Recently I created a donation module for joomla that collects donations on Joomla sites. This module uses Paypal to collect donations and is simple to setup and you can get it up and running within a minute. This module is free to use and is released under GNU/GPL. You can see live demo of the module at www.joomlaguru.com.np.

Features

Version 1.0 has following features. You can view the parameters for this module. This module has rich set of configuration options as explained below.

Select Server - This has two options and lets user to select between live and sandbox environment on paypal.

Paypal Merchant  Email/ID - Paypal Email. You can also enter paypal merchant ID instead of paypal email. This increases security without exposing your email address.

Donate To Text - Configure text that is displayed on invoice and paypal donation collecting form.

Fixed Donation – You can choose to accept fixed donations or Donation through input box or a drop down box. If you select fixed donations, please enter donation amount in next field too. If you select “Show amount in select box” user is presented a drop down box with different denominations. These denominations can be configured from a file that is under modules->mod_osdonate->data->amounts.dat

Fixed Amount Donation – Fixed donation amount. This is used only when fixed_donation is active.

Your locale currency - Select currency in which you want to accept donation. Be advised this currency should be active in your paypal. If not this may cause error. You can add currencies in your paypal account. Please refer to paypal help on more about this.

Your Country locale - Select your country. This should be from your paypal account.

Thank you page – Select article that will be displayed when user makes a successful payment through paypal donation form.

Cancel Page – Select article that will be displayed when user cancels the payment.

Donation Intro Text - Text that will be displayed before paypal donate button. Be expressive and a little funny to your viewers.

Donation Post Text – Text that will appear after the donation button.

This is all you need to collect donations from your joomla site.

You can view more details about this module here. Also you can download the module here.

If you like this module consider contributing at Joomlaguru.com.np. Your small contribution can make a difference.

Happy reading!!

Features

1. Two modes

User can select to replace mootools with jQuery completely or use jQuery in conjunction with mootools. Using jQuery with mootools introduces noConflict features of jQuery and replaces ‘$’ operator with jquery. This allows other libraries to use ‘$’ operator without conflict.

2. Where to use selection

Use can select where to use jQuery. User can choose to use jQuery in frontend and/ or in administrator.

3. Allows other application to check if jquery is loaded.

This plugin also introduces a variable in application session that allows others to check if jquery is loaded or not. The illustration of use is as below\

    $app =& JFactory::getApplication();

        //Check to see if jquery is already included
        if( $app->get('jquery') === true ) {

            //Code here

        }
    else
    {

    //Code here

    }

Here is the screenshot of plugin parameters

License

The module is released under GNU/GPL license and hence users are allowed distribute and modify the module without warranty what so ever. The developer does not bear any liability for the extension.

Download

Download the latest release from the download section of joomlaguru.com.np or you can click here to download the plugin.

Send in your comments and feedbacks on the plugin. Hope you will like the plugin. Happy reading.

Features

Website ID – Website ID from Google Analytics. These website ID are unique to each website profile.index.php?option=com_content

Domain – Enter domain without http://www e.g. joomlaguru.com.np

Track – Select tracker type. User can select from tracker type. There are 3 types of tracker available.

1. Single Domain Tracker
   Tracker Tracks single domain only.
2. One Domain With Multiple Subdomains
   Tracker tracks multiple subdomains under single domain
3. Multiple Top Level Domains
   Tracker tracks multiple top level domains.

Download the plugin from the joomlaguru.com.np download page.

If you find this plugin useful please consider contributing. Your contribution can make a difference

Hope you like this plugin. Happy reading!!

I have already launched twitter box – a free and easy twitter module for joomla through Joomlaguru.com.np.

I hope overwhelming response from readers. Let us pray for its bright future.

Thanks
Sanjeev

JCal Pro is a fantastic extension to manage events on Joomla enabled Sites. Last week I used JCal Pro for a project and required some modification. JCal Pro is a great extension but lacks spam protection like CAPTCHA or any thing that stops spam posting. But I needed spam prevention in event posting, So I set out to add a CAPTCHA to the fantastic component.

I used reCpatcha as it is audio enabled, a free service and is also owned by google now. ReCaptcha has enabled more than 100,000 sites and I added one more to the list.

The component now has a reCaptcha for spam filtering and JCal Pro has a missing gem installed on it.
You can view a of modified JCal Pro here

I wanted to distribute this modified extension for free but cannot distribute it as it is developed and distributed by dev.anything-digital.com and the extension is subscription based.

However you can contact me for modified version of JCal Pro or if you want to add reCaptcha to your existing JCal Pro or any other extension. Yes I charge a little for my time.

Happy Reading.

If you find this post or modified JCal Pro Useful, please consider contributing. Your contribution can make a difference

The media manager is cool with multiple upload and that too with ajax but I could not get it running. Another inspiration for me

This is an opportunity and challenge for component developers like me to upgrade and update. I am getting my hands dirty on the new arrived code, better get yours too.

Download the latest release of joomla from here
http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&frs_package_id=3585

Happy coding with joomla.

I was sceptical if it will work for me or not and gave it a try. After feeding some information, I got an installable skeleton of my component. “Awesome”! yes, I said awesome for this tool. This installable component had everything from administrator files, config files, manifest files to router.php for SEF urls. I would recommend this to everyone. You can try it for yourself. This tool is created by notwebdesign.com and the location of tool is at http://www.notwebdesign.com/joomla-component-creator/index.php

I am using it for my all of my coming projects.

I have been using hotmail for last 9 years and today It says I don’t have the inbox! strange and annoying.

Anyone faced such things!

Happy hotmailing!

Our system had been infested with lots of viruses and it is natural when we use Microsoft windows in almost all the systems. This infestation, really introduced the slag in projects. So we decided to switch our systems to linux. (We knew linux is secure and least infested by viruses and worms)

One fine morning of Saturday we set out to remove all the windows OS and install Linux in almost all of the systems. We still needed few windows OS, as we have applications that run on .net framework.

We have 10 systems that are used within my team members that was to be migrated. The number though small (10), meant 10 fresh installations of Linux that could take almost a day for few people with few Fedora DVDs to install and configure the system with networks. So we decided to use DVD to install the system in 2 PCs and for others we Used network install. Network installation was tough. indeed! but we managed to install the system with USB drive and Cobbler. (I did not know about Cobbler the day before). Luckily our systems supported PXE boot. So it was easy after few hours of self study and search through internet. We managed to install other 7 system from Network.

After all successfull installation (except for 1 PC), we managed to install network. We use static IP given to us by our ISP so installing a DHCP meant more incoming  problems so we decided to use static IPs for our system. We switched off the Network Manager, switched on the network services (This is necessary if you use Static IP otherwise your ip configuration is lost on every reboot.), configured our IPs, Configured  HTTP, FTP, Mysql other servers in our central development server. So we are ready to roll in linux (Fedora 9 Sulphur).

We tested our systems it was working all right with the freshness in the air. This felt good!

All well,  untill we faced a small problem with firewalls and http configurations. We were not able to browse our local server through IP. That was bad! So we decided to set up a DNS (bind) Server for easy browsing of local sites. This was how we came up with our internal TLD (.bd) that would be suffixed in every development stage for every projects.

This .bd is not related to TLD of bangladesh by any means, it is just a simple acronym for braindigit and is used for our convenience only. These .bd sites are not browseable outside our intranet.

So bind was setup and few primary zones were created for testing. All good till this part.

Yes we migrated to Linux and we felt good about it. But still, there was a huge problem ahead. Development tools. My team had been accustomed to Adobe Dreamweaver and other windows tools for long, so they wanted something similar to Dreamweaver in linux too.  I used eclipse since long so it was easy to decide the development IDE. And we have eclipse in linux too. So I advised all my team members to use eclipse. It will take some time for them to get accustomed to eclipse but for now this is solved.

We still needed few more applications to collaborate and work in central server. This was tough one. We hardly used SVN, CVS for development internally and setting up CVS, SVN server was though easy but useless, unless the team get accustomed to SVN or CVS. This was a huge problem. We thought for a while and I asked for suggestion from my team. As a response, they wanted something similar to windows. A folder browsing through IP (I don’t know what it is called exactly. maybe Network sharing). I knew this can be done with SSH but using SSH every now and then for development that is ridiculous and stupid (in my view). So to remedy this problem, I created NFS shares for most of the used folders in central server and mounted these folder in every team member PC. Yes I used fstab. So now they are happy developing directly in central server.

I know this solution is stupid but we need to get running quickly so this was the work around.

We set up streber for our small project collaboration. We have openfire for internal collaboration.

So we have successfully migrated to Linux in machines but we need more time to migrate completely to Linux in thoughts.

This is my first experience with Linux in workplace and I feel good that I took the initiative to migrate to Linux. I am not against Windows or Gates. This is only a quest for better and stable system and ofcourse environment.

I will write about all the installation steps I took to setup central servers, setting up NFS and creating a working development environment in my later posts.

Till then Happy Reading

The project kicked off with a good pace and most of the work were done within a week. Dave (The project owner) was happy about the project but alas a lightning struck. The project started to slug due to irregular power cuts in Nepal. And now It has been more than 3 months, the project is still being tested and feature being added.

This is just a case of people suffering due to powercut here in Nepal and prominently those people who depend on electricity for their living or to fulfill their hobby. This is a huge setback as Nepal is still emerging as a destination for outsourcing. Many companies here have resorted to alternative source of energy! They can afford to move to alternative resource. But freelance developers working as a singleton may not be able to afford such sources of power.

Foodcollectors is not only the case where I have been longing to work but are unable to code some logical aspect due to powercut. This may be the lamest excuse but it is the truth.

The demo site is available at http://foodcollectors.osysserver.com