How to create a splash page for a Joomla site

Some times a web development project will require a splash page with a link to the index page. There are two solutions to the problem depending if: you want the visitor to see the splash page and then move on to Joomla’s default homepage or if you want the splash page to be your homepage.

Solution #1: The visitor sees the splash page and then access the site’s default homepage

1. Copy the default Menu and name your copy TestMenu (the name I will use for these instructions).
2. Hide the TestMenu module by setting it’s access level to registered or special or just leave the module it is in set as unpublished.
3. Go to Menus/TestMenu, select Home and set it as Default.
4. Modify the Home button in the default Menu so that links to an external link and type in the URL of the index.php page. The urls for both Home buttons (in the original menu and TestMenu) should look something like index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage
5. Do not unpublish the original Home button or the Test Menu.

Solution #2. Splash page is your homepage

Add an index.html file which will be your splash page to the root folder of your Joomla site. Browsers will read this file first and make it your homepage. Joomla’s default Home menu button will also link to it automatically.

Having problems uploading media to a Joomla site?

Sometimes the Flash Uploader in Joomla does not work correctly. When clicking browse to upload media nothing happens.

If this is the case a quick tip to work around this situation is to disable it and use the browser uploader. Go to Global Configuration/System/Enable Flash Uploader/ and select No to disable it.

How to override module css in Joomla

Here is a quick tip on how to override a module’s css.

To add css the module should have a box that permits to add css suffix.

Look for the class that affects the tag you want to modify (Eg. ul ulclass)  and create a suffix for it (Eg. ul .class_myownsuffix)  in the css. Refere to it in the suffix box by using  _myownsuffix.

How to ad a menu item or place holder that is not clickable in Joomla

Let’s say you are creating a menu in Joomla and you have a menu item that doesn’t link to a particular page but that has several submenus. To create that menu item that is not “clickable” assign the menu item to External Link and add javascript:void(0); in the link box.

Joomla layout breaking up in IE6 or IE7 quick tip

Quick tip for a Joomla layout breaking up in IE only: check the width of the tables and images in the modules of your layout that are breaking up.

For some reason, tables and images that seem to be the right width in Firefox can break the site in IE6 and IE7.

View module positions of a Joomla site

A quick way to view the module positions of a Joomla website is to type the following in the address bar of your browser: www.websitename/?tp=1

How to move the configuration.php file outside of Joomla root dir

This is a safety tip to make it a little more difficult for anyone with development knowledge to mess around with your Joomla site. The idea is to move the configuration.php file to a place different from its normal location and to rename it so it is harder to find.

To move the configuration.php file and rename it do the following:

1. Move configuration.php to a safe directory outside of public_html and rename it whatever you want. I will use the name joomla.conf in this example.
2. Create a new configuration.php file containing only the following code:

[sourcecode language='php']

<?php

require( dirname(__FILE__)b.’/../joomla.conf’ );

?>

[/sourcecode]