During episode 7 I focused on how to use split menus to better setup multiple menus in Joomla. Ben wrote in and wondered if I could be a bit more specific on how to set this up, so I'm doing him one better by giving you all the first video tutorial on how to use split menus.

If you have any sort of top menu navigation system, and you want to show a menu on the left or right only after a visitor clicks on one of your top menu items, you need to use split menus. Here's why:

• Bread crumbs are better preserved
• URLS are better preserved

Plus, if your template supports it, when a menu item is clicked on the side, the top menu item will keep its indicator status.

I think I've said enough. On with the show:

Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments.

A bug/security fix has just been released for Joomla. Grab it while it's hot. This fixes the issue first reported on my post 1.5.7 Security Issue?, which led to a rift between Joomla and JoomlaTools. Full details after the break:

I've seen some reports in the JCE forums that adding images is broken since the release of Flash 10. This appears to also affect the Media Manager. One fix is to switch the uploading method to HTML rather than Flash--which means you can only upload one file at a time. Hopefully this can get resolved soon!

One of the question I get asked the most is about the release date of Joomla 1.6. Some discussion popped up about it among the Joomla developers, and from the chat I've inferred that the date for release could happen by the end of the year. If it doesn't make it then, perhaps releasing it on the one year anniversary of Joomla would be a nice symbol as well.

Go developers go!

Over at Joomlatools comes a report stating that they've discovered a big security issue in 1.5.7. They claim that they've reported the issue to the Joomla Security Strike team 3 weeks ago but it hasn't been fixed. Without an official response from Joomla, it's hard to know whether this issue is serious, but from the track record at Joomlatools, I'm inclined to believe them. So, are you going to apply their patch?

UPDATE--Joomla responds. What do you think of the response? They took this seriously, no?

Pic from madaboutshanghai.

Feel like the backend of Joomla gets a bit slow sometimes? I know I do as I hop around menus, modules, and articles. Phil Taylor has helped fix this problem with the release of a plugin that enables Google Gears support, which will cache your Joomla administrator files to your local computer, greatly increasing the speed of Joomla. Learn more about the plugin or directly download it.

I've installed it on a test server, and here are my initial thoughts and impressions:

• Google Gears is a browser add-on for Firefox, Internet Explorer, and now Safari (Mac version only) that allows Web applications to speed up by caching files to your hard drive
  
• Google Gears for Joomla requires PHP5, which will leave some users out
• Don't install this on a public machine, only on your own
• That all being said, I do find it speeding up the backend quite a bit

Once you have Google Gears installed, you can use it to speed up Google applications, use Google docs offline, or use it to speed up other applications.

To install it:

• Download the plugin
• Enable it from the Plugins Manager (I did a search for Gears)
• Wait a few seconds, then click Update Gears in the upper right
• You'll then be prompted to either install Gears if you don't have it, or to enable Gears for Joomla
• Wait for it to cache the files, and then close the window when it's complete
  

Here are some screenshots of the installation process:

Overall this is great news for the Joomla community. Have you installed it yet? What do you think about Google Gears for Joomla 1.5?

Have you heard about the mobile web, or are you looking to build a mobile-optimized version of your website? Why would you want to do this in the first place? Well, there's a couple of reasons:

1. Millions of people are now surfing the web on their cell phones. However, screens on phones are not well optimized for regular websites. Even on the iPhone, which has the "real" internet, it can be a pain to constantly zoom in and out and scroll around.

2. Speed. Most cell phones don't have a lot of bandwidth, so if you can strip out as much of your site as possible, such as the excess javascript, css, and large images, you'll be delivering a your content more quickly to your users.

I'll be discussing two extensions that can help give you a mobile site with Joomla 1.5:

#1 PDA Plugin

The more fully featured plugin for mobile websites, PDA Plugin works quite well. It comes with two files, a template and a plugin. Install both and then visit Plugin Manager and click on PDA Plugin to set some options:

The settings above are the settings that I am currently using. First thing you'll notice is that this plugin was sort of rushed for Joomla 1.5 as it's still called "Mambot" rather than the preferred "Plugin."

1 Version of the Site or 2?

The first two options are very important. You'll have to decide whether you want to give the choice for mobile users to visit your regular site and your optimized site, or if mobile users will always see the mobilized version. I prefer to give my readers the choice, so I've set it up that way, as it shows in the graphic above. To have two versions, you need to do some additional work: Create a CNAME in your web hosting control panels that maps m.yourdomain.com to yourdomain.com. I chose to use "m" as it's become pretty common on a lot of sites and it's shorter than the default of "pda." Remember that typing on a mobile can be a pain, so the shorter the better!

If you'd like to offer your mobile visitors the mobile site all the time, you won't have to change any of the settings. Just publish the plugin and you're done.

Customize the Template

Next, visit the Template Manager and click on pda. From here you can customize how your template will appear to mobile users. You can specify which modules should show up (up to 5), so make sure to include one of your menus at least!

All together, this is a very nice solution to creating a mobile version of your website. Issues I can see in the future:

• Will development continue? The author has outlined grand plans for version 3, but hasn't updated his site in months.
• The developer's site has changed hosts--if the site goes down that would be a tragedy.
• Will the plugin work on newer mobiles if the developer doesn't update the plugin? This is the most troubling of all, although I suppose a differente developer could add code (heck perhaps I could do it myself) to support newer platforms, such as Andriod.
  

#2 Auto Template Switcher for iPhone

I believe the name of this extension had iPhone added on just to make it seems more useful for iPhone users, because it isn't specifically made for the iPhone. What it does do, is allow you to serve up to 3 different templates to users based on the browser they use. By default it allows you to target iPhone, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla users, but you could use this for users of other browsers as well.

Installation is sorta straightforward--installs as a module. Set it to a postion, set it to not show the title, and publish it. Oh wait, what's this? You also have to make a Joomla core file modification.

Note that this extension does not come with any templates, so you'll need to find one and install it separately.

Issues:

• As I mentioned earlier, you have to make a modification to the Joomla core to make this work. Modifications to the core make me sad--it's another thing to track when upgrades roll around.
• Not compatible with PDA plugin. I had both installed and PDA plugin stomped over it--probably due to Auto Template being a module.
• Only supports 3 browsers. This leaves out many users of other mobile web browsers.

Mobile Joomla 1.5 Templates

There aren't that many native Joomla 1.5 Templates. If you know of any, let me know if the comments. Here's what I've found:

Joomla Mobile Dark Theme

PDA Template

Testing on a Mobile Device

Don't have a mobile device but want to see if the plugin is working? You can see if the mobile detection is working by using these tools:

Opera Mini Simulator

iPhone Simulator

1000 mobile phones picture from Gaetan Lee.

Get it while it's hot, folks: Joomla 1.5.7 has been released. This is a security and bug fix release, so don't expect any killer new features. From the looks of it, this isn't as important as 1.5.6, but still--upgrade now!

Full release notes are available by clicking Read more:

I just spent the last 30 minutes answering questions on the Joomla Forums. If you know a bit about Joomla, why not give back and help out new users? I did and it makes me feel pretty good. Remember when Joomla was brand new to you?

It was just announced over at the Core Team Blog that Joomla 1.6 will feature a mechanism that will allow extensions to be updated from within Joomla itself--this is really great news if they can pull it off with a notification system. As I talk about in episode 5, I believe that automatic updates would be a great new feature for Joomla. What do you think? Could it be a security issue in itself?

UPDATE: I wondered how this would affect Intellispire, makers of The Joomla Podcast Extension of Week Joomla Updater. Luckily, Nick Temple from Intellispire was kind enough to answer this questions:

"Mike, I'd like to tell you how pleased I am to hear from you that updates will be in the Joomla! core where they belong - sooner rather than later. Joomla! has needed this for a long time.
While I can't claim any credit, I do hope that our innovative technology has helped fuel this decision to add update capability to the roadmap now.
The Intellispire Software Installer for Joomla!, is, at its heart, a software delivery platform and will continue to function as one through 1.6 and beyond, adapting to and embracing core technology changes as they become available."

I'm happy to see that Intellispire is pleased to see Joomla moving toward this direction of automatic updates.