Blog entries

Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development Review

james@jameshafner.com — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 03:12:46 +0100

Going Digital

james.hafner@gmail.com — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:26:44 +0100

So, this blog post will be a bit off the beaten (Joomla!) path, but I think it's important nonetheless. It's about the amount of paper the world uses on a daily basis.

We recently closed on a new house and had to sit through the fabled title closing meeting. You'd be amazed at how much paper is used for that single transaction! I'm pretty sure about a ream of paper was used during that meeting.

Deforestation is a horrible by-product of our technological revolution, but theRead More...

WhiteSpace 2.0 Template

james.hafner@gmail.com — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:49:05 +0100

I love checklists. And goals. But even more than both, I love checking off goals on my checklist.

One of this month's goals was to release the WhiteSpace 2.0 template. So as I check off this goal on my list, let me introduce you to some of the new things found in the WhiteSpace 2 template.

I got some really good feedback on the 1.0 version of the template. I got a few really good ideas from people; some made it in and some didn't. I even had a few ideas that didn't make it in. Read More...

Update on White Space v2.0

james.hafner@gmail.com — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:58:10 +0100

In my last post I outlined a few things I wanted to do with the White Space template. I wanted to keep it as clean and un-complicated as possible, but I wanted to add the convenience of a few extra features that didn't make it into the last release.

Along the way, my goal for White Space v.2.0 has changed a bit. Digging into other commercial templates to see how things work has taught me a ton about template design and functionality. Looking at the various free 'starter' templateRead More...

Whitespace Template Wishlist

james.hafner@gmail.com — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:33:16 +0100

When I released the Whitespace template a few weeks ago, it was admittedly bare-bones. There wasn't much to either the design or the functionality of the template. I was okay with that. I'm a big fan of the Release Early/Release Often way of developing. I set a deadline for myself to get done what I could and released the result of that.

After some feedback (the whole point of the 'Release Early/Release Often' method) I've come up with a list of things I'd like to see in the v2.0 of theRead More...

Joomla Frontend Usability

james.hafner@gmail.com — Fri, 29 May 2009 06:00:00 +0100

One of the things that threw me off when I tried Drupal out years ago was how there was no visual separation between the front end site that visitors saw and the back end site that administrators used. Joomla provided this nicely (though in a dated interface). This visual separation made a lot of sense to me as a new user. There were clearly-defined areas for doing totally different things. This separation gave me confidence as a new user.

However, one aspect of Joomla that Read More...

Myth: Build It, and They Will Come

james.hafner@gmail.com — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:00:00 +0100

One of the most requested types of sites I get these days is an E-Commerce site. With commerce shifting slowly but surely to the web, it's no wonder that everyone would like to have a store online where they can sell their wares. However, most e-business owners are grossly unprepared for what it takes to make an online store successful.

Planning

Joomla Training

james.hafner@gmail.com — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:00:00 +0100

Today I attended the Joomla Training session put on by Steve Burge of the Joomla Training and Alledia fame. Besides being a supremely nice guy, he was awesome at taking beginners through the Joomla ropes in a clear and concise way.

The majority of the class was made up of people who had used Joomla for less than a month, but there were a few of us that had more than a few Joomla sites under our belts. Even so, the way Steve presented many of the Joomla concepts were brilliant and gave mRead More...

Whitespace 1.0 Template Release

james.hafner@gmail.com — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:00:00 +0100

I've been building websites for years using Open Source frameworks, components, templates, etc. The nice thing about Open Source projects for the most part is that they're free. 'Free', as in, getting something someone else has worked hard on for zilch. As sweet as this is, the other side of the 'Open Source' coin is the community aspect. People release opRead More...

What's In a (Domain) Name?

james.hafner@gmail.com — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:00:00 +0100

I worked for years at a web company that built sites for organizations that wouldn't be considered the most technically-savvy. There's nothing wrong with that at all, but we'd usually have to spend a bit more time up front explaining the benefits of a good domain name that was less than 30 characters long. Just because "SouthsideHosannahChurchofGodMisRead More...

MyBlog RSS Trouble

james.hafner@gmail.com — Thu, 07 May 2009 06:00:00 +0100

On one of the sites I work on, Azrul's MyBlog component is utilized for the site's blogging. Recently, one of the users informed me of the fact that the feed wasn't working. Upon closer inspection using a feed validator, I realized that what was being spit out in the feed was nowhere near what should be in an RSS feed. Instead, the feed URL seemed to be spitting out an XHTML valid web page.

After some digging in the MyBlog forums, I came across a few users who suggested that it might bRead More...

Best Policies

james.hafner@gmail.com — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:00:00 +0100

I was reading up on an interesting thread regarding how a solo Freelancer like myself presents themselves to clients and the world. The question was posed: 'Is it better to act as a sole entity or as a group'. Their answers were surprising and a little saddening.Industry Standards

Overwhelmingly, the solo Freelancers out there tend to present themselves as a group: We can provide this or that... and they've found that it actually improves business. Their reasoning is that it makes the person sRead More...

The Power of Presence

james.hafner@gmail.com — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:00:00 +0100

I wouldn't consider myself an overly-social person, by any stretch of the imagination, but I love being around certain kinds of people. In particular: people with big ideas.

I had a meeting today with a couple of guys who have a great idea and the willingness to see it through. I'm not sure if it was their excitement or their vision that I enjoyed, but whatever it was, I left the meeting feeling energized. There's something in the way that people with big ideas talk about their ideas that makeRead More...

Death to IE6

james.hafner@gmail.com — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:00:00 +0100

As Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) continues to age, it seems that it gets more and more hate directed its way. I can't say that I haven't hurled a threat or two at IE6's mama if it didn't do what I was telling it to, but I try not to hate on a browser that has made all of us better coders.Let Me Explain

Since IE6 is so amazingly non-standards-compliant, since it refuses to live by the rules of other browsers, since it interprets code for only the good of its creator's web content, we poor developerRead More...