Joomla Techniques
When looking at Joomla from a security standpoint, it is interesting to note that when included in a comparison of the top 3 CMS platforms - Joomla is the shining star! Before diving into the involved in securing Joomla, let's have a look at the market share of the top 3 platforms and the security vulnerabilities of those same 3 platforms for the past 6 years.
Recently, I was writing a Joomla extension that needed to send an email silently....very silently. Most developers would think - that isn't a problem, Joomla ships with the excellent and very flexible PHPMailer, so everything should be easy. Those developers overlook one flaw in the Joomla PHPMailer implementation - exceptions.
Joomla 1.5 reached end-of-life in April of 2012. The Joomla core developers will continue to provide security updates for several months, but the version is no longer supported. You can learn more by starting here: http://docs.joomla.org/Upgrading_and_Migrating_Joomla
Read more: RicheyWeb Joomla 1.5 extensions are no longer available
So, I was doing some research into Joomla 3.0 due to be released in the next few months and I came across something that really upset me. The Joomla 3.0 jQuery Integration Plan
"Why?" is an easy question to answer. If a security vulnerability is found, and the developer notified - the next logical step is to issue a fix and update the effected systems. But how do those website owners know that an extension is in need of updating? This is where the very capable Joomla update service comes in. Developers provide an XML file which details the latest version of their software. The effected site owners are notified of updates and the world moves on.
As a Joomla extension developer, I spend a lot of time testing my 36 extensions with different versions of Joomla. Reading this article really opened my eyes to the future - the bleak, dismal future. With the new development strategy, I'm looking at endless rewrites, countless versions to support, and neverending updates. I thought supporting Joomla 2.5 and 3.x was ridiculous, when 3.3.1 came out I was confronted with yet another special version to support (thanks to changes in the JUI JS). I'm getting fed up, and Joomla's 8.2% market share (compared to Wordpress at 60.3%) drives the point home. What am I doing all of this work for?
I got a tweet from someone asking how I did it, and I said that maybe I would turn it into a product to sell, but I would feel guilty if I did that. It's so easy to do, I would feel like a real jerk to charge for this. I present to you, for free, how to put the Joomla Article Index into a module position.