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Building Websites with Joomla! 1.5.x - Other Extensions

Written by Graham Stoney

Article Index
Building Websites with Joomla! 1.5.x
Building The Site
Essential Extensions
Other Extensions
Conclusion
All Pages

Page 4 of 5

Other Extensions

In addition to the essential extensions listed above, I also found the following ones useful for my site. Whether you need them too will depend on whether your requirements are similar to mine or not.

Google Adsense

Version: 3.0 Clicksafe

I wanted some advertisements on my site, to help pay my bills. If I was giving my wisdom away for free, I wanted some kind of payback beyond just feeling like a good guy helping other people get their work done more efficiently. The most common program for doing this is Google's Adsense. The way it works is that Google looks at your site content, matches your content against keywords that advertisers have bid on, and generates advertisements on your site dynamically. When a visitor clicks on one of these advertisements, you get paid the amount that the advertiser bid for their ad, minus Google's cut.

There are several extensions for adding Google Ads to your site. I ended up using the JoomlaSpan one, because it seemed easiest to configure. It also has a funky clicksafe feature allowing you to register IP addresses to avoid serving live ads to yourself so you can't click them by accident, and to help deal with click-bombing; either of which can get you banned from the Adsense program. Being on an ISP with a dynamic IP address is a bit of a problem though.

To help Google target the ads for each page on your site more accurately, you should add google_ad_section_start/end markers into your template to say where the real content of the page starts and ends. You'll need to hack the index.php file of your template to do this, and put the markers around the <jdoc:include type="component" /> statement so it looks like this:

<!-- google_ad_section_start -->
<jdoc:include type="component" />
<!-- google_ad_section_end >

Ideally I wanted an Adsense module that switched Google Publisher Id's based on the author of the article in question, so that advertising revenue would automatically be forwarded to the author of the article which generated it. This would help encourage new contributors to join my site and contribute quality content, but as yet I haven't found an extension which does so.

Vemod News Mailer

Version: 1.2.12

The advantage of Vemod over other free Newsletter extensions is that it generates news automatically by compiling new content items from your site. All you do is set it up, then go about publishing content items. It does the rest. I felt like I had to fight with it a bit to get it to work, but I still recommend it. The author was very responsive with problems, and I bought him the requisite Latte Macchiato required to allow me to remove his Copyright message from my site legally. I reckon you should, too. A really nice thing about Vemod is that it can also include content in the newsletter from any module including other non-core extensions.

Vemod can be triggered either by a cron script, or by modifying your site template to add a hook through which it sends the newsletter. The former is trickier to set up, while with the latter there will be no newsletter sent if nobody visits your site, even if you've posted new content since the last newsletter.

I came across a problem with the combination of Vemod, sh404SEF and mod_login. Publishing the Login panel on the Vemod page with sh404SEF caused logins to break. Disabling SEF URLs for the Vemod module in sh404SEF worked around the problem.

I found it difficult to generate a test newsletter on-demand, and there is a discussion about this on the author's forum. To do so, you have to log in as admin to the Joomla! front end and go to the newsletter page, where a preview button will appear. Either that, or set the compilation interval very short and submit content items to the site in order to test that the newsletter mail was being generated and sent correctly. That's not something I really want to do on a live site.

Before upgrading the Vemod extension, make sure to use Vemod's database backup feature or you will lose all your newsletter settings.

Ultimate Social Bookmarking Plugin

Version: 1.0.3

Not having friends in high places at sites with good page ranking, I needed some way to generate quality links to my site. One method is by providing easy social bookmarking on your content pages. This allows users to bookmark your content easily with sites like Digg and Del.icio.us, giving you links back to your site. The more popular your articles, the better the ranking of these back links. I only found out about social bookmarking after GreatEngineering.net was launched, and one of the advantages of a CMS is that all I had to do was install and configure this plugin in order to generate the required links and icons for every page of content, without having to edit any of the content itself.

This plugin is the perfect solution for allowing users to social bookmark your site. Dropping a Digg Submit badge right there on your articles automatically is really cool. My only feature-wish is that it would be nice if the social bookmarking buttons didn't appear on the Print version of the page by default, although this can be achieved by editing the site template.

yvComment

Version: 1.19.3

This extension allows for users to comment on your articles. This in such a common feature of websites these days that I was surprised this functionality isn't in the core. The author has done a remarkable job of integrating it; this seems like one of the better integrated extensions. If you want to avoid being spammed, you'll also need to install the Bigo Captcha extension, which you need to enable explicitly both in the yvComment plugin settings and in the Bigo Captcha plugin settings.

I recommend you create a specific Section and Category for comments, and select Use Content Table, so that yvComment treats comments like regular articles. This allows you to have comments on comments, and also to manage comments in the Joomla! content manager. Note that both your Section and Category must be reserved for use by yvComment; don't share the Section with other non-comment content items.

The extension generates a link back to the author's home site which you may want to remove. Donate to the project first, and then edit components/com_yvcomment/views/comment/tmpl/default.php, search for PoweredBy and delete that line.

Sourcerer

Version 1.0.0

Having a complex CMS system with a WYSIWYG editor like JCE can actually make some simple things harder than you might expect. Like how do you paste raw HTML from places like the Amazon Affiliate program into your content? The answer is to install the Sourcerer plug-in, and wrap the raw HTML in Joomla! plugin tags {source} and {/source}. You also need to disable Joomla!s default content filtering rules in Content, Article Manager, Parameters, Filtering Rules, or your custom HTML will disappear.

Mini Front Page

Version: 1.2.4

This is the only extension I could find which could generate a random content item from any Section; not just a reference to the content, but the content itself. It can actually do a whole lot more than this, but I just use it on my front page and in my newsletter, to keep things fresh.

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319 Votes

29 Comments

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annich makes this comment

2009-03-28 14:49:48

I absolutely agreed that it is crazy not to be able to put a story under more than one category. I also think it is crazy to stop lists at 50. I have many times more content than this on my site and can't find a way to make it easily available to subscribers.
I have yet to work out how to make the archive work properly.
Joomla is OK as far as it goes, but it has massive limitations.
annich makes this comment

2009-03-28 14:52:16

I absolutely agree that it is crazy to only be able to put storie in one category, and it is equally stupid to stop lists at 50. Joomla has massive limitations.
Carolien makes this comment

2009-03-31 09:46:06

Vemod News Mailer extension isn't in the JED anymore. The link is broken.
Graham Stoney makes this comment

2009-04-02 04:12:31

The author of Vemod has discontinued support for it, and handed the baton to another group. It does appear to have disappeared from the JED, but it's still available from his home site.
pydiraju makes this comment

2009-04-29 05:25:18

i am doing one website using joomla. i have to provide in one page some details of each option, so i have to use multi read more options in my article. how is it possiable.
sandy makes this comment

2009-05-09 19:10:52

Very nice and informative.
Cheers,
Sandy
Denise makes this comment

2009-05-13 15:12:19

Thank you for this article. It is very helpful.
Dr.Bestt makes this comment

2009-05-21 21:14:44

Tremendous article.
this would really help that novice Joomla user.
best wishes.
Ron Strauss makes this comment

2009-05-29 19:25:14

Thank you for the overview upside / downside.
Roland makes this comment

2009-06-08 14:12:15

Thanks for writing this short overview. I have started using Joomla. The reason for me was that it offers so much options i cant find in any other cms.
Rufus Quail makes this comment

2009-06-09 21:23:21

I'm a tech idiot, so reading this was a big help. I'll refer back to it when I start building my site. Thanks.
Greg makes this comment

2009-06-11 19:56:03

Thanks! The more I learn about Joomla... the more I like it.
Biffburton makes this comment

2009-06-13 22:37:20

Liked the article and thanks for taking the time. I am very new, yet have spent weeks and weeks, sometimes 10 hours a day learning Joomla! and am amazed at the limitations.

I am unable to understand why, with so many 000s of people working on it, it is still so complicated - everywhere I go on the forums people are saying they spent 3 hours, 4/5 hours trying to get soemething to work - crazy! but understandable - Dreamweaver is a breeze by comparison.

Even a Guru has declared something he thought was not visible was in fact on his front page - what chance the new guy!

On with the struggle and hope somebody makes a button to do the job - why can't a similar arrangement to Dreamweaver be done.

Looking forward to getting enthusiastic about it all - but when!
Ray L makes this comment

2009-06-15 20:11:25

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your article. I need to publish a simple ecommerce website quickly. I can go back and make it more complicated later. It appears that Joomla is not my solution. Joomla now seems to be hyped by a tech-rich community. Nothing against them, but Joomla is not really for beginners. The 1.5 Quickstart pdf is confusing. I can see now that it makes assumptions about my level of knowledge. I have been trying to understand the hierachy of Joomla, and your explanation of the limitation of 2 levels, was enlightening. I am not a novice, but I was hoping a CMS would allow me to get my site up quickly. Not so. We need more articles like this one, that point out the limitations of products.
Ray L makes this comment

2009-06-15 20:16:04

P.S. I am still going to come back to Joomla and learn it, as it still sounds promising, but there really is quite a learning curve to it. If only there was a mini-Joomla, or a Joomla, Jr., or a Joomla Lite, with more basic website building tools, that would let a beginner get a website going quicker, but also encourage him to grow into Joomla the Big.
Ali makes this comment

2009-06-26 18:18:06

its a great site to see
backlinks makes this comment

2009-07-01 02:31:06

Hi there,
I have stoped by first time this site and it is really good and informative. joomla.org seem to be very user friendly. I am planning to update some of my websites. here I found lot of templates available. and that sound good for me.
thanks a lot for sharing this useful info with us
Tee makes this comment

2009-07-07 04:28:11

Hello, I'm new to Joomla anyone know a good calendar to install? I installed the Google calendar but it doesn't have text wrap so my words are cut off and any good flash that I can put on my header of my website?
Dhamphy makes this comment

2009-07-16 18:53:25

Thanks for this, I will be using Joomla for my next project..
Dhamphy's Online Journal
george makes this comment

2009-07-21 13:03:01

i see a lot of people use joomla and get a lot of things for free,
please can anyone give me a hint on how to get a free easy to use web design templates.

i am a total novice on this.
thanks
george [nigeria]
Jon makes this comment

2009-08-13 15:40:31

yates

Ei..Thanks you, for your article. I need to publish a simple ecommerce website quickly.
Deki makes this comment

2009-08-19 19:12:18

Thanks to this article, my client has chose Joomla CMS for his site!

Thank you Graham!
maialen makes this comment

2009-08-19 21:37:41

Nice article! Thank you!
Yacht makes this comment

2009-08-25 20:55:39

Thanks for this post and this information but a think Joomla it has massive limitations.
John Pitchers makes this comment

2009-08-28 14:09:57

Great article!

A lot of the commentators here are quite vocal about Joomla's limitations. Joomla has definitely got some limitations but so have all the other top CMS's like Wordpress, Drupal, Expression Engine, etc.

Web development is a profession. If you have no or little experience developing a site, you will find it difficult and get frustrated by these "limitations".

I just completed a 900 page Joomla website with unlimited depth of categories, access control restricting editing rights of admins to specified categories, multiple newsletter lists, event calendars and full SEF URL's.

The entire site is updated, including events and sending newsletters via the front end. Approximately 20 people across Australia manage content for their particular area and only two people in the organisation have back end access.

The company invested 6 figures in the development of the site which included a lengthy internal assessment of the best CMS to fit their needs. Joomla won despite it's "limitations".

Joomla is a world class product and it's getting better with every release.
Ben Clayton makes this comment

2009-10-01 14:02:45

Excellent article - thanks so much. I'm new to Joomla, and will be setting up a Joomla site for a small company in the next few weeks, and will definitely be following your advice.

Cheers!
ottoteller makes this comment

2009-10-09 15:39:47

Kudos!!!
As someone who has also learned Joomla the hard way, I wish to thank the author for a well written and extremely informative article. Joomla has a few limitations, to be sure, but for the price, it sure is hard to beat. I really like it, and like its backend and easy edit nature. Even an intelligent novice with minimal html skills can be instructed to maintain a site once it is up.
Milica makes this comment

2009-10-18 15:59:19

I cant find out how to make my site here...if anyone want to help me, my e-mail is lenja_baba@yahoo.com so e-mail me.

Thanks, Milica, Serbia
AS makes this comment

2009-10-19 21:23:19

for basic tutorials, go to siteground.com. They have the best and most compreshensive tutorials on basic stuff

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