Joomla! CMS project FAQs

Revision as of 16:48, 13 March 2008

((review))

Where can I download the template used on the www.joomla.org site?

The template used on http://www.joomla.org was developed specifically for us, and will not be released for download. We would like to maintain the uniqueness of our sites, hence the decision not to release.

The same goes for the templates on all official Joomla! Websites. They are not open source and are not available for download. They are copyrighted, and cannot therefore be used anywhere else.

What forum is used at joomla.org?

We are currently using the forum software, phpBB3. phpBB is located here: http://www.phpbb.com/

What are the rules of the joomla.org forums?

You can read the current forum rules here: http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=65

How do you empty your PM-box on the forum?

Problem Your PM-box is full and nobody can send you anymore messages. How to solve this?

Solution go to your messages and "check" the box and click delete for those you want to delete.

Note: READ them first before you delete them!

How do I search the forum to find what I need?

The forum search is somewhat tricky. Here are some tips for effective searching:

1. Searches are case sensitive, so try upper and lower case. For example, xml and XML will give different results.
2. Searches are for whole words, so for example error and errors will give different results.The forums are spidered by external search engines so you may be more successful using one of these.
3. Advanced search will let you search with more parameters.

How do I list my extension in the extensions site?

Information on how to list extensions in the extensions site is available here:

http://extensions.joomla.org/content/view/15/63/

What extension is used to manage extensions.joomla.org?

It is a customized version of Mosets Tree (a commercial component you can find in the Joomla! Extensions Directory ).

How do I deal with UTF-8 issues in Joomla! 1.0.x series?

Many posts raise the issues of using utf-8 in the Joomla! 1.0.x series in spite of Joomla! 1.0.x not supporting utf-8. It is clear that there are community needs for utf-8 in Joomla! 1.0.x otherwise the issue would not come up so often. This article explains the issues of utf-8 in Joomla! 1.0.x series and provides a reasonable workaround for implementing utf-8.

To be fully utf-8 compatible the following needs to be fulfilled:

• The database needs to be utf-8 compliant otherwise there is a danger of data truncation. A 20 character string in utf-8 may be up to 60 bytes long. In a varchar field that is defined as utf-8 with a length of 20 - 20 utf-8 characters can be safely stored. The field adapts to the byte length. In a non-utf-8 database the same varchar (20) field will truncate the string after 20 bytes.
• The connection between the database and the php application needs to have utf-8 encoding otherwise unwanted conversions will occur and data corruption will result.
• Multibyte string functions need to be used when the applied data is encoded as utf-8. Unfortunately PHP's native string functions are not utf-8 aware and can seriously corrupt data (see http://www.phpwact.org/php/i18n/utf-8). There is an extension package to PHP 4 and 5 that has utf-8 aware string function ('mb_string'). However this extension is not always loaded/installed and the php code needs to be modified to call the appropriate mb_ versions of the string function. (PHP 6 will be fully Unicode and utf-8 aware).
• The HTML page encoding needs to be set to utf-8 (setting charset in the language file)

Why does Joomla! 1.0.x seem to work fine when only the charset is set to utf-8?

This in fact occurs if only pure English is used. The reason is that all English characters are in lower ASCII and do not include any extended ASCII characters. In this special case utf-8 is equivalent to iso-8859-1 as all characters are single byte characters. The problems begin with European languages with diacritic Latin characters (umlauts, accents etc.) and with other non Latin languages. If you are only going to use English, you might as well stay with iso-8859-1. If you are going to use other languages, please check out the workaround below.

How is all this solved for Joomla! 1.5?

See: http://dev.joomla.org/component/option,com_jd-wp/Itemid,33/p,16/

Is there a workaround to apply utf-8 in Joomla! 1.0.x series?

Yes. Here is a quick guideline to getting Joomla! 1.0.x to work with utf-8

• use MySQL version 4.1.2 or newer (older versions don't support utf-8).
• create an empty database manually before installing Joomla!. Set the character set to utf8 when creating with some collation (utf8_general_ci is the default and should be OK).
• convert the language files to utf-8 (all language files including for editors, components etc.). Make sure NOT to save with the utf-8 BOM header option.
• Install Joomla using the pre-existing database. After installation check that the database has utf8 encoding for all text fields (just in case Joomla created a new database and is not working on the pre-created one).
• set 'charset=utf-8' in the _ISO define in the language file
• You should uncomment one line of code in the includes/database.php file at about line 102 (second line below)

$this->_table_prefix = $table_prefix;

//@mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8'", $this->_resource); // THIS IS THE LINE TO UNCOMMENT

$this->_ticker = 0;

$this->_og = array();

Please note that the above does not make Joomla! 1.0.x fully utf-8 compatible. All string functions will still be using singlebyte character functions. This works well in most cases (no guarantees). There will be some instances of garbage characters especially with diacritic Latin characters and logical errors in searches and filtering features.

Joomla and languages/translations

Joomla! speaks many languages.

There are quite a few options and strategies available to making Joomla! speak your language. This page will help describe the options and point you in the right direction.

First question is - which version of Joomla! ?

1.0

In this version of Joomla! only the site user interface can be localised (translated). The administrator interface is in English.

Language files for the front end site can be found in many locations. See links below.

There are several fully localised version of Joomla! 1.0.x available. These are derivative works and are not core releases of Joomla! 1.0.x.

1.5

In Joomla! 1.5 all user interfaces can be localised. This includes the installation, the administrator interface and the front end site.

The core release of Joomla! 1.5 is shipped with mutliple language choices in the installation but languages for the site and administration interfaces need to be added after installation. (Other than English). Links to such language packs exist below.

Translation Teams for Joomla! 1.5 may have also released fully localised installation packages where site, administrator and sample data are in the local language. These localised releases can be found in the specific team projects on the Joomla! Forge.

What are the minimum Joomla! requirements

First you must have the base environment for Joomla!. We have thoroughly tested Joomla on: Linux, Free BSD, Mac OS X and Windows NT/2000/XP. Linux or one of the BSD's are recommended, but anything else that can run the 3 pieces of software listed below should do it.

   * Apache: http://www.apache.org
   * MySQL: http://www.mysql.com
   * PHP 1.0(version 4.1.2 or higher) 1.5 version 4.3 or higher: http://www.php.net 

There are several bundled distributions of Apache/MySQL/PHP available at sourceforge.net

Server Configuration

You MUST ensure that PHP has been compiled with support for MySQL and Zlib in order to successfully run Joomla.

While we have reports that Joomla works on IIS server we recommend Apache for running Joomla on Windows.

Optional Components

If you want support for SEF URLs, you'll need mod_rewrite and the ability to use local .htaccess files.

What is Open Source Matters?

Open Source Matters is a non profit organization that provides financial, legal and organizational support for the Joomla! project. For more information on Open Source Matters, please visit the OSM FAQ http://www.opensourcematters.org/content/view/92/63/.

I'm doing a localization or translation. What do I need to know about copyright issues?

Please read this document on the Joomla! developer site.

Joomla! Translations - Licence, Copyright and Status Explained http://dev.joomla.org/content/view/2014/94/.

What has the copyright of Joomla!?

The Joomla! project does not aggregate the copyrights of its code contributors. No contributor is required to transfer his/her copyright to Joomla! and each individual contribution will forever remain in the ownership of its author. This also applies to translations of the Installation language set as these alone are included in the core release of Joomla!.

Open Source Matters Inc., a not-for-profit organisation, holds the Joomla! project's assets and represents Joomla!'s legal matters. Joomla! project claims copyright over the total aggregated creation which is the CMS and framework. This copyright is held by Open Source Matters Inc. This is why each file in the release is marked "Copyright - Open Source Matters Inc." This does not violate the copyright and ownership of the individual contributions. These always remain the authors' property. Attributions of the copyrights of contributors and other included code elements is detailed in the main copyright file in the root directory of the Joomla! installation. As the contributors do not transfer copyright they instead declare that their code contributions are licensed to Open Source Matters Inc. in a limited and non-exclusive fashion. Limited meaning that Open Source Matters Inc. may only use their contribution if it is released under GNU/GPL for the entire Joomla! CMS (or GNU/LGPL in the specific case of the Joomla! Framework Libraries). Non-exclusive meaning that the contributors are free to do whatever they wish with their own creations including using it for their own releases under any licence they wish (including commercial).

How do I report a bug?

If you think you have found a bug, please report it.

Please start by posting a description in the Quality and Testing Forum for the release. This will allow others to see if the problem can be reproduced.

1.5: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/board,199.0.html 1.0: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/board,198.0.html

Before reporting a bug to the issue tracker, we strongly recommend reading "How to Report a Bug Effectively" http://dev.joomla.org/content/view/1450/89/1/1/ by Simon Tatham

To report a bug using the tracker you need to register at joomlacode.org.

For bugs in the 1.0.x series, please read these instructions:

http://dev.joomla.org/content/view/1450/89/

For bugs in the 1.5 series, please file the report here: http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/tracker/?action=TrackerItemBrowse&tracker_id=32

How do I request a feature?

You can request a feature here:

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/board,38.0.html

or here:

http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/tracker/?action=TrackerItemBrowse&tracker_id=20

You will need to register at joomlacode.org to submit a feature request.

Who are the core team?

The Joomla! Core Team is a group of people that provides overall project management and guidance. The Core Team handles the long term planning of the project including rolling out new community resources, development time-lines, event attendance, etc. We are currently comprised of 17 members and you can find biographies for all the members here: http://www.joomla.org/content/blogcategory/43/85/.

How does someone become a Core Team member?

A current Core Team member makes a nomination. A vote is started. A vote requires 2/3 of the team to cast a vote to form a quorum. Once a quorum has been established, you need 2/3 of the votes cast to be in favor. If we do not have a quorum or we have less than 2/3 votes in favor, the motion fails. The voting process lasts up to one week. If every Core Team member votes before one week expires, the voting process ends at the point the last team member voted. You can only vote once and you vote by sending an e-mail to the mailing list with either a +1 or -1. There is technically no limit to the number of times a person can be nominated or voted on although we have never had more than one vote for a single addition. If a Core Team member does not vote, their vote does not count against the motion, it is just neutral, +0 if you will

Can someone be removed from the Core Team?

Yes, someone can be forcefully removed from the Core Team by a vote. The voting process is very similar. A motion is made to remove a member from the Core Team for whatever reasons. A vote is started. A vote requires 2/3 of the team to cast a vote in order to form a quorum. Once a quorum has been established, you need 2/3 of the votes cast to be in favor of the motion for the motion to carry. A Core Team member may not cast a vote in a vote regarding their own removal. The other details about how to vote, the length of the voting process and all that is the same as when adding a Core Team member.

Why does the core team require a 2/3 vote for major decisions?

Well, we require a 2/3 majority because we prefer to have consensus about motions being put to vote before they are actually voted on. This means, if someone wants to propose a motion, they will initiate a discussion about the issue prior to voting on it. If the discussion looks favorable to their motion, a vote will be started. Having a 2/3 majority also prevents fragmentation within the team. We don’t want to have to resort to counting the votes and having 8 in favor and 7 against. If that is the case, there is most likely a problem that has not been discussed thoroughly enough. So, as a team we tend to resemble a consensus democracy more than a straight-up democracy where majority wins.

Who is the Joomla! project leader?

Nobody. Joomla! does not have a project leader, instead, Joomla! has project managers.

What do the project managers do?

The Joomla! project managers act as facilitators in order to help ensure that project level tasks are handled in a timely and proper manner. They are not dictators, commanders, or fascists. They are just the poor unfortunate souls that are tasked with handling a lot of work that other people don’t want to do.

Who are the Joomla! project managers?

Joomla! has three project managers: Johan Janssens, Louis Landry, and Shayne Bartlett.

Who runs Open Source Matters?

OSM is run by a board of directors consisting of 7 members. You can find out more about the OSM board members by visiting opensourcematters.org or by clicking here: http://www.opensourcematters.org/content/blogcategory/37/62/.

How are board members appointed/removed?

The board members of OSM are appointed by the “Community Oversight Committee” which is basically a legal name for the Joomla! Core Team. Board members are appointed to a one year term at which point they can resign, be reelected, or be replaced. If an OSM board member is acting inapporpriately or in way that may compromise the Joomla! project or OSM, the Community Oversight Committee can hold a vote to remove that member. This action also requires a 2/3 quorum and 2/3 of the votes cast to be in favor of the motion.

Does Open Source Matters run the Joomla! project?

No. The Joomla! Core Team is responsible for managing the project and making sure it continues moving forward. Open Source Matters is intended to be an aide to the Core Team and to assist the Core Team. As such, Open Source Matters serves the project, it does not run the project.

Do you work for Open Source Matters?

No. Open Source Matters consists exclusively of the board of directors. It has no employees or members. Board members are volunteers.

Do the Core Team or Work Group members get paid for working on Joomla!?

Nobody is paid by the Joomla! project or OSM to work specifically on Joomla!. All the work we do for the project is done voluntarily without reimbursement. Many members of the Core Team and the Working Groups make money around the Joomla! project by providing services, products, education, consulting, etc.

What is the Joomla! community?

Within the context of Free and Open Source Software projects, a community is another way of describing the collective body of individuals that contribute to a project in a positive way. Membership within the community is conditional and is earned through contribution and commitment. The Joomla! community is an amazing group of dedicated, knowledgeable, and highly skilled individuals that give their time and expertise to the project freely, without strings, and without the expectation of reward or reimbursement. Joomla! is a great project because of the contributions that these people make and it would not be the same without these people. They have each earned their place, their voice, and the respect of their peers within the community through their contributions and dedication. The community consists of the Joomla! Core Team, OSM, all the Joomla! Working Group members, as well as many, many other people that have each given a piece of themselves to the project in hope of helping the greater good, of preserving freedoms, of leveling the playing field, and even just to do something fun. We are eternally grateful to all of these people and the things they have contributed to the Joomla! project.

Why would someone be removed from the Core Team/Working Groups/OSM/Community/Project/etc?

Sometimes, the Joomla! project has to deal with people that are detrimental to the overall health or success of the project. On rare occasions, people need to be removed in part or completely in order to protect the health of the community, the project, or the sanity of its members. There are a few reasons why someone could be removed including: intentionally harming the project, being continuously disruptive, repeatedly violating of the Code of Conduct, etc. We do not take these decisions lightly and we always give several warnings and opportunities to turn around before taking a drastic step such as removal from one of the teams or banning.

What is a “Working Group” anyway?

A Working Group is a group of people that are working toward one particular set of goals. Joomla! currently has 7 Working Groups: Translation, Quality & Testing, Development, Documentation, Sites & Infrastructure, Design & Web Standards, and Foundation. Each working group has a specific set of goals, tasks, and responsibilities. Each Working Group has at least one Coordinator that is a member of the Joomla! Core Team. The management and administration of each Working Group is the primary responsibility of the Working Group’s Coordinator and because of that, the Coordinator is free to setup and run the Working Group in any way they see fit and that agrees with our Code of Conduct. This allows for highly agile teams that can each decide which protocols, processes, communication methods, etc. are best for them. You can find out more information about the Joomla! Working Groups by visiting this page: http://dev.joomla.org/content/view/13/53/ (Note: it is a bit out of date).

How are Working Group members added/removed?

The process for adding and removing Working Group members is defined by the Working Group coordinator and because of that it varies from group to group.

Is the Joomla! community a democracy?

Generally speaking, the Joomla! community is not a democratic organization and it has never presented itself as such. Occasionally, the Core Team asks the community to vote on things as a whole but this tends to be a pretty rare event. However, the community’s input and feedback are welcome and carefully listened to.