HowToJoomla! Blog: Joomla!

I recently read "Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development" by James Kennard, and I must say I really enjoyed it. Every time I read a book about Joomla! framework and extension development, I get all sorts of new ideas. This time was no exception. The book provides a thorough description of the topics surrounding Joomla! 1.5 extension development, and it is a great reference book. I would not recommend reading the book cover-to-cover, but I think it is a great resource to have handy when attempting to develop extensions for Joomal! 1.5. The book was written for experience PHP developers who already have a working knowledge of Joomla! For those wanting to learn Joomla! extension devleopment, I recommend starting with Joe Leblanc's book, "Learning Joomla! 1.5 Extension Development", and having "Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development" as a reference for getting more in depth with the framework.

I have been working with JoomlaShack for a year-and-a-half, and you could not ask for a better group of people to work with. They have recently announced the JoomlaShack Developer Club, which is a way for professional web developers to use JoomlaShack's high-quality Joomla! templates on unlimited domains, have access to a private developer section of the JoomlaShack forums, gain Professional Developer status on the JoomlaShack forums, and have access to JoomlaShack's top notch educational resources. The cost of $499/year may seem steep for the average user, but this program is not aimed at the average user. For a professional developer, the time and money saved by using JoomlaShack's templates more than make up the cost of joining the club. I highly recommend this club, not only for the great features, but for the opportunity to work with a great group of people. Join here.

A few weeks ago, I tried out a new free online language learning tool called Mango. I went through a couple of lessons for learning to speak German, and overall I thought it was a great tool. Tonight, I got an e-mail from them saying that their site had moved and been improved, and when I visited the site, I found out that the new site is powered by Joomla! It looks like they are using a customized RocketTheme template, and the application itself is an Adobe Flash-based application. This site is a great example of the power of Joomla!

Click here to visit the Mango website.

Last month, the Joomla! core team announced a template contest for Joomla! 1.5. The top 5 templates (chosen by the core team) receive Joomla! swag as prizes, and the grand prize winner is rewarded with having his or her template distributed with the stable release of Joomla! 1.5. Saturday was the deadline for submitting templates to the contest via the forum. I have spent some time looking through the templates, and based on first impressions, here are my favorites so far (in no particular order).

I just recently read a book titled Learning Joomla! 1.5 Extension Development by Joseph LeBlanc. This is a great book for anyone with PHP/MySQL experience wanting to jump into coding extensions (components/modules/plugins) for Joomla! 1.5. In the book, he provides an overview of extension development, then takes you through the process of developing a sample restaurant reviews application. In the process, he introduces you to the Joomla! 1.5 API, and shows you helpful tips on how to code extensions the right way. I strongly recommend this book for anyone wishing to learn how to develop extensions for Joomla! 1.5.