Joomla Customization Services

At itoctopus, we offer Joomla customization services to help you accomplish your business goals from your Joomla website. In fact, we have been customizing Joomla since its inception, which dates back to 2005 (well, we started customizing Joomla even before it was called Joomla, back when it was called Mambo). Our inside-out knowledge of Joomla allows us to customize your Joomla website to the point that it no longer looks/acts like a Joomla website (if that’s what you want!).

Here’s a glimpse of what we can do for you:

  • We can customize Joomla’s core code: We are experts in modifying Joomla’s core code (we have done it many, many times before) based on your requirements. Whenever we modify Joomla’s core, we always make sure that…
    • the customizations that we do will not have any adverse effects on your Joomla website (including 3rd party extensions) and…
    • the customizations that we do will not be affected by potential upgrades of your Joomla website and will not conflict with future upgrades of your Joomla website.

  • We can customize the default Joomla registration form: We can add fields and remove fields to/from the default registration form. The new fields can be of any type: checkbox, radio button, an image, even a file! We can also, based on your requirements, make non-required fields as required and vice-versa.

  • We can customize the default Joomla registration process: By default, the registration process in Joomla requires new signups to authenticate their accounts by clicking on a link (sent to them in an email). We can change/remove that. We can also integrate your registration process with a payment processor (if you want to allow only paid membership on your website, for example).

  • We can customize the default poll: Joomla’s default poll is dull and we know that. We can change that for you, we can make it more interesting and more fun for your users.

  • We can remove all proof that your website is powered by Joomla: We can hide your Joomla version from your code, and we can remove every line of code that even hints that your website is powered by Joomla.

  • We can modify Joomla’s engine to allow for multiple categories per article: By default, and up until this very moment, Joomla does not allow articles to have multiple categories (citing compatibility issues with templates, SEF, and several extensions) – this is a shame, as many Joomla administrators need this feature on their websites. We can change that for you!

  • We can customize the default search functionality: Let’s face it, Joomla’s default search is confusing and does not work as expected. How many times have you used the search functionality on your Joomla website and wondered: “Is this really helpful to my users?”. We can change that and make the search functionality a better experience by adding intelligence and modifying its default interface.

  • We can customize your Joomla website to allow for split-testing: In case you’re not aware what split-testing is, let us quickly introduce it for you… Split-testing is the next big thing in strategic marketing, where you run two or more versions of your website with different look & feel or different pricing models and see which one converts more and which one converts less, (this means that users visiting your website will not all see the same version) thus allowing you to make informed decisions (for example, changing design, increasing/decreasing fees, removing/adding content, etc…) that will increase the ROI of your website. We usually implement this functionality by modifying the core and creating a system plugin that runs on every page of your website.

  • We can modify your website to make it “Bullet Proof” when it comes to security: Joomla, by default, is a fairly secure CMS. However, if you’re using an older version of Joomla and unable to upgrade, then your website’s security can be easily compromised by malicious attacks. Same case if you are using old/insecure extensions. We can fix that for you, be it by changing your Joomla’s core code or by adding extra security. You can also do this yourself by implementing our Joomla security tips.

  • We can block countries/states from seeing your website: Some Joomla websites have content that is location-sensitive. Administrators of such websites might wish to block (or exclusively allow) certain countries and/or states from viewing their sites. We can implement a functionality on your Joomla website to block certain countries/states (or only allow certain countries/states) from viewing your website. There are two ways to do this: either by modifying your .htaccess file (in case your restriction/inclusion list is small) or by creating a plugin that will query a local ip-to-country database to see which countries can view your website and which countries can’t.

  • We can change the database infrastructure of your Joomla’s website: Joomla’s default database is MySQL – newer versions of Joomla claim that they natively support Oracle and MS SQL, but we found that this support is buggy at best (and there is no automatic migration from one database source to another). We can change that: We can migrate your data from a Joomla MySQL database to an Oracle database (or to a MS SQL database) and we can ensure that your website works seamlessly despite the migration. We will also ensure that the new database system accommodates all the extensions on your website, including 3rd party extensions.

  • We can optimize your Joomla website: Joomla is a generic CMS that is built for any type of website. This means that regardless of the type of your website, you will have a certain amount of unnecessary overhead affecting speed and performance. When optimizing, we remove all the default but non-critical functionality and overhead to ensure that both the code and the database work best for your website depending on its needs.

  • We can simplify Joomla’s backend: A common annoyance that Joomla administrators have to face is that when creating a new article, they will need to first create the article, and then create an associated menu item (with the same name and alias) if they need it to appear in a menu somewhere. Why not have a single page that does all that for you? We can do that for you!

  • We can customize caching and ensure that it only works when it should work: One of Joomla’s major annoyances is caching – the problem with the current implementation of caching is that it’s confusing and ambiguous (there are 4 levels of caching in Joomla: view caching, module caching, page caching, and browser caching) and often conflicts with various extensions (conflicts typically arise when both SEF and caching are enabled). At itoctopus, we know how to tame caching and how to make it work as it should and when it should.

  • We can customize the SEF links on your Joomla website: Need to add .html at the end of every URL on your website? No problem, we can do that for you. Need to remove the category name from the URL? We can do that for you as well… Need to ensure that your links on your Joomla website are exactly the same as your old Joomla (or non-Joomla) website? Again, we can do it for you!

  • We can customize your 3rd party extensions to suit your needs: We have worked on many, many 3rd party extensions so we can customize any extension to accommodate your requirements. Some of the well-known extensions that we have worked on include:

    • VirtueMart: Work done on VirtueMart includes heavy customization such as changing the ordering process.
    • sh404: Work done on sh404 includes resolving conflicts with extensions that do not take into consideration sh404.
    • JomSocial: Work done on JomSocial includes optimization, addition of new features, and resolving conflicts with other extensions.
    • JEvents: Work done on JEvents includes heavy customization such as allowing multiple categories for events and reflecting that change across the component.
    • Docman: Work done on Docman includes the adding of a subscription based service (very important if you run a newspaper website, for example) as well modifying the component to support gift cards.

    We have also worked on and modified countless other extensions, including, but not limited to: Chrono Forms, RS Forms, Kuena Forum, JoomFish, Community Builder, Contus Video Share…

  • We can create extensions from scratch: If you describe it to us, then we can build it for you. We can build any extension that you want, be it a plugin, module, component – no matter which version of Joomla you’re running. We still build extensions for Joomla 1.0.x and we are increasingly building extensions for Joomla 2.5.x.

  • We can integrate any 3rd party functionality into your website: That functionality might be as simple as a JavaScript widget or as complex as a transactional web-service.

  • We can integrate recurring payment processing with your Joomla website: If you run a subscription based website, then you might need to bill all of your clients on a specific day of the month (or year), or some of your clients every day. We can do that for you using cron jobs and advanced PHP scripting. We can also extend this functionality to automatically warn (by email) those subscribers with expiring (or about to expire) credit cards to update their credit card information, and to automatically cancel delinquent clients.

Now that you know what we can do for your Joomla website, feel free to go ahead and tell us what you want us to do, and we’ll make sure we’ll do it in as little time as possible. By the way, our Joomla Customization Services are very affordable – please check our fees for the latest pricing!