Written by Remo Laubacher and published by Packt, this updated beginners guide continues to be one of the best books available for Concrete5. It's ideal for anyone comparing content management systems or interested in building a new website using Concrete5. It starts out with the absolute basics of how to install Concrete5. It then progresses through several chapters to more advanced aspects of site deployment and management. I don't really think there is anything this book lacks and it covers all the important aspects. It's a good companion to the other book available on creating Concrete5 themes.

Although much of the information contained in this book can already be found freely online, it is good to have everything consolidated into a single book. Each chapter approaches a different topic in a methodical manner. Important details are emphasised and short quizzes are used to help recap on information learnt. It lets you study at your own pace.

I think the only thing to be aware of is that the next version of Concrete5 (due for release in a few months from now) is going to introduce a pretty radical overhaul of the editing interface and changes to the way you can drag and drop blocks within a page. So that is something to watch-out for, as the instructions given in this book may not correctly match future versions of Concrete5. Things like the TinyMCE editor appear to be getting replaced with an in-page content editor instead (if the latest Beta builds are anything to go by). But apart from that, this book is totally relevant.

More information about the book can be found here. Cover picture featured above curtsey of Packt Publishing.

Just a friendly reminder that as of today (6th June 2013), Twit and TweetBar stacks are no longer available and may not continue to work in your RapidWeaver projects. I posted a clear warning message on the Stacks4Stacks website about 7 months ago, forewarning about this impeding change. Today is the day when those changes take effect. Twit and TweetBar stacks should be considered 'obsolete' and 'discontinued'. They will no longer be receiving updates or support. So don't bother asking me or anyone else for help! Download links and documentation for both have been removed. The Sparkle update channel has also been terminated. These stacks are no more.

The reason for this change is pretty easy to explain. Twitter wants to open its platform wider to advertisers; in turn generating more revenue. Twitter wants to get more people using its own official app's and get people using the Twitter.com website more. That way, more people can see and click advertising banners or promoted tweets. Twitter is now less keen on the idea of having lots of third-party apps available. It instead wants the ability to target users with advertising through its own channels and take more control over how people use its services.

Don't believe me? Read this blog article by Isaiah Carew in 2011, on the frustrations of developing app's for Twitter and the new limitations being imposed on developers:
http://yourhead.tumblr.com/post/5550105265/i-love-you-kiwi-i-know

To achieve this business model change, Twitter has been gradually killing-off and closing various free API's for many months, which has of course resulted in the noticeable loss of some excellent services and app's (like Kiwi). You may not have noticed, but I did spend time updating the Tweet and TweetBar stacks several times already this year, to prolong their availability and to keep them stable. The fact they remained available for as long as they did was somewhat of a miracle. However it has reached a point now whereby there are no more free or keyless API's left in the bag to use. It's simply not feasible to invest more time, money and other resources into developing Twitter stacks which are given away for free. Twitter has made it clear they plan to close more API's throughout this year and apply further restrictions on what developers can do. So other methods to embed Twitter feeds in websites are likely to be short-lived.

If you want to incorporate Twitter 'follow me' buttons or Twitter feeds into a webpage, the easiest and safest option is to use the widgets that Twitter already provides. These are not very attractive to look at and options for customisation are very limited. But these widgets are easy to setup from your profile page, and should work reliably. Long-term, you should probably reconsider your use of social media in websites and take a look at other platforms like Alpha.net, if you want to embed micro-blogs in a website.

Lots of companies want to be able to sell effectively online. The trouble though is that it can be pretty difficult to get a half-decent and functioning e-commerce website setup to sell through. Although there are numerous companies willing to setup e-commerce websites for you, the costs for startups can often be way too prohibitive for many. And of course the risks of hiring 'cheap' or 'inexperienced' developers to build and e-commerce website for you can far outweigh the benefits. As a web developer myself, I have seen some unfortunate business owners get stung by some truly terrible e-commerce setups; which have looked plain ugly and barely functioned. To succeed selling online, everything must be perfect.

So for many people contemplating the 'DIY' approach to selling online, Prestashop can be a big appeal. We are really fortunate that free software like Prestashop exists for building e-commerce websites, and it does everything most people would need. However like many other free website software solutions, the learning curve involved in putting something together can seem pretty daunting. All this talk of databases, modules, domains, themes and catalogues could be pretty eye-watering to novice users.

The PrestaShop 1.5 Beginner’s Guide is written by Jose Tizon and John Horton; and published by Packt publishing. This book provides a subtle introduction into what Prestashop actually is, how it functions and how to setup your first Prestashop store. It really is probably the only book you would need to buy on the subject of Prestashop management. Like many other Packt books written before, this book is well structured, methodical and walks you through all stages in simple steps. The content in this book is right up-to-date and compatible with the latest version of Prestashop. Prestashop for beginners aims to have you setup and selling within 7 days, and I can believe that statement.

The book starts by covering installation of Prestashop on a web server, or in a server environment like WAMP, LAMP or MAMP. It discusses the system requirements clearly, database setup and the installation procedures to be followed. Important steps like removing the install folder and renaming the admin folder are explained. The next chapters go into all the details, regarding store setup, and store management. At each stage of the book, you are working towards adding features to the website that enhance customer experience and functionality. Nothing in this book is skimped-on. I think just about everything you need to know is in this guide.

I have used Prestashop on a few occasions before, on behalf of clients. Although I had a basic understanding of Prestashop, I really wanted to get up to speed and learn everything there was to know about managing stores through Prestashop. Quite a lot had changed in the latest version of Prestashop, since I last used it. I found this book invaluable as a refresher and learning lots of new things about Prestashop. Although it is branded as a 'beginners guide' there is certainly a lot of important and useful hints and tips which would appeal to regular Prestashop users too.

More information about the book can be found here.
Book cover image courtesy of Packt publishing.

This is an excellent book to read for anyone new to Joomla and considering using Joomla in future projects. Although Joomla is not massively difficult to start building with, the way it works is quite a bit different to many other publishing platforms. Therefore novice users can quickly end up isolated and unsure of how to get the most out of this software. Sometimes you want to just jump straight in and know how to create new pages and write content for those pages.

Joomla 3 for beginners by Eric Tiggeler covers just about everything. It starts off with a gradual introduction to what Joomla is and what sort of projects it is most suitable for. The book runs through the details of installation and setup of a dummy project. It then moves on towards the setup of articles, categories, navigation links and templates. Topics like SEO and security are also covered. Within just a few chapters, the book is already teaching you how to build quality websites and discussing lots of advanced features in Joomla.

Like many other Packt books, the book is well structured and laid out throughout. The 'have a go hero' and 'pop quiz' sections provide opportunities to practice what you've read and revise things again if you're unsure about something.

I don't have anything negative to say about this book. Speaking as someone who has only touched the surface of Joomla a few times in the past, I thought the book was excellent and covered everything someone new to Joomla would need to know. I suspect that despite this being branded as a 'beginners guide', there is also a lot of information contained within that could be useful for existing users or users seeking a quick recap.

More information about the book is available here:
http://www.packtpub.com/joomla-3-beginners-guide/book

Book cover image courtesy of Packt Publishing.

It has been announced today that the Tumblr blogging platform has been purchased and taken over by Yahoo. Although both Tumblr and Yahoo have been quick to turn round and tell users that everything will be a "phased transition" and "business as normal", it appears some Tumblr users are a little anxious about this takeover and the possible consequences it might have towards future content ownership and copyright. Yahoo has not just bought Tumblr as a weekend hobby project; clearly they have big plans of their own for monetizing Tumblr and taking it further forward. Yahoo has written a cheque for over £720 million, so it's unlikely they will run Tumblr into the ground (as they've done with some other services) straight away! But ultimately everything published to Tumblr is now on Yahoo's terms. This always is the risk when you hand content over to another company and ask them to store or publish it for you. Particularly free services, where published content becomes an asset of the company. Read More...

ExpanDrive is a different-take on traditional FTP software, in that it integrates directly with Finder or Windows Explorer. It is compatible with both Mac and Windows, and lets you 'mount' a remote disk on your computer (in the same fashion as you mount a USB flash drive or camera card). The beauty of this setup is that you can access and navigate a remote disk directly through Finder or Windows Explorer. These remote disks can be set to connect automatically when you switch your computer on.

The good news is that Javabean Hosting is fully compatible with ExpanDrive. This enables you to mount your web hosting account in Finder or Windows Explorer. From there you can access all folders, upload, edit or delete files. For basic FTP tasks, ExpanDrive works great. This blog article will walk you through the steps required to connect to you Javabean Hosting account via Finder. Read More...

The battle between Google Drive, DropBox, SkyDrive, Bittorrent Sync, CloudApp and other cloud storage providers is really starting to hot-up. However this is good news for consumers, who now have many different services available. Plus of course, an ever increasing amount of online storage space and lots of extra addons to make integration easier and more diverse than ever before. A prime example of things moving forward being an announcement from Google earlier today, with news of their new save buttons, tied to Google Drive accounts.

These save buttons work in much the same was as conventional 'Pin' buttons, used by services like Pinterest. So with these new save buttons, when a user clicks on the button, they have the option to save files to their Google Drive. This enables visitors to your website to save many types of files directly to their Google Drive account. Files could include PDF documents, text files, images, sound files and various other things. Even publications like eBooks could be provided with a save button. So the benefits could be pretty advantageous for various types of websites. Read More...

Now both random and responsive! I'm pleased to announce the availability of Randomiser 2.0 this morning. This is a general update focusing on making things easier for our novice users and incorporating fully responsive behaviour. Randomiser is a simple stack that hides a pool of items on a page, and displays one at random (when the page is loaded or refreshed). It's a very simple mechanism, one that does not require PHP support and still allows search engines to index all randomised content. Use it for styled text, HTML code and images. Here are some details of what's changed in the latest version:

Changes in version 2.0

• Simplification of setup. More automation, less stack settings
• Now fully responsive. Will work in both responsive and non-responsive RapidWeaver themes
• Degrades gracefully in instances where Javascript is not available
• Minor changes to informational tooltips

The fade-in option has been removed in this latest version, to improve responsive behaviour. If you are using Randomiser in a traditional fixed-size page layout and you want fade-in support, simply use the free FadeIn stack, and nest Randomiser inside. Previous settings like border, background and padding have been removed, and these can be setup instead using the built-in Stack style controls.

Possible uses for Randomiser

• Cycle through self-hosted advertisements on a websites
• Display new or interesting products at random to customers
• Random quotes, testimonials, extracts of text, poems, psalms, lyrics etc.
• Use it to display pictures at random in theme headers or banners
• Great for displaying quiz questions, facts and associated links

Randomiser is compatible with Stacks 2.0 and later. This update is free for all existing users and obtainable using your original download link or via automatic updates in Stacks. A free demo version is available for potential new users to download and experiment with. If you use Randomiser and like it, please consider rating and / or reviewing the stack on StacksCenter.

Read more

I'm pleased to announce the availability of the new Stream RapidWeaver theme today. Some of you may recognise Stream as a RapidWeaver theme similar in appearance to the old News Media theme. Actually your assumptions would be perfectly correct, in that Stream is a totally rebuilt and re-branded clone of the former News Media theme. I decided on the name 'Stream' as a reflection of the speed and fluidity at which this theme can serve content and it prevents any possible confusion with the Media theme. Also Stream fits in well with my other RapidWeaver themes named after various natural phenomena, from which many have been inspired!

News Media had previously received a huge amount of input and direction from regular RapidWeaver forum member 'Photon' who sadly passed away a few months ago. News Media was in desperate need of a new direction and a big update. So last week I committed 25 hours into drastically updating, rebuilding and retesting this theme. Cosmetically, Stream is not very much different from News Media, in appearance. However the 'engine' underneath the theme is brand new and is now sporting all the latest technology you expect to find in a quality RapidWeaver theme.

At this stage I should point out that all News Media theme users are now within the update cycle for Stream. This means that your update / transition to Stream is totally free of charge, and you will continue to receive free updates to the Stream theme. Simply use your existing download link to grab this latest version of Stream, or contact me (with proof of purchase) if you need a new link issued to you.

The rest of this blog article details what's changed in Stream and what new features are available. If you are eager to jump ahead and download the free demo version or see a published example of the Stream theme, then click here onto the ThemeFlood website for more information.



More information about Stream Read More...

Based on the popular FadeIn stack, ScrollFade creates containers within a page which are hidden. When the page is scrolled down and the whole container comes into focus, the hidden container fades into view and is visible. This is the same sort of technique websites like Apple.com use. It is similar in appearance to the popular 'lazy load' method you may have seen or used in the past. ScrollFade does not really add any extra functionality to pages, it is merely intended as a cosmetic embellishment.

This stack is very easy to setup and can support all basic content types like styled text, HTML code and images. With some experimentation, you may be able to get other objects like video and slideshows working too. All normal stack style settings like padding, margins, borders and backgrounds are available to you. ScrollFade works in both fixed-width and responsive webpages. Settings are provided in ScrollFade, letting you adjust the fade speed, delay and opacity.

ScrollFade pre-loads all content, so content is ready to display as a user scrolls the page down. Content within ScrollFade is fully visible to search engines, and this stack degrades gracefully in web browsers without Javascript support.

You can use multiple ScrollFade stacks on the same page, but it is advisable to abide by the normal one effect per page rule, applicable to all animation stacks. ScrollFade can be used with the PlusKit @import function.

ScrollFade is tested and confirmed to work in IE9, IE10, Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Opera web browsers, against RapidWeaver and ThemeFlood themes. It has also been tested on iOS and Android handheld devices. In IE7 and IE8, content is permanently displayed.

The idea for the ScrollFade stack was pitched to me by Tony Reidsma of Stream Communications. Tony came to me at the start of the week, asking if I had a stack available which would trigger the display of content, when the viewer of a website scrolled down to a certain point in the page. I wan't sure if something like this already existed. Despite asking around and checking all the normal stack directories, we could not find anything like this. So I set about building this new stack. Ideally I would have liked to have done something using the CSS :focus pseudo class and a nice CSS3 animation using keyframes. However, jQuery Javascript appeared to be the cleaner and safer option for now. I found some suggested code online and extended that further to do all that I wanted. Then converted the working prototype into the ScrollFade stack.

Click here for more information

Note: this stack requires RapidWeaver 5.0 and Stacks 2.1 or later.