After migrating hundreds of Joomla websites from 1.5 to 2.5 (and dozens to 3.2), we have learned 2 things: A migration is never an easy task, and we have explained that, in details, here. VirtueMart is, by far, the most horrible extension to migrate. Since we have already discussed the first point before, let’s focus, […]
There are some Joomla websites that have a file called error_log in their root directory (e.g. directly under public_html). For some websites, the error_log file is a several hundred megabytes in size and it grows by a few megabytes everyday. So what is this file and is it necessary to have it? Let’s start with […]
While optimizing a large Joomla website this morning (the website had around 100,000 pages), we noticed that the website was considerably slower for logged-in users than for the general public. Most pages, on that particular website, were loading (after our optimization) in 0.2 to 0.3 seconds for visitors, but these same pages were taking nearly […]
If there is any non-core section of your Joomla website that is critical to its performance, it must be the template. Your Joomla template is loaded on every single page that is served to your visitors, which means that any performance issue on your template will negatively affect your visitors’ experience on your website. Here […]
Not a day goes by without us noticing this inconsistency in Joomla: it’s confusing, it’s weird, and it’s very dangerous. We know, you have no idea what we’re talking about at the moment. Let us explain… Login to the backend of your Joomla website, and then go to Site -> Global Configuration, and then click […]
A client called us today and told us that even though his website is loading properly, he’s noticing that the “Transferring Data…” message at the bottom left of Firefox is taking forever to disappear, as if Firefox hasn’t finished loading the page (when, again, the page is fully loaded). We knew immediately what the issue […]
At itoctopus, we love to share our knowledge about Joomla. We think that by doing so, we are helping Joomla become an even better CMS. We also like to share our knowledge because we believe in knowledge sharing as a concept that evolves our civilization in general (think about what would have happened if Thomas […]
Joomla websites are typically not used as blogs. However, it is very common for a Joomla website to have a blog. That blog is usually a Joomla category blog (some websites use the WordPress extension, but we don’t recommend it, since you’ll be maintaining 2 websites instead of one). Of course, once a Joomla website […]
Yes, it’s a very long title, but we couldn’t think of one that is more descriptive. Obviously, there’s a story to this, so relax, and let us tell you a bedtime story (it’s 11:31 PM here in Montreal). A client called us around 9 PM (about 2 hours ago), and told us that all of […]
Yes – we know – the title of this post is a bit weird. 20 tips to lose traffic? Well, we figured, if we explain what happens when things are done the wrong way then we’ll create a sense of awareness that’ll help many Joomla administrators to do things the right way, which is a […]
One of the things that Joomla sites must have (by default), and currently don’t, is RSS syndication. RSS syndication allows your content to be syndicated across the web, which means better exposure, which in turn means more traffic. We have no idea why Joomla doesn’t have this as a built-in functionality, and we’re almost sure […]
If we had a dime every time the IT Manager of a company asked us whether Joomla has version control or not, we’d be very, very rich! Like each us would have his own Bugatti Veyron rich. OK, you get the point… But we really do get asked a lot whether this feature exists or […]
The Marketing Manager of a large company called us today and told us that they were thinking of moving from Joomla to a custom, homemade CMS. He asked us about our opinion and whether we think they should go forward with the move or not. We told him that we highly recommend against this move, […]
One of our clients who wanted to switch to another hosting provider called us this morning and asked us whether Joomla requires the Zend Optimizer to run. Our immediate answer was “Do you mean Zend Optimizer? Or Zend Guard?”. He thought for a moment and answered that he’s not sure… We answered that he most […]
A major annoyance on a Joomla website (and on any other website, for that matter) is browser caching. Browser caching, in this day and age, is mainly about caching images, JavaScript files, and CSS files on the client’s end. Now, while browser caching significantly decreases the load time of a page on the client’s end […]