Cory Webb Media Blog

My Kind of Town, Chicago Is

info@corywebbmedia.com (Cory) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:22:31 +0000

It's official! Cory Webb Media is the newest Joomla! Track sponsor for the 2010 CMS Expo. The CMS Expo is the premier event for CMS professionals, and our sponsorship of this great event demonstrates Cory Webb Media's commitment to being a leading solutions provider within the Joomla! community.

The 2010 CMS Expo will take place at the prestigious Hotel Orrington Conference Center in Chicago, Illinois on May 3rd, 4th and 5th, 2010. Here is more info about the Expo from their site:

Disqus this

info@corywebbmedia.com (Cory) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:50:43 +0000

I recently read a blog post by Brian Teeman about which comment system he uses for his Joomla-powered blog and why. Brian uses a hosted commenting service called Disqus, and a Disqus plugin for Joomla distributed by Joomlaworks.gr. I've been considering switching a couple of sites from JomComment to Disqus for a while, and after reading Brian's article I decided to try it out here at CoryWebbMedia.com.

So far, I like what I see. The plugin was very easy to install, and it was very easy to set up an account at Disqus.com. I also like the fact that commenters can log in with Twitter. The main thing that drew me to Disqus was the spam handling. I've been getting a lot of spam comments lately, and it's a bit of a pain to deal wtih them in JomComment. If anything, this will be a good test case for possibly using Disqus on future sites. Thanks for the tip, Brian!

James Hafner joins the Cory Webb Media team!

info@corywebbmedia.com (Cory) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:11:11 +0000

I am pleased to announce that James Hafner has joined the Cory Webb Media team! James brings to the team years of experience working with Joomla! and other popular CMS platforms. He's had his hands in web development for over 5 years, building websites for people and companies in his spare time. He graduated from Missouri State University with a B.A. in Electronic Arts. From there he moved to Austin where he worked for three years providing hundreds of businesses and organizations assistance in getting their site online and honing their web presence. In late 2008 he left that company to focus completely on freelance web development and consulting. James and his wife, Elizabeth, have a photography company called Vignette Photography, so if you're in the Austin area and need a great photographer, check them out!

Welcome aboard, James!

Beginning Joomla! Web Site Development now shipping

info@corywebbmedia.com (Cory) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:59:07 +0000

I'm happy to announce that my new book, Beginning Joomla! Web Site Development, is now shipping! You can order it from the publisher's website, or from most online book retailers.

Beginning Joomla! Web Site Development will take the reader step-by-step through the process of building a website with Joomla! 1.5. From beginning to end, the book will explain a concept and show how that concept relates to the development of an actual sample web site the reader can access online. This book applies each concept to a real-world example every step of the way. Once a concept is explained in theory, it is then illustrated by showing how one would implement each concept in a real web site.

What happens in Vegas...

info@corywebbmedia.com (Cory) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 04:58:21 +0000

What happens in Vegas will definitely be blogged about here, because I have just signed up to attend Joomla! Day Las Vegas on April 4. I haven't yet decided if I wan to attend any of the training classes on April 3, but they all look really interesting.

Joomla! Day promises to be a great event, with an A-List line-up of speakers, including multiple core developers. These events are always a great time to meet other Joomla! enthusiasts and learn a few tricks of the trade. I can't wait!

HowToJoomla! Resources: A Joomla!-Specific Search Engine

info@corywebbmedia.com (Cory) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:11:52 +0000

I am happy to announce that I have just put the finishing touches on a Joomla!-specific search engine at resources.howtojoomla.net. HowToJoomla! Resources started as a way to easily search Joomla!-related sites that offer useful resources to the Joomla! community. Using traditional search engines to search for terms like "templates" or "components" won't turn up Joomla!-related information, but using this search engine will because it only searches sites that offer services and resources to the Joomla! community.?

If you have a site that you think should be included in the list of resources, please feel free to submit your site for consideration. Not all sites will be accepted. Only sites that provide Joomla!-related services and resources to the community will be considered.

Smashing Magazine gives HowToJoomla some love

info@corywebbmedia.com (Cory) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:59:29 +0000

Mitchitized just posted a link on Twitter to an article at Smashing Magzine titled "Joomla Developer's Toolbox". Glancing through the article, I noticed that my site, HowToJoomla.net, is mentioned several times along with many excellent resources.

Check it out.

JomSocial is finally available

info@corywebbmedia.com (Cory) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:16:05 +0000

The team at Azrul.com have finally announced that JomSocial has been released to the general public. If you haven't heard of JomSocial yet, then take a few minutes and head over to their website to learn more about it.

JomSocial is going to revolutionize the way that social networks are created with Joomla. Before JomSocial, the only option for building a community-driven website with Joomla was Community Builder. With the release of JomSocial, you now have a choice. At $149, it is more expensive than Community Builder, but quite frankly, it is worth the price. It has many features that make it comparable to Facebook, but its integration with Joomla gives you a powerful tool for building a rich, interactive website easily and for a reasonable price.

Check it out.

ProjectFork has finally been released

info@corywebbmedia.com (Cory) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:55:53 +0000

Congratulations to the guys over at JoomlaPraise for releasing ProjectFork! ProjectFork is an open source project management system built for Joomla! 1.5, and I believe it will prove to be one of the killer apps for Joomla. I've been looking forward to this since I met Kyle Ledbetter (one of the JoomlaPraise guys) at the Joomla! Bootcamp in Austin this summer, and I'm excited to finally get to start using it.

Nice work, guys!

Joomla!-powered Startups

info@corywebbmedia.com (Cory) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:57:29 +0000

I've been thinking a lot about startups lately. It seems like every time you turn around, there is a new startup built on Ruby on Rails or some other rapid application development framework, but you never really see any Joomla!-powered startups. I'm not talking about startups that cater to the Joomla! community like JoomlaShack, Azrul, or even Cory Webb Media. I'm talking about startups with applications built on the Joomla! framework. There are millions of sites built on Joomla!, but not a whole lot of applications.

The closest example I can find is Quizilla, but that's not as much a startup as it is a product in the "N" Network from Nickelodeon. I know that the framework in Joomla! 1.5 is powerful enough to build anything, so why haven't we seen more startups? Maybe it's time one of us does something about it.

Have you come across any Joomla!-powered startups?