The Joomla! site that I am hosting is nearing 10,000 articles and interfering with the size of backing up Joomla (nearing 4GB+). Is there any mechanism or plugin for storing the articles off-site (ie in a server folder) not with the Joomla core?
Is there an upper limit to how many articles a typical non-optimized Joomla site can hold?
Thanks
As Lodder mentioned, articles are in your database, so should have no impact on your site backups. You need to look at where all the space in your folders is being used. There's a free program called SpaceMonger v1.4.0 (near the bottom of the page) that gives you a visual layout of how much space is being used. We use it quite frequently when our backups are getting huge, and often find tons of temporary files that have long expired.
Related
I would like to know if there are effective penetration testing tool that help evaluating our Joomla site: "www.ous.edu.sd" since we had experienced hacking last month.
Don't try to prevent you current 1.5 site from being hacked, cause you'll fail. Get yourself upgraded as soon as you can. I answered a question a while back as to why keeping you Joomla site up to date is very important:
Why should I keep my Joomla version up to date?
If your site is purely just an information site, then I would suggest upgrading to Joomla 3.1. Joomla 3.2 will be out literally very soon aswell. The reason being is that even though Joomla 2.5 was liked a lot by developers, it will be coming to the end of it's life in the second quarter of 2014. Seems a long time away but when the time comes, upgrading could be a bit of hassle.
Please do bare in mind that upgrading to Joomla 3.0 will not upgrade your 3rd party extensions that you have installed and thus you will have to install Joomla 3.x compatible versions of them.
Regarding the anti hacking side of things, I explained a little in the link provided but will mention it here anyway. The 3 main extensions I would get are:
Admin Tools
AdminExhile
Saxum IP Logger
Hope this helps
Joomla 1.5.26 was the last version of the 1.5 line. It is end of life. As mentioned previously the best defence is to keep your Joomla! installation up-to-date and to keep an eye on the Joomla VEL, which tracks extensions with issues.
Without going to commercial tools I'm not sure for Joomla! specifically. Ages ago we used OWASP Joomla! Security Scanner, (wiki here), but the SourceForge repo indicates it's not being updated anymore.
https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:OWASP_Joomla_Vulnerability_Scanner_Project
You cannot actually prevent yourself from Hacking, all you can do is Secure your website from external attacks.
For joomla, I recommend you to upgrade your current core version is there is public exploits for core version 1.5.
Once you upgrade your Joomla version to the newest you will need to add some extra security to prevent further attacks like :
A rise of a 0day on the newest core joomla Versions.
a symlink attack on Server which may lead on accessing your website database.
added plugins to website which are vulnerable such as Contact us auto chat and such.
So what you need to do, is make your Administrator directory protected from unwanted visits. as nearly 95% of Forum / website template hacks are uploaded shells through Administrator panel. to do this all you need to do is make a txt file in the default www root folder and name it robots.txt and inside it you will need to write the dir that you dont want any user to access such as administrator, Example :
User-agent: /
Disallow: administrator/
You can also block any unwanted website crawlers to list your website contents and check for any vulnerabilities in it by adding this in your robots.txt
User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /
which will basically block any access to your website from user-agent ia-archiver, which is most likely what web crawlers use like Acunetix.
I have encouraged all of my clients to upgrade from 1.5 to 2.5 or higher. Unfortunately, not all of them want to pay to do this and I dont have the time for free upgrades. The result is that the exploits that are available for 1.5 have left my entire server vulnerable and has been attacked several times over the last year. I have no other choice but to separate the 1.5 sites on to another box and tell the clients too bad so sad the next time they get hacked as I cannot afford to keep fixing them. as everyone above has stated, it is critical that you migrate from 1.5. There are plenty of extensions and tools available to assist you. http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/migration-a-conversion/joomla-migration
Upgrade it to Joomla 3.1, Joomla 1.5 is too easy to hack.
I have a rather complex (one man year development in total) specialist website application based on a CodeIgniter framework. I now have a requirement to add CMS functionality to it so that the users can add articles and similar content to the system to compliment the main functionality.
There are obviously several CodeIgniter CMS systems available - FuelCMS and PyroCMS for example, but which of these (or another) would be best for integrating into a developed site with minimal impact on existing code?
It depends on what you have already. Do you have RBAC in place? If so, that's already half the battle.
There's a lot out there but integrating those might turn out to be more work then writing your own system.
I've answered a similar question a while ago, about merging existing CI projects with a CMS, it might give you some more insight:
Port Codeigniter App to PyroCMS
I'm starting a journey with CMS. I would like to create a few simple web sites: my pastime blog, programmres blog (but I would be something more than just a plain blog) & three web sites: for my father's & uncle's shops + simple web sites that helps to learn English :)
When it comes to by programming background, I was PHP developer for 2 years so I thought I could use that experience. I found WordPress & Joomla as probably the two most popular platforms. However WordPress is usually recommended as best bloogging platform. What about being a CMS? So perhaps one of them is better as CMS? Or there's something else ever more suitable for my needs (Drupal)?
On every day basis I'm ASP .NET MVC 3 developer, so perhaps you could recommend a good MVC3, active CMS project?
EDIT: How about ASP Project: Orchard?
I would always advocate Drupal over Joomla for CMSs. They are similar in what they offer. WordPress in more beginner friendly but is (currently) less "customisable" and has a different, more blog-oriented, focus. Drupal is very full featured and is easy to manage and install. I believe Joomla is getting better with the release of 1.7 and/or 2.5LTS.
Drupal's community is more comprehensive and as such you get plenty of support. You can choose a very wide range of functional complexity with Drupal that you can't with WordPress. Joomla is similar in this regard but there are a few key things that I prefer from a development perspective with Drupal over Joomla:
Modules and plugins are more plug and play with Drupal and easier to manage.
When you develop a module in drupal you there are code "hooks" to bind to the core where as Joomla you extend the core
The drupal website admin is more intuitively designed and easier to manage modules etc.
Installation and update/upgrading of Drupal is more universally developer friendly (i.e. you don't need to be an expert and if you aren't you are not too likely to destroy your sites!). That said Joomla seems to be starting to follow Drupal more closely now so it will probably start getting better.
The main reason I would advocate Drupal for your needs it your requirement for a variation of functionality. You can enable and disable functionality very easily in Drupal and you can drag and drop themes etc. with ease. I use Joomla every day in work and my experience Drupal is king!
It's not very difficult to use WordPress as a CMS. A good resource is http://digwp.com/. The blog itself should help, but the Digging into WordPress book has a chapter about how to turn WordPress into a CMS. The great thing is you'll get a lifetime subscription of the book, so when new versions of the book come out, you will get the updated PDF for free.
My personal preference is with WordPress. It seems to have the largest user community, which means more answered questions, more plugins, more places to find cool themes, etc.
If you have PHP experience, it's probably your best bet.
As far as WP being a CMS, it has definitely goot the tools you need for a fully functioning website. A lot of the times I use WP as a CMS for clients, because it's so easy for them to catch on, and there is always a way for them to google any question they might have and find an answer without having to contact me for support.
Additionally, WP is great if you know some PHP code and can write your own custom plugins.
There are TONS you can do with it. Take a look at the most recent change log. It's got some great stuff.
http://wordpress.org/ for more info and download.
As far as ASP CMS, I've used Sitefinity in the past (only because I HAD to for work). I didn't find it to be nearly as intuitive as wordpress, and frankly I just don't like ASP. I find it to be clunky and not nearly as easy to modify and theme as PHP. Just my personal opinion of course.
Also, I'm not sure Sitefinity is free, so there is always that to consider. I'm not sure there are many free ASP CMS options as there are for PHP.
Although for simply blogging WordPress is the leading choice, for a CMS I would go with Joomla. There are many extensions that you can use with Joomla, the templates are very easy to edit if you have past experience with PHP, and the native CMS that it comes with is very verbose. Joomla has a strong community behind it, and they support many different aspects of a CMS and are constantly adding new features. Implementing a Blog in Joomla is very easy.
WordPress is certainly the leading choice... if you weren't wanting to use your developer skills. Writing a plugin for WordPress is rather agnostic to programming style (or ability), and is great for entry-level designers, but if you're looking to apply your MVC skills, of the two Joomla would be the choice.
The reason I say this is that Joomla more or less forces extensions to be MVC compliant. They also have a very strong and healthy community (the WP community in comparison is cut-throat, dog-eat-dog, the loudest-jackass-wins kind of a thing) and recently have abstracted the PHP framework layer away from the CMS, so if you're into really hardcore architectural web application coding, you can play with just its framework independently.
WordPress == get it done fast, elegantly (novice & designer focus)
Joomla == get it done right, with some work (business, programmer, and hobbyist focus)
Drupal == build every function of your site from the ground up, then rebuild it again when the next version comes out (engineer focused)
Bottom line is that you won't find good MVC driven CMS at this point in time. I have done very similar research and went through a range of vendors (both commercial and open source).
Yes, Orchard is available and based on your requirements it might be up to the job, however, I'd say that it's mainly for small size businesses that want some basic content management functionality.
Just wondering what software you use to create a visual sitemap / site structure representation before you start big sites?
I am looking to map out a large site, but cannot find any good software to help me map the site visually (And in pages/categories)..
Maybe SketchFlow http://electricbeach.org/?p=145 ? which is included in the Expression Blend Trial http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=92E1DB7A-5D36-449B-8C6B-D25F078F3609&displaylang=en
I strongly suggest taking a look at this tool: http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups
The Balsamiq tool is the best for doing mockups (i assume this is what you are referring too when talking about sitemaps before you start...). With this software you can quickly generate a working wireframe of what ever you are creating. So much functionality that you can actually share it with your client to get some good sign offs prior to typing the first bit of code.
Very powerful!
And the other one...just shown at the last MIX09 is SketchFlow. Couldn't remember it to save my life. This is a WAY COOL tool for site maps and UI mock up. I was trying to find you the actual MIX presentation as it is super cool to watch. But here are some YouTube videos of that presentation from a user perspective I guess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsAZjb7FKXA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3ErrS68YMM
Check it out!
update...found the SketchFlow video!!! http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX09/C01F
Great keynote from there too: http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX09/KEY01
I know this is an old question, but for others who find this via search, I personally love mocking my websites up with mind mapping tools. I've tried several but my favorite was MindNode for Mac and Xmind for Windows.
XMind free download:
http://www.xmind.net/
MindNode free download:
https://mindnode.com/
I've also tried MindMeister which works just as well as other mind mapping tools and is hosted for you so you can access your mind maps anywhere. However, MindMeister only allows you three maps (currently) without upgrading to a paid subscription.
Another that I've worked with is mockflow.com which is great for mocking up websites with all their features and buttons and even making clickable navigation. They have a free version, but again it's very limited without upgrading to a paid version.
I'm using Slickplan. This cloud based app allows me to have access to my projects from different machines regardless of their operating systems. All I need is one of the leading web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari).
With Slickplan you can create visual sitemaps from scratch or you can use Site Crawler to import your existing website to visualize and reorganize its structure.
Of course you can always export your projects to the XML format, and use the exported file to create pages and menu systems inside some popular content management system - Slickplan provides plugins for WordPress, Joomla, concrete5 and a few more.
So I just started an internship with this nonprofit company and it's pretty cool. My first assignment was to find a type of program that would work well for the company and its users. I and some team members just finished summarizing down what I think is a good list for the needed functionality. Before I started working, I've never even heard of content/document/knowledge/project management systems. So I've done a bit of research on many other programs and I've narrowed it down to Joomla, activeCollab, Basecamp, sharepoint and a few more. Which program out there would fit my needs the best? It doesn't have to be from the list I just wrote, those are just the programs that popped up first when I started searching.
MUST-HAVE CAPABILITIES
Searchable
Keyword search
Advanced search: Ability to tag & search documents by different categories, for example, type of file (e.g. PDF, Word, etc.), service line (e.g., fundraising, strategy, etc.), type of document (e.g., deliverable, data set, etc.)
In-document search
Categorization
Simple navigation to browse all content
Simple to set up and modify the tree/hierarchy used to browse content
Workrooms
Provide each team a separate workroom to post their own documents
Easy to navigate from team workrooms to the Toolkits (best if team workrooms reside in the same system the toolkits reside)
Version Control
Ability to see which is the most recent file
Security
Password protected
Tiered security, i.e. certain permissions for certain users (to create workrooms, change navigation tree, change toolkits, view/post team files, etc.)
Multi-year support
Easy to “archive” old workrooms or files so the navigation doesn’t become cluttered over time
Share across workgroups
Ability for power users to access multiple team workrooms
Ability to send docs from one group to another—or to the toolkits (by simple tagging or simple “submit” feature)
Uploading
Ability to upload files to workrooms
Ability to submit a new file for consideration for a toolkit (not a file currently in any workroom)
OPTIONAL CAPABILITIES
Messaging
Opt-in notification of uploaded files or changes to existing files
Version Control
Ability to see who has the file checked out
External Access
Client access to certain documents
Within our website
Users gain access from our website
It looks like it resides on our website
Collaboration Tools
Team Calendar
Blog / Forum
Instant Chat
WebEx/Remote Presentation (for virtual team meeting)
Ratings
1-5 Star document rating (by user community)
Searching & Sorting documents by rating (best documents display first in search results)
Simultaneous Edit
Multiple people can edit the same document at same time
Workflow
Ability to tag a file to be reviewed by another user (ability to “escalate” a file for review by someone else)
Messaging alerts when a file has been flagged for a user
Most of the features that you mentioned above are available for free using Plone, which is an application that runs on top of Zope. I actually built and deployed an instance of Plone for a non-prof that had a lot of the features that mentioned above. They features might not have had the same names, but you get a lot of the same functionality.
Here's what my users really liked about Plone:
The ability to index the content of MS Office documents, so that people could search for documents based on content in addition to property and tags/keywords.
Usability. The default theme for Plone isn't the flashiest thing that you will ever see, but it's usability is excellent.
How easy it was the change the system and add new sites or functionality.
Here's what I liked about Plone:
Zero licensing costs. I was able to implement features that usually only come in very expensive systems for free. And I'm aware of these types of costs, because I administer FileNet systems for a living
It was very easy to install, upgrade, and administer. Please take that "pro" with a grain of salt if you're not a professional systems administrator :)
Overall, it was just very easy to work with.
And here are my cons:
If you need the web site to be accessible on the public internet, then your hosting costs may be higher-than-expected. It's definitely cheaper to set up a vanilla Joomla site than it is to set up a vanilla Plone site. Please note that you sound like you need a lot more than a vanilla content management system, so their may be no difference in hosting costs.
Plone is built on Zope, and Zope is an application server. It's easy to set up and use, but it works a little differently than a lot of other web and application servers. If you're used to administering a LAMP stack, then this will be different (but not necessarily bad).
One final con is true with all modern content management systems: don't give your users enough rope to hang themselves. When it take 2 minutes to a wiki and a blog to a web site, then users expect you to add new sites all of the time. Every new site adds a lot of administrative work to your plate, so try and get as much functionality as you can from each site that you add.
Hope that helps!
Tom Purl
Basecamp. Even if it doesn't have all the features you think you need, it does what it is supposed to (37Signals loves to rant about too many features, you aren't gonna need it (YAGNI), etc.)
Joomla is a pain. Activecollab is a poor clone of basecamp (unless it has changed drastically in the year or so that its been since I tried to use it to get out of paying for basecamp).