Truthout.org Finds Refuge in Joomla!

Truthout.org was one among those sites by Drupal which was outdated and scavenged by malicious attacks, and effortlessly hacked every week. Tired of being a pushover Truthout.org turned towards Joomla! Developers to transform the site’s platform to a more flexible and stable premise. 

Obstacles Wiped Out

From the initial stages the site had numerous problems and each problem was a hurdle to the Joomla! developers. The basic problem was the outdated and ill-maintained condition of the site which was making the site an easy target to bots and other aggressive functions to hack it in a regular basis. And securing the site from attacks from all directions was a task which looked like mountain to the Joomla developers. Once this was tackled the next hurdle rose, which was migrating such a huge database of large scale Drupal to Joomla! and this was the first of its kind. With combined content of 200,000+ articles alone, each with 15-20 unique fields in Drupal, and tens of thousands of users, this was definitely a unique challenge.

The process of migration was also done efficiently by the talented Joomla developer and the next task was to clone the site already exiting template from Drupal to a Joomla! template. And finally the high-profile site was secured from external threats.

Procedural Structure of Joomla! Developer’s Job

Security

Delaying even minutes proved to be a security hazard for the site as it was getting hacked on a regular basis. Thus the preference for holding the old site was given priority even while the new site was being developed. Once the old site was kept in a secure place, the new site had to be secured accordingly and for this the Joomla! developers sought the help of the most reliable security providers SecureLive.

Content Construction

The content which was already present in the Drupal site had to be cloned to the new Joomla! site. The content which was present in the old site had to be mapped in a order so that it could be imported and presented in Joomla!. To tackle this barrier of the need for content extension Joomla! developers adopted the K2 CCK. K2 was built as a complete replacement of the default article system in Joomla!.  K2 CCK can be installed like any Joomla! extension which will import articles from the default Joomla! article system and instantly get a host of new features for the existing content. There were many options which were considered by the Joomla! developers to manage the content but finally K2 was opted for as it was technically compatible with the specific format with which Drupal stores data. The work did not end with the process of importing the content, Joomla! developers had to go further and according to the client’s specification building of many custom K2 features to assist in both content editing, and presentation were done.

User Management

While importing content Joomla! developers experience this difficulty of maintaining consistency in the association of user and content. In Joomla! (and K2) a single user can be assigned to a single article. With a news agency like Truthout.org it became necessary for the Joomla! developers to collaborate a single article with multiple users as there were numerous articles and series associated with a number of authors. As this problem was tackled recently by the Joomla team while working in a project for the United Nations, it was simple for them to handle it this time around.

Overall Site Design

The final design of the site was the final frontier for this project as the new site had to be adopted entirely from the already existed Drupal template. To facilitate the requirements of the site layout, and the unique positioning of different modules and new module positions, Joomla! developers started with the T3 framework from Joomlart to build a flexible template that can easily be expanded as needed.

 

DCKAP can build robust and reliable applications on the Joomla framework with experienced Joomla developers, Joomla programmer, Joomla programmers, Joomla developer, Joomla development services, Joomla integration, Joomla programmers, migration, maintenance and support.
 

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Drupal Developers Expertise Helps Business to Be Competitive

Fremont based global technology services company DCKAP announced today it has up-shifted its Drupal development service keeping in pace with surging market growth.

Drupal 7, the advanced version of Drupal, has features like Better HTML5, Better mobile support, Improved multilingual features, Setting up Drupal 7 on a modern web development framework. Drupal experts can build the most effective and customized business web applications. Drupal is a widely used content management system (CMS) well suited for web applications of any kind from web logs (blogs) and micro sites to collaborative social communities. The versatile platform for Drupal development now comes with a new user interface, accessibility improvements, powerful image handling capabilities, support for rich content metadata, security features, scalability and database interoperability enhancements and automated tests to ensure stability.

Drupal 7 releases before 7.12 contained a bug which prevented the use of custom menus. Because the Menu Block module provided a workaround for this bug as it added dependency to this module. With the release of Drupal 7.12 and Menu Block 2.3, the bug was successfully removed. Upgrading the existing Drupal 7 and 6 sites is however strongly recommended. 

DCKAP Drupal developer team, using Drupal 7, 7.12 has successfully completed and delivered a diverse range of Drupal web applications for business, for its various clients,. DCKAP’s Drupalprogrammers now work from the new fully equipped development center and also on client site as required. 

Drupal is an excellent choice of a Content management system for any business site. A Drupal site built by an expert Drupal programmer can easily grow and expand to suit the needs of any business as the business expands. It gives the business owner complete control over content on the site.

Developing effective business applications requires specialized expertise in the technologies. For a business considering contracting a Drupal development company or a Drupal developer/ Drupal programmer, it would be of great significance to select the right Drupal developer resources and setting out the specifications with clarity and completeness.

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Tips to Enhance Joomla Site’s Security

Joomla has established itself as one of the best Content Management Services in the industry. When sites around the globe start using a specific technology, naturally the security threats pivoting that technology also arises. 

To tackle the increasing security hassles Joomla developers keep tweaking the site and the service in different ways to ensure the optimal configuration is obtained which can withstand any level of threats to the security. The following are some tips to the users and other Joomla developers for ensuring that the site they are developing or using is secure.

Proper Hosting Environment

For all site the platform in which the site is built is the basic foundation and it is always important to check if it is properly configured. There are numerous kinds of attacks that happen to sites hosted in a platform which has no tweaked its security and the arrangements are not done efficiently. Host your site on a server that runs PHP in CGI mode with su_php. This means that PHP runs under your own account user instead of the global Apache user and you don’t need to set insecure global permissions like CHMOD of 777.

a. Set register_globals OFF

b. Disable allow_url_fopen

c. Adjust the magic_quotes_gpc directive as needed for your site. The recommended setting for Joomla! 1.0.x is ON to protect against poorly-written extensions. Joomla! 1.5 ignores this setting and works fine either way.

d. Don’t use PHP safe_mode

Change the Default Database Prefix (jos_)

Every database is named in a default way and the names and extensions they are given are rather common. Due to this bots and other automated entities find it simple to attack the database by random ruling. To avoid this the during installation the default database prefix could be altered to something random rather than using the same default name of jos_users table which will prevent most of the SQL injection attacks as hackers try to retrieve superadmin details. 

Disable FTP Layer

FTP details are stored in the form of plain text under a Joomla configuration file. This becomes a potential security hole. To avoid this glitch it is recommended to all users, Joomla developers and Joomla programmers to disable the FTP layer.

Change Superadministrator Username

Bots and other hazards which try to attack a site are programmed in such a way that if the superadministrator’s username assigned by the Joomla developers has not been changed and remains to be “Admin”, it will easily get access to the site. To avoid this it is always wise to change the username and password of the superadministrator to something inconspicuous like “ted_123” etc. 

Setup a backup and recovery process

Joomla developers are notified to rely on a strong backup and recovery protocol for your live website. It’s not just hacking that may compromise your website but other factors like a faulty upgrade or extension install, hardware failure, hosting provider issues. You can use JoomlaPack, a non-commercial component native for both Joomla 1.0 and 1.5 for backup.

Use Strong Password

For administrator accounts it is advisable to use a strong password which cannot be deciphered by automated bots. Characteristics of a strong password that Joomladeveloper have to keep in mind are as follows:

·         has at least 15 characters;

·         has uppercase letters;

·         has lowercase letters;

·         has numbers;

·         has symbols, such as ` ! " ? $ ? % ^ & * ( ) _ - + = { [ } ] : ; @ ' ~ # | \ < , > . ? /

·         is not like your previous passwords;

·         is not your name;

·         is not your login;

·         is not your friend’s name;

·         is not your family member’s name;

·         is not a dictionary word;

·         is not a common name.

A good addition is to password protect the administrator folder. In apache web server, you can do this htaccess file or in cpanel, you can use Password Protected Directory option to setup a password. This will add another layer of username/password before someone reaches your Joomla admin details. Needless to say, have this password different from Joomla admin password.

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Added Up Mobile Features of Magento Enterprise 1.12 and Community 1.7

Magento and its team were pleased to announce the release of two of its best offerings Magento Enterprise 1.12 and Community 1.7. After this announcement the various key features of these releases were also discussed by Magento and its team of Magento developers and Magento programmers.

The latest enhancements in these released applications are believed to develop the efficiency of the platform and help the merchants provide their customers a personalized shopping experience.According to these developments the customers may now place their order within a few clicks; they can use their mobile utilities to shop in a more convenient way, and now the users can have multiple wishlists too. And these advantages help the merchant to boost the consumer engagement with the site, it also helps in increasing conversion and transaction size, and it enables the automatic promotion of the brand as the customers getting benefitted amount a lot to this aspect.

The improved customer segmentation which in turn enhances the ordering capabilities act as advantages to every merchant with the Magento tools developed by Magento developers and even those running B2B get benefitted. Apart from these benefits, these latest Magento releases have gains for Magento developers too. These gains include a new API, and backup and rollback systems.

Following are some of the key features in the new releases and how they can benefit the merchants and the Magento programmers.

Mobile Storefronts for Ease of Shopping

The new releases enable merchants to create a storefront rapidly and effortlessly in an optimized way for mobile devices. This augmentation enables customers to shop from wherever they are and even while they are on the go. This obviously helps the merchants to develop their business in exponential levels as the mobile platform is building up in terms of hundreds of thousands every day. This mobile interface uses HTML5 technology and supports iPhone, Android and Mobile Opera browsers. It includes out-of-the-box features.

Device Specific Features

The new releases are modeled in such a way that they can detect the device in which they are installed and according to the platform it is installed in the media capabilities alter. Without such alterations of media specifications the application will not be in a mode in which it can be utilized in an optimal way. The media specifications predominantly are audio and video based, so the add-ons and plug-ins necessary will also be certified by the platform.

Optimal Search Preferences

One of the most taxing features in any mobile ecommerce platform for both the customer and the Magento developer is the search feature. With the release of Magento Enterprise 1.12 and Community 1.7 this has been tackled efficiently. The search engine present by default has been developed in such a way that the accuracy of it crawling to the exact words has been improved. This makes the search engine more sophisticated, user friendly and displays results in a highly efficient way.

Lucid Display of Products

The basic need of such ecommerce web applications like the ones developed by Magento developers using the Magento platforms is to showcase customers the products and services in a legible way so that the level of business gets enhanced. With the new releases from Magento the method of displaying the products has been honed to the fullest. Now the products can be viewed individually with a single click and its details can be viewed either briefly or extensively.

Efficient Viewing of Images

With the growing technological advancements of mobile devices and their highly improved hardware progression it is only astute for Magento developers to come up with features utilizing these features. The images present in the web applications for ecommerce used to provide minimal actions on images and pictures but with the new and advanced features of Magento it is possible to carry out various actions like Pinch, multi-touch and scaling images. The various images present on the page can be viewed one at a time by easily swiping on after the other. Touch phones being the order of the day it is not a surprise that Magento developers have given much preference to such basic specifications.

Facilities for Cross-selling and Upselling

Instead of using other parties to perform tasks such as Cross selling, where products are sold among or between established clients, markets, traders, etc, and Upselling, which is a sales technique whereby a seller induces the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale, the new Magento tools enables merchants to perform both the tasks.
With these improvements as stated above both the releases Magento Enterprise 1.12 and Community 1.7 are welcomed by Magento developers and Magento programmers with hail and positive reception.

DCKAP has an experienced and trained team of Magento eCommerce developers, both onsite and offshore. Design services specializing in custom Magento development from Magento programmers, Magento programmer, Magento developers, Magento developer, Magento commerce developer, Magento commerce developers, Magento commerce programmer, Magento commerce programmers.

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Merits of Drupal and Updates on Drupal Camps

Drupal is developed into one of the most complex open-source content management systems (CMS) on the market and is represented by an array of top notch sites. Drupal is the perfect choice for large Enterprise websites that has high traffic. Drupal is famous for its relatively rapid build time. It is also known for its dynamic nature as websites designed on the Drupal framework can be altered by modifying modules. Drupal can be used to manage easily all aspects of a website, from adding content and images to updating a product catalogue, processing credit card payments or taking online reservations.

Drupal is a cost effective CMS solution as it allows Drupal programmers to develop complex websites in minimal time period compared to what it would take using other commercial CMS technologies. There are thousands of community-contributed modules that extend the flexibility of Drupal, so the chances of Drupal supporting almost all the features is high; and if at all a drupal developer can't find a module that suits the requirements, the developer can program new modules quickly and efficiently. After installing a Drupal website and is made to run, it is simple for non-technical users to add or edit content, update images, and to manage the critical data. Basic word processing skills is enough to manage a Drupal site

In addition, to above advantages Drupal offers strategic capabilities for search engine optimization and infrastructure flexibility:

•    Friendly URLs – Drupal uses Apache’s mod_rewrite to enable URLs that are both user- and search engine-friendly, which can help your search rankings.

•    Permalinks – All content created in Drupal has a permanent link or “permalink” associated with it so users can link to content freely without fear of broken links, another feature that is likely to boost search ranking and page views.

•    Taxonomy and Tagging – Drupal enables you to define hierarchical categories that can be used to tag and organize content, as well as fields for content authors to apply free tags. Tagging content can help enhance your site’s organization, enable related content linking, and assist in the definition of meta-keywords that can boost search rankings.

•    Platform Flexibility – Drupal was designed from the start to be multi-platform. It can be installed and run on Apache, Linux, Solaris, Windows, and Mac OSX platforms.

2012 is indeed a great year for Drupal Developers as they get opportunity to get together with other developers in the same field to share their ideas and enhance their insights about Drupal programming and its updates. Drupal camps are held all over the world this year. This article will give you details where the Drupal camps were held and where all it is going to conducted. The following is the list when and where various Drupal camps are held:

Maryland Drupal Camp February 10th - 11th, 2012
Stanford Drupal Camp May 1, 2012
Baltimore Drupal Camp May 8, 2012
Dublin Drupal Camp May 18-19, 2012
Lyon, France Drupal Camp May 26-27, 2012
Vancouver Drupal Camp, Canada June 2, 2012
Madison Drupal Camp, 26 & 28 July, 2012
Delhi, India Drupal Camp November 1st week

During these conferences Drupal developers / programmers will be immersed in the world of Drupal. Through a wide range of presentations one will learn more about all the latest Drupal development. Tricks and tools to easily keep tabs on your website's usage, performance, security, and content, leveraging existing data, practical decisions based on Drupal data, visualized and various other valuable thoughts will be shared by Drupal expert.

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Ruby On Rails- The Most Preferred For Web Applications

Ruby on Rails is a development tool that gives web developers a framework and provides structure to the code that is written. The Rails framework helps developers to abstracts and simplifies common repetitive tasks while building web applications. Rails is written in Ruby, a programming language. What Ruby is to Rails is similar to PHP is to Symfony and Zend, or Python is to Django. The reasons for the developers prefer Ruby is because of the elegance and directness of the language.

The principle of Ruby on Rails development is 'Convention over Configuration' (CoC). This means that the programmer only has to write new code for the areas in which their application deviates from the standard.  Another characteristic of Rails is REST (Representational State Transfer), a software architecture based around the client-server relationship. It encourages a logical structure within applications, which means they can easily be opened up as an API (Application Programming Interface).

Agile web development is implemented within the Rails community. This is a particular method of structuring the development process as per the communication between the developers and the client. In a short period, Ruby on Rails has earned a huge following. This is largely due to the rapid development of dynamic web applications. The following are the reasons why Ruby on Rails is preferred by the programmers/ developers.

•    Here the process of programming is much faster compared to that of the other frameworks and languages due to the object-oriented nature of Ruby and also because of CoC as it reduces the amount of code that needs to be written.

•    CoC makes it easy for Ruby on Rails developers to move between different Rails projects, as each project will tend to follow the same structure and coding practices.

•    Ruby code is readable and hence is self-documenting. This increases productivity, as the need to write separate documentation is minimal and is easy for other Ruby on Rails programmers to pick up projects.

•    Rails enables him to build Basecamp with Ruby, and consequently to build large applications.

•    The CoC and DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) maxims and Agile methodologies all aim to make the web application development process easy for a Ruby on Rails programmer.

•    Quick turn-around time is provides an integrated web server and an interpreted language helps in code modifications immediately, thereby minimizing the code-debug cycle.

•    Most e-commerce sites benefit tremendously from Rails' user-friendly features and modular approach to site development. Features that are high-end e-commerce suites, such as bulk uploads and updates, custom pricing algorithms, and photo resizing/cropping can be included in Ruby on Rails web application development.

•     Membership and social networking are generally developed on Ruby on Rails because of the variety of plugins that are available helps to solve the social networking challenges that might arise.

•     If the purpose of the site is to present thousands of articles, audio files or other database-friendly content, Ruby on Rails is a great solution because of the ease with which users will be able to navigate the site, and with which one will be able to upload and manage the content.

•    New projects that require custom solutions for novel database structure to support a creative new business model Ruby on Rails is an ideal way to build these solutions at minimal time and expense. 

DCKAP is a leading software company with experience and expertise in designing, developing and deploying solutions based on RoR application technology. Ruby on rails developer, Ruby on rails developers, Ruby on rails programmer, Ruby on rails programmers.

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Magento Developer Certification and its Enormities

Day 2 of Imagine 2012 had various Key points discussed and the level of excitement was as high as the sky. One of the most important as well as intriguing points that was discussed was about the four thousand downloads of the Magento Developer Certification Study Guide. This developer certification was introduced in ‘Innovate’ last year and the rate at which it has been popularized amongst Magento developers and Magento programmers seems brisk and steady.

The Innovate Developer’s Conference which was held in October last year was an answer to thousands of queries from Magento developers. The Magento Developer Certification was a path that was paved for the Magento programmers to establish their credentials and market their expertise to the day-by-day growing society of Magento merchants and Solutions partners.

First Beta Test

Magento developers and Magento programmers were felicitated with the Magento Developer Certification for the first ever time after they took a beta version of the test. Magento Developer Certification is the gold standard for credibility among Magento developers, partners and merchants.

Introduction to Magento Developer Certification

The Magento Developer Certification is a Magento sponsored certificate presented to Magento programmers with real world experience in Magento and its extensive implementations. This test is developed, analyzed, framed and evaluated by Magento gurus. Apart from them there are Magento experts from all over the world contributing consistently to enhance the upcoming generation of Magento developers. Evaluations are done customarily considering various factors. The test is developed under rigorous industrial standards and the methodologies for exam development. Such intricate implications are the factors which has given the Certificate its merit.

Great News for Magento Developers

Self-enhancement of Individual Developers

The degree of importance of this Magento Development Certification has been spread already without much said about it as the already existing Magento developers understand its importance and know about its advantages, but the upcoming Magento developers have to be informed.

With the Magento Developer Certificate each developer will be recognized for their Magento skills. With such a recognized certificate the credibility enhances amongst peers and the network in which the developer belongs.

As the field of eCommerce is rapidly spreading its functions, the demand for Magento developers is also increasing exponentially and looking at the swarm of Magento developers and programmers it is evident that there is no dearth for them. Thus with the merit of the Magento Developer Certificate the developer will wholly look exclusive amongst the completion which is heavy.

When an agency is recruiting Magento developers it will obviously look for credentials supporting the candidates proficiency in the Magento platform and when there are two candidates one with the certificate and the other without, it is just reasonable for the recruiters to decide on the candidate with the Magento Developer Certificate and even if both the candidates are chosen the candidate with the certificate will have more value compared with the other and the income will also be better.

Though the developer could be highly proficient in Magento but the fact of learning something new during the preparation for the test cannot be denied by any. And more than the certificate itself Magento enables the developer with the certificate to promote their credentials via use of the Magento Certified Developer logo on their CV or Résumé.

Reduced Effort for Hiring Managers and Solution Partners

The managers looking for and recruiting Magento developers can have an easier time doing their jobs as the process of identifying qualified and efficient developers becomes very simple. All they have to do is look for candidates with the Magento Developer Certificate with the candidate. This reduces the number of rounds of interviews the managers have to conduct to filter candidates with inadequate proficiencies. And Managers hiring Magento partners can evaluate the team with the Magento Certificate and its credentials.

Solutions partners looking for agencies to send their team can rightfully pronounce their teams’ capabilities and efficiencies as they have certifications to vouch for it. It becomes simpler for the them to showcase their talents which in the alternate case would be a process which is long and tedious.

It is no wonder that there have been immense developments in the field of Magento and its subordinates in the last half year. The number of Magento developers opting for the test and obtaining the certificate has increased which has not lowered the eminence of the certificate but has improved the quality of the Magento programmer.

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