You see they have somehow achieved both php 4.0 and 5.0 installations.  This poses an issue when it comes to Joomla! because it automatically uses the php 4.0 installation and this poses security risks that Joomla! has either fixed or doesn’t need to worry about if php 5.0 were installed and being utilized.

Luckily there’s a fix and it’s simple!

Go into your Joomla! root directory and find the htaccess.txt file.  Download it to your computer and open it with either notepad or wordpad.  Scroll to the bottom of the document and paste the following…

########## Begin php fix
#
AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
#
########## End php fix

This code will add a mime-type which tells any php file that is loaded by the server to be executed using php 5.0.  Seeing as how 1and1 has both 4.0 and 5.0 installed, their servers are able to do this.

Next upload the file back to the Joomla! directory via FileZilla (or your FTP Client of choice), but be sure to rename the file to .htaccess on the server, otherwise the server won’t utilize it.

To double check that the changes were made, go to your Joomla! admin panel.  Under Help > System Info check the php version to see if it’s 5.x.x.  Then proceed to the php Information tab and look for registered_globals and make sure it’s off.  If both of these are present then your correction worked, and Joomla! should be both more secure and less likely to cause errors.

Congrats you just made your Joomla! world a better place!

For starters in comparison to Joomla! it has a different look and a far more different feel.  In Joomla! there is an obvious front-end and back-end to the site, seperating the average user from the administrator.  Drupal isn’t quite as segregated.  Instead they went for a more seamless and streamlined approach, which can be quite confusing and overwhelming at first.  The two ends are integrated and you navigate everything (depending on the template being used) via the left navigation bar.  The more you use it, the easier it becomes.  One last thing about the navigation that I liked was the clear categorization of functions and options that are under the administrators menu list.  Everything is broken down into just a few categories and it was very easy to find where things are located.

Another perk that Drupal offers is the long list of included modules in the default install.  Unlike Joomla, Drupal offers simple Blogging and Forum capabilities, among many other components.  Another PLUS is the built in user management functionality, which allows the creation of custom user groups and permissions.  One thing Joomla! is lacking a bit.

Lastly, I’d like to include one minor beef with the CMS.  There isn’t a default WYSIWYG enabled for content creation.  There is probably an option somewhere in the administrators menu which allows the enabling of this feature, but it is not activated by default, which is surprising.

Overall a fairly easy to use CMS once you become accustomed to the navigation system and the integration of both the front and back-end of the site.

One of the reasons I chose 1and1.com was because they’re offering a nice little promotion until the end of January.  Six months of free hosting and $6.99 a month after that with a 12 month contract.  The only money needed to pay up front is a $4.99 setup fee.  Other than that it is compatible with Joomla! and also includes a One-Click Installation of the CMS, but I’d rather show you the manual approach, because it’s more fun.

What you’ll need.

• Purchased hosting at 1and1.com and the completed purchase and registration process.  (Please Note: Domain registration is not necessary with 1and1.com for this tutorial because they offer a free randomly generated domain name to access your content.  You can register a different domain at a later time if desired).
• A zipped copy of Joomla! version 1.5.x
• An FTP client such as FileZilla (Install the client before proceeding).

(Note: All examples provided below of unique user or database names have alphabetical character preceding the numerical strings.  These characters are what I’ve found to be 1and1.com convention, but cannot guarantee your unique names will have these exact prefixes.)

Enough talk let’s get into the setup shall we?

1.  Upon purchasing hosting services at 1and1.com you’ll receive a confirmation email with your Customer ID, which is required for you to log into the server control panel.  As indicated in the email you’ll want to go to http://admin.1and1.com and fill in the form with the Customer ID from the email you received and the password you indicated during the hosting purchase and registration process.

2.  Once logged into the control panel we’ll need to find the server’s FTP user information.  Without it we cannot upload Joomla! to the server.  Under the Web Space & Access section of the control panel select FTP Account.  There you’ll be presented with the user names of FTP account holders for your server space.  The FTP User Name is the odd looking string of numbers with the letter “u” preceding it.   That’s what we’re looking for, but to increase security you’ll want to click edit and create a strong password to be associated with the FTP access to your server.

3.  Lastly, we’ll need to find the name of your Host or domain name.  Since a free one was assigned to you by 1and1 you’ll need to click Domains under Basic Settings on the control panel.  On this page you’ll see your domain name (looks like a URL) in a list.

4.  Now open FileZilla and select File > Site Manager, click New Site and fill out all the appropriate information.  Use the default FTP Port 21.

5.  Next, click Connect and hopefully after a moment you will see all of the files currently stored on your portion of the server.  On the left hand side of the FileZilla interface you’ll notice you have the capability to browse your computer’s directories.  Find the zipped Joomla! file you downloaded and double-click it to send it to the server.  After a few moments the file should appear on the right hand side of the screen.  This signifies the file was successfully uploaded to your server space.

6.  Now, close FileZilla and return to the server control panel.  Next we’ll unpack the zip file.  We sent a zip file because it’s easier to send a single pack of information and unzip it server-side rather than send thousands of files separately.  This way we reduce the risk of skipping files during the upload.  Sometimes it only takes one file out of a thousand to make the whole thing come crashing down.

Under Web Space & Access click WebspaceExplorer.  This will allow us to browse the contents of the server and unzip the zip file.  Sadly, FTP Clients such as FileZilla are incapable of unzipping files.  Create a new directory folder by clicking the New Folder button in the top left corner.  Name it “joomla”and click ok. Find the zipped Joomla! file and right click it.  Select Unzip and select the “joomla” folder from the menu and click ok. The server will now unzip the file server-side.  Hassle free.

7.  Before we can start the Joomla! installation we’ll need to create a database, which can take 1and1 up to 24 hours to create.  Under Web Space & Access click on MySQL Administration and in the center of the page click New Database.  Give it a description that you’ll recognize and is relevant to its purpose. I named it something that reflects the website I’m creating.  Select MySQL 5.0 and give it a password.  A strong one remember!  Click Set Up.

8.  Now we wait.  It says 24 hours, but you can check back sooner and it may be installed.  Mine was up in less than a few hours.  You’ll know it’s been successfully created because all of the fields under the MySQL Administration page will be populated for an entire row.  The following example information is FAKE and is used to help you identify important information to be used during the Joomla! installation process.

• Database Name – db123456789
• User Name – dbo123456789
• Host Name – db1234.random.net

9.  After you’ve found this information you’re ready to go, BUT WAIT!  We need to redirect the main domain to look into the joomla folder.  So when you type in your URL the server will redirect you to the joomla site that is stored in your joomla folder.  On the control panel select Domains under Basic Settings.  Check the box next to your domain and click the Destination drop-down menu and select Edit Destination. Go to the Existing Directory combo box found under the Home Directory area of the page.  Drop it down and select the folder ”/joomla” and click ok.

10.  Wait a few moments and type your URL or domain address in the address bar of your browser and await the installation prompt of Joomla!

11.  Everything is fairly straight forward.

• Language | Select your language.
• Pre-Installation Check | Verify that 1and1 offers compatible servers.  A few options will be tagged Red; Display Errors and Register Globals.  These will appear in red because 1and1 has a PHP 4.0 / 5.0 installation conflict, but it should not affect your Joomla! installation.
• License | Select I Agree.
• Database | Now refer to the unique names mentioned in Step 8 of this tutorial.
  • Select mySQL for the database type
  • Host Name: Your unique name (db1234.random.net)
  • User Name: (dbo123456789)
  • Password: The password you set for the database
  • Database Name: (db123456789)
  • Lastly, select Advanced at the bottom of the page and create a different prefix for your tables to use.  A bad example would be abc_ but don’t forget the underscore.  This will help prevent hackers from messing with your data because they will likely know the default jos_ prefix.
• FTP Configuration | Select No and leave the rest blank
• Configuration | Create a site name (can be altered later), fill in information for the site’s SuperAdmin account, and finally click Install Sample Data (this will put sample info into the Joomla! site, which will help you understand where information is displayed on the front-end versus the back-end of the site.
• Finish | You’re done, but…

12.  Go back into either FileZilla or the WebspaceExplorer and delete the installation folder in the joomla directory.  Either way Joomla! won’t let you continue to the admin panel until you do so.  Then your site is ready to be configured.

Go to your “site address”/administrator and have fun.  Happy creating!!!

For my hosting solution I’ve chosen to go with GoDaddy.com.  After a little research and comparison of all the options given by Tim, Casey, and Corey I’ve decided GoDaddy will fit my needs and situation a little better.  I’ll obviously still need a domain name and I’ve got a list of them, but that will be finalized another day.

• Red – Poorly Supported or Difficult to Use
• Orange – Average Support/Ease of Use
• Green – Strongly Supported or Very Easy to Use

As you’ve probably already ascertained the CMS that I helped review was dotNetNuke.  Katy Behringer and I went through Core Functionality, Development Considerations, Support for dotNetNuke and our results were added onto the follow document originally given to us by Professor Tim Krause.

dotNetNuke Comparison

When you look at the comparison chart there’s a number of things dotNetNuke does well.  When looking at core functionality the CMS provides many things that some CMS’s don’t, such as Workflow Control and User Registration and Account Maintenance.  But there is a lingering issue with dotNetNuke that both Katy and myself discovered, and it’s that the user interface for the admin panel can be very confusing and complex.

The panel is split into two areas.  At the very top is a tool bar with short cuts to some common admin tasks.  The other being the main window.  Inside resides the main work area and two drop down menus that allow for further settings manipulation, content creation, as well as a slew of host properties and settings that can be altered.  Unlike Joomla or WordPress adding articles or creating new pages isn’t exactly intuitive and it would appear that the simplest way to add further functionality is through the “Add New Module” and “Add Existing Module” functionality on the top tool bar.  Let’s just say that dotNetNuke likes to hide things on the admin.

One nice yet confusing aspect of the admin panel is the radio buttons in the top left corner, which changes the admins current editing mode.

• The View mode allows the admin to see the changes they’re making in real time to the front end of the site.  This is the easiest way to get a preview of a page and this mode also allows the admin to use a WYSIWYG interface.
• The Edit mode allows the admin to change the site, module, and user settings.
• Lastly the Layout mode wasn’t exactly blunt about it’s purpose.  I would assume it’s used for graphics and the physical layout of the pages.

The other major issue I had with dotNetNuke was its speed.  It was incredibly painful to tinker with because every single change took far too long to implement.  When comparing it to Joomla! or WordPress it felt like I could have run a lap around the world before the system added either a new module or created a blog.  Even posting in the newly created blog took an eternity.  Everything was very slow, but it may have something to do with it being hosted on their demo servers.  It’s hard to tell, but due to the sheer complexity of the CMS I would advise only the bravest souls dare tackle it.  Unless you have a large staff and the money to hire commercial support, you’re gonna have a rough time, because basic community support appeared to be sparse.  I found very few answers to my questions I set out after on dotNetNuke and every time I turned around modules, skins, and other add-ons were all for sale.  There’s not much for free in the world of dotNetNuke, well except for their “Community” version of the CMS.

At least there are less stressful alternatives out there.

In recent weeks I’ve been paging through Joomla! For Dummies, in hopes of getting a better sense of CMS’s and possibly create a site that would cater to the needs of a gaming clan for an MMO that’s to be released on 02/02/2010.  Yep, that’s right Star Trek Online is debuting and I cannot wait!!!!  I figured I’ll play the game, have some fun, and possibly draw an educational experience from it.

Heck, why not? So, in my voyage towards creating a site for my clan I looked into the various different modules and plug-ins that I could possibly implement.  This was the main reason I was drawn towards CMS’s as a solution.

One key function I wanted to include was a forum, and I had just thought I’d need to have a separate entity and have my site link to it, BUT!!!!!!  Joomla! struck GOLD!  Joomla has numerous different forum modules and I decided to just try what was highly rated (not a bad methodology, right?) and that was Kunena.

So far I haven’t done much exploring, but I guess my main point in this long mess of a post…

“Installation of a forum module such as Kunena into Joomla… is… a… BREEZE!”

Hands down, I am so impressed with the sleek and simple integration into the CMS.  The forum is simply contained within the Joomla template, that it doesn’t even look like it was added in after the fact.  Joomla is just proving to be more and more EPIC everyday!

-I’m off! I hope to share more on Kunena in Joomla, VERY SOON!-

Purpose, everything needs a purpose and luckily this isn’t one of those deep soul searching quests that everyone faces at least once in their life, Who am I?  What is my purpose in life?

Granted everything has a purpose, but thankfully the purpose of this blog is simpler, but still ever changing.

At this point in time my blog’s purpose is to serve as a learning medium, which will allow myself and others to draw from the benefits of a course I’m currently taking over Winterim at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point.  The course title is Web Content Management Systems and over the next few weeks our class is going to go over the ideas and concepts behind WCMS’s as well as explore a few popular Open Source solutions to the WCMS.

First, we are exploring WordPress… well isn’t that obvious?  And as part of our journey into the world of WCMS’s we’re given the opportunity to express ourselves daily through blogging.  With the help of WordPress we will familiarize ourselves with learning, navigating, and modifying just one of the many WCMS’s solutions out on the Web.  (NOTE – WordPress is a FREE WCMS and also hosted for FREE through WordPress.com – You want a blog here’s your solution).

So sit back, relax, and read on whilst I give you updates on what we’re exploring in class with WCMS’s.  Also, on occasion I may throw in some extra content, hopefully Web Development or at the least WCMS oriented, but you never know with me.