Monday, December 16, 2019

Programming

Joomla 3.X – Log Out And Return To Home Page

10 November 2016
Grimey
1 Comment
Categories: Joomla, Joomla Extension, Programming

I used this set up to for logging users out of Joomla and return them to the home page.

  1. I installed Sourcer plug-in to run some PHP. Just a great plug-in to use any ways.
  2. I create a link in the main menu and set it to registered, so once the login in it shows.
  3. Create an article called “logout” and add the following code to that page.

{source}

<?php

$mainframe =JFactory::getApplication(); $mainframe->logout();

$allDone=&JFactory::getApplication();

$allDone->redirect(‘/’);

?>
{/source}

I hope this helps someone else out there…

 

How To Fix Attacked .htaccess File On Godaddy Shared Hosting

8 November 2016
Grimey
No comments
Categories: Programming, Security, Web Hosting, Website Security

Got a call from a client about website not coming up. If you searched for the site in a search engine and clicked on any link to the site you got a page about a missing PHP file.  This site is a static HTML site.

I opened the .htaccess file and saw redirects to the PHP file that didn’t exist. I cleared out the .htaccess file and when you click on the search link the site came up fine.

I contacted Godaddy looking for help, but they don’t deal with .htaccess files. You are on your own. They do offer SiteLock to protect the site.

I used the following links advice and to change the name of the .htaccess file and the contents of the file rewrite the name back to all lower case.

https://perishablepress.com/improve-site-security-by-protecting-htaccess-files/

My final .htaccess file containted the following

<Files ~"^.*\.([Hh][Tt][Aa])">
order allow,deny 
deny from all 
satisfy all 
</Files>

In addition, i changed the password for the FTP access. Next step is to use Sucuri. I know they can protect this site.

I hope this helps me and helps someone else out there…

 

Are Placeholders 508 Compliant and Should They Be Used Over Labels?

12 October 2016
Grimey
No comments
Categories: 508 Compliance, Accessibility, browser, Programming

I have a cousin that is blind and fully uses the web. This is amazing to me. When I am building websites I often think about how my site could be used by people with life challenges.

While redoing a site I wondered should I ditch the 508 compliant “label” tag and just use a “placeholder” tag.  After some Google searches and good old common sense I have determined that label tags should stay.

Here are my reasons:

  1. Placeholder text color can be an issue with some users.
  2. Placeholder text can be confusing to screen readers. I personally have no experience with screen readers, but have heard this from screen readers users.
  3. I read that placeholder text can confuse users into thinking the field is already filled out.
  4. I know labels are 508 compliant.

This article was helpful with my determination.

https://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2011/02/html5-accessibility-chops-the-placeholder-attribute/

I hope this helps someone else out there…

 

 

Chronoconnectivity V 5 for Joomla Tutorial

22 July 2016
Grimey
No comments
Categories: Chronoforms, Joomla, PHP, Programming

I love chronoforms and wondered about reading and displaying the data in such a powerful way. I looked at chronoconnectivity many times but quickly got discouraged.

I found simply going through their FAQ was a great start.

https://www.chronoengine.com/faqs/72-ccv5.html

Next I found the following walk through which were the next steps I was looking for and beyond.

http://www.icagenda.it/chronoforms-and-chronoconnectivity-tutorials-and-guides.html

I hope this helps someone else out there….

 

Adding a module in a Joomla article

13 June 2016
Grimey
No comments
Categories: Joomla, Programming

I have done this a couple of different ways include using “Modules Anywhere”, which is an excellent plug-in.

This article helped me solve my issue.

https://docs.joomla.org/How_do_you_put_a_module_inside_an_article%3F

Here is what I needed to get the mod working in an article:

{loadmodule login,login2,xhtml}

  1. Start with loadmodule
  2. Type of module ( they have “login”, but I used “custom”)
  3. Name of the module
  4. XHTML to make sure it follows styling rules.

I hope this helps someone else out there…

 

Joomla 3.X Strict standards: Only variables should be assigned by reference in – Solved

1 June 2016
Grimey
No comments
Categories: CSS, Joomla, Programming, WAMP, Web Hosting

I was testing a clients website local host and it was throwing a bunch of errors in WAMP.

Strict standards: Only variables should be assigned by reference in

These errors were related to SuperFish Menu Module. I love SuperFish Drop-down menus, but I don’t love the module for Joomla yet.

I found this YouTube video that simply turns off Error messages on the Server settings in the Global Configuration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNi8_oCGnWY

I don’t think this is a perfect fix, but it helped me.

I hope this helps someone else out there….