Joomla 3.0 Released – Here is what you need to know!
JOOMLA 2.5 IS THE RECOMMENDED VERSION FOR MOST SITES – Yes, still!
For most people, we recommend that you update from Joomla 2.5 only when Joomla 3.5 is released around September next year.
If you are an early adopter, developer or more experienced user, then we think you’ll love Joomla 3 right now.
Next year, after more real-world testing, we think everyone will love Joomla 3. At that time, Joomla 3.5 will be available as a one-click update option from your administrator area.
Joomla 2.5 is currently the recommended version for existing sites and will remain so until the release of 3.5.
Help! My Joomla Site Was Hacked!
Dont Panic!
Your very own on call experienced Joomla! Expert, ready for same day site fixes, hack fixes and Joomla! error message debugging. Simply request help then sit back and relax! No Fix No Fee! You have nothing to loose eh?
My Site was hacked!
No problem at all! We can fix any hacked site easily, identifying any hacked core files or uploaded hacker shells using our unique toolset and auditing system. We will clean it all up for you and provide some advice on site security.
Help my site is offline and showing an error!
Dont panic! Dont make it worse! Just request our help and we will get you up and running as soon as we can, nothing is impossible, although some things take a bit longer 
. Relax, Sit back, and await our resolution.
This is a pay per incident service, our normal set fee is GBP£50 to cover an hour of work on your problem. If we dont fix it then there is no fee payable. Can’t be fairer than that!.
How to find out if you are on the homepage of Joomla 2.5
Occassionally in PHP Joomla Extension/Plugin development you need to work out if the current rendered page is inface the default home page. The old way of doing this was to check the Itemid, but later versions of Joomla have a better way.
In order to see if you are on the homepage you can do something like the following snippet of code:
$menu =& JSite::getMenu(); // Load the menu
$active = $menu->getActive(); // Get the current active menu
if ($active->home ==1) { // See if this is the homepage
// Yes! This is the homepage!
} else {
// No this is not the homepage 
}
Who moved my [Joomla] Cheese?
I dont often do book reviews, this is not so much a book review as a re-discovery of a book on my bookshelf and a rekindling of a change of attitude. This is a plug for a book I have had on my shelf for a long time, but I recently sat on the loo and read (does any one else do that – dont share!)
With the upcoming Joomla 1.6 version soon to be stable and released (sometime…) a lot of nah sayers are picking on the :change: and attacking it – if you are anxious about Joomla 1.6 and what it will mean to you then this book is for you!.
Joomla Forms – Preview – Field Validation Rules
We are getting ever closer to releasing our flagship new product – Joomla Forms, the Form generator and processor for Joomla 1.0.x AND Joomla 1.5.x
One of the best features of Joomla Forms is the new validation rules, currently these are 22 validators (More added daily at the moment!) ranging from the basic ones (Required) to more complex ones (Must match Regex).
All the validation rules are processed in PHP and not Javascript, meaning that it is impossible to submit the form without passing the validations set by the form creator. Javascript based validations can be easily bypassed by spammers thats why we have chosen to write ours in the PHP model.
Most of the validation rules are simple to configure, requiring nothing more than clicking the Yes radio box to enable them – really simple – mightly powerful!
Click here to see a preview of some of the validation options in Joomla Forms today.
Coming Soon – Joomla Forms – The Next Generation Forms Extension for Joomla 1.5 !
Joomla 1.5 and Forms and Phil-a-Form
Wow so many people keep emailing me asking about Form Generation in Joomla 1.5!
We have already stated several times that Phil-a-form is not compatible AT ALL with Joomla 1.5, not even with the legacy plugin enabled.
This is because of the complex way that PAF is coded, and the fact that even though Joomla claims backward compatibility, there is really little – why on earth rename the mambots folder! just one of many reasons why Phil-a-form will not work in Joomla 1.5.
But Good News Is Coming!
For over a year now (well ok, we started over a year ago but development has been pretty much done recently), we have been developing a new bread of form generation extension for Joomla – code named (funny) Joomla Forms. We have built on all our experience in this area (we were the developers of the first ever Mambo Form Component – and have been copied a lot since) and using this experience, along with all the neat new features available on the web today – we have created a brand new form generation and processing extension for Joomla (Yes it will be compatible with Joomla 1.5.x and Joomla 1.0.x !! )
DO NOT KEEP ASKING us to tell you when it will be released we will drop hints from time to time in this blog.
If you are using Joomla 1.0.x You can purchase Phil-a-form today – and get a free copy of “Joomla Forms” when it is released!
We are moving…. again… to JERSEY!
Firstly thanks for all the emails of support after my recent health scare.
On the 1st October we will be relocating to Jersey, Channel Islands!! It is for many reasons, health included, but also so my wife can be near her family and the little one can grow up in a safe environment and have a great education.
In terms of what this means for Blue Flame IT Ltd and our relationship with customers – nothing should change! We still intend to trade (albeit under a new company to be formed under Jersey law to get the 0% Corporation Tax rate 
) and to continue our services and products that we currently provide you and other customers. We are aiming for no downtime at all – we are working hard with all the service providers to ensure that everything is up and running the other end so we can close here on Friday and open there on Monday.
On the same note….. Chris Hawkins will be leaving Blue Flame IT Ltd on the 30 September to further his career at a different company. Greg Wright will continue to be employed and will work from his Malvern office. Trevena Taylor (My beautiful wife) will be re-joining the working staff at Blue Flame IT (Jersey) Ltd. and will be responsible for first line support and accounts from the 1st October. More details on our future business plans will be published soon…. very excited!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask by email to phil@phil-taylor.com