complex. Whether you’re working in English or Joomla 1.5 Spanish translation, it all functions the same way. Let’s check it out:

First off, head to your Joomla installation directory on your server and find the ‘templates’ directory. Inside there, create a ‘themetutorial’ sub directory. We’ll be using this to test out your knowledge and store what you’ve made with this tutorial.

Next, you’ve got to create some files. I use Notepad2 for this as it highlights both html and php in different color coding for easy and does not do troublesome word-wrapping the way the original Notepad does. In your ‘themetutorial’ directory create files named templateDetails.xml and index.php, as well as a folder named css in which you will create the template.css file. You don’t need to worry what’s in these files yet, you simply need their names and to have them in the right locations.

The index.php is the primary component of your template that organizes the positions of your module and gives the path to your stylesheet (CSS) file, or template.css as we named it earlier. The templateDetails.xml file is what will inform the Joomla script of what it needs to know about your template.

Now that this part is done, login to Joomla as admin and switch to your newly created theme. Don’t worry about whether or not it works at the moment because we will fix that soon. Go back to your index.php file on your server and let’s put this bit of code at the top:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd”>
<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” xml:lang=”<?php echo $this->language; ?>” lang=”<?php echo $this->language; ?>” >
<head>
<jdoc:include type=”head” />
</head>

Then, the ‘body’ of index.php:

<body>

<jdoc:include type=”component” />

</body>
</html>

Save index.php and log out, then go to check your site after you have ensured that your ‘themetutorial’ template is the one currently used by the site. Since we’ve not changed much so far, you should see a painfully plain version of your site at this point which is functional, but incredibly basic. What you see now is what your site looks like with no stylings or mods, only articles.

Now, go back and open index.php again, placing this code between the <body> and </body> tags:

This piece of code in our example above:

<jdoc:include type=”modules” name=”left” />

Is designed to tell Joomla to put the modules published in the left position. We’ve just put in left, right, header and footer (top and bottom) positions to your template. That “container” bit in the code we just inserted lets us set these basic dimensions for your template.

Of course, you will want to go far beyond this, but this is how you get started on making your own Joomla 1.5 theme. At this point, you will likely want to log back into Admin and set the ‘themetutorial’ theme back off until you are ready to do more work, but now you have a very solid understanding of way in which a Joomla theme is created.

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Tags: community builder joomla 1.5, joomla 1.5 phpbb3, joomla 1.5 review, joomla 1.5 spanish, joomla 1.5 youtube
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Using the Functions of WebCalendar

March 10th, 2010

Depending upon the type of site you run, you may find that one of the ways you can really expand your users’ experience is to create a calendar for events that will be happening either on your site itself or are related to the interest area of the site. Those who want a fully functional solution will find that they often need far more than the bare essentials if they are hoping to get some serious visitor interaction going on. Whether you broadcast materials that you want people to be aware of going up or you simply believe the that the much loved WebCalendar iCal solution could help you put up more content on your site that your users will love, WebCalendar should definitely be your first choice. After all, it is open source software which means you aren’t going to need to pay a dime to have it live and fully functional on your site.

You can take a look at the WebCalendar demo and you will see that it is not only meant as a single user calendar, but you can actually have an org WebCalendar that is usable by entire groups of people. This is a great way to either let your site’s staff post what they find to the calendar or even track work groups to make sure everything needed is completed on time. Since you can set up a separate account for each WebCalendar user, it is easier than ever to get the results you crave when you want to have a site that is hopping with new information so that it becomes a real feeding ground for your visitors. These are the types of users who come to rely on your site for its content and therefore come back over and over again to keep current on what is happening with your web site. These are the absolute golden resources when it comes to building a truly successful site that is going to stand the test of time and give you the ultimate in a solid fan base.

Those considering allowing multiple users to all have their own calendars you can do this by creating ‘global categories’ to point your visitors to a calendar while only displaying certain categories of the calendar to them at any given time. This layering effect allows certain users to see certain events, but does not display everything all at once since that would be entirely confusing. Also, by setting up multiple ‘Nonuser calendars’ you will be able to allow publicly accessible viewing of other user created calendars. With this option you can either link to a Nonuser calendar or alternately, set up a view which will contain one or more Nonuser calendars. This allows you, the site admin, greater flexibility when deciding how you want your users’ calendars to be shown on your site.

When you are wanting WebCalendar to blend in better with your site, customizing it is a definite option that’s easy to do. If you simply navigate to System Settings and set Custom Header to Yes before saving, you can then hit Edit and add what you want for a header. The header always shows up after the <body> tag, but prior to the display of any WebCalendar content. For a footer, simply add the same content right before the </body> tag.

There are many more customizations and functions to learn about with WebCalendar, but these get you started towards making your calendar work for your site.

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Tags: org webcalendar, webcalendar demo, webcalendar ical, webcalendar user
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Want to Make Geeklog Theme? Here’s How

Installing YaBBSE is a Cinch

5 Signs Your Web Provider May Not Care About Your Business

Create a Template for Joomla 1.5 – Getting Started

Using the Functions of WebCalendar

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