Blog entries

To Migrate or Not To Migrate, That Is The Question

Jen Kramer — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:24:57 +0100

There's been much talk about the new Joomla 2.5 release, the coming end of life (EOL) of Joomla 1.5 in April, and whether one should upgrade from Joomla 1.5 to 2.5.

So, should you upgrade from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5?

Yes, regular readers. It Depends. (Gold stars for all of you!)

However, about 99% of the time, absolutely you should upgrade to Joomla 2.5. In Jen-speak, this means UPGRADE YOUR CLIENT SITES NOW. I only say 99% because I'm sure there's an exception somewhe...

My Newest lynda.com title: Joomla 1.7 Access Control Lists (ACL) In Depth

Jen Kramer — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:37:34 +0100

Looking for information about Joomla 1.7 ACL? How about Joomla 2.5 ACL? My new title, Joomla 1.7 Access Control Lists (ACL) In Depth, will likely work with Joomla 2.5 as well. Here are a few free videos to check out. You can subscribe to see the full title at lynda.com.

Introduction to ACL

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!

Defining Users

Defining access levels

Assigning access levels to modules

Testing logins

Introduction to the video title

20 Years of a Life Online

Jen Kramer — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 19:32:05 +0100

Jen on some dock in the Pacific Northwest, fishing sea creatures out of the water as part of a college class in 1990.

This morning, from my internet-enabled mobile phone, I tweeted, "2012 is the 20th anniversary of my online life. Probably deserves a blog post, eh?"

Then I started thinking about that 20 year journey it took me to get there, be...

Oregon and Washington coasts: Lewis & Clark Day

Jen Kramer — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 05:00:00 +0100

Because I do get international readers who may not know about Lewis & Clark...

Back in 1804, when Thomas Jefferson was President and the US was a new country with roughly 15 states, Merriwether Lewis and William Clark, who were Army captains, were asked to lead an expedition of peaceful exploration and discovery. Their mission was to leave from St. Louis, Missouri, then travel west until they reached the ocean. (Missouri is somewhat east of middle of the US.) Along the way, Jeffer...

Mt. St. Helens: Recovery and Rebirth

Jen Kramer — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 05:00:00 +0100

I was promised a "mostly sunny" day today, so I checked out my window first thing in the morning. Sure enough, Mt. Rainier smiled back, so I raced out the door and up the hill to Paradise. I drove through several layers of clouds, and I worried that I would not be able to see the mountain once I got there. But I had nothing to worry about.

It was absolutely quiet up top, with only ...

Mt. Rainier: Lessons from Giant Trees

Jen Kramer — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 05:00:00 +0100

On Wednesday morning, I woke up to miserably pouring rain. Even the small amount of distance I could see yesterday was completely wiped out by low hanging clouds. It was pretty clear that I wasn't going to see much. But there were a few highlights.

Over at the Twin Firs trail, just inside the Nisqually entrance, I was treated to a bunch of beautiful trillium in bloom.

As in...

Mt. Rainier: Exploring

Jen Kramer — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 05:00:00 +0100

On Tuesday morning, I woke to find Mt. Rainier had disappeared from my window, as predicted. The sky was overcast, but not raining. I could not wait to get out and see the world, so I left about 8 AM to talk to the park rangers about hiking in the area. They mentioned snow in a few places, which did not bother me. I'm from New Hampshire. I can deal with snow and walking on it. They just smiled. I figured out why later.

I started with a great hike at Kautz Creek.

I am web designer who loves Joomla, and I am looking for ways to grow my client base. I use Freelancer.com, but the bids are so low (custom joomla template/site for $250), I can't really compete. Do you know of another source where I could gain a foot hold and find good Joomla clients?

I presume if you ask this question, you don't have a budget for buying things like Yellow Pages advertisin...

Just because you can, in your own language

Jen Kramer — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:40:29 +0100

It's thrilling to have so many people in the web design community picking up on one of my favorite teaching phrases:

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

It covers everything in web design, possibly as well as another favorite, "It Depends."

It makes you stop and think before adding that nifty cool widget that doesn't address the site strategy, that unsupported CSS3 eye candy, or combining CMSs into a single installation.

It also adds an extra layer o...

Would you come down on price for a long term relationship?

Jen Kramer — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:21:22 +0100

You've just moved to a new city or town, and your car needs an oil change. Since you just moved, you also need to find a new mechanic for your car.

You look online or in the yellow pages, and you identify a mechanic. You drive over, and ask the mechanic how much an oil change for your car would be. You also ask if the mechanic has done oil changes before, and if you can talk to anyone who's had their car serviced by this mechanic.

The mechanic says they've changed the oil on h...

Joomla 1.6 ACL Explained

Jen Kramer — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:21:58 +0100

Well, maybe explained is a strong term. But I do the best I can.

For my talk at Joomla Day NYC, here are my slides (PDF).

The two exercises will be based on my articles at community.joomla.org:

Setting access levels to control who can read which content
Setting permissions to control who can create/edit/delete content

The new 40/40/20 rule

Jen Kramer — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:12:42 +0100

Yesterday, once again, I had the pleasure of being interviewed for the JoomStew podcast. This show was covering aspects of running your own Joomla business, including getting work, writing contracts, payment, and so forth.

One of the items discussed was how one collects payment for the job, particularly if you've bid a fixed price job.

Most developers will bid 50% upfront and 50% on launch. This is a time-honored tradition, if such a thing exists in a field as young as ours. The...

The Importance of Planning Joomla Sites for Client Maintenance

Jen Kramer — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:28:24 +0100

The phone rang at 8:45 PM. "Help!" the client said. "We just sent an email out to 18,000 people and the slideshow on the home page doesn't work. Please fix it ASAP! This is an emergency!"

This is a relatively new client, one with whom we just started working in the last 2 weeks, and they have an existing Joomla website. They asked us to add a few things here and there, but we had never touched the slideshow on the home page. We weren't even sure how it was put together -- we simp...

Have you heard of Joomla? Joomla Rocks!

Jen Kramer — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:02:27 +0100

Have you heard of Joomla?

Samara Iodice, my fabulous lynda.com training producer, and I had a little time after my most recent lynda.com production trip. We moved around the lynda.com office, asking who had heard of Joomla, what is was, and what they thought of it.

Coincidentally, Ken Crowder was also there, which made for some extra fun.

The cast, in order of appearance:

Samara Iodice and Curt Frye (author)
Brian Ruiz
Ken Crowder (author) and Jen Krame...