There are literally hundreds of WordPress plugins from which to choose;

some great and some awful. At times, it can be intimidating to wade through them all to find the perfect ones for your WordPress site. In this series of articles, I’m going to introduce you to just a few plugins at a time.

Let’s get started: 1. I discovered the very useful Email Reminder plugin only about a week ago. It reminds me that plugins don’t have to do complex things to be invaluable.

The creator of the plugin has this to say about it: This plugin allows you to send email reminders to any email address on the date and time that you specify. So, basically, all you have to do is to enter your reminder, enter the email address you’d like to send the reminder to, and when you’d like the reminder to be sent.

Download Email Reminder 2. Another plugin that you may find useful is Widgets on Pages. This plugin allows you to move your sidebar widgets into your posts and/or pages. You do this by using shortcodes. This is useful when your theme doesn’t have sidebars, but you want to use the theme, anyway. It’s also useful if you’d like different sidebars for different post categories and/or a group of pages.

Download Widgets on Pages 3. What if you want a page to link to the archive listings of a category? A great plugin for this is Page Links To.

The creator of the plugin has this to say about it: This plugin allows you to make a WordPress page or post link to a URL of your choosing, instead of its WordPress page or post URL. It also will redirect people who go to the old (or “normal”) URL to the new one you’ve chosen.

Download Page Links To 4. If you’ve ever had a hard time finding IDs for posts, pages, media, links, categories, tags and users, the Simply Show IDs plugin is awesomely simple. It will add a column in the Dashboard that shows you that content’s ID. There will be no more trying to hover over the link for an item waiting for the link to pop up, so you can jot down the ID.

Download Simply Show IDs 5. The Duplicate Post plugin comes in handy if the majority of your posts have the same format. For example, if you’re managing a photo blog and you always put the type of camera you use first, the date you took the picture second, a little blurb about why you took the photo third and then the photo itself, you could use a post you’ve already created as the template for the next post by clicking “Copy to a new draft.” Take out the post-specific information and leave the labels and fill them in for the new post.

Download Duplicate Post Keep in mind that you don’t have to download these plugins from this article. You can simply log into your WordPress site and install them from your WordPress Dashboard. I do, however, suggest you also download the plugins to your own, personal storage, just in case they are removed from the WordPress.org plugins repository. This does happen from time-to- time, and once a plugin is removed it’s very difficult to find it out on the web. Stay tuned for more plugins posts. If you need help or have questions, please check out The Press Planet for help and support.

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Pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) are widely used for search engine marketing,

but are mostly performed in isolation to one another. The cross utilization of data is seldom seen, which if done, could potentially produce far better results.

The idea behind this post is to ascertain how best PPC can be used to gain useful insights, which when implemented in search engine optimization can help us derive improved results. Mentioned below are few tasks that can be performed better by using PPC to test the waters.

Keyword selection: There is no shortage of free and paid keyword research tools but the data presented by them is not always accurate. Many of us would have learnt this fact the hard way by optimizing for keywords that dont deliver targeted traffic, or for that matter any traffic at all. It is a costly mistake both in terms of time and money.

PPC can be used to determine the traffic generation capacity of keywords by mining raw data such as number of impressions for that particular keyword. This data can be extrapolated to predict the traffic yielding capacity of keywords. Optimizing the website for such keywords would therefore drive more traffic to the website.

Building a wider keyword portfolio: Every website has a set of core terms it wants to rank for, in addition to other semantically similar key phrases. High rankings for core terms will deliver maximum targeted traffic, but at the same time the importance of ranking for secondary terms cannot discounted.

By running a PPC campaign for core terms on broad match, we can identify keywords other than the core terms that trigger the ad. This will not only help in building a database of relevant keywords that are searched for, but also assist in ascertaining keywords that Google considers relevant to the core terms. Tapping these keywords along with the primary keywords would channel more visitors to the website.

Judging keyword efficacy: As everything else in search engine marketing, not all keywords are made equal. It is a well established fact that some keywords convert better than others, but the only certain way of knowing keywords that convert better is to test.

PPC is a quick and efficient way to check the conversion potential of both the primary and secondary key phrases. Optimizing your website for keywords that drive conversion is a sure shot way of generating more revenue.

Writing compelling descriptions: Meta description may have lost its importance as a ranking factor but plays a crucial role in enhancing click through rate for organic listing. In short, it is the ad copy for organic listing.

PPC can be used to test different versions of ad copies and their corresponding click through rate.

The best performing ad copies, based on their click through rate, can then be improvised to develop Meta descriptions that are likely to attract more clicks.

Testing landing pages: A website that does not have the potential to convert visitors into customers is no good.

In order to create a landing page that facilitates conversions it will need to be tested, modified, and tested in an iterative manner. Since PPC has the propensity to deliver quality traffic quickly, testing can be performed without waiting for organic rankings and the consequent traffic.

The whole exercise of leveraging PPC to build a high performing SEO campaign has an additional bonus attached to it you get the best of both worlds and heres how.

It is a well established fact that an online marketing campaign produces best results when search engine optimization and PPC are implemented in tandem, and compliment each other.

After initial spillage and fine tuning, the PPC campaign will start to deliver positive return on investment. Synergizing the PPC campaign with your search engine optimization campaign will result in a holistic search engine marketing campaign. This is bound to deliver best results. And out philosophy is – why settle for less when you can get the best.

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Do you use the automatic link building process? If yes, in what cases?

I guess it might have happened when you had not much time in your hand for the effective link building techniques or because of the reason that, other endeavors which gave a push to your business, suffered because of lack of attention given. Some people even opt for automatic link building for the reason that they get mentally fatigue and find it boring to make link exchanges. Some want link building to be fast and easy. Because of such circumstances and few others similar to this; many people cling on to automatic link building. When you feel that you have no option and you need to take help of automatic link building: this too requires perfection and strategies. Even the last option needs Excellency if you wish to let it work!! Here are two ways of automatic link building which I consider useful:

Link Launder WordPress Plugin for Automatic Link Building

Ever tried out Link Launder for this automatic process? I was going through some link building articles to update my strategies, and then, got to read about this plugin which seemed quite interesting. Link Launder is a free service automated link building WP plugin. Your task is just to install the plugin and leave the mechanization in its hand.
How does it work?

Once you have installed the plugin; it is at your service completely. Link launder updates itself about your blog, certain information regarding it, and sends it to the central server, giving you, free one way links on other blogs back to yours. On the other hand, it also gives the other blog links on yours to arbitrary posts and pages.

The option in your hands!!

What you can control, is, the name of the div that will have the links. According to your needs, you can make changes in the random names. This way you will be safe from Google, which otherwise, might block all that contain a div of that name as a penalty to the users of the service.

But wait!!This does not necessarily mean that you can never be penalized for using this service if any of the search engines find out. The risk is always there. But you can relax to some extent, as; the author of this plugin has done everything possible on his part to prevent the detection of the service users.

Though I havent used it yet, I think it can be useful for those opting for automatic link building.

SEO booster Lite

This is yet another plugin which you can consider a useful option for your automatic link building process. The plugin detects and collects visits by the various users from search engines, particularly from the pages listed on page two of the search engine.

Once, the provided widget is added in your WordPress blog, it will put forward site-wide links to these pages with the detected search terms, and by adding site-wide links to the posts with the search term from the search engine, it will shot to boost those pages from page 2 to page 1.

However, the plugin lists the posts from page 2 in the search engines, so once reached page 1 or fallen to page 3 or further down, the links will no longer be displayed in the widget.

Yet be careful!!

Though, I am helping you regarding automatic link building, its just to prevent you from the worst consequences.
However, I am never in favor of it. And I have valid reasons for this disapproval:

1.The link builder is sending emails to websites to ask if they could host your links. Now, this can be termed as misleading in my words. You should well assume that these websites have no relation to what you are offering at your site. It is a kind of blind mail as the owner is not your acquaintance and these blind mails at times go to thrash bin. Consequence- Major Web masters avoiding you!!
2.One major reason I avoid this process is the insecurity that might blow away my website. Here, in this automatic process, the websites are not sorted out according to their contents. Moreover, this process also gives a free entry to hackers to hack your website.
3.Once the URL of you website is marked as a spammer, nothing in this world can drive in traffic for your website. And such chances have most space here. Automatic link building can lead to spam alert in search engine algorithm, thereby, blocking it from major and popular search engines.

I prefer giving full time and putting in efforts as much needed for this significant process of link building rather than putting my website open to such risks. I would suggest you that you should avoid automatic link building, if, your website is dear to you.

Author:- Link Building Works: is a Link Building Company, offering high quality Link Building Services for higher search engine rankings, increased visibility, high Google page rank and quality traffic highly at affordable prices.

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There are numerous blogs, articles and websites containing Amazon affiliate program reviews.

If you are seriously considering putting up an online store or becoming a professional blogger, it will be helpful for you to read numerous articles containing Amazon affiliate program reviews.

You might ask why you should read reviews when websites already contain enough information regarding their affiliate programs. Reading an Amazon affiliate program review will help you weigh the comments and feedback of other people who have been an Amazon affiliate. You can learn from their experiences and it may help you become successful. Useful information is usually provided by the reviewers to add to your knowledge in learning the basics of being an affiliate marketer. A positive Amazon affiliate program review will always tell you that it is best to become an Amazon affiliate marketer. Positive reviews are there to show you all the advantages. They will convince you to join them so that you can also have the same success they had. The reviewer might also mention regrets you may have if you don’t join them. Reading positive reviews will take you on cloud nine. That’s perfectly fine. You will always want to have a positive outlook when starting a new venture. But you should also read those reviews that contain negative comments or experiences so that you will know what to ask the company before you join the affiliate program. Negative reviews are there to show you all the disadvantages. They will tell you that you will only regret it if you don’t join the company. You should not be discouraged by these negative reviews. You should not think of not being an affiliate just because you read something that gave you negative thoughts and feelings about the company you are about to join.

 

Negative reviews serve as warning signals of possible pitfalls you might see or experience during your venture with the company. Learning from them will help you avoid falling in one of those pitfalls and save you from making the same mistakes others have made. They serve as lamp posts on the path to your success as an affiliate marketer. You are reading both positive and negative reviews in order for you to learn more about the company and gain enough knowledge before you become their partner in business. You would not want to just jump in the bandwagon without knowing where the bandwagon is going. Carefully study what others have gone through. Write down any questions you have and clarify them with the company. You should be able to get clear answers if you know what to ask them. Reading reviews is a critical step if you want to become a successful affiliate of any company you wish to do business with.

When reading an Amazon affiliate program review, don’t become emotional.

Be a learner. Be an observer. Learning from the reviews will always aid you with critical knowledge on how to handle situations that are more or less similar to those you have read about on the reviews.

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What is a directory submission service and how can it help your website?

To put it simply, it is a resource that has all of the time, capability, and networking to submit your website to the best web directories on the internet. This will help to build your website’s Google pagerank, which is an essential factor in improving online traffic. When you sign on with a top notch directory submission service, you are essentially building a highly functional link network that will direct quality traffic to your site over the course of time.

And what everybody wants for their website is more visitors, right? That’s why a professional directory submission service should always be used. It will guarantee that the website will be submitted to the right directories which will assure better ranking, high PR, good reputation and, of course, more visitors. But using professional submission service is good for one more reason: fewer mistakes are likely to be made. Basically, your job entails researching search engine friendly directories, research where webmasters congregates and advertise to them; locate places/job boards where webmasters search for people to submit to directories on their behalf.

The biggest directory project is the open directory project. Most directories have human editors and frown seriously on numerous submissions. Nonetheless when you have a big website with multiple categories, you may place your subcategories as sub domains and publish in different sections of the directory. Most such services are quite affordable as they charge small amounts for the services they offer. But no doubt, you get some very valuable one way links for your website. Whether you are a busy internet marketer or just own a newly launched website, these services can definitely help you. No doubt, they can prove very effective to make your website link popular and bring some traffic from these valuable sources as well.

It’s important that your website be submitted to the directories slowly, in order, to ensure that your one way links appear to be natural to the search engines. Search engine like for link popularity to be created naturally and over time. Hence, if there are too many back links that appear in a short period of time, there’s a good chance that they’ll be ignored and then the money and time that you’ve spent is wasted.

Directory submissions have a significant role in endorsing new ventures.

Here, the web gets its worldwide appreciation on the internet. For this reason link has to be presented. SEO marketing has proved to be better than the traditional marketing methods. If you are a business owner of an online shoe store, you will not invest your money in advertising in television or newspapers. Rather, you will meet such a marketing firm and get the plan in place immediately.

Directoryflicks offers directory submission service for your online business. If you are really concerned about manual directory submission and other details, you are welcome to the directory submission service site. Also read about : wordpress themes and social bookmarking services.

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So you’re starting a blog and need a theme? If you want to make money, you may want to consider using an AdSense-ready theme to increase your profits. These WordPress themes are designed to maximize your earnings from Google AdSense by choosing the best sizes and placements of the ad units. You don’t need to guess where to put the ads to get the best conversion rate because the work has been done for you! This page includes some templates that can help you start you on your way to profitable blogging. Many of the themes shown here are available free of charge, while a few others are premium themes available for purchase.

What is an AdSense-Ready Theme? Templates optimized for revenue

What’s the difference between an AdSense-ready theme and a regular WordPress template? The former has been designed with earnings in mind. Typically, AdSense-ready templates will contain two or three ad units that have been placed strategically within the template to optimize click-through rates and earnings, and the designer has already chosen colors that match the template. All you have to do is insert your AdSense publisher ID. You may want to spice up these templates by adding a custom logo, but all the other work is done.

Of course, any theme can be edited to include ads, but if you’re not comfortable editing CSS and want to include contextual ads on your blog in the most profitable positions, AdSense-ready templates are an easy way to get up and running quickly.

 

AdSense-Optimized Socrates Theme An AdSense-Ready Theme Developed by Joel Comm

The problem with free WordPress themes is that they never offer the same options or support you get with a premium theme. The problem with many premium themes, however, is that they are often designed to be pretty, but not to help you make money.

But the Socrates WordPress theme looks good AND is already AdSense-optimized. You just need to add your AdSense code.

This theme was developed by marketing guru Joel Comm, author of the New York Times bestselling book, “The AdSense Code: What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense” and other books. Joel Comm is an expert in the field of making money online and has developed this theme to help others do the same. He makes it easy for you to create hundreds of different blogs with this one theme because it has over 200 niche-header designs, dozens of backgrounds, multiple layout options, and custom styling and color options. It also comes with free Internet marketing and WordPress training developed by Joel Comm, so you’re not only getting a great theme, but training on how to best use it, too.

ProSense

ProSense is a clean, three-column AdSense-optimized theme from Dosh Dosh. It comes in three color options – blue, gray and brown – and includes two types of ad blocks on the top and bottom of the single post page. This is a simple, free theme that you can download and start using immediately to make money online.

BlueSense

BlueSense is another free AdSense template for WordPress from Dosh Dosh. It includes three ad units on the single post page, including a 468 x 60 banner across the top of the page, a 160 x 600 skyscraper to the left and a 336 x 280 rectangle below the post.

Niche AdSense Themes for WordPress

If you’re interested in niche blogging, you may also want to try Niche AdSense Themes for WordPress. This package comes with 12 themes custom designed for highly profitable niches, and each theme has integrated AdSense modules designed to generate a high click-through rate (CTR). The package also includes some great bonuses, such as 900 private label articles, and an e-book on how to make money blogging about the holidays.

Protegidas

Protegidas is a free AdSense-ready theme from TopWPThemes.com. It includes three ad units – a 468×60 banner in the masthead and two 120×240 vertical banners in the left column.

Rockin3

RockinNewspaper is a 3-column free template for WordPress that includes a 728×90 leaderboard in the theme header. It’s got a nice clean design with a white background.

wpMix.com

Free WordPress themes by Andrej of wpMix.com. You’ll find nine AdSense-ready templates on this page. Each one includes a demo link.

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Article Title: A “Review” of the Book ‘Bounce’: How Champions are Made (by Matthew Sayed)

Shared by: Craig Lock
Category (key words): Books, Bounce, Matthew Sayed. Success, Success Principles, Motivation, Inspiration, Sports Psychology, Sport, Mind, Mind Control, Positive Thinking and Positive Psychology (enough there now, craig!)
Web sites: www.creativekiwis.com/index.php/books/74-craigs-books http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/craiglock + www.lulu.com/craiglock
The submitter’s blog (with extracts from his various writings: articles, books and new manuscripts) is at http://craiglock.wordpress.com
Other Articles are available at: http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/user/15565 and http://www.ideamarketers.com/library/profile.cfm?writerid=981
(Personal growth, self help, writing, internet marketing, spiritual, ‘spiritual writings’ (how ‘airey-fairey’), words of inspiration and money management, how boring now, craig!)

Publishing Guidelines:
We hope that the following article may be informative and helpful to your e-zine readers, or on your web site.
This piece may be freely reproduced electronically or in print. If it helps others -out there- on the pathway to success (and most importantly, happiness), then we’re very happy.

-We share what we know, so that we all may grow.-
* *

A “REVIEW” OF THE BOOK ‘BOUNCE’: HOW CHAMPIONS ARE MADE

by Matthew Sayed, a journalist with the Times of London (and published by a division of Harper Collins)

Sayed maintains that It (success) is not about talent. It’s about the transformational power of practice – the time and immense effort you put in to develop your skills. There is no short-cut to the very top, to become a champion. Practice is transformative, not only for the body… but in the mind.
The psychologist Ericson was right. To develop the complexity of skills takes many thousands of hours.
However, champions also need opportunity (or rather opportunities). Excellence is the consequence of thousands of hours of practice, but champions need skills to translate under pressure.
Belief in God liberated some champions to play great sport. Eg: “With God (or Allah) on my side, I couldn’t lose.”
- Muhammad Ali (and British triple-jumper Jonathan Edwards)

In other words, the ‘placebo effect’ transcends medicine:
“Positive illusion”
Champions also use mental tools, like:
Positive affirmations
and
Positive imagery

In summary…
Relevant and powerful is perceptual awareness (and not better reactions) that makes the difference in performance between elite sports-people… and that these skills are acquired, then developed over many years.

Finally…
Matthew Sayed suggests that BELIEF, rather than ability will determine our level of success. The central fundamental theme of this fascinating and compelling book hinges on a word BELIEF – that excellence depends on many hours of practice, rather than our innate abilities.
A glimmer of hope for me then…
perhaps!

In developing YOUR craft to the fullest with hard work, persistence, patience and especially PRACTICE, discover the champion in YOU!

Shared by Craig Lock

“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: A desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
- Muhammad Ali

-One person with a dream can accomplish more than 100 others without one. If you have a burning desire, you can accomplish anything. The biographies of great men and women are full of stories of how they did seemingly impossible things because they had a dream.-
- author unknown

- Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

-Oh man! There is no planet sun or star could hold you, if you but knew what you are.-
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

- I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have.-
- Abraham Lincoln

STOP. Enough there now, craig. Your -signature- is already longer than your article!

OK, then I’ll just add a bit to the article

-He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it.
Dream lofty dreams and as you dream so shall you become.-
- James Allen

-No vision and you perish; No Ideal, and you’re lost; Your heart must ever cherish Some faith at any cost. Some hope, some dream to cling to, Some rainbow in the sky, Some melody to sing to, Some service that is high.-
- Harriet Du Autermont

-Together, one mind, one life at a time, let’s see how many people we can impact, encourage, empower, uplift and perhaps even inspire to reach their fullest potentials.-

THIS ARTICLE MAY BE FREELY PUBLISHED

PPS:
Most importantly,
have FUN enjoying the life journey

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A quick step-by-step guide on installing and setting up K2

K2 is a content component for Joomla! with CCK-like features developed by JoomlaWorks.

It allows you to manage your content in a more fashionable manner. You can publish blog, catalog, directory and magazine using a single component. Its development was started in 2006 but up to now no documentation was published. There’s a video tutorial but I wasn’t able to watch it because of my slow connection.

I wrote this tutorial for those who want to use and explore K2 but have no idea where to start.

STEP 1. Download the latest version of K2 from the JED or from JoomlaWorks.

STEP 2. Install K2 using the Joomla EXTENSION MANAGER.

STEP 3. Open K2 dashboard from the COMPONENT MENU.

STEP 4. Create EXTRA FIELD GROUPS. Name your field groups Blog, Catalog, Directory or anything you want. Extra Field Groups are used as root for your categories.

STEP 5. Add EXTRA FIELDS for your extra field groups.

Default: Title, Text and Image are the default fields. This could be readily used for your Articles, Blogs or News groups. Add extra field for Directories, Catalogs, and other extra field groups.

STEP 6. Add CATEGORIES. Associate extra field group for your categories. You can create categories for your Blog, Catalog or Directory. Configure your desired parameters.

STEP 7. Add USER GROUPS. Defaults are Registered and Site Owner. If you want certain user group to be able to add item at the frontend, select yes for FRONT-END ITEM EDITING, yes for ADD ITEMS, yes on how they edit an item: OWN or ALL, and yes for PUBLISH, if you want users to publish their own articles.

DO NOT FORGET TO ASSIGN CATEGORIES for your user group. Options are all, none, and select from list.

STEP 8. Assign your existing users their own K2 USER GROUP. Set their gender, add description, and upload an image for their avatar. These details will appear as author’s detail at the bottom of their articles if enabled in your category parameters.

STEP 9. Add tags.

STEP 10. Assign menus using the Menu Manager.

Options:
Copy or form layout
Item – create a menu item directly to an item in K2
Categories – displays a list of items from one or more categories.
Tag – create a menu linking to a tag in K2
User Page (blog) – create a menu item linking to a user page (blog layout)

STEP 11. Publish K2 LOGIN module in module manager.

You can also publish K2 COMMENTS and K2 CONTENTS if you want certain contents and comments appear in your module positions.

STEP 12. Add an item for each category. If you followed Step 7, an ADD AN ITEM menu will appear in K2 login module. This allows certain users to add an item at the frontend.

Frontend editing is a little off because the creator of K2 used a squeezebox instead of a standard form. The save and cancel button can’t be seen (or hidden) if you are using desktops or laptops with small screen.

There are other parameters that need to be configured. I’ll leave that to you for experimenting and exploring capabilities of K2. Templating in K2

UPDATED TO REFLECT CHANGES IN v2.2+

In this short tutorial, we’re going to explain how K2 templating works.

Note: If you’re just starting with Joomla!, I highly recommend you first have a look here: http://docs.joomla.org/Beginners

As you may know already, Joomla! 1.5 is an MVC content management system and provides you with the means to “override” default HTML layouts within your template’s folder. All you have to do is usually copy the “tmpl” folder of a component’s view within your Joomla! template’s /html/com_componentName/ folder. In K2 version 1.0.x we did the same thing, but it was limiting for the potential of this component, if you wanted to use K2 for different things, like blog, magazine, catalog etc.

So we had to implement a different way to utilize sub-templates, within the templating capabilities of Joomla!. What we did is even simpler compared to current Joomla! templating: all you have to do to override K2′s views is COPY THE CONTENTS of the folder /components/com_k2/templates/ and PASTE it into /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/. Judging from the first folder path, it’s clear that we do not use Joomla!’s logic, but it’s for the better.

After you have copied this folder over to your /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/ folder, you will notice that some “views” are right at the root of that folder (e.g. generic.php or user.php) and some other views are located within a subfolder, called “default”. These are located in: /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/

The “views” that are located at the root of that folder are the ones that cannot be themed into variations and this is normal, as you want need to have different layouts for the registration page or the user page or the page that shows search results from K2 content! If you want to override K2, just go ahead and edit these “views”.

Now, the “views” that are located within the folder “default” are the ones that can be themed into variations and these “variations” can be selected from K2′s backend, when editing categories or “menu items” to K2 categories. Let’s try this example: We’re still inside /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/. If you copy (duplicate) the folder “default” and change its name to “blog” (for example), this new folder containing views to the item and categories will then be picked up by K2, without having to exist inside /components/com_k2/. How cool is that, right? Repeat the process and you can create groups of “views” (sub-templates in K2 lingo) which can then be used for different parts of your K2 based site. To edit each sub-template just edit the files contained in each folder. If you edit the item.php view in the folder “blog”, for example, then only the categories or menu items using this sub-template will pick up your changes.

So if your website had 3 major areas, say a news section, a knowledge base and a catalog of products, you create 3 copies of the “default” folder, rename them to something relative to these areas (e.g. news, kb, catalog) and then you create your create each parent category, assigning the respective sub-template each time. Then you edit each sub-template and get the desired layout for your site.

As you can imagine this opens a whole new way of skinning K2 based Joomla! websites as you only have one component yet different views per functionality. So your K2 blog is different to your K2 catalog or your K2 news/magazine section and so on.

Template developers have already grasped the potential of K2 sub-templating and many new and exciting templates are on the way from major template vendors. FILE & FOLDER PATH EXAMPLES IN K2 MVC TEMPLATING
Within the component Within our template

/components/com_k2/templates/ /templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/com_k2/

/components/com_k2/templates/user.php /templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/com_k2/user.php

/components/com_k2/templates/default/item.php /templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/com_k2/default/item.php

/components/com_k2/templates/newsubtemplate/category.php /templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/com_k2/newsubtemplate/category.php

(does not have to exist) /templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/com_k2/differentSubTemplateNotExistingInComponent/category.php
1 – Introduction 1.1 – What is K2?

K2 is the popular powerful content component for Joomla! with CCK-like features developed by JoomlaWorks, makers of fine Joomla! extensions since 2006.

It provides an out-of-the box integrated solution featuring rich content forms for items (think of Joomla! articles with additional fields for article images, videos, image galleries and attachments), nested-level categories, tags, comments, a system to extend the item base form with additional fields (similar to CCK for those acquainted with Drupal), a powerful plugin API to extend item, category and user forms, ACL, frontend editing, sub-templates and a lot more!

Using K2, you can transform your Joomla! website to a news/magazine site with author blogs, product catalogs, work portfolio, knowledge base, download/document manager, directory listing, event listing and more, all this bundled under one package! Since K2 is extensible with additional fields to its base item form, you can easily create category-specific content types, e.g. article, blog post, product page, directory listing.

Give K2 a try and you’ll instantly love it! It’s easy to use and fun to develop websites with! If you need any help or want to contribute to the project, join us here at the K2 community. 1.2 – Why You Need K2

You maybe thinking, “Why do I need to use k2″?

There are a large number of reasons, you speak to anyone that uses or develops for K2 and you will get more reasons, this list are some of the ones that I have found.
Nested Categories
Gone are the Joomla restrictions of Sections and Categories, now you can create Sub Categories as deep as you like to create complex site structures.
K2 Micro Templates
Each Category can be assigned its own individual K2 Micro Template to make it render pages in a different layouts to other categories, ideal for multi-functional sites.
Tagging
Add tags to items that can then be linked to form a catalogue of information.
Design Flexibility
A vast array of elements can be enabled/disabled per item or category and when used in conjuction with K2 Micro Templates you can produce truley unique site designs.
Extended User Control
Allow your contributors to post, from the front side of your site without having to have backend access. Control who has access by setting up groups with their own restrictions.
Support
K2 has an active group of followers to create a very supportive community to help offer advice and real experiences.
Its Free
You could quite easily expect to pay quite a few dollars for an extension with far less functions than K2 has. 1.3 – Requirements

What do you need to run K2?
Joomla

You need to be running 1.5 and above.
MySQL

We recommend MySQL ? or above. Minimum requirement is ?
Apache

We recommend Apache ? or higher. Minimum requirement ?
PHP

We recommend PHP ? higher, although K2 will also run with PHP ? which is still supported by Joomla. Minimum requirement is ? 2 – Getting Started 2.1 – Get K2 – Latest Version V2.2 (stable)

After 4 months of development, JoomlaWorks is happy to announce the release of version 2.2 of K2.

You can download the new version at

If you’re using versions 2.0 or 2.1 (or if you used the SVN version of 2.2), upgrading is a breeze: just install the 2.2 package on top. All new functionality will be added without messing with your templates not one bit!

If you have modified your default K2 template then backit up before upgrading as it will be over written.Consider creating K2 micro themes instead, K2Joom has written guides for that too.

Version 2.2 adds many new functionalities in v2.1. To sum things up, v2.2:
Enhances frontend editing further more. Users can now moderate comments to their own articles (if they have the permission to do so of course). A true multi-author environment!
Adds the “latest items” view which is a new way to show the latest items from specific categories or users in one page. See how K2 in action Reporter.gr here http://bit.ly/7N8Eov and you’ll get an idea of what we mean.
Many new features, options and other little gizmos added to the modules of K2, e.g. auto-generated feeds from contents retrieved in mod_k2_content.
Google AJAX Search integration into mod_k2_tools. Use the power of Google within your site seamlessly. See the example here: http://bit.ly/5Sz4fr
A user’s unpublished items are now seen on the user’s page if they’re logged in. Makes it easier to write new items without auto-publishing or publishing later.
More feature-rich RSS feeds with new content options.
New backend module to quickly access K2 admin pages from the Joomla! Control Panel page.
New refined frontend and admin form pages make using and learning K2 a joy!
New tagging system introduces 2 ways to add tags: via a selection based tagging option (as used in 2.1) or a new super cool free-tagging option with auto-suggest features.
Now you can embed videos from any provider in the “video” tab, even if they are not supported by AllVideos (which is utilized in K2).
Better import functionality from Joomla! Along with articles/category/section import we’ve now added “user import” (found the in Users menu in K2) which will help transition Joomla! users into K2′s advanced ACL system. Makes adopting K2 easier on existing websites with dozens of users and more (previously you’d have to assign users from Joomla! one by one to K2). Furthermore, we have added missing user management tools in Joomla! into K2′s “Users” page. E.g. the option to move many users at a time from one Joomla! or K2 user group to another. Or multi-delete. Or multi-unpublish! You name it!
Comment editing is now possible inline using a spice of ajax! No more badly spelled comments on your site! The editing functionality in comments is available for admins and frontend editors.
New “CSV data” type in “Extra fields” makes uploading tabular data in K2 a breeze.
I’d like to emphasize that performance has been improved furthermore into K2 and we’ve laid the foundations for a RESTful API within K2 for later versions. Developers can easily spot the new options provided to do AJAX calls into K2 content or display content from K2 in a raw and usable (to third party services) format.

For template designers, we’ve now made it possible to directly override the K2 CSS by including references to the K2 frontend CSS files in their templates. K2 will look first for the K2.css, K2_ie6.css and K2_ie7.css files in the template’s /css folder and if it doesn’t find these files it will then pick them up from K2′s /css folder. There is no need now for your template users to manually switch off the default K2 CSS.

A more detailed changelog will later be published, clearly defining the changes, improvements and other tidbits on the way to 2.2.

A big thank you to all the people who tested the SVN versions of K2 v2.2 and helped us pinpoint bugs before the release. You are an example for any open source community!

Enjoy one more fine release from the folks at JoomlaWorks! 2.2 – K2 Installation

Installation of K2 is as simple as any other application for Joomla!

You will need to have the latest version of K2, if your read part 3, then you should have it downloaded already.INSTALLATION STEPS.

From the Joomla Administration area, navigate using the top menu to Extensions > Install/Unistall.
You have three install options, please use the most appropriate:
Browse for a local copy to upload
Install from a directory on your server
Install from a URL
Click Install when ready.
You will be notified once K2 has been installed, you are then ready to start using K2

Installation is now complete. 2.3 – The K2 Dashboard

OK, so now K2 is installed, lets pop over and take a look at the dashboard.
K2 Installs in the top menu under components and also to the main control panel.
If you start at the menu option, you will see the following image.If you want to remove the Joomla dashboard from the main control panel, then we have a guide which explains how to remove it.
Along the top of the K2 dashboard we have the following choices, we shall cover these in more depth in the following lessons..
Dashboard: This will return you to the screen.
Items: This is the equivalent of an Article, but much better..
Categories: K2 only uses categories, no more Sections and Categories, the benefit is you can create sub, sub, sub, sub categories etc.
Tags: Much like that used in WordPress, use tags to help relate your content
Comments: K2 has a built in commenting system, so you can see what has been posted here.
Users: Used to see all your users.
User Groups: K2 allows you to set access levels per user group, add users to to this group.
Extra Fields: Use for adding specific information per item, such as weight, price, colours etc.
Extra Field Groups: Organise your fields into groups to make it easier to assign them.
Information: Displays information on your system, K2 modules and plugins athat you have installed.

There are also some graphical equivalent icons too, plus a few extras which point to options within the main K2 menu.
Pay attention to the Joomla Import and Parameters in the top right.You will be needing those shortly. 2.4 – Understanding K2

K2 is a replacement for the way Joomla content is produced and needs to be understood so that you can progress in the correct direction.

Gone are the Section and Categories configuration and instead, replaced with nested categories allowing multi layers of sub categories.
Joomla articles are now K2 items.

The logical way to create and display your content in K2 would be:
Create Categories
Setup Extra Field Groups
Setup Extra Fields
Create K2 Items
Create Menu link

Steps 2 and 3 can me ignored if you just want to get going and test K2.It will save you time in the long run, but you can always create the Extra Fields afterwards. 2.5 – Importing Articles into K2 Items

If you are converting a Joomla site to run on K2, you will want to import your content so that K2 can manage it, this is very simple as K2 has thought ahead.

Take a look in K2 Dashboard and remember that icon that was mentioned earlier, Import Joomla Articles, by clicking this icon, all your Joomla articles are copied from the database to new K2 tables within the same database. This includes Author, dates and attachments to minimise potential data loss.

It is worth being aware, that as these are now in K2, you could go through these items and modify as you need, especially how categories are displayed.

OK, so we can bulk import, wahoooo, but wait . . . . .what if you only want to import certain sections or categories from Joomla??? There is no option in K2 to do this.

Well you are kind of right, but there is a work around.

Simply go to that soon to be dusty filing cabinet with the tatty label Article Manager.
Select all the items you do NOT want to be imported in to K2 and then Archive them.By doing this, they are then not available to be imported.Mega Simple!!

If your site is busy, wait and select a quieter time if possible.Although this is a quick 5 minute process it might be noticed by visitors.

Remember, provided that you do not trash your Joomla Articles and then empty the trash can, they will still reside within the Article Manage, even after you have imported them.

You will need to create menu items pointing to the new K2 content before you can view it on your site, this is covered in a following guide. 2.6 – Create a Category

If you are creating a new site in K2, the first step in creating content has to be with the category.
In this guide, we shall cover the basics of creating a category, with more detailed explanation of the parameters found in the Category chapter.

Click on the NEW button with in the category area and you will be presented a new page.
We are goind to split this into smaller sections, so lets look at the following area.

Title: Helps identify the category for storing items.
Title Alias: This can be left blank as it will populate itself upon saving, or set as required.
Parent Category: If you are creating a sub category, then you can specify which parent to create it in.
Inherit Parameters: There is a lot of settings for categories, use this to inherit from another category.This is great to use for sub categories, as you only need to configure one of them, then get the rest to inherit from it.
Associated Extra Field Groups: You can select which, if any, EFG you would like to use. If you are creating a catalogue for example, then you can pull in all you EFG needed to be displayed.
Pubslihed: Self explanatory.
Access level: Who can see the category.

With those set, you can now click Apply or OK and will have created your first category.
K2 has a host more options for Categories and these are covered in more depth in the Category chapter.

Once you have some categories produced, then you category list looks a little like the image below.
2.7 – Creating Extra Field Groups

In this step, we are going to create an Extra Field Group.

Click on the Extra Field Group from the K2 dashboard and you will be presented with the following page.
You need to create a group name, which will help identify and be related to the extra fields you will create in it.
As you create more extra field groups, then they will appear in the Extra Field Groups List, as seen below.

You can also see that in the list view, it shows which categories have been assigned to which Group. 2.8 Extra Fields for your Extra Field Groups

So in the last step, we created an Extra Field Category, now we are going to start creating some Extra Fields.
Click on the Extra Field menu then click NEW, you will be presented with the following screen.

Name: The name you will give to the Extra Field
Published: Self explantory.
Group: Select a group which you would have setup in the previous step.
New Group: It is possible to create a new Extra Field Group by entering a new name here.
Type: Select a type of field code, further explanation into these code is avilable in the Elements chapter..
Default Value: This could be a sign if you are going to be entering prices. The would always appear in the field for data entry.

Once you have created your Extra Fields, they appear in the list as per the following image.
2.9 – Create an Item

So, you have created your category, now you need to create some content in the form of a K2 Item.
We are going to run through just the basics in this guide, more information can be found in the Items chapter.
First up, click on Items on the menu or if you are already there, then click on Add New, you will be presented with the following screen.

Much like the Category page we saw we have some basic infomarion to complete, some layouts may differ, specifically the tags section.
Title: The name of the Item you are creating, will be displayed at the top of the post, unless disabled.
Title Alias: For use with SEF URLs.
Tags: K2 Uses tags, similar to Worpress, used as keywords that relate to your item.
Available Tags: Tags thast you have already created and can be used, use the Add, Remove Buttons.
Selected Tags: Tags that you have chosen to be linked to this item.
Published: Select if the item is published or not.
Featured: Enable the tick box to make this a featured item, given priority and additioanl “Featured” text applied.
Category: You must select a category to publish in to.
Once this information is complete, then you can continue to add contenm, the following screenshoot shows the lower part of the same screen.

This is the main content screen, with a series of Tabs to add an intro image, gallery, video, extra fields and attachments.Again, these extras are covered fully in the Items Chapter.
The remaining area is just like your normal Joomla WYSIWYG, in this case we use JCE as our editor.

You may also notice in the first Image, a button called Toggle Sidebar, by doing so, an extra side bar appears with more information and parameters, although not necassary in this example, you will want to badding in meta and description information at some stage.Again, these are all covered in the items Chapter.

Simply click SAVE or APPLY and you will then be ready to create a menu item to display the item to the whole world. 2.10 – Create a Menu Link

The final stage of presenting your K2 content to the rest of the world, is to create a menu link. Of course, you could also present it via a module, but will will be covering presentation with modules in another guide.
This procedure in the same as for any other menu creation, other than we will point to K2 content instead.

Lets go to the Menu Manager and create an new menu item in MainMenu.
There are 5 menu links to choose from and more information on these can be found in the Core Elements chapters,
Basically choose from a single item, category, tag, user page or latest item from a category or user.

Depending on which type you select, there will be additional parameters that can be set up, again, these are covered in the Core Elements chapter.
You have now created your first K2 item link on you menu. Visit your site and the menu item will appear and will click, work as set up.

If you wish to have some K2 content on you front page, consider creating a front page category in which to place this content, then use the menu manager, create a Home link pointing to your front page category.
So now we have covered the basics of create content in K2, whats next?
Continue playing with and creating K2 content, the next three chapters will explain in more detail all the parameters associated with categories and items, this will then give you a better insight in to ways that your content can be presented and controlled. 2.11 – Creating a Front Page Menu Link

In this guide, we will look at creating a replica of the default Joomla front page setup on our demo site.
Lets start by taking a look at a standard install of Joomla with sample content.

We are going to change the top menu so that it allows a switch between Joomla Layout and K2 Layout.
Before we can do anything, we need to import the Joomla content in to K2, use the steps in this guide, if you have not done it before.

Now that we have content in K2, we need to create a new Front Page K2 category, this will then be used to copy the exact same K2 version items as used in the Joomla version, as we currently have both types available to us.
Normally I would start configuring the parameters for the front page category, however this can be done later as we will do, once we have linked in the top menu so that we can switch between the two layouts.

If we take a look at the Joomla Front Page Manager, we can see that there are just three active articles.Move the K2 item versions to the newly created K2 Front Page category.

We can now start to reconfigure the menus to point to the new K2 content items and categories, so lets go to the Menu Manager and edit the Top Menu.
You will see four items, we only need two, so either trash or disable two of them.
Click on one of the items to edit it and change the menu type to Joomla Front Page Blog Layout and rename the title to something like J! version.
In the Parameters (Basic) you will see the #Leading = 1, #Intro = 4, #Columns = 2, these are what we will use later to configure the K2 Category.Don’t forget to save.

Click on the remaining menu item to edit it and change the menu type to K2 Item Listings, Categories.
Before selecting a category, you can configure the category in the layout parameters. As soon as a category is selected, you will no longer be able to edit via the menu manger, but only through the K2 category management..
Select the Front Page Category which you created and don’t forget to save, then you should have something similar to the image below.

In the above image we have disabled two of the items, but you can trash them if you wish.

All you have to do now, is go to your site, refresh and you will see your top menu with your new links which when clicked, you will see the following layouts. Joomla K2 Version

The only differences so far in these two examples is that we have not enabled the modules to appear in the same positions at the original default Joomla Front Page, but that is not the aim of this guide and is simple enough to deploy.
There are also som esubtle style differences, but that is due to how the default k2 template is setup.This can of course be modified, and some functions can be enabled or disabled via the category parameters.

In the next guide, we take a look at another menu type the “Latest items from (one or more) users or categories” 2.12 – Creating a FrontPage

OK, this is a really quick and easy thing to setup.

In the previous guide, we saw how to create a menu link to an imported version of a Joomla FrontPage, but what if your creating a new site, with no content?

Simple.

First, you will need to create a category and call it Frontpage or something that makes sense.
This is going to contain all the items you create that will be displayed on your Home Page, I use this technique on all my K2 Template demos over on K2Joom
Remember, you can further enhance your Home page with additional modules.

Now, there are two quick ways you can approach your site layout and both work just as well.
Create the Frontpage category on its own, with no sub categories.
All enabled items in this category will be displayed, including any set to featured.
Its easy to see, one category, with all Frontpage items in it.
Create the Frontpage category with sub categories.
You can the decide if you run this category in catalog mode, ie, show all items in all sub categories or just in the Front page category.
This allows you to create contant display as per option 1, but also to display your sub category blocks and style those as you wish, you can of course disable the sub category blocks from being displayed, if you wish.

As a Live example, check out the Home page on this site.

The first block “Welcome to simon.getk2.org – my home for K2 documentation, tutorials, tips’n'tricks and more”,this is just an HTML module in a position above the content.Its a semi permanent content display element, I can change its content as I wish, its always going to be at the top above the content and wont be affected by new items or changing the ordering of items.

Next block of text “Come and get in the community spirit”, this is the Category description text.

Then you will see four sub category blocks, these are contained within my Home Page category.
You will notice, there are no items displayed, this is due to my Front page category that has been set to show 0 leading, 0 primary and 0 secondary items.
By changing those values to a positive number Items would then be displayed on that page, I did not want to.

For a further example, check out K2Joom.com.
This is set up, as per option 1 above, only content in the Front page category is displayed.

So now you have your category/categories setup, add some demo content, then create your HOME menu link so that it points to your Front page category.

Voila, you should be on your way. Templating

In this update guide, I am going to explain how K2 templating works as it differs from the way Joomla handles templates.
Gone are single site wide templates or other over complex, multi css based themes.K2 is different!!

It allows wed designers / developers to setup sub-templates or micro themes as we call them, which can then be used for different parts of a site.
If you have a blog, a gallery and a products section you can set the required micro themes to be used thus, restyling the layout and style whilst stil being able to retain the core site design.So how do we do it?

As standard, the K2 component has a default template that resides within the K2 files /components/com_k2/templates/default .These are used for setting out the elements that appear within specific pages such as the categories and item pages.The following images show the default template location and the files that reside within the /default folder.

In the source/components/com_k2//templates/ folder there are 4 files: Generic.php, profile.php, register.php and user.php and a folder, these files can not be used as theme variations as they are purely base files that would not be used across a variety of sections. These files can of course be modified to suit the style of your site. Instruction
COPY the templates folder found in /components/com_k2/.
PASTE it into /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/.
COPY the images folder found in /components/com_k2/.
PASTE it into /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/templates.

In the following image, you can see that the above steps have been carried out.
As K2Joom, is using Avanti theme by JoomlaBamboo.com, the default folder has been called AvanteBlog and then also copied again and called AvantePhoto.

Further micro themes can then be created by copying one of these folders and then renaming the new copy to something like AvanteProducts.

The files within that folder can then be modified to suit how that section o fthe site should look, with elements being removed, moved are restyled with additional css.Setting the Categories

Now take a look at one of the categories in your K2 Admin panel, you will now see that in the drop down for Select A Template your new themes appear.
In this example, we show some additonal micro themes that we already created.

You can repeat this as many times as you wish and to edit as seen in the second image above, you just need to modify the files in that sub-template without affecting the the others thus giving individual category layouts.

As you can see this opens up a whole new way of laying out K2 based Joomla! websites, you only have one component but can have different views per site function, your K2 blog is different to your K2 blog or your K2 gallery section and so on.

Now in my screenshots, you will see that there are already some micro themes that I have created which we can then select from within the Category editor.Further Expansion

Take advantage of extended styling by using a new plugin called CSS4K2 by Olivier Nolbert which allows for an individual CSS file to be placed in each micro theme folder and will only be used when that micro theme is selected.Modifying the K2 Theme

This is going to become quite an in depth series of mini guides, as such, I have created a new sub catergory within my main K2Joom Dev category so that I can keep all these K2 theme related items all together.

Please register for RSS feeds within the category to be kept informed when new items are posted, or follow me on Twitter. 3 – Core Functions 3.1 – K2 Items 3.1-1 K2 Items Dashboard

In this guide, we will explain various functions and sections of the K2 Items editor. 3.1-2 – K2 Content Editor 3.1-3 K2 Image Tab

Via the K2 Item Edit screen, it is possible to include an Intro Image which can be displayed as an example or lead for what an item will be written about.This can be enabled or disabled through the either the Item Parameters or Category Paremeters.

Further information to follow.

For those user that have issues displaying the image, ensure that you check the following:
You have write access to the designated image folder /media/k2/items
That you use a valid image type such as png, gif, jpg.
That you do not exceed the upload file size. 3.1-4 Image Gallery

With K2, it is possible to display an Image Gallery within your K2 Item.

You will need to obtain a copy of Simple Image Gallery Pro from Joomlaworks to be able to use this function.

Further Information to follow.Archive Data

Ever since before K2Joom started using the K2 component, there appears to have been reports that SIG does not work with K2.

Even on our main site, K2Joom.com, we never successfully got SIG to work, but as the site is not a real production site and more of a dev site, we put it down to some conflicts with other plugins that may have been used for testing.

If you look through the support forums at both K2Joom and GetK2.org, you will find many reports that SIG does not work.

Today, we can finally proove that that SIG Pro DOES work, take a look below!! IMPORTANT

Before I get into any description of what I have done to get SIG working, I want to share something fundamental which I think is not correct with regards to the item.php which is used to produce all items pages. This may in some cases cause users to think SIG is not working when it is or, it should be changed purely from a styling perspective

Depending on your configuration, item.php should reside in the components/com_k2/templates/default/item.php or if you use micro themes then it could appear in templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLET/html/com_k2/templates/YOURK2TEMPLATE/item.php

Take a look at the page image to the right, what do you see wrong?Click Image or Link to View.
Well, in my opinion, the Image Gallery should be part of the main content, so why is the gallery at the bottom of the page, below the extra fields and social buttons and user details etc.If you are running video, the same is also true.

If you want to get video and galleries in to the main content area, then you will need to get into the item.php file and make some changes.It is as this stage, that if you are running the default K2 template, then you might want to consider micro theming instead, but that is covered in more details on the main K2Joom site, read more about theming. . .

To find out what I change, jump to the end of this report.Getting Image Galleries to Work

Of all the elements of K2 that I have worked with, the image gallery has consumed the most of my time, hours and hours, testing various “hacked” plugins and none of them worked, until now.

My conclusion to resolve this is not going to be liked by all, but it is just my opinion at the end of the day and you will have to make your own judgement based on your individual circumstances.

Quite simply, I used the Simple Image Gallery Pro V2.0.4 from Joomlaworks.
I know some will say, “why should I pay”, “I want to use the free version”, well to be honest, I thought the same.Consider this, how much time have you spent trying to hack SIG to work in K2?How does you time compare to the cost of this plugin?

Free is good, sometimes.But if the free version is not specifically written for K2 and the Pro version, plus taking into account the extra functionality that Pro has, then it does turn in to a no brainer. What has it Got?

Compared to the free version of the plugin, “Simple Image Gallery PRO” offers the same ease of use but with many additional features like:
Custom galleries per content item, with varying thumbnail dimensions per gallery (you can have for example one the same content item one gallery with thumbs at 200px wide and another at 140px wide!).
Improved performance in the thumbnail generation and caching engine. Generated thumbnails are now created faster and stored in Joomla’s “cache” folder.
10 pop-up engines for ultimate style and compatibility with various javascript frameworks. Includes 2 engines supporting “slide-show” mode and our brand new pop-up engine SimpleBox (soon to be released as standalone).
4 templates to showcase your galleries. Better still, it’s easy to create your own now.
Labels (captions) on thumbnails with word limit options. You can choose to hide thumbnail “captions”, but keep pop-up image “labels”. Labels (captions) are extended to include title and description. If you enable labels in the plugin parameters, a labels.txt file is auto-generated within the folder of each gallery! You can now use full HTML code inside the label descriptions.
Select to “fit” or “zoom” thumbnail images to the thumb dimensions you set, regardless of dimensions of the original images. That means your thumbnails align nicely in a grid, despite having different dimensions.
Select to show or hide a download link for the original image in the lightbox-like pop-up.
Single thumbnail mode: only one thumbnail shows up on your page but once you click on it, you can browse though an entire image folder! This mode is ideal for powerpoint-like presentations.
Large images can be resized in the pop-up window, when their dimensions exceed the ones of the browser window.
You can choose to load a module position in the popup window, for banners or other cool integrations!
New extended syntax for more flexibility. Use for example { gallery}mygallery:200:140:0:2{ /gallery} to instruct the plugin to fetch the images inside the “mygallery” folder, resize them to 200px width and 140px height, display the gallery in normal (grid) mode, create and use a labels.txt file inside the “mygallery” folder, ready for you to edit.
Backwards compatibility with the free version. You just uninstall the free version, install the PRO version and you’re done! No need to re-edit your existing content items (articles) that previously included image galleries, inserted with the free version.
The code has been rewritten from the ground up (compared to the free version) for performance improvement.
Joomla! 1.0.x/1.5.x and Mambo 4.5/4.6 compatible. Installing and Configuring

If you have previous versions of SIG installed, you will need to uninstall them first via the Install/Uninstall Plugin feature n your Joomla Admin.It is also worth checking the files directly on your server at /plugins/content and manually remove and sig files that may remain.

After purchasing and downloading, you will need to extract the contents of the download file as it contain J1.0 and J1.5 zips.
Use the Install Manager as per any other Joomla component, module, plugin etc.
Once installed you will be notified that it has installed.
Go to you Plugin Manager and edit the Simple Image Gallery PRO (by JoomlaWorks) parameters, which can be seen in the image to the right.
Make any changes you need, all I did was change the Root Folder to that shown, so I know where any gallery files might be.
Click save.

Configuration is done.

Edit Item – Image Gallery

Quite simple, if you have got this far, you will breeze it.

Click in the Image Gallery tab.
Click the browse button and search for a zip file to upload.(NOTE: Must be a zip only, no rar, tar or any thing else. Must contain ONLY image files).

Save your item and the gallery will now appear.

The above steps are exactly what how I got the gallery featured below to work, this took literally just minutes after downloading the from Joomlaworks.Modifying Item.php

As mentioned at the start, I have modified my item.php so that the gallery is brought to the main content area.
The location of this code, could vary depending on if you are running the default K2 file or if you are using a purchase Joomla template that has K2 style pre built.
K2Joom.com runs the Avanti 1.0.3 template from JoomlaBamboo and the code for this portion is in the same position as the default.

For the remaining examples, I will be using the default K2 item.php, lets open it up and have a look at the following code:

item->params->get(‘itemVideo’) && !empty($this->item->video)): ?>

videoType==’embedded’): ?> embedded”>

That portion of code starts at around line 443 to 471 and is in between Related items by tag and Item navigation.

I simply cut all that code out and moved in between Item text and Item extra fields, making sure that there was a

after the pasted code. Conclusion

Dont waste hours trying to hack various versions that are not from Joomlaworks, when there is a 12 Euro plugin which works out of the box.
If you have any doubts about SIG working and you can, set up a new Joomla install with just K2 and SIG installed and test it.
If your current install of K2 is not working with SIG, you are not using SIG Pro, have modified K2 files, then you could be fighting a loosing battle.
Check your item.php code, is the gallery listed?

Any questions? Then please ask, Please also share this with other users. 3.1-5 K2 Video

You can add video directly into your content by using the All Videos plugin from JoomlaWorks, version 3.3 is the latest version at the time of writing this.

Adding video to K2 is as easy as adding images.

Install the plugin in the usual Joomla install fashion.
You then need to go and enable the plugin before you can proceed and use this function.
Once you have enabled it, you will then be able to click the Video tab in the K2 item editor to gain access to the ways to attach you video.
You can either Upload from your PC, Remote if you host the video on another location, From Provider gives you a selection of the major video content providers or you can use the Embedded code option if that has been provided.

All that needs to be done is complete the rest of your content and save.

Here is a larger screenshot of the K2 Edit Item Page, click to view large size:

Hopefully you should see a video at the bottom of this page. 3.1-7 K2 Attachments

It is possible to added various attachments within a K2 item to make them available for download.

This could be anything from a wallpaper, full size image, technical document, price list etc.

In this guide we cover how to use the Attachments tab. 3.1-8 – Adding Images in K2

TQ asked me a question regarding adding images to K2 articles (items) as they were having trouble getting them to display, so I write this as a quick guide.

An overview of my setup first, I am running Joomla 1.5.15, K2 V2.1 and JCE Editor.
All my images are stored in the different folder to the default Joomla folder, but K2, JCE and Joomla configurations as set to look at my new default images folder instead.

I open a new K2 Item, give it a title and assign it to a category, all standard.
Click on the Insert/Edit Image icon in the WYSIWYG editor.
Then navigate through the files structure in the Image Manager and locate the image you want to insert.
At this point, you can edit various parameters such as the image size, alignment, margins, borders etc.

Once you click OK, then the image will be inserted into your WYSIWYG screen.

For the image popups running on K2Joom select theInsert/Edit Link icon, next to the Insert Image in the toolbar.
Enter the URL of the image, this will depend on if you used an actual thumbnail image in the previous step or if you re-sized the full image you want to display in the pop up.Just enter the URL of the image you want in the pop up then, click on the advanced tab.Selectjcepopup class from the class list.
Click OK.

Save the item and then go and view the page in your browser.

You should now see you image, with a little magnifying glass in the bottom right corner, if you set up a URL pop up. 3.1-9 – Using Intro Text

There have been a few questions raised on the K2 forum regarding Introtext not working, here is the solution.

If you use Read More links in your K2 items, then that takes priority over the Introtext.

Instead of manually adding Read More in every item, maybe forgetting to add one or not getting a visually appealing result, then don’t use it.

Simply go to your Category and modify the parameters for “Item view options in category listings”, set introtext to SHOW and enter a value in Introtext Word Limit, click Save/Apply and then go and view the items in that category, should all look nice now right?

You can also over ride this function in any article in the Item view options in category listings as there is an option to Inherit from Category, Show or Hide.
If you set this up and add a Read More too, then the Read More will win and show all the text up to that point.
If you set the Introtext to Hide, then you will not see any text at all.

Did this work for you?

Did you check to make sure that you have no Read More setup?
Tell us how you got on. Related Video

Dim lights Embed Image Gallery

3.1-10 – Adding MP3 Audio to K2 Content

Are you considering adding mp3 files to your K2 items and need a way to do it?

Here is a work around, which although not ideal as it is a core hack, it is something that I am pushing to get added to V2.3. 3.2 – K2 Categories 3.2-1 – Category Parameters

The first parameter that we see, when creating or editing a category is the Category Item Layout.
These parameters are specific to the layout of items within the chosen category.
I will go through each of the items and explain the function of it.

Select a Template

If you have set K2 templates for your Joomla template, then you can select here.

If you need further information on K2 Template, then read this guide.

# Leading
Leading Items are styled slightly different to other items, this specifies how many you wish to display.
Columns for leading
You can specify how many columns you want to display your Leading Items.
If you set #leading to 2 and columns to 2, then you will display 2 leading items, 1 in each column.
If you set #leading to 4 and columns to 2, then you will display 2 leading items, 2 in each column.
Take into consideration the available page width when setting the number of columns.
Image size for leading items.
If you have set a content image for your item, then here you can set which size the image will be displayed within the category list.These values are taken from the global K2 parameters.
#Primary
Similar to #leading but styled slightly differently.
Columns for Secondary
Again, works in the same was as for Leading items.
Image size for secondary items
Same as for Leading images.
#Links
At the end of the items displayed within the category, any remaining items can be displayed as text links, here we set the total number of links to be displayed.
Columns for links
How many columns to spread the quantity of links.
In this example, we have 10 links across 2 columns, so each column has 5 links each.
Image size of link items
Same as for Leading and Secondary images.
Consider that only a text link will be displayed, so you may not want large images, but then again . . .
Catalog mode
If set to yes, then only items that are posted within the specified category will be displayed.Any items contained within any sub categories will not be displayed.
If you wish for all items in the category and its sub category to be displayed, then set this to No.
Featured Items
If you have specified any item to be Featured, then you can control how they are displayed.
If set to Hide, then Featured items will not be shown.
If set to Show, then Featured items will be displayed.
If set to Show featured only, then any none featured items will not be displayed.
Item Ordering
There is a variety of options to control how items are organised with in the category.
Pagination
If the quantity of items exceed the total of items that can be displayed, taking in to account how the previous are set, then pagination can be disabled, enabled or automatically displayed.
Pagination results
Hide or show which page is being displayed.

Next guide, Category View Options. 3.2-2 – Category View Options Parameters

The second set of parameters that can be seen when adding/editing any Category, is called the Category View Options.

These parameters are split in to two sections and are specific to Category and its Sub Categories are displayed at the top of a category page as seen here.

Lets take a look at the Category options first, this is the top most section in the previous image.

Title
Do you want the Category Title to be displayed?
If you use an image which contains the Title, then is there a need to duplicate it?
Item Counter
This displays the number of items in that Category.
NOTE: This is tied to the Title, so if the Title is set to Hide, then the Item Counter will not be displayed.
Description
If you have written a description for your category, then it can hidden or shown here.
Image
If you have uplaoded an image to your Catgeory, you can hide or show it here.
RSS Feed Link
If set to shown an RSS icon is displayed.This is a good feature if you can get your readers to subscribe to the feeds as they will be able to see any new items that are added.

Lets now look at the Sub Category Options.
Sub Category blocks
If you have Sub Catergories then you set if you want them to appear within the category.
Columns
How many columns of Sub Categories do you want to display?
Take in to account the page width size plus the size of any sub category images that you may have to prevent the template display from breaking.
Sub Category Ordering
You can set how the ordering of your Sub Categories are displayed.
This is useful depending on the type of site or section you are building.
Sub Category Title
Works in the same way as for the Category.
Item Counter
Works in the same way as for the Category.
Sub Category Description
Works in the same way as for the Category.
You can see from the previous image example no description is displayed, although descriptions have been written.
Sub Category Image
Works in the same way as for the Category.

Stay tuned for the next guide, Item Image Options. 3.3 – K2 Users 3.3-1 – User Groups

K2 expands on how Joomla sets control of access and editing for users.
This is done by creating User Groups in which specific users can be placed to give them required rights.
You now have more control over your content, how it is produce, by whom and who can publish it.Maybe you only want certain reporters to have access to certain categories of a site, maybe you only need grant access to front side creation, using K2 will make this very flexible for you. 3.3-2 – Users

After the creation of your User Goups, you are now ready to start assigning your Users to the correct group.

This document will describe the steps and information to do this effectively. 3.4 – K2 Extra Fields 3.5 – K2 Parameters Hiding Authors Email Address

There are several ways to hide an authors email address from appearing in the Users Block.
This can be done at Item level using the item parameters, Category level using the category parameters or globally.

To disable comments globally, you need to go in to the K2 Parameter and under the Layout & view options for user (author) pages you set the Email option to Hide.

Do not forget to save your changes.

Email links are now disabled.

K2 Tips and Tricks JomComments for K2

I am a bit surprised to still read that there is still confusion about getting JomComments to work with K2, so I will explain a little more and enable my version on K2Joom.com.
Please Note, I will be enabling this for a couple of days only, so if your reading this in the future and you dont see jomcomments over at K2joom, then you are at least forwarned.

Please also remember, if you have existing K2 comments created using K2 comments they will not be displayed on the front end, they will not be displayed by Jomcomment, JComment, Disqus or any other commenting system, unless someone creates an export/import function for that commenting system.
You can of course export the database table, convert to suitable format for your chosen commenting system and import your new tables.

Anyway, back to topic.
Download the JomComment for K2 plugin HERE.
Install the plugin to Joomla as per any other Joomla extension.
Go to Plugins and look for JomComment for K2 Plugin, enable it.
Make sure that K2 commenting is enabled within the k2 parameters.

Make sure that JomComment is enabled.

Thats it, all done.

Now to confirm this, I just reinstalled this plugin and posted a test comment over at K2Joom.com, below you will see screen shots to verify. Image Gallery

Change the ReCaptcha Style

Whilst in the process of creating a new K2 Template called K2 Rounded, check out the demo here, i found that the recaptcha form bleed over the right column.

This lead me to want to change the width of the recaptcha form, but despite adding various width controls, nothing was changing.

I took a look at the recaptcha api documents and found out that it is possible to use a “custom” theme to create your own style.
Now, if your interested, recaptcha has some stock themes, as seen below.

For those with good eyes, will notice that as default, K2 uses the ‘clean’ theme, so how do we change themes?

Well, is quite simple.

On your server, find the view.html.php file, located: components/com_k2/views/item/

Look around line 118 and you will see theme: “clean”
Simply replace with the name of the theme shown in the examples above.

Save and then check your site.

If you checked the demo of the K2 template Rounded, you would have seen that the recaptcha is a different style to the default K2 recaptcha.
Stay tuned for my next guide which expains how to modify this recpatch layout.

Look a little lower, check out out recpatcha, which has been styled to match out site template, want to know how?
Post a comment if you want to find out. K2 Admin Item View – Tags Used Query

Have you ever wondered how you could tell which of your K2 Items had tags added to them?
Well, in this guide, we are going to show you have you can easily add this functionality without have to modify any core K2 files, but could also be added as acore fix.
Try this out, post you comments and maybe we could see this as a standard K2 feature. The New Edit Item Layout

Wouldn’t it be great if you could look at your K2 Item List in the Admin area and instantly see which Items had Tags on them and which did not so that you could then go and add those missing tags.
How about being able to see all the tags that are used in you K2 Item, also lists out as well, if that sounds untersting to you, then read on.
In the screen shot, can see those exact changes.
A Tags Used column is displayed, with Green ticks if there are tags, and a Red cross if there are none.
Under the Item Title, you can see that Tags have are displayed as weel.Each tag is linked to the Tag Editor.

Lets find out how we can get this added.

Setup Procedure
Open up you ftp program to access server files and go to your Joomla Admin template (Crisp for K2Joom) : administrator/templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/
Create a new folder com_k2.
Inside com_k2 create another folder items.
Now you have the new file structure complete, go ahead and download the attachment default.php
Upload this file to administrator/templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/com_k2/items

UPDATE

We have made this even easier for you now as our download includes the folders that the previous guide asked you to create, follow the revised guide below.
Download the download file, found below, to administrator/templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/
Extract the file.
Login to your sites Joomla admin, navigate to the K2 Items List and you will see this new tag information.

If you plan to change your Joomla Administrator template, then you need to copy the default.php file to the new Joomla Template folder
Hope find this useful, comments greatly received.

Many thanks to:
Claire Mandville for the Idea.
Olivier Nolbert from www.jiliko.net for the coding

If you quires for more contact us

Social Media has recently become an integral part of our everyday lives,

but its been around since long before Facebook and Twitter. What has changed is that social media is now widely available whereas it used to be limited to those with an in-depth understanding of technology and underground hacker circles.

Social media has always been about two things: socializing and information gathering. Put the two together and you have a network of information sharing. Part of the lure of social media has to do with finding stuff out, especially if the information in question is something youre not really supposed to know about (hence things like Facebook stalking). It makes sense, then, that social media started with the telephone in the 1950s. A number of phone phreak groups emerged, fascinated with the telephone system and how to infiltrate it. Part of what started the phreak movement was the high cost of making a phone call. Those who had the technological capabilities to do so did whatever they could to find a way around it, hacking into lines they did not have to pay for. They also made a practice of hijacking phone company test lines and conference circuits so that they could hold virtual conferences.

In the 1970s, a new form of social media emerged. It was called the BBS, or the bulletin board system. When BBSes first appeared on the scene, they were small servers powered from a personal computer attached to a telephone modem. BBSes worked much the way many forums and blogs do today; people could engage in community discussions, online games, upload and download files, etc. The main problem was that the computer was not a standard household commodity. They were large, expensive, slow and inefficient, thus severely limiting the number of people the actively participated on BBSes.

In the 1980s, social media was very much an underground phenomenon. There were some legitimate BBSes, but the large majority of them were somehow connected to adult content, pirate software, hacking theories, anarchist movements and virus codes. Because of the nature of much of the online interaction, real names and identities were strictly guarded and the web was not a place for personal information sharing.

Social media became more social in the early 1990s when the world wide web became available to the masses.

Site like Compuserve and Prodigy were the first attempts to engage social media with more mainstream culture, but their early iterations were slow and expensive. As the Internet became more readily available, however, and service became faster, chat systems such as the AOL instant messenger began to take hold.

The next huge trend was Napster, opening up the possibilities of information sharing and extending the possibilities of the type of media that could be exchanged online. Napster made music available online, and for free. Until recording labels and artists began to dispute the distribution of copyrighted material, Napster was the main source for media distribution.

The next phase of social media came with the emergence of social networking sites. Friendster was the first of its kind but was quickly trumped by MySpace and then Facebook. As the Internet became a necessary tool for everyday life, people began to let go of the fear of revealing their real identity, indeed, many have put their full life on display for almost anyone to look at.

It is hard to imagine a world without social media now. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the vast blogosphere are not only used for entertainment purposes but have become a major part of business and political interaction. So whats the next step? There has been a lot of buzz about Google Wave and the possibility it presents to provide a platform for real-time productivity and collaboration rather than just talking about it.

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