Majority of the webmasters would agree to the fact that the default 404 page of Joomla looks really Ugly. Hence, most feel the need of creating a custom 404 error webpage for a Joomla Website.

How to create a Custom Joomla 404 Page ?

It is easy to build a custom 404 page for your Joomla website. Well, before you start with the process, it is suggested to take a backup of your site. Then you should follow the below described procedure.

Step I : Start with creating an article post naming it as Error 404 or anything that you feel suitable for your site. Most individuals would keep that as the title, this is due to the basic fact that the default Joomla page holds the same title. You can add custom text and images to this page similar to the way you would create an article. As a matter of fact, you must try adding content that would inform the visitor about what has actually happened and guiding them with the course of action that they’d have to take. Incase you do not want search engines to crawl and index this page, then you are required to set it as “no index, no follow” in your sites robots text box. This can be found under the Metadata Information.

Step II : You could also create an additional menu and call it as “Error Pages” and link it to the article that you’ve just created. Having done that, you can proceed with publishing the article.

Step III : Find the default error.php file that is created automatically with the installation of Joomla on your web hosting UK server. You can find it within the “templates/system/” directory. Having found it, you must create a copy of it and add the copy to the directory for the active template you’re using for your website. Joomla would search for the error.php file within that directory initially before searching it at the default location.

Step IV : Using your preferred text editor, you must open the new error.php file. Then look for the default code as stated below in this file :

Default code in error.php

defined( ‘_JEXEC’ ) or die( ‘Restricted access’ );
?>

and proceed with making amendments to this:

Altered code in error.php

defined( ‘_JEXEC’ ) or die( ‘Restricted access’ );
if (($this->error->code) == ’404′) {
header(‘Location: http://yourdomain.com/404′);
exit;
}
?>

Note : Replace ‘yourdomain.com’ with the post URL that you have just created.

Step V : Once you are done with making these changes, you must Save and upload it back to the server via. FTP. The desination should be the same ie. the template directory. Once done, you must test it in your web browser. If things have turned out as expected then, all the steps have been carried out correctly. But if the custom error page isn’t shown, then you must repeat the steps stated above.

You may wish to refer the below links from the official Joomla Website :

http://docs.joomla.org/Custom_error_pages
http://docs.joomla.org/Tutorial:Create_a_Custom_404_Error_Page

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Before You Create Your e-Commerce Website –

You must look at every aspect of running your new online business, and list out every detail that should go into making a successful e-Commerce site. With all the breakthroughs experienced by the technological advancements in the web hosting field, designing and developing a very advanced and secure e-Commerce website is within the grasp of today’s savvy internet marketers.

The price of the internet connectivity has become extremely affordable worldwide, and this phenomenon alone has enabled people from every corner of this world to use the internet to browse any merchant site, read about the products and the services offered by it, and purchase it if he or she desires so. People actually prefer to buy most of their requirements from the online stores, and e-Bay- and Amazon-like online marketplaces have become huge success as e-Commerce website due to the ease and availability allowed by the internet, it’s affordability and security, and the massive spread and reach of the internet in terms of getting connected to almost every household globally. Internet has brought the merchants and the prospective buyers within easy reach 24 hours a day – every day, and this has caused the brick-and-mortar businesses all over the world to take their businesses online.

If you have a business and want to globalize it, then internet is one of the fastest ways to do it. For that to happen, you need to develop a specific website, an e-Commerce website on the internet, and also find a very professional web hosting service to host your important e-Commerce website. The cheap hosting UK services which you choose should be reliable, flexible, very professional, and extremely secure. There are many such things that you need to keep in mind when you decide to host an e-Commerce website. The success of your e-Commerce website and your online venture depends on how good your website is planned and designed, and how good is your web host.

There are many users who face a problem while planning, designing, and developing their own e-Commerce website. Many of them are non-technical person, who do not know even the basics of web designing and web hosting even though they could be very good and successful in conducting their day-to-day business. In such cases and if you are such a business owner, then it would be better that you hire a professional web designer and programmer who can not only design your website according to your business needs but also give it the exact professional touch that would attract new customers ad make them return to your online commercial website repeatedly. It is much better to spend some funds on acquiring the service of such an expert web professional rather than doing something on your own in an amateurish way, which would not be profitable for you as well as your online business in the short- as well as the long run.

There are few very important things that you need to consider before you start your e-Commerce website. Some of the most important of them are the bandwidth, the web space and the server uptime guarantee. The server uptime guarantee is important if your website attracts a lot of web traffic and if your website is offering products and services.

However, if the web hosting server is down at this crucial time then you are going to lose a lot of web traffic and hence a lot of money. Also, it is better to have a parallel web hosting server, so that you have a stand by website when your main web hosting server goes down.

Security is one of the main features that you need to consider. Make sure that your web host offers you all kinds of security features. When you have an e-Commerce website on the internet, many hackers are constantly looking for such websites to wreck havoc. If your website contains any confidential data of your customers then these hackers can even steal this data which leads to identity theft which is a big crime in most of the countries. Make sure that you are provided with separate e-mail accounts, firewalls, anti-virus, and other such web tools that are required to make your website a very safe place. It is also wise to consider what kind of web server would be ideal for your e-Commerce website considering the threats that any online business undergoes constantly.

It is also your responsibility that you take care of your website with by making use of all the necessary tools. You should always provide different passwords to each of the account. Make sure that those passwords are not that easy to guess. This is because, even if the hackers are successful in hacking your website, they do not get access to all other accounts that are linked with it.

Bandwidth and the web space are two of the most important features that you need to have in plenty. It is better that before you register for any kind of an affordable web hosting service, you find out how much it would cost, if you need some additional disk space and bandwidth in the near future. Will it be at the same rate or you will be charged anything extra for that.

This is because, as your business expands and you would certainly love to expand your online business globally, which might require additional web space and resources. If you are suddenly successful in attracting a lot of web traffic to your website, then it may require extra bandwidth as well, as there may be number of people who might be viewing the same page or downloading some heavy content at the same point of time. You may even need extra bandwidth if you decide to have some heavy graphics, animations, audio files, video files on your website. Your e-Commerce website will need an unbroken continuity on the internet so that any online visitor can easily access it and create an opportunity for you to create complete a sale of the products or services offered by you.

Also make sure that you have a good and clear shopping cart facility and a good and safe money transfer option on your website. If the visitor or the prospective buyer wants to make any transactions on your website, then you need to be very careful about the security aspect of the actual money transfer process.

Now-a-days, there are lots of online payment gateway options through which you can easily make extremely safe and secure money transactions. PayPal, for example, is one of the most popular of such globally accepted payment gateways and there are many other payment gateways like the Google Checkout are fast becoming very popular and extremely safe and professional-quality online payment solutions.

It is one of the safest options when you make money transactions. Make sure that the users don’t have to go through a long process while purchasing any items or registering for any service on your website. You need to keep it as simple as possible.

Having a top quality, professional web hosting UK service and a good, attractive e-Commerce website, which is capable of attracting a huge number of online visitors and successfully converting them into your customers will surely increase the chances of succeeding in your online business venture. Making use of all the important steps that are mentioned above will definitely make your website a good e-Commerce website and make lots of profits.

In the next few articles, we will learn about the basic requirements that an online business has. We will also learn about how to create a good versatile, and secure e-Commerce website, where to host it, which web servers would ideally suit it, how to insert your products and services on your site, and how to take care of the most important task of them all — conducting successful trades. We will also learn how to integrate the powerful shopping cart software and also the integration of a payment processor into your e-Commerce website. These steps are the bare minimum requirements of any good and successful e-Commerce website, and these articles will surely help you understand what would be the essential steps in planning, designing, developing, maintaining, and upgrading your online commercial website.

Continuing shortly! …

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Joomla Version 1.6 — Installing Joomla 1.6 On Your Apache Localhost Server

Technical requirements for installing the new Joomla version 1.6:

Joomla version 1.6 is a very exciting upgrade of the very popular Joomla 1.5 version. The Joomla development team has recommended the users to really test the power and the new features of Joomla 1.6 before implementing them on your actual website, probably very much Live and running smoothly on the internet and hosted on the remote server. So, for the purpose of testing the new version, it is prudent to first install it on your localhost, which is a sofistacated program installed on your computer and helps in installing and testing a new program, just like the new Joomla version 1.6.

Testing this new version is recommended so that every user, especially the Joomla web developer experts, should learn how it operates in a safe environment like their own computer within the framework of a program like the XAMP, for example. XAMP is a versatile testing environment which creates UNIX or Linux-based web server environment. So, let us learn about how to install a Joomla website on such a Apache localhost server.

Joomla version 1.6 needs at least PHP version 5.2, MySQL version 4.1, and Apache version 2.x; or for the Windows-based environment, it needs Microsoft’s Internet Information Server version 7. These are the bare minimum technical requirements for running the new Joomla version 1.6. Joomla 1.6 will also need to enable the “mod rewrite”, which is a very powerful Apache web server-side module installed on a Linux-based web server.

The Joomla Development Team also recommends not using Regarding using the PHP along with Joomla 1.6, the Joomla Development Team recommends that the earlier PHP versions 4.3.9, 4.4.2, and 5.0.4 should be avoided as they contain a few bugs which may hamper the smooth running of Joomla 1.6. In this regards, the PHP version 5.2 and the MySQL version 5.0.4 should be used.

For testing the new Joomla version 1.6 on your localhost (installed on your personal computer), it is recommended that you should use one of the following applications:- LAMP for Linux environment, WAMP for Windows environment, MAMP for Mac environment, and XZAMPP which is used for multiple types of web platforms.

1. LAMP for the Linux-based operating system:

LAMP is an acronym for a server solution of free and open-source software. LAMP is originally coined from the first letters of the components included in the solution: Linux (which is the specific operating system), Apache HTTP Server, MySQL (which is the easy-to-use, stable, secure, and a versatile database software), and Perl/PHP/Python. These are considered the basic fundamental components to build any kind of Linux-based general purpose web server.

2. WAMP for the Windows operating system:

WAMP’s are packages of independently-created programs installed on computers that use a Microsoft Windows operating system. WAMP is an acronym formed from the initials of the operating system Microsoft Windows and the principal components of the package: Apache, MySQL and one of PHP, Perl or Python. Apache is a web server. MySQL is an open-source database. PHP is a scripting language that can manipulate information held in a database and generate web pages dynamically each time content is requested by a browser. Other programs may also be included in a package, such as PHPMyAdmin which provides a graphical user interface for the MySQL database manager, or the alternative scripting languages Python or Perl.

WAMP is a Windows-only based server that provides good support for both Joomla 1.5 and Joomla 1.6. Microsoft IIS (Internet information server) is another Windows-only Web server to provide the latest PHP and MySQL versions required for Joomla 1.6. XAMPP is the only multiplatform Web server to support both Joomla 1.5 and Joomla 1.6.

Apache Friends offers free installation packs for Linux and Windows — for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions, for Macintosh environment, and even for Solaris environment. The MAMP is the only Mac Web server that supports the working of Joomla 1.6.

3. MAMP for Mac environment:

Mac OS X, the operating system component used on the Apple Macintosh computers, Apache, which is the web server component. MySQL, which is the very popular database management system, and the last letter ‘P’ denotes the important components comprising the PHP, Perl, and Python which are web programming languages. Together, all these components will help in developing the Joomla website based on the new Joomla version 1.6.

4. XAMPP for any cross-platform web environment:

XAMPP is a free-to-use open source application and a very efficient and powerful cross-platform web server package. It is also a very easy-to-install Apache distribution package. XAMPP is again an acronym formed by using the first letters of its components: Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl. The initial letter ‘X’ implies that this package is suitable for any related cross-platform (‘X’) developmental work especially using the Microsoft Windows environment, or the Linux, or the Solaris, or the Mac OS X web environments.

So, continuing our Joomla version 1.6 installation, create a new folder (let us call this new folder “TheNewFolderName” as a suitable example. Create this new folder in our example without the enclosing quotes, of course) in XAMPP server’s HTDocs folder, or in case you are using one of the other three web server environments, then create a new ‘www” folder under the WAMP, LAMP, and MAMP. Inside this new folder, or inside the newly created folder inside the XAMPP’s htdocs folder, unpack the Joomla 1.6 zip pack.

Once this is done, run your XAMPP or WAMP based web server package so that Apache and MySQL applications are running on your personal computer. Remember we are testing the new Joomla version 1.6 on our localhost? So once the Apache and the MySQL applications are running, go to your browser and type localhost/<TheNewFolderName> in the browser’s address bar and press the Enter key. ‘TheNewFolderName’ folder was already created as mentioned previously. The Joomla 1.6 installation will begin. Consequently, you will need to read and acknowledge the license terms and conditions carefully. The next screen will prompt you to enter the database connection setting (which will be localhost in our example), and also the MySQL username as well as the password you had previously configured for your local web server — XAMPP or WAMP in this case. The other two important settings that you will initiate are website’s database name and the table prefix setting that will be used within your website’s database. The next screen is where you can optionally set the File transfer protocol (FTP) configuration. The next screen is where you will be asked to enter the site-name, enter site global metadata settings, as well as your important administrator account settings.

Joomla 1.6, also allows you to set your administrator username, which is introduced in this new version to improve security aspects of your website. Finally, you can optionally install the Joomla’s default sample data to test the website which will now have the extensive sample data if you have chosen to install it, The sample database will contain important modules, menus, and settings accessible from the backend of your website, which is where you will do all the Administrative work on your Joomla site. At the end of the installation of the new Joomla 1.6, and as a very strict security measure, you will have to either delete or rename the installation folder of your new Joomla website.

Once all these steps are completed, you should be successfully able to open, explore, and test the new website based on the Joomla version 1.6. Hopefully, with the extensive features of Joomla, including the introduction of new exciting features or even the omissions of some previous features you should carefully study the new Joomla version 1.6 first under your localhost settings. For more information and help regarding installation and running your Joomla 1.6 successfully, the Joomla.org official website has all the minute details and is also in process of adding more information so that every Joomla user, from the newcomer level to the advanced user level, should be able to research more on using Joomla 1.6.

So, in conclusion, as in the case of any new features-filled, and very advanced version like the Joomla version 1.6, you should first use in under the localhost environment on your own personal computer and learn how the application works. When you are satisfied with the level of expertise and understanding you have achieved through training under the localhost environment, you can safely try to install Joomla 1.6 on your web server. For upgrading from a previous Joomla version, it is recommended to read the expert tutorials on Joomla’s official website.

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How to create a website using templates ?

The best thing about using templates is the reduction in tasks that needs to be done on a repetitive basis. It also enhances the tasks by offering a framework for achieving consistency. Users have been making use of the templates for emails, proposals, creation of website pages etc.

Usually when creating a website, a template is built first. Based on this template, the other web pages are created.

Now-a-days there are multiple web page editors available, that are equipped with pre-built templates which the users can customize according to the requirements. Furthermore, many hosting companies alongwith their affordable web hosting packages, do offer Sitebuilder for free.

Eukhost too is one among those companies that has such an offering for the customers, which is termed as “SiteStudio”. The templates included with it are high in quality, professional and easy to use. Take a look at the Tutorials here : Site Builder Tutorials

The designed templates are built by professionals with the use of multiple tools.

Few of those are :

• HTML
• Flash
• Dreamweaver
• Frontpage
• Frames
• No Frames

Users simply need to select the relevant theme and proceed with building their site.

Expert Suggestions

Select a template that makes use of :

• HTML Navigation
• CSS – Cascading style sheets

and as much as possible, keep the usage of following to the minimum:

• Navigation that uses JavaScript
• Image based Navigation
• Limited to editors
• Usage of Frames

Use of freely available web page Templates for building a Website

There are multiple places on the web from where you can download the templates for free. Such templates requires some major modifications before you can actually go ahead using them for your website.

Usually, such changes are more often required in Navigation structure and project/company logos.

Creating Templates on your Own

Though creating custom templates can be an option, but, it would mean spending some money on either recruiting people for that purpose, or outsourcing the task and getting things done from professional web developers and designers.

Alternately, you can also educate yourself with creating web pages and help yourself during future requirements.

For understanding the method of creating templates, you are required to learn the skills of web page layouts. In the past, this was done using tables. But now, we can see that most designers make use of CSS or tables and style sheets together.

CSS is considered to be more flexible in comparison to tables, sometimes making use of tables for the purpose of layouts and CSS for formatting can provide multiple benefits to users. From a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective, experts recommend the use of CSS for building webpages, as the search engines are able to crawl such websites better.

But during the early stages when you are low on budget and still wish to establish your own website, one of the better alternatives could be WordPress Hosting. WordPress offers plenty of free templates in the form of themes, which you can customize according to your choices. This is one of the preferred choices on the web. You can simply opt for a web hosting package that offers WordPress scripts for free and get along with creating your own website in minutes.

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The questions about subdomain vs subdirectory aren’t new at all. Whenever, a webmaster intends to expand the website, this is usually the first question that comes in mind. Different opinions are suggested by various individuals when making the choice, which are usually based on SEO and the website management. So, how exactly does search engines actually differentiates between a subdomain and a subdirectory ? What would be an ideal call inorder to benefit in SERP’s ? Would there be any advantage in terms of keyword rankings? and the questions continue…..

Upon spending couple of hours on research about this topic, we have jotted down certain points keeping both the aspects in mind. We realise that, it is everything about how exactly do we intend the website to be targeted in the search engines and the live viewers.

When must be Subdomains used Over Subdirectories

One of the important aspects that must be borne in mind when you want to make a choice between subdomain and subdirectory is that, a subdomain must only be implemented when you have ample content to justify the need of a complete website. Whereas a subdirectory is usually the just a single page, which can be created to target certain intended keywords/products/services.

One must create subdomains only when your basic intention corresponds with below points:

• You wish to keep the brand intact and use the root domain in the URL but wish to segregate it based on the category OR you wish to expand your business in other niche areas but under the same hood.
• You intend to focus on certain keywords in the URL but it cannot be found in the root domain name. This is a much simpler technique but can yield better results. For example : you have a domain where you run a tourism business www.tourism.com, so you can create sudomains that would cover the different tourist places in a particular geographic location, such as london.tourism.com, manchester.tourism.com etc.
• You wish to maintain a track and based on the sites analysis design a particular strategy. Its much simpler to analyze particular traffic on different websites as compared to just one site. You can maintain a track of traffic on particular subdomain than to keep searching for it under a single primary domain name. This is usually the case with a website that has multiple directories/folders. Inshort, creating a subdomain instead of subdirectory is worthwhile if you want to measure the performance of the site in terms of traffic and other statistics.
• Allows you to target different geo-location traffic which you feel is necessary for your business expansion.Considering the above example, if you run a well established tourism website in the UK and intend to expand your horizon by offering similar services in other European countries then, you can create subdomains such as germany.tourism.com, italy.tourism.com, belgium.tourism.com etc. and add content corresponding to the local languages.

Aspects that one must be aware of about Subdomains

General Aspects

• The Subdomains might be benefited from the root domain, a positive inheritance can be passed on to the subdomain for example page rank,trust rank etc. Similarly, if a root domain lacks in these areas, the subdomain too would have to face the penalties.
• You may create subdirectories to the subdomain for ex. london.tourism.com/german.
• Usually, based on the type of affordable web hosting package offered by a host, there must be limits to the total number of subdomains that are allowed to create.

Search Engine Submissions

• Usually you are permitted to submit multiple subdomains to search engines and directories, due to a basic reason that they have different niches and information. That indeed does not mean that you create ‘n’ number of subdomains and submit them, doing so might result in a ban of all the domains. You must also make sure that the content on your website ie. main domain and the subdomains is unique, you mustn’t bother about it.
• You must allow some time for your subdomains or subdirectories to naturally get indexed. You must not rush for getting it indexed.

Content

• One of the most important factors in a websites success is the content than anything else. Then comes the other factors such as the alt tags, title tags,meta description and meta tags. Make sure that they are relevant to the particular pages.

Expense

• You are not required to pay anything extra for creating subdomains. Ofcourse, you must also be aware of the total number subdomains that are allowed with your web hosting package.

IP Address

• Though subdomains are considered to be separate domains, a single IP that is assigned to your root domain is shared with the subdomains. Hence, when working on a link building activity, you must make sure that you are linking to trusted and legitimate sites inorder to avoid any sort of penalty.
• If a single IP is shared between the main domain and the subdomains, it is possible that it would be considered to be a single website by search engines.

Though the search engines are smart enough in analysing as to which subdomain must be ranked well and which doesn’t. It all depends on the quality of content that you’ve added to the main site or the subdomain. In case the search engines find similarity in the content on your main site and the subdomain, there would be a fading chance of getting rankings to it. In the worst cases where there is a duplicate content, you would be completely banned by the search engines and your subdomains would nowhere be seen in SERP’s.

Creating subdirectories can be an ideal choice if you intend to target particular keywords which are related to the niche of your main domain. If you build a webpage that holds the information about tourist destinations in London and throw it in a section about Germany, then that would be the last thing you would ever want to do. Such sites would suffer in search engines due to lack of relevance.
Subdirectories add to the total number of pages but they also helps in categorising the website better.

So, what subdirectories are ?

You can easily identify a subdirectory and a subdomain. For example : www.tourism.com/london.php is a subdirectory, while london.tourism.com is a subdomain.
A subdirectory is simple an additional directory within the root domain ie. “www.tourism.com” is a root domain whereas “/london.php” is a subdirectory

A subdirectory is nothing but a folder situated within your site. They are usually used for better organization of a website content.

Aspects that one must be aware of about Subdirectories:

General Aspects

• Subdirectories are considered as a part of the same domain by the search engines. Hence hold better chances of ranking higher. The website rank can be easily passed over to the subdirectories as compared to that of subdomains.
• It can be beneficial to use subdirectories for a blog. The basic reason would be, it is hosted on the same domain and that the traffic which the blog receives can be passed aacross the website.
• Limitless number of subdirectories can be created for a domain, what matters is the web space that is allocated to your hosting account.

Search Engine Submissions

• If compared to subdomains, subdirectories can be indexed fasted by the search engines (ofcourse there are other aspects as well that matter in SEO)
• Webmasters aren’t required to add and verify every subdirectory in Google Webmaster Tools due to the basic fact that they are a part of the root domain. While it isn’t a case with the subdomains, you are required to manually add it and very it.

Links

• Internal links to and from the subdirectory are beneficial for a website. Strong internal linking is valued by search engines and adds to the authority of a website. Moreover, the search engine crawlers are in a better position to crawl your website for whatever limited period of time they are there.
• A better distribution of link juice is possible between the subdirectories than a subdomain.

Content

• Unlike subdomains, subdirectories are required to follow the same theme/niche as that of the main domain.
• Subdirectories are essential if you have enough content about a particular subject, you can create subcategories and add that content under a subdirectory. This would also help you organise the content better.

Technical Know-How

• It is more simpler to create and maintain subdirectories as compared to subdomains.
• Sharing files, for example style sheets within subdirectories is simpler as the entire website makes use of a single folder. Which isn’t the case with subdomains, there needs to be installed different style sheets and uses different folders for that purpose.
• The subdirectories are included in the sitemap of the root domain, whereas a subdomain is required to create its individual sitemap.

Also check the FAQs About Subdomains to get a better understanding about the concepts.

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