1guywebdesign rambles on about open source technologies like joomla and wordpress.

Or, keep the crackers guessing..

If you’ve got an active website online chances are you’re aware of the presence of those nefarious types who, for whatever unscrupulous reasons, attempt to breach the security measures of your website for their own personal gain or glory.

Sure, it’d be nice if everyone could just get along, respect each others stuff and enjoy their time online, both in publishing and browsing but.. “That ain’t happenin’ anytime soon” so…

I’ve taken the liberty of putting together a few articles on “hardening joomla! CMS “, “domain and website security measures 101″ and “10 effective tips for responsible website administration”.

All overly titled and official sounding but, even if you are the type who would rather skip the readme.txt and go straight to the install, you should find something of value that may perhaps, save you a day or three from rebuilding one or more of your projects which succumbed to a security breach.

Just a note to mention to folks looking to try a little something different in the way of Administration Templates for their joomla or a8ejoomla website. We’ll be releasing our initial “default” a8e admin template to the public the first week of September.

Details and sneak previews can be found over on the a8e.org website (though, as of this post they’re not published yet.)

The recent Wordpress 2.5 press release from Matt on the state of WordPress 2.5 reads like a Christmas list of epic proportions. My own long wish-list for mojoBlog pales in comparision with what the wordpress developer community has achieved over the last six months.

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As Duvien mentioned over on a8ejoomla I’m in the process of taking up the mantle of developer bottle-washer emeritus.

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Give misguided visitors a softer landing

Successful blogs by their very nature tend to grow and evolve exponentially over time. Adding new categories and topics to your blog structure doesn’t pose much of an issue but, what do you do when you need to change the structure and categorical markup but don’t want folks/search engines getting whacked with “PAGE NOT FOUND” errors?

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In an increasingly divided open discussion about developer/designer authorship rights and GPL, Joomla! voices it’s informal stance on licensing, user and developer rights and, well.. It’s looking like 2005 all over again. read more | digg story

If you build it they will come

The gist of the ongoing discussion (other than the rant on branching the now infamous world’s longest threaded forum discussion) doesn’t appear to be coming from the core joomla! developers camp as much as it does from the leagues of open source developers, 3rd party coders, theme and template designers and occasional GPL bashers adding their 2cents worth over on the joomla forums.

Interesting reading but you’ll need to pack a lunch (and dinner, and tomorrow’s breakfast…)

A number of folks have requested a version of trikea coded up for joomla I’ve gone ahead and done it for you. It’s styled up specifically for a8ejoomla but will work/display almost as intended in joomla (due to the few remaining nested tables in joomla, there’s an extra bottom border (or two) that I’d not intended) but…

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I’m usually deep into my browser searchbar (firefox) more times a day than I can comfortably count. I use it to check correct code syntax, look up article references, double check spelling and even plan the dinner menu (yeah, i occasionally cook!) and it’s gotten even more research friendly with the recent advent of “Opensearch” microformat and the release of the opensearch API from A9 (Amazon).

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OpenID.. One ID to rule them all

OpenID is a framework for user authentication. As I’m in the process of implementing OpenID libraries into joommunity so our members will have verifiable member tools and features I thought I’d post a short article on what OpenID is, what it does and how to get your own, unique ID.

OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity or, in less geeky terms… Imagine a single login for all your sites, blogs and favorite webplaces. With an openID you create (and verify) a unique online ID that’s yours and only yours.

To qoute the folks at OpenID: “OpenID starts with the concept that anyone can identify themselves on the Internet the same way websites do-with a URI (also called a URL or web address). Since URIs are at the very core of Web architecture, they provide a solid foundation for user-centric identity.”

So, Claim your name…

The first thing to do is create your profile. There’s a growing number of online communities supporting OpenID (Technorati , Live Journal, Ma.gnolia and AOL) but the easiest way is to create your profile/account first at : claimID, register your main website and follow the simple process of adding verification to your site domain. Once you’ve gotten your email confirmation you’re good to go.

Claim your Domain…

An added benefit to having a unique, global id is that you can use it to “authenticate” a website you’ve developed or own… as your intellectual property. I’ve recently added joommunity.com along with 1guy and my photoblog.

OpenID-Dead easy…

For us Joomla and Wordpress users there’s a couple of plugins available which make adding your OpenID account and websites pretty much a no-brainer.

OpenID for Joomla

There’s a great little plugin developed by longtime component guru Absalom Media. Currently, it’s available on the older file repository on sourceforge.org so expect an occasional delay or timeout on downloading. Once you get abs_openin.zip

1. Unpack and install the plugin through your administration control panel under “installers/mambots”.
2. Go to your mambots options under “mambots/Site Mambots”.
3. Open the mambot and select OpenID provider (OpenID)
4. Add your OpenID name.
5. Tick the “published” box and click “save”.

OpenID for WordPress

For WP folks a WP widget plugin is available from the ClaimID group and can be found on their blog.To install the ClaimID widget:

1. Download the ClaimID Wordpress Widget (zip file).
2. Unpack the widget in your Wordpress widgets directory, generally wp-content/plugins/widgets.
3. Activate the widget in the Plugins screen, available from your Wordpress dashboard.
4. Drag, drop and configure the widget in Presentation — Sidebar Widgets, available from your Wordpress dashboard.
5. You’re done! Your recent ClaimID links will appear on your blog.

While searching for a solution on migrating older jd-wp/wordpress posts to joomla I ran across a plugin for WordPress that displays frontpage joomla posts as excerpts in a blog sidebar widget.

The author (Philipp Heinze) released this plugin-in GPLv2 and is available on his website for download. It’s a bit dated (actually, April 2nd, 2006) and, I’ve not had a chance to install or play with it other than browsing the code and reading his extensive “options” and configuration details but… It looks promising.

Update 04-03-07After replying to a bunch of folks yesterday who’ve mentioned problems with accessing philippe’s website I’ve added a temporary link to his plugin below; Phillippe’s site is now functional, follow the link above to download his wordpress sidebar widget.