Joomla doesn’t have nearly as many features as Wordpress when it comes to blogging. Not to say that you can’t make a good blog on Joomla – you absolutely can. While there are fewer platforms available, there are some pretty feature-heavy options that I recommend, so I decided to share some of my input based on my experience with them.
I’ve been building Joomla websites since back when 1.5 was the latest version – so, a decent amount of time. Over the years the way I’ve been building Joomla websites has evolved, both from experience and from the many updates that have occurred since I first started. I figured it would be a good idea to share some of these experiences and provide some guidance on building a Joomla website that is maintainable, efficient, and easy to administer.
Free your Joomla website from using desktop-sized images for smartphones and tablets!
The Adaptive Images plugin for Joomla generates images scaled to your device's screen size. This is particularly useful for mobile devices and tablets, where rendering full-sized images is a waste of bandwidth that also delays page load times. To use the plugin, simply install and enable it - that's it! There's a few more optional settings that you may play with, such as image sharpening, image resolutions, image quality, and retina display support.
Hikashop is a pretty decent e-commerce store, with plenty of great capabilities. Unfortunately, it does have some quirky behavior (*ahem* such as its checkout process) that can get a little frustrating. Furthermore, there are some lacking features that may not be entirely necessary, but said features would be a really valuable asset to any e-commerce website. Especially considering how hard it is to convert shoppers into customers, you definitely want to be ahead of the game to boost your sales.
At Virgo Web Design, we look forward to a few important things every summer in Chicago; warm weather, wearing shorts, the beach, festivals, and JoomlaDay Chicago, to name a few. Well, JoomlaDay Chicago is upon us this Saturday, the 9th. This event attracts Joomla enthusiasts worldwide, and has a jam-packed schedule of speakers talking about Joomla news, tutorials, and advice on best practices. This year, it begins right after the Joomla Developer Conference (also hosted in Chicago) finishes up.
There are many components to choose from on the Joomla Extensions Directory as an E-commerce solution, but the most popular and polished ones are Hikashop and Virtuemart. Between the two, my preference is definitely Hikashop. This isn't an absolute preference, however; I believe that in some cases Virtuemart is an ideal solution, but only if there are a limited number of products you plan to sell, and there aren't many variants/options that these products carry. So, on to the components! I'm going to go over different features of each product as well as their pros and cons.
With all the available options online, choosing the right Joomla template framework can be frustrating. What if you choose one that doesn't suite your needs? Luckily, there are many good options out there, and its hard to say that there's a best one for every situation. There are different features, designs, and specializations that should be taken into consideration when choosing your template, and I recommend trying different frameworks before deciding what you like best. Personally, I don't just use one framework; I pick whichever one works best for the website I am building. Here is a review of some of my favorite frameworks:
Joomla's extension directory is one of its greatest strengths and also one of its greatest weaknesses. Poor documentation and support can ruin an experience for some Joomla developers, but sometimes functionality rules over all. If you know what you're doing, you can probably figure out how to implement them into your website the way you want. I've compiled a list of some of my favorite extensions and some of my experiences with them. Not all of these are free, but if they serve their purpose then they are well worth your hard-earned cash.
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