Joomla! How-To's: Mambots/Plugins

How to embed an RSS feed into an article in Joomla

Written by Cory | February 28, 2009 | (15)

In my most recent blog post about my 10 favorite Joomla! extensions, I embedded a news feed from Twitter to show the latest posts using the #t10jx tag on Twitter. Initially, I thought about finding a plugin that handled displaying an RSS feed in an article, since that would be the easiest way to accomplish what I wanted. Then I remembered the "Load Module" plugin and the "Feed Display" module that are part of a core Joomla! installation. I realized that I could embed the feed without installing any 3rd-party extensions. Read on to find out how to do it.

How to embed a YouTube video into an article in Joomla! 1.5

Written by Cory | July 23, 2008 | (57)

There are actually several ways to go about embedding a YouTube video into an article in Joomla! 1.5, but I have built a plugin that makes it dead simple. You can download the plugin here.

Here's how it works:

• Step 1: Download the plugin.
• Step 2: Install it.
• Step 3: Enable (publish) it.
• Step 4: Go to YouTube.com and find a video that you want to embed.
• Step 5: Copy the URL for that video from your browser bar.
• Step 6: Paste the URL into your content item.
• Repeat steps 4-6 for as many videos as you wish to embed.

That's all there is to it. Really. It's that simple. The plugin handles all the embedding code for you. I am releasing the plugin under the GNU/GPL, so feel free to use it on as many sites as you wish.

Special thanks to Simon Tiplady for helping me with the regular expressions in this plugin.

Example

How to use the GeSHi plugin/mambot

Written by Cory | July 22, 2008 | (17)

Joomla! comes with a plugin/mambot called GeSHi that comes in quite handy if you have a site like HowToJoomla.net in which you share code snippets with your readers. I recently tried to use GeSHi on a Joomla! 1.5 site, and I found that it works differently in Joomla! 1.5 than it does in Joomla! 1.0. Read on to see how to use it in both.

How to change your WYSIWYG editor

Written by Cory | September 17, 2006 | (4)

With your standard Joomla! installation, you get a WYSIWYG editor called TinyMCE. A WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor basically enables you to edit content items in your browser just like editing a document in a word processor without needing to know how to write HTML code.

For most people, TinyMCE will serve their needs adequately. However, you might prefer to use a different editor. If so, this article will teach you how to install a new editor and make it your default editor.

CBAuthorBot Hack

Written by Cory | September 13, 2006 | (12)

If you use Community Builder (CB) and the CBAuthorBot (the one that makes the author's name linkable to their CB Profile), then you might be interested in this hack. It enables you to display the author's CB avatar at the top of an article with a link back to his or her CB profile. I originally posted it here on the CB website. You can go there for more information, and to see how other people have modified the hack.

Here's the code: