Is your Joomla Website Mobile Friendly?

Google has been changing and updating itself to ensure strict evaluation of the websites. This will reduce the spam content on the internet, and bring to life genuine content. In a recent update, Google made a few changes to its search algorithm; mobile friendly sites will be shown as results for mobile based searches. This way, you will not only get a relevant but also a legible site meant for your mobile device. If your website is not mobile friendly, you are not sought by Google when displaying the results. This definitely     affects the mobile sites currently. While most Joomla templates are mobile ready, Joomla as a platform is yet to be mobile friendly. You need to ensure that Joomla does not cause trouble for you, under the loom of this update.Creating a Mobile Friendly Joomla Website

The robots.txt for distribution in Joomla is ready to block a huge number of directories. Some of the directories that are blocked include images, plugins, templates, etc. In the recent times, you will see that Joomla has intended upon caching images and storing them in the template folder. Let’s have a look at the default robots.txt file.

Read more about Joomla Website Mobile Friendly. 

How to develop your First HTML5 based Mobile App?

While the businesses are busy making money by creating a series of “To do list” apps, here is your first HTML5 based mobile app that will help create a “Not to do list”. There are total of five steps that will help you create this app.

The Mock Design

You will first need to create a mock design. Open the mobjectify editor, where you will see the components that need to be added to your design.

First you need to create a page, and give it a headline (title). You will need to check how your list will actually look like when creating a mock design. So, begin creating a list, and check it in the viewer. In this editor, you will see a generate button, which will help you view the design. You will also need to change the inset setting to full screen, so that you can get a better view of the list. you should include “add a new task” to the list by adding an input section combined with a button. Now, you need to confirm if the tasks mentioned have been done/not done. So, you will need a confirmation page. Click on all the list items, and link it to #confirm. Styling the page and adding headings to your page are essential. The mock design will help you create the structure of the page. You will also need to create two additional pages with the titles done/not done. You will need to link them to the confirmation page. With these design levels added, you have given your app a structure. The app has a structure, but no appeal. You will now need to work on the appeal of the app.

Read More Information about First HTML5 based Mobile App.

8 Tips that Enhance your E-commerce Website

With the world going digital, it is no surprise that shopping has become more of an online affair than offline. You spend hours looking at the good things available online, and shop for them. E-commerce has taken a leap since the start, and has today progressed towards mobile commerce. 80% of the users have at least shopped once online, while 50% of the users are repeat shoppers. 71% of the shoppers believe they will find better deals online as compared to the brick and mortar storesIt is inevitable for you to have an online store in the present times. If you have indulged in Joomla development services to establish your e-commerce store, then you possibly need to boost it in order to improve your sales. Here are 8 tips that will help you boost your sales and further your store.

Form Strategic RelationshipsYou need to realize that e-commerce websites don’t gain success alone! Your site will always benefit when you form strategic relationships with firms that have an incredible influence on the online audience.  As an e-commerce developer, you need to keep your eyes and ears open to seek opportunities that can help you form such relationships

Targeted Landing Pages to Improve Traffic

Your conversions will gauge if you work towards achieving targeted traffic. Whatever you sell, try pushing the customers from the social pages to targeted landing pages which means they will walk into the conversion funnel thus boosting your sales

Niche Focus

You need to remember that your e-commerce should have a niche focus. It is easy to get carried away with a broad idea, but that will not help you boost the sales. You need to capitalize on a single market. When you are working on Joomla development, you need to carve a niche, research on the potential of the market you have selected, and finally develop your Joomla site to fit the need.

Founding the Site on PPC

While PPC serves to be a good way to get more people to visit your website, founding your website on PPC can put your site at risk. You need to build your brand before you start advertising the details. You should ideally work towards creating a brand identity and follow it up with PPC based work.

Work on Content Strategy
Optimizing your website to maximize your organic leads will need a good content strategy in place. You can create a blog on Joomla; it is quite easy to integrate or start a blog using Joomla platform. Once, you have the blog in place, start working on the articles for the blog and finally share them using the different media channels. This way you are channelizing quality efforts to build your brand.

Optimize Product Listings

Optimizing your website should be your first priority! You will also need to optimize the product listings. You need to work on niche keywords as well as meta descriptions and images to optimize the product listings. This will help you target the correct audience for your website.

Engage Socially

Social media has indeed proven its usefulness in converting visitors to users. You will see that the power and influence of social media on the users is high, and you need to harness this influence to help you improve sales and further your business goals. You need to establish a thorough presence on social media to grow effectively

Split Test
You need to test whatever it is you are offering with your audience to know if it will work or not. Split testing is the ideal way to know the power of your strategies. Right from the headline to the content type to your site elements, you will need to split test them all to understand and evaluate the effectiveness

Conclusion

If e-commerce is the way that you are headed towards using Joomla platform, you will need to consider all these points to establish channelized marketing and improve conversions. You need to target the audience that your brand has been looking out for, and optimize your strategies in tandem with that. Hire a Joomla developers UK to work out a good design for your e-commerce store.

Verify your Joomla Site in Google Webmaster in 3 Ways

When optimizing your website, you will need to verify your site in Google webmaster tools. You are actually proving your ownership on the site by verifying it. In fact, you get access to a wide range of tools when you verify your website. Here are three methods that will confirm your verification on Google webmaster
 

Adding Meta TagMeta tag should be your first step when it comes to verifying your website on Google. You get a Meta tag from Google that you will need to paste to your site’s home page. This Meta tag should be pronounced on the <head> section just before the first <body> section. Copy the meta tag from Google webmaster tools page and paste it to the template’s index.php file which is located along the following path /templates/TEMPLATENAME/

Here are a few steps that you will need to follow before you can add Meta tag to your Joomla website
• Take a backup of the index.php file

• Open this file in the html editor, and locate the head section.

• Now, paste the meta tag that you have copied to this section, and then save and upload this file for use

Uploading the HTML File
You can verify your Joomla website by uploading the relevant HTML file. All you need to do is upload the HTML file that Google webmaster offers to the website’s root folder. This is the same folder where your configuration.php is located

Adding the DNS Record

This is the third method to verify Joomla website in Google webmaster. This is one of the advanced methods to perform the verification. You can use this method only if you have a certain idea about the DNS used for the particular domain. The TXT record is the DNS entry that offers information about your domain. You will need to create this TXT record to prove your domain ownership.

You can choose the method most convenient to you, of the three. You will need to click the verify button at the end so as to complete the verification

Conclusion

It has become mandatory in the present times to have your website verified by Google webmaster tools. You will be recognized as the owner of the website, only when you have verified your Joomla website. Three ways have been defined for this purpose; you can use whichever you feel most comfortable with. Hire Joomla developer to give your site an appealing outfit.

Deepa is a passionate blogger associated with Silver Touch Technologies., a leading Joomla Development UK. If you are looking to Hire Joomla Developers UK then just get in touch with her.

4 Joomla Extensions that Help Manage your Website

While creating your Joomla requires some basic skills, managing it might need installing some extensions. There are extensions for everything that you may need to perform on the website. Right from attaching documents to your post to social sharing, everything can be done easily with the help of extensions.

Here are some Joomla extensions that can help you manage the website. They will shoulder half the responsibility of maintaining and managing the website, thus making it easy for you.

JCE Editor

You may require a WYSIWYG editor to manage your Joomla website. In that case you should install the JCE editor, which has been created along the lines of TinyMCE. The recent word processing programs sourced to be an inspiration for the editor’s interface. No wonder, it is usable and popular among Joomla developers. What all is included in the installation? An advanced code editor along with a superior image/media/file handler and a spell checker makes up for the WYSIWYG editor for Joomla. You also get a plug-in support with this extension. While the extension is available for free, you will need to pay for the add-ons that are available with this extension.

Attachments for Contents
So, the content you have just posted does not convey all that you want to communicate? You may need some extra files to fill in the gaps that your content has left out.  What now? You need an extension called attachment for content articles using which you can attach PDF, image and other types of files to your content and complete the gaps that the post has left out. It is an easy to use extension that offers a classic interface, thus enhancing the user experience. It is a recommended extension for all those who want to associate contents to their posts.

Akeeba Backup Core

If you want to create a backup of your Joomla website, or restore the site back to its default settings, this is the extension you need to use. It should ideally be a part of the default Joomla installation, but as it is not included there, you should necessarily download and install this extension to your website. If you have a complex website, this extension is your friend indeed. You can stay assured as this extension archives the files and takes a snapshot of the database.

ProjectFork  

It is one of the competent project management software solutions available for your Joomla website. It helps carry out a project as smoothly as possible. With this extension, you have access to a number of solutions like calendars, task filtering tools, message boards and file management systems which make management easy and expedite the projects to help deliver them on time.

Conclusion
When developing a website with Joomla, these four extensions would help you manage the website with ease. Hire joomla developers UK to offer you customized and unique solutions. With the right developers and perfect extensions, you will be able to extend an excellent interface and incredible experience to your users

Author Bio:

Deepa is a passionate blogger associated with Silver Touch Technologies., a leading Joomla Development UK. If you are looking to Hire Joomla Developers UK then just get in touch with her.

Magento Features that Remain Unknown

Magento is a highly inspiring platform solution to build e-commerce solutions thus giving your business a boost. You will see that almost all the features available with Magento enrich your store, and help flourish your business. While most of the Magento features are live and accessible, you will see that many features are still unknown. These features will help take care of some of the trivial issues that bother you while working on this platform. Here are some of the lesser known yet very powerful features of Magento

 

Set the Admin SessionMany times while working with the admin panel, you will see that you have been timed out. You were trying to change the product description, but for some reason when you began saving it, you realized you were timed out. You have an option of setting the admin session lifetime to work uninterrupted.

Go to System>Config>Admin>    Security>Session Lifetime (seconds)

You will need to set the value to over 3600 seconds. This is so that your admin session does not get logged out every 60 minutes

Nest Static Blocks

Do you feel the need to make the content more manageable? With the static blocks, you will be able to divide the different content blocks thus simplifying the content. You can reduce the amount of content in the static blocks nest the different static blocks to be called on a single category or product page.

Allow Customer Ratings

Do you want your customers to rate your products on various parameters? You can now add the different parameters.

All you need to do is go to catalog>reviews and ratings>manage rating

You can add the star rating criteria here. All rating parameters are manageable at the store view level

Create Admin Action Log

With this logging functionality, you can log the actions that you want to record. With such a log you can easily diagnose the issues that you encounter. How will you log the admin actions?

Go to System>    Admin Actions Log and check the boxes next the actions you want logged.

Pricing the Items

In case, you want to display a different pricing for multiple quantities of a particular product, you can easily do so using tier pricing. How will you set tier pricing?

Go to Magento Admin>Catalog>Managed Products

Now click on the item that you want to add tier pricing to

Click on pricer>Add Tier

Now, you should enter the quantity for the tier pricing; also add the price per item and then press save. You will see the tier pricing on your e-store

Conclusion

There are many such things which you tend to ignore. But, these things not just grab your customer’s attention, but also helps reach out to more people. In fact, the store’s popularity and performance improves thus increasing footfalls.
Author Bio:

Deepa is a passionate blogger associated with Silver Touch Technologies., a leading Magento Development Company UK. She recommends checking out Magento Development Services at https://www.silvertouchtech.co.uk If you are looking to hire Magento Developer UK then just get in touch with her.

How to Disable Default Newsletters on Magento?

Many of you are not really happy with the default newsletter available with Magento. You tend to use third party mail services to accomplish the email newsletter related tasks. Since, you are using the third party service; you should ideally disable the default newsletter that comes with Magento. Let’s see how to disable default newsletters on Magento. 

Rewrite Core Magento ModelGo to config.xml and begin with rewriting the core model

<newsletter>
<rewrite>
<subscriber>Example_Newsletter_Model_Newsletter_Subscriber</subscriber>
</rewrite>
</newsletter>

When you put it within the config option, you are actually allowing the store owner to decide whether or not they want to keep the config option.

Create System.xml

Your next step is to create system.xml and paste the code given below to it

<?xml version=”1.0″?>

<config>
<tabs>
<example_tab translate=”label”>
<label>Example</label>
<sort_order>200</sort_order>
</example_tab>
</tabs>

<sections>
<example_newsletter translate=”label”>
<label>Newsletter Configuration</label>
<tab>example_test_tab</tab>
<frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
<sort_order>1</sort_order>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>1</show_in_store>
<groups>
<newsletter_subscription_transactional_mails>
<label>Newsletter Subscription Transactional Mails</label>
<frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>1</show_in_store>
<sort_order>120</sort_order>
<fields>
<enabled translate=”label”>
<label>Enable</label>
<frontend_type>select</frontend_type>
<source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_yesno</source_model>
<sort_order>40</sort_order>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>1</show_in_store>
</enabled>
</fields>
</newsletter_subscription_transactional_mails>
</groups>
</example_newsletter>
</sections>
</config>
Add a Path Within Helper Class

Using the code below, you can easily add a path to the helper class

class Example_Newsletter_Helper_Data extends Mage_Core_Helper_Abstract
{
const XML_PATH_NEWSLETTER_MAILS  = ‘example_newsletter/newsletter_subscription_transactional_mails/enabled’;

public function getNewsletterSubscriptionMailEnabled()
{
return Mage::getStoreConfig(self::XML_PATH_NEWSLETTER_MAILS);
}
}
The new class created for this purpose is  Example_Newsletter_Model_Newsletter_Subscriber . you need to extend this class to the core class Mage_Newsletter_Model_Subscriber

Now copy paste three methods from the core class to the new class and make small modifications accordingly

The three minor modifications include

• public function subscribe($email)
• public function subscribeCustomer($customer)
• public function unsubscribe()

Replace the code in subscribe method

if ($isConfirmNeed === true
&& $isOwnSubscribes === false
) {
$this->sendConfirmationRequestEmail();
} else {
$this->sendConfirmationSuccessEmail();
}
With
if ((bool) Mage::helper(‘example_newsletter’)->getNewsletterSubscriptionMailEnabled()) {
if ($isConfirmNeed === true && $isOwnSubscribes === false) {
$this->sendConfirmationRequestEmail();
} else {
$this->sendConfirmationSuccessEmail();
}
}
Similarly, the following code in subscribecustomer method()
if ($this->getIsStatusChanged() && $status == self::STATUS_UNSUBSCRIBED) {
$this->sendUnsubscriptionEmail();
} elseif ($this->getIsStatusChanged() && $status == self::STATUS_SUBSCRIBED) {
$this->sendConfirmationSuccessEmail();
}
Should be replaced with
if ((bool) Mage::helper(‘example_newsletter’)->getNewsletterSubscriptionMailEnabled()) {
if ($this->getIsStatusChanged() && $status == self::STATUS_UNSUBSCRIBED) {
$this->sendUnsubscriptionEmail();
} elseif ($this->getIsStatusChanged() && $status == self::STATUS_SUBSCRIBED) {
$this->sendConfirmationSuccessEmail();
}
}
Finally in the unsubscribe method the following code
$this->sendUnsubscriptionEmail();
Should be replaced with
if ((bool) Mage::helper(‘example_newsletter’)->getNewsletterSubscriptionMailEnabled()) {
$this->sendUnsubscriptionEmail();
}

With this code, you check if the default mails are set to enable/disable mode, and accordingly decide whether to execute the code or not.

Conclusion

When you are already using a third party service for your newsletters, it makes sense to disable the default newsletter that comes with Magento. To disable, you can use the code given in this tutorial. This code checks whether the default newsletter has been enabled/disabled, and accordingly decides whether or not to execute the code.

Note: It is always a good idea to backup the default code before executing a new code.

Author Bio: Deepa is a passionate blogger associated with Silver Touch Technologies., a leading Magento Development Company UK. If you are looking to hire Magento Developer UK then just get in touch with her.

Why Develop an Android App for your Business?

If you want to be visible on a platform used by your users, you should necessarily have an android app for your business. Here are some interesting statistics that help you realize how popular Android is as a mobile app platform.

• There are more than 6 lakh apps on Google play store at present
• Of the total number of apps on the play store, 67% are free while 32% are paid apps
• 75% of the Q3 smartphones for the past year have been Android units

You can easily judge based on these statistics how popular Android is as a platform for developing your mobile app. Let’s understand why you should develop your business app on android platform

It’s Customizable

You can easily custom create a mobile app to further you business with Android. You can design the app to suit your needs. There’s a whole range of custom options available with Android which can help you experiment and explore

Cross Platform Development

Cross platform apps, which can be easily used across the different platforms, are more popular among the users as compared to native apps. These cross platform apps work best when you are planning an enterprise app.

Rich in Features

When you set to develop an Android based app for your business, you can stay assured that the app will be rich in features. From calendar, email to QR code reader and GPS, all the basic and absolutely necessary features will be well integrated into your app.

Enhances Productivity

Google app is known to get in apps that offer better revenues, and are meant for the users. With an android app you not only improve productivity but also become more visible among the right target audience.

Easy to Search

It is easy to search for an Android app as compared to other apps. Most android apps have a GPS or mapping functionality that helps the users search for the app, and get it on their phones. You apps will be more visible and will reach out in a better fashion.

Conclusion

Android has definitely gauged up as a popular platform when it comes to delivering mobile apps. You will see that not only does it offer to be a more productive platform for your business, but also helps deliver visibility and efficiency to your business. You can reach out to your target in a more approachable manner.

Author Bio:

Deepa is a passionate blogger associated with Silver Touch Technologies., a leading Android Development Company UK. She recommends checking out Android App Development Services at www.silvertouchtech.co.uk. If you are looking to hire Android App Developers UK then just get in touch with her.

How to Use Magento Settings to Manage an Extension Settings?

Whenever you want to make small changes within a particular module or extension in Magento, you have to locate the module configuration tab, and make the necessary changes there. Locating, managing, and making the changes is a tedious process, which you can avoid if you transfer the necessary settings to the main Magento settings. So, you just need to make the modifications within the main settings file, and all the changes are registered.

Create System.xml File

Begin the whole process by creating system.xml file in the etc folder of Magento.

<config> 
    <sections> 
        <pos module=”pos”> 
            <label>Example Pos Settings</label> 
            <tab>service</tab> 
            <frontend_type>text</frontend_type> 
            <show_in_default>1</show_in_default> 
            <show_in_website>1</show_in_website> 
            <show_in_store>1</show_in_store> 
            <sort_order>10</sort_order> 
            <groups> 
                <settings translate=”label”> 
                    <label>example Pos Settings</label> 
                    <frontend_type>text</frontend_type> 
                    <sort_order>10</sort_order> 
                    <show_in_default>1</show_in_default> 
                    <show_in_website>1</show_in_website> 
                    <show_in_store>1</show_in_store> 
                    <fields> 
                        <sanalpos_url translate=”label”> 
                            <label>Service Url</label> 
                            <frontend_type>text</frontend_type> 
                            <sort_order>10</sort_order> 
                            <show_in_default>1</show_in_default> 
                            <show_in_website>1</show_in_website> 
                            <show_in_store>1</show_in_store> 
                        </sanalpos_url> 
                        <user_id translate=”label”> 
                            <label>User Id</label> 
                            <frontend_type>text</frontend_type> 
                            <sort_order>20</sort_order> 
                            <show_in_default>1</show_in_default> 
                            <show_in_website>1</show_in_website> 
                            <show_in_store>1</show_in_store> 
                        </user_id> 
                    </fields> 
                </settings> 
            </groups> 
        </pos> 
    </sections> 
</config> 

Integrate to Config.xml File

This file contains all the field settings required to modify the extension you have created. While Magento is definitely open source, you don’t want to make all the settings and code public. So, you will need to integrate the individual settings to the core settings page.

Paste the following code to the config.xml file
<config> 
    <!– some more code here –> 
    <adminhtml> 
        <acl> 
            <resources> 
                <all> 
                    <title>Allow Everything</title> 
                </all> 
                <admin> 
                    <children> 
                        <system> 
                        <children> 
                               <config> 
                                   <children> 
                                       <pos> 
                                            <title>Kartaca Pos Settings</title> 
                                            <sort_order>10</sort_order> 
                                       </pos> 
                                   </children> 
                                </config> 
                            </children> 
                        </system> 
                    </children> 
                </admin> 
            </resources> 
        </acl> 
    </adminhtml> 
    <!– some more code here… –> 
</config>

With this long xml code, you would enjoy not having to search through individual files and changing the codes there. Saves a lot of time!

Conclusion
Isn’t having one code file an easier way out, especially when it comes to introducing changes, than having multiple files and searching for the particular file? With this integration code, you can easily integrate the codes for the different extensions into your core file. So, you just need to deal with the core file, whenever you want to initiate small changes. Saves a lot of time and effort!

Author Bio:

Deepa is a passionate blogger associated with Silver Touch Technologies., a leading Magento Development Company UK. She recommends checking out Magento Development Services at https://www.silvertouchtech.co.uk. If you are looking to hire Magento developer UK then just get in touch with her.

How to Develop your First Ever Joomla Website

Once you have installed Joomla to your web server, it is time to get started with website development. Creating a website on this platform is a four step process. Let’s get started with the four steps, and introduce how to create a website with Joomla.

Define the Website Structure

It is important to define the structure for your website. You need to make sure that your website is well structured and completely organized, at least on pen and paper. Understand the elements that are important to your website. Include the pages, and sub pages that will be needed by your website. Planning ensures that half the battle is won. The next half is designing and actually creating it.

Adding Content

Once you have defined the different pages that you need for your website, you will need to consider adding the content for the different pages. In Joomla, you will need to add the different content using articles. Before you begin adding content, you need to define the different categories.

Go to Content>Category Manager. Here you can define the categories. In case, you have an article based or news based site, you will need to add categories. Else, you can run your regular pages on default category. Joomla does not offer the category description on front end, so you don’t need to enter the description. But, make sure you have specified the categories that you want displayed on front end perfectly.

Once, you have defined the categories, it is time to add content to those categories. Go to content>articles manager and click on new button. Here, you will need to add the title to your article, select the category and add content to the article. Done with the content for the article, save the article and close the page.

Main Menu

Go to menu>menu manager. Here you will observe a default menu that contains some of the default pages. Here you will need to select the items that you want to display on your main menu. What do you want to be displayed on the home page? If you wish to display a single article, here are the points that will help add the single article

• Go to articles>single article
• Go to settings>select/change button
• Here select the full article that you want displayed on the home page

You can even create some new menu items here. You need to refer to the structure of the website that will help you know which menu items need to be added, and which don’t need to be present on your website.

Where to Place the Main Menu?

Your final step is to define the position of the main menu on your website’s front end. Most joomla templates make use of modules to position the items on the different pages. Go to extensions>module manager>new>menu (from module type popup window). Now, give this menu a title, main menu, and hide the title from the front end.

Now, you will need to position the main menu on the front end. The naming convention for position of the menu differs in every Joomla template. You will need to familiarize yourself with the naming convention used for your template, and work with it accordingly. Choose the position that relates best, save and close.

Now, select where the module, main menu should appear. If you want the module to appear only on home page, then select accordingly.

Conclusion

With these four steps, you are ready to get started with your Joomla website. Now, you can add articles, news or related things whenever there is a need. You have a complete website that can be shared and published to the public. Just optimize it to make sure you are visible.

Author Bio:

Deepa is a passionate blogger associated with Silver Touch Technologies., a leading Offshore Web Development Company in UK. She recommends checking out Joomla Development UK at https://www.silvertouchtech.co.uk. If you are looking to hire Joomla Developers UK then just get in touch with her.