Open Source Training

Our New WordPress Coding Class is Live

Steve Burge — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:19:41 PDT

Here at OSTraining, we split our time between online and live training. Today we merge the two types of training in a new course called "WordPress Custom Content Types". Earlier this year, we held a live training class in Michigan. For three days, Topher taught a small group of attendees how to code with WordPress. We filmed that class and it's ready for you to watch online. Topher uses custom content types as a chance to explore WordPress coding in general. Topher starts by explaining how plugins work and the correct way to approach building them. He then explains content types by creating two: one for staff members and another for the departments they work in. Along the way, Topher touches on everything from how to use the WordPress codex to shortcodes, hooks and custom taxonomies. If you want to start coding with WordPress, you need to watch "WordPress Custom Content Types".

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A Beginners Guide to Drupal Overrides

Cindy McCourt — Thu, 09 May 2013 11:59:07 PDT

The problem with many software applications is you can't make them your own. With Drupal, however, you have the option to override how Drupal does things. From altering a form to customizing the way your pages are displayed, Drupal provides options. The concept of overriding something in Drupal can be made reality in several ways: Drupal's APIs, theme overrides, as well as overriding default configurations in modules. Whatever it is you need to do, the number one rule you should endeavor to follow is: don't hack the core (or a contributed module). Don't open the code files in Drupal and change them to meet your needs. There are better ways. In this tutorial, we will focus on overriding themes.

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Even experts want simpler web software

Steve Burge — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:51:40 PDT

About a week ago, my Twitter stream was overtaken by just one topic. I follow people who work with many different types of web software. That day, they all had one thing in common. They were all tweeting about Ghost, a new blogging platform that was raising money on Kickstarter. Ghost has no live demo and it's heavily based on two fairly obscure tools: Node.js and markdown. However, it flew past it's Kickstarter goal inside one day and has now raised over £100,000. Why is the idea of Ghost so popular with so many different people? Because it promised a renewed focus on simplicity. The truth is that in 2013 even web experts want simpler software.

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The ins and outs of accessible web design

Steff Green — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:47:22 PDT

Accessible websites allow users with disabilities to navigate the web and access information. A disabled user may be blind, have a motor disability, dyslexia, or a range of other disabilities that make web navigation difficult. Most users with disabilities will access the web using adaptive equipment, such as a screen reader or refreshable Braille display. Many will not use a mouse. And these disabled users make up around 10-20% of Internet users in most countries, so creating websites with them in mind will have a positive effect on your bottom line.

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The quickest, easiest way to test Drupal modules

Steve Burge — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:52:59 PDT

A time consuming task for all software users is testing. It takes time to find all the download links, to set up a test environment and to install all the additional software you need. Simplytest.me is an ingenious solution for Drupal. Simplytest.me will install Drupal sites for you, as well as modules and themes that you want to use. Here's a brief introduction to this very useful site.

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All in One SEO Pack video tutorials

Steve Burge — Mon, 06 May 2013 04:53:42 PDT

If you exclude the core plugins, All in One SEO Pack is the most popular WordPress plugin of all time, having been downloaded over 14 million times. All in One SEO is so popular because it appeals to both beginners and experts. For beginners, All in One SEO works out of the box with very little configuration needed. Also, as the name implies, it eliminates the need for multiple plugins because it contains many key features such as handling metadata and installing Google Analytics. For experts, it offers a lot of flexibility for setting up your metadata and integrates smoothly with a wide range of other extensions. We covered All in One SEO back in 2011. Here are 2 new videos tutorials to get started with All in One:

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Joomla 3.1 Has Been Tagged and Released

Steve Burge — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:43:00 PDT

Joomla 3.1 is now available. 3.1 is available as a one-click update for all Joomla 3 users. The major new feature in 3.1 is Tags. We wrote a detailed introduction and said that Tags "is one of the best new features to be added to Joomla in a long time." In addition to Tags, there are some bug fixes and 7 security fixes, so we recommend that Joomla 3 users update immeadiately. If you have a lot of sites, try using Admincredible.com to update quickly and easily.

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Move a Drupal Site to a New Folder

Steve Burge — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:15:00 PDT

Moving a Drupal site to a new location on your server is surprisingly easy. There is a simple 3 step process to move a Drupal site from one folder to another. In this tutorial we're going to show you those 3 steps. If you'd like to move a Drupal site to new folder, we recommend using the Backup and Migrate module.

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The Absolute Beginners Guide to LESS

Harish Chouhan — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 08:45:08 PDT

CSS is a simple language. It allows us to style properties of HTML elements using selectors. This makes it easy for beginners to get started with CSS. However, as the size of your web projects grow, you end up repeating much of your CSS code. If you face this issue, then it's time to use a CSS preprocessor. In this tutorial, we're going to explain what a CSS preprocessor is. We'll also introduce you to one of the most popular CSS preprocessors: LESS.

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How I Managed to Cut Our Traffic by 20%

Steve Burge — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 10:38:34 PDT

I messed up pretty badly last week. I made a change to our site, and within 48 hours our traffic was down by around 20%. Over the last few years we've been slowly growing our traffic, but we can't afford to lose that many visitors! The image below comes from Google Analytics. It shows the week before April 17th (orange) and the week after it (blue). During the second week we were down 18.47% in visits and 19.05% in unique visits. Normally, we get over 60,000 visitors per week, so we lost over 11,000 visitors.

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How to Use Drupal's Search Module

Steve Burge — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:27:38 PDT

A lot of things are simple in Drupal ... once you know how. The Search module is a perfect example of something that is initially confusing to set up, but simple once you know how to do it correctly. This week we had several questions from our members about the Search module, so we wrote this tutorial to help them out. There are several confusing elements to the Search module. Let's address them one-by-one:

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How to Enable Joomla SEF URLs on GoDaddy for SEO

Nick Savov — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:43:00 PDT

Recently, some of GoDaddy's servers have been producing a "No input file specified" error message when enabling Search Engine Friendly (SEF) URLs in Joomla. This tutorial will show you step-by-step how to get your Joomla site working on GoDaddy's servers with SEF URLs enabled.

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Our Drupal Simplytest.me Class is Live

Steve Burge — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:35:20 PDT

We're delighted to launch our latest class, "Simplytest.me". With Simplytest.me there is no need to install an entire site just to test a new module or theme. You can quickly and easily spin up a site with your desired module, theme or distribution and play around without any overhead. You can even use Simplytest.me to apply and test patches.

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Rod Martin to Keynote at J and Beyond 2013

Steve Burge — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 23:43:00 PDT

J and Beyond, an International Joomla! Conference, is back for a fourth year. From May 31st to June 2nd, Joomla! developers and site builders from over 30 countries will gather in Noordwijkerhout, near Amsterdam. J and Beyond is one of two big international Joomla conferences every year, with the Joomla World Conference being the other. We're happy to announce that Rod Martin, our Director of Online Training, will be one of the keynote speakers at J and Beyond 2013.

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Dropplets: Probably the Simplest Blog in the World

Steve Burge — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:04:00 PDT

Websites used to be really simple. No databases. No configuration. No complex deployment systems. Perhaps until around the year 2000, most websites didn't use a database and simply stored all their data in files. Lately, some developers have tried to return to this simpler era, creating blogging software that only uses files. I've tested a few, and my favorite by far is Dropplets. Dropplets is probably the simplest way to blog that I've seen in many years. It makes even WordPress look bloated by comparison. Developed by Jason Schuller, the man behind Press75 WordPress themes, Dropplets is a fun and easy way to blog. Here's how it works ...

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A Guided Tour of Drupal's Settings.php

Cindy McCourt — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:25:00 PDT

The most important file on your Drupal site is the settings.php file. The settings.php is unique to every site and contains all of the important information that Drupal needs to run. Inside settings.php you'll find everything from your database type and login details to your URL and multisite options. This tutorial is your guided tour of settings.php. If you run a Drupal site, here's what you need to know about this vital file.

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Why Good Writing Can Save Your Job

Dan Maynard — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 09:22:00 PDT

Here at OSTraining, our business is writing. It might seem as if our main business is creating videos and teaching classes, but really it all comes to down to writing. We have to write great scripts for our videos. We have to write compelling examples and explanations for our classes. Without good writing, we're out of business, The same is probably true for your business and for your job. Whether you're blogging, creating and uploading videos to YouTube, using Twitter, updating status messages on Facebook, or more importantly spending money on advertising to increase your sales, good copywriting should be an integral component of your online work.

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Join 10,000 People and Get Free OSTraining

Steve Burge — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:44:29 PDT

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The New Tags Feature in Joomla 3.1

Steve Burge — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:14:01 PDT

Over the last few days I've had the chance to test the new Tags features in Joomla 3.1, which is scheduled for release on April 24th, 2013. My conclusion is that Tags is one of the best new features to be added to Joomla in a long time. Not only do Tags work really well, but they also give a glimpse into Joomla's future. In this blog post, we'll give you an overview of how Tags work. We'll also see how Tags shows Joomla growing into a better, more unified system where features and data are shared between extensions.

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How to Customize the WordPress Login Screen

Harish Chouhan — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 07:32:16 PDT

By default, every WordPress site looks the same. For a variety of reasons, people want to customize their WordPress sites with their own logo or styles. In this tutorial, we're going to show you an example of how to customize WordPress the right way. We're going give you an introduction to using functions and CSS to style your site in a way that's safe from any updates.

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Deleting Content Types and Fields in Drupal

Cindy McCourt — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 06:50:10 PDT

Here are two of the most common questions we get from Drupal newcomers: "What happens if I delete a content type?" "What happens if I delete a field?" Because the answers are not easy to find, these kinds of questions can be confusing. Here's a clear explanation of what happens when you delete a content type or field.

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How to Update phpMyAdmin

Melanie Hedgespeth — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 20:17:00 PDT

Many of us have installed phpMyAdmin on our local computer with packaged programs such as XAMPP. The problem is that phpMyAdmin is not always the most recent version. Let me walk you through how to update phpMyAdmin!

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Our Drupal Scheduler Class is Live

Steve Burge — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:25:12 PDT

We're delighted to launch our latest class, "Drupal 7 Scheduler". One feature that is common with other software but missing with Drupal is the ability to schedule content. The Scheduler module fills in this gap by allowing you to create content and have it published and unpublished on any day and time you choose.

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6 Great Improvements in WordPress 3.6

Steve Burge — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:09:34 PDT

WordPress 3.6 is big and exciting. We haven't been able to say that about recent WordPress releases. During 2012, WordPress didn't undergo any major changes. There wasn't much new in WordPress 3.4 except easier theme customization. WordPress 3.5 had a midly different new theme, some media improvements and not much else. In contrast, WordPress 3.6 feels like a big step forward. There's a bold new theme and several useful new features. Overall, WordPress 3.6 provides strong hints of where WordPress is headed in years to come. Here are 6 great improvements in WordPress 3.6.

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OSTalks #7 with John and Linda Coonen from CMSExpo

Rod Martin — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:05:00 PDT

Welcome to the seventh episode of OSTalks, our new video podcast series. Our aim with OSTalks is to present conversations with interesting people from around the open source world. This week I'm chatting with John and Linda Coonen, Founders and Co-Hosts of the CMSExpo. CMSExpo is the place to discover new advances in content management systems, strategies and solutions.

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Why Bounce Rate is Your Most Important SEO Metric

Dan Maynard — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 06:25:00 PDT

Every day I talk with small business owners about optimizing their websites. Many of those business owners ask me about keywords and links. However, in recent years, I've had to explain to them that those are no longer enough to rank well. To help you understand what is important in 2013, let's take a retrospective look back in time, way back in time, a time before Google became a household name in the Internet search space ...

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Using the Feeds Module for Drupal Imports

Steve Burge — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 10:08:04 PDT

If you're moving to Drupal, there's a good chance that you'll need to import data. The Feeds module is the most common way to import content and user data into Drupal. In this tutorial, we're going to answer a question from one of members, "How do I import RSS feeds into Drupal?" As we answer his question, we'll give you an introduction to how the Feeds module works. whether you want to import from an RSS feed, a CSV file or another format.

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Drupal 7.22 Has Been Released

Steve Burge — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 06:05:51 PDT

Drupal 7.22 has just been released. This is a bug-fixing release, so upgrading immediately is recommended but not absolutely essential. Over 100 bugs are fixed in Drupal 7.22. However, this is a good opportunity to check up on all your sites. Drupal 7 releases have been coming rapidly over the last few months. Drupal 7 had no releases in its first 5 months, but has now had 7 releases in the last 7 months. 4 of those releases contained security fixes. We've moved rapidly from 7.16 in October to 7.22 in April, so please make sure that all your sites are up-to-date.

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Our WordPress SEO Class is Live

Steve Burge — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 16:06:56 PDT

We're delighted to launch our latest class, "WordPress SEO". WordPress is a fantastic platform for building your website or blog. By default, WordPress does a good job of search engine optimization, but there's a lot more that can be done! In this course, Dan Maynard takes you through a number of steps to go even further! Dan has seen his WordPress sites rank very highly in SEO on a consistent basis and is excited to share the lessons he's learned with you

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Install the AreYouaHuman Game CAPTCHA in Joomla

Nick Savov — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:03:46 PDT

One of the downsides to using popular software such as Joomla, WordPress or Drupal is that lots of spammers know how to target that software. It's not unusual to get a lot of spam registrations on your site. On the other hand, one of the most frustrating experiences on the web is attempting to fill-in a really hard-to-read CAPTCHA. After several failed attempts, many users give up and leave your site. That's one reason that we've not used CAPTCHA's at OSTraining. We'd rather deal with spam, than lose our valued customers and visitors.

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