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Just insert one of the following blocks in your .htaccess file in your site root. Make sure you replace example.com with your own domain name, and also make sure that you leave the backslash in example\.com in the first line of the code.


# force www IN URL
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]
# END force www IN URL



# force removal of www IN URL
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [R=301,L]
# END force removal of www IN URL# force www IN URL


And here is a snippet that can forward users from one domain to another automatically. Nice to have if your site has got one or more aliases. Notice that all the domain aliases have [NC,OR] at the end of the line, while the last alias and_so_on.com just has [NC].


# forward from domain aliases
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?domain1\.com [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?domain2\.com [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?domain3\.com [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?and_so_on\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://maindomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
# END forward from domain aliases


One last thing: RewriteEngine On is just something you need to write once in your htaccess file, so if you use two of the above snippets, make sure you remove that from the second block.

[tags]htaccess,mod_rewrite,www,domainnames[/tags]

I recommend that anyone currently involved in setting up or sending e-mail newsletters stop by this site to check out what you can do to contribute. This should be highly relevant for anyone with a CMS out there…

Email Standards

[tags]email,standards,launch[/tags]

• Extending the Nested Sets Model with ‘Hardlinked Nested Sets’
  by Enno Klasing, mentored by Louis Benton Landry
• Development of Jigg component for Joomla! 1.5 [“Just Jigg it!”]
  by Jay Soe, mentored by Jason Kendall
• Implementation of mootools in Joomla! 1.5 framework
  by Avi Mehta, mentored by Rastin Mehr
• Email Interface for Publishing
  by Nur Aini Rakhmawati, mentored by Mateusz Krzeszowiec
• Semantic Web Integration
  by Charl van Niekerk, mentored by Robert Schley
• Geo-component for Joomla!
  by Mickael MAISON, mentored by Andrew Eddie
• Eclipse Plugin for develop Joomla’s Component/Module
  by Muhammad Fuad, mentored by Laurens Vandeput
• Joomla 1.5 Forum Component
  by Niels Vandekeybus, mentored by Johan Janssens
• General content recommendation component for Joomla
  by Faolan Cheslack-Postava, mentored by Samuel Alexander Moffatt

[tags]Joomla,Summer of Code,google,content management,programming[/tags]

[tags]Joomla 1.5, mootools[/tags]

Nicely put together, and not biased at all it seems. I can only speak for the Joomla bit, though, and the points made are valid enough in my opinion.

Read the comparison

[tags]Drupal, Joomla, comparison, cms, content management[/tags]

Read Jays blog entry

Alot of us (me included) do not have shell access and are unable to execute the Unix “ln” command to make this happen. But fear not, there is an easy php-solution to this problem. The function is called … yeah you guessed it: symlink().

The function works like this:
bool symlink ( string target, string link )

HERE IS HOW you can use it to set up the required symlink in the WP-Cache installation:

1. Create a blank php-file in the root of your website. Name it createsymlink.php.

2. Paste the code below into the file and save it. Make sure you replace “/path/to/website/” with your website’s real path.


$success = symlink('/path/to/website/wp-content/plugins/wp-cache/wp-cache-phase1.php', '/path/to/website/wp-content/advanced-cache.php');
if ($success)
    echo "Symlink was created";
else
    echo "Symlink creation failed!";


3. Make sure that your wp-content folder is writeable

4. Use your webbrowser and open www.yourwebsite.com/createsymlink.php, making the code run. This should fix the symlink creation for you and the success message should be displayed on screen.

5. Delete createsymlink.php from your server.

Related links
» Read the php documentation on the symlink function
» WP-Cache plugin website

[tags]WordPress, symlink, unix commands, php functions, caching, wp-cache[/tags]

The increase in competition between Joomla and Mambo seems to be benefiting the end users at the moment. Both developer teams strive to deliver the best results for their community, and several new additions to the upcoming “separation”-releases (J!1.5 and M4.6) have been appearing. It’ll be exciting to follow this development after the separation of the two is final, to see if the developers slow down again.

From the recent newsflash at Mamboserver, I find a few very interesting new features indeed. These include a language manager for facilitating translation of the Mambo core, significant database performance improvements including a statement about getting better performance over “competing systems” (read: Joomla), and a brand new comments component for allowing comments to content items.

The new language manager is interesting because it hasn’t been done before, and because translation is important for a more wide spread acceptance of the system. This could help Mambo get a boost and a head start in countries that do not use English too much and are still without native translations of Joomla or Mambo.

The statement on better performance is interesting both because database performance has always been an issue with Mambo and Joomla, especially on larger sites, and because my own preliminary tests of Joomla 1.5 and Mambo 4.6 showed that this was in fact not true. Now, with this new release I will test their performance again and compare the two head to head to see what is indeed the case. Stay tuned for more info on that bit.

The launch of the comments component is indeed a strange and interesting turn of events too. First of all: There are already quite a few comment components out there, both standalone and forum integrated ones. Is MamboTeam trying to squeeze some 3rd party developers out of the market, or are they filling a gap because of lack of functionality in existing solutions? In either case I think it’s good because comment functionality has, with the rise of the blog format in recent years, become a neccessity in personal webpages. This can possibly get more bloggers to check out Mambo in the future? Other questions that pop into mind: Will Joomla follow? What is next? Trackback and blogpinging?

Here is a copy-paste of the elements mentioned in the Mamboserver newsflash:

• A new Language Manager that makes translating the Mambo core into additional languages a breeze.
• Totally revamped embedded Help Screens for context-sensitive help – users no longer need to be connected to the Internet to access help files.
• Improved MySQL5 compatibility and general database performance.
• A new customizable WYSIWYG editor, MOStlyCE, based on the latest version of TinyMCE – provides greatly improved editing and content formatting.
• More efficient code generates significantly fewer database calls giving 4.6 better performance over previous versions of Mambo – and over competing systems.
• Several new variations of the default CSS-based template, which provides a great building block for the creation of custom templates.
• Enhanced security makes 4.6 the most secure Mambo ever.
• A new content module for displaying the most recent content items in their entirety.
• A new comments component so site visitors can add comments to content items.

[tags]Mambo, Mambo 4.6, mambo features, joomla, blogging[/tags]

Background
I work for a company that has quite a few Joomla clients, and a few of these got hacked over the passed few days. These attacks ranged from the annoying but harmless defacings up to the more hostile server takeover attempts. A skilled and dedicated guy at our hosting provider (kudos to Sigurd there) tracked down some of these script kiddies and got some info off them. Among other things, the URL for the site they use to check for new scripts they can use to hack people.

Being a very unexperienced hacker, I had never heard of this site. So I visited their favourite hacks list and compiled a small list over Mambo and Joomla components and modules I could find that were listed and targetted for attack. So if you are currently using one or more of these, you should uninstall, delete, patch or whatever you want to do. Just don’t leave it unchanged, cause it might be a gaping hole into your website and ultimately your webserver.

Here’s the list, updated with version numbers you can check against your own:

• com_videodb < = 0.3en
• SMF Forum Mambo Component < = 1.3.1.3
• extcalendar < = 2.0
• com_loudmouth < = 4.0j
• pc_cookbook < = 0.3
• per_forms < = 1.0
• MiniBB < = 1.5a
• com_hashcash < =1.2.1
• HTMLarea3 < = 1.5
• Sitemap < = 2.0
• pollxt < = 1.22.07
• SimpleBoard < = 1.1.0
• com_forum < = 1.2.4 RC3
• galleria < = 1.0b
• Pearl for Mambo < = 1.6
• CBSMS < = 1.0
• multibanners < = 1.0.1
• Mam-Moodle < = alpha
• MoSpray < = 1.8RC1

And some more, not from the script kiddies hotlist, but from the Joomla forums:

• Mambo Comspray (mospray) < = 1.8 RC1
• Mosets Tree < = 1.58
• com_multibanners (unknown version)
• BSQ Sitestats < = 2.1.0
• JoomlaLib < = 1.2.1 Beta
• OpenSEF 2.0.0 RC5
• Google PageRank Module < = v1
• JoomlaBoard < = 1.1.1
• PHP Event Calendar < = 1.4
• Advanced Poll < = 2.20
• Jombook (unknown version)
• mosMedia < = 1.0.8

Take action
Visit the Joomla/Mambo extensions sites and look for updates. The Joomla 3rd party security forum is a good place to start.

If you are a producer of a 3rd party component to any of these Content Management Systems you should read up on the Mambo or Joomla forums about these vulnerabilities to make sure your component is still safe to use. If you are a user of 3rd party software in relation to Mambo or Joomla, now is the time to contact the software developers and ask them if they have done their job properly. (after giving them credits for their great software first ofcourse!)

Disclaimer: I have not tested any of these hacks or checked for upgrades on any of these components or modules. I’m just telling you what I read. Stuff like extcalendar has already gotten me into alot of trouble, since it has this nice “powered by extcalendar” at the bottom, making it easy to find hackable sites by doing a simple google search.

[tags]Mambo, Joomla, hacking, script kiddies, security, security holes[/tags]