1. Turn off all components, modules & plugins you do not use.

   This can save a few seconds on the frontend and backend.
   Log into the administrator and locate the following. Disable the ones you are not using.

   Extensions > Install/Uninstall > Components
   Extensions > Module Manager
   Extensions > Plugin Manager

2. Turn on caching in Global Configuration

   Site > Global Configuration

3. Optimize CSS and JS

   Make sure you have well formed code and minimal white space.

   CSS optimizer: http://www.cssoptimiser.com/index.php
   JS code quality tool: http://www.jslint.com
   JS optimizer: http://www.xtreeme.com/javascript-optimizer

4. Compress CSS and JS

   This can be done manually or via extensions.

   Compress CSS manually:
   http://perishablepress.com/press/2006/10/23/compressed-css-compression/
   Compress JS manually:
   http://perishablepress.com/press/2007/04/24/compressed-javascript-compression/
   Compress both CSS & JS with an extension:
   http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/site-management/cache/7350/details

5. Don’t use statistics or logging – use Google Analytics.

   The native logging and statistics in Joomla and those offered by extensions are very resource intensive. By disabling them you will gain performance.

6. Use native SEF

   Using Extensions to generate Search Engine Friendly URLs is useful and necessary for full control over your SEO, but you will get a performance hit. The native SEF in Joomla 1.5 has improved a lot and is sufficient in many instances.

7. Try to keep queries under 30

   Enable debugging in Global Configuration to check how many queries you have. If it is under 30 your site should be relatively fast. Over 50 and you will likely have issues.

8. Don’t use bridges

   These are brides to other CMS systems like OpenRealty or Gallery2. This will slow down your site.

9. Optimize your images

   This should go without saying, but make sure the images you use are optimized for the web.

10. Optimize your server for php & mysql

    Talk to your host and tell them you are using Joomla which is heavy on php and mysql resources. Ask them to optimize your site for this. There are several settings that can improve the speed of your site which mostly equate to allocating more memory on the server to php & mysql. You may have issues if you are using shared hosting, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

11. Install Phil Taylor’s SPEED UP (for 1.5)

    This one will increase the speed of your backend administrator only and uses Google Gears. I personally have had good luck with this extension.

    http://www.phil-taylor.com/Turbo-Gears-Speed-Up-Joomla-1.5-Admin-Console

Sources:

• http://www.joomlaperformance.com/articles/performance/so_you_want_to_speed_up_joomla_3_14.html
• http://thenexus.tk/my-need-for-speed-14-ways-to-speed-up-joomlahtml/
• http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/administration/admin-add%252dons/6053/details
• http://www.phil-taylor.com/Turbo-Gears-Speed-Up-Joomla-1.5-Admin-Console
• http://www.seongyupyoo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=13:joomla&id=14:how-to-optimize-and-speed-up-joomla-15&Itemid=5
• http://www.joomspot.net/how-to-speed-up-optimize-joomlas-performance.html

If you have worked with Joomla for any length of time you will have noticed that the workflow system has some room for improvement. Following is one way to work around this shortcoming.

When a new item is submitted from the public frontend a Private Message is sent to the Super Administrator. Wouldn’t it be great if we could customize this message and have a copy sent to an email of our choosing? Here is how you do it:

First, edit _ON_NEW_CONTENT in your language file. This is the content of your message. The English language file is located at /language/english.php.

DEFINE('_ON_NEW_CONTENT', "Hello,nA new content item has been submitted by [ %s ] titled [ %s ] for the section [ %s ] and category [ %s ].nPlease go to $mosConfig_live_site/administrator/ to view and approve this article.nPlease do not respond to this message as it is automatically generated and is for information purposes only." );

Second, add the following to the /component/com_content/content.php right around line 2400 right after:

foreach ($users as $user_id) {
$msg = new mosMessage( $database );
$msg->send( $my->id, $user_id, "New Item", sprintf( _ON_NEW_CONTENT, $my->username, $row->title, $section, $category ) );
}

Add:

mosMail( "noreply@yourdomain.com", "Admin", "noreply@yourdomain.com", "New Item", sprintf( _ON_NEW_CONTENT, $my->username, $row->title, $section, $category ) );

Now an email containing the new content information will be sent in addition to the PM. You can set rules where you receive this email to check the section and/or category. Then simply forward the email to the publishers for those content groups. Hopefully the next version of Joomla will have better workflow capabilities built in.

Warning: This is a hack!
I personally hate hacks, but when the client asks for a feature that can’t easily be built into an extension sometimes it is the most efficient option. If you use this just be warned that you will have to re-apply this hack if you ever upgrade.

Disclaimer: This has worked for me, but please use at your own risk!

administrator/backups/
administrator/components/
administrator/modules/
administrator/templates/
cache/
components/
images/
images/banners/
images/stories/
language/
mambots/
mambots/content/
mambots/editors/
mambots/editors-xtd/
mambots/search/
mambots/system/
media/
modules/
templates/

Change the umask in ‘/etc/proftpd.conf’ from ’022′ to ’002′.

Then, update the directory permissions by running the following at the command line:

cd /var/www/vhosts/[domain.com]
chown -R [username]:psacln httpdocs
chmod -R g+w httpdocs
find httpdocs -type d -exec chmod g+s {} \;

Add the ‘apache’ user to the ‘psacln’ group by editing ‘/etc/group’.

Change

psacln:x:2524:

to

psacln:x:2524:apache

For my server I also had to add psaftp,psaadm:

psacln:x:2524:apache,psaftp,psaadm

Joomla also complains about some PHP settings, sometimes including not being able to write to ‘/var/lib/php/session’. To fix the issues, make some adjustments to the ‘/var/www/vhosts/[domain]/conf/vhost.conf’ for the domain (you may have to create this file):

php_admin_flag magic_quotes_gpc on
php_admin_flag display_errors on
php_admin_value session.save_path /tmp

If the vhost.conf is brand new, then run:

/usr/local/psa/admin/bin/websrvmng -av

Make sure Apache runs with your new configuration:

# httpd -t (check your work)
# /etc/init.d/httpd reload (service httpd restart on my server)

Done! No more errors on the install screen and no more apache/ftpuser issues with uploading files.

Warning: is_writable() [function.is-writable]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/var/lib/php/session) is not within the allowed path(s):(/var/www/vhosts/yourdomain.com/httpdocs:/tmp) in /var/www/vhosts/yourdomain.com/httpdocs/installation/index.php on line 154

The solution to this is two-fold:

Note: I am running CentOS with PLESK on a VPS for this example, but the principles should apply for other configurations as well.

1) You must change the location of the session save path.

While you could simply turn off open_basedir in your php.ini file I like to have this enabled since it is more secure. To change the location of the session save path add a new writable directory above your public http folders and make it writable (707 for my purposes). I named mine ‘session’. Next add the following line to your .htaccess file

php_value session.save_path  '/var/www/vhosts/yourdomain.com/session'

2) You must change the basedir for your account

Open /var/www/vhosts/yourdomain.com/conf/httpd.include

Do a search for open_basedir and dhange all occurrences of

/var/www/vhosts/yourdomain.com/httpdocs:/tmp

to

/var/www/vhosts/yourdomain.com:/tmp 

Disclaimer: Note that this will not work on all hosts – especially some shared hosts. I am interested if anyone has a better solution or if they see any security issues with this method.
]]> http://www.klovera.com/joomla-session-save-path/feed/ 4 http://www.klovera.com/editing-content-with-joomla-frontend/ http://www.klovera.com/editing-content-with-joomla-frontend/#comments Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:46:34 +0000 Dustin http://www.dustinsdesign.com/editing-content-with-joomla-frontend/ I recently created this screencast demonstrating to a client the front end editing capabilities of Joomla 1.0.x. This installation utilizes JCE and all JCE plugins for the WYSIWYG.]]>

I recently created this screencast demonstrating to a client the front end editing capabilities of Joomla 1.0.x. This installation utilizes JCE and all JCE plugins for the WYSIWYG.