I've recently been developing a website using the Zend Framework (ZF).  The site needs user authentication, and Zend provides a nice authentication implementation, with an adapter for authentication against a database table. Since I've worked with the Joomla CMS a lot, I thought it would be nice to authenticate against a Joomla! user table.

At some point in history, I switched from using my own LAMP setup to using Xampp for my local development projects. Overall, I've been happy with Xampp. I've even been able to get XDebug working and access my local Subversion repositories via Xampp's Apache server (by building my own mod_authz_svn and mod_dav_svn Apache modules).

I updated the two articles below for Community Builder 1.1:

• Simplifying Community Builder Layouts
• Simplifying Community Builder Layouts (part 2)

This has been needing to be done for a while now. Enjoy!

Ever wondered how to create the .xml files that are used for installing components, modules, or plugins in Joomla! 1.5? What you need are the DTD files that describe the installer XML format. With these, plus an XML editor with a little code intelligence, making installer .xml files is easy.

I was looking through the Community Builder code and found another area that could use a little tweaking: tab containers. Tabs are to Community Builder what modules are to Joomla - just a little more complex. By default, tabs look like tabs in file folders. But we don't have to leave them that way.

Community Builder is a nice Joomla component. It adds extended user management, member lists, member profiles - everything you need to create a community-based website.

So, I started to build a social networking site using Community Builder. I added a few niceties - a gallery plugin, a user blog feature, a profile book - then took a look at it. It was all there, and it was quick - but it didn't look right. So, I started digging into the code....

Joomla! plugins (mambots) are great! Show a video, play some music, protect an email address, or format that nifty quote. Unfortunately, content plugins don't work by default in VirtueMart 1.0.x. This hack lets you run Joomla! plugins in VirtueMart pages.

Have you ever needed to become another user on your web site? Are you a shop owner who needs to modify a customer's order? Maybe you need to place an order for a particular customer. Now you can!