Archive for the ‘Joomla Updates’ Category

Creating a Joomla! staging site

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Wendy RobinsonIf you’re a Rochen customer or regular reader of this blog, then you’re well aware of the exclusive to Rochen cPanel plugin, Joomla Utilities,  which makes installing and managing Joomla an absolute breeze.  In the last 12 months we’ve brought you features such as one-click installations, security tweaks, file and directory permission fixes, super administrator password resets and even mass management of multiple installations for Rochen resellers.  The features work for all Joomla 1.5, 1.7, and future releases. We work continually on these features to make Joomla management through your Joomla hosting as easy as possible for you.

Creating your staging site with our new Clone tool

Our newest addition to the Rochen-exclusive tools set is the ability to create your own Joomla staging site within a separate directory or subdomain of your hosting account. This feature is possible with our brand new Joomla Utilities Clone tool.

Designers and developers of Joomla websites know that sometimes it’s necessary to be able to test out a new extension or template, or do some custom development and/or trouble shooting, without causing interruption or possible error to a live installation. It can be tedious to copy a site over to new directory manually, as you have to edit your configuration files all over again, import a copy of your database, and possibly adjust various links on your staging site.

With the clone tool you no longer have to worry about using your valuable time to do all of that. We’ve created this new feature so that all you need to do is go in to your Joomla Utilities option in cPanel’s CMS Utilities and just select the installation that you wish to clone, and then enter the directory or sub domain where you want to clone it to. It takes your entire installation including all data, extensions and template files, as well as the database, and duplicates it all in to your chosen directory, leaving your live site untouched and open for business. So easy!

From there, you can begin working on your staging site. Add any new extensions or templates you’ve been wanting to try, fix up any old or nagging issues in the code, and run as many tests as you need to. All without interrupting your live Joomla website in any way!

For a preview, we’ve prepared one of our quick demo videos below:

In other Joomla Utilities news, you’ll now notice that the handy cPanel plugin has a new look!

Our own in-house developer, Thomas, has taken some of the excess information and layout out and trimmed the Joomla Utilities interface to blend it in better with the standard cPanel look and feel.  As well, he has created a more efficient user experience as you can now quickly select your desired function from a list, as well as hide the instructional information if you don’t need to read it every time.  Check out the new look below:

A New Look For Joomla Utilities

A New Look For Joomla Utilities

Thanks for your time! To learn about the other Joomla Utilities features and watch more demo videos, head over to our Joomla Utilities page.

-Wendy

Wendy Robinson joined the Rochen team in June 2010 as a sales support staff member. She is also currently involved with the Joomla! project as a member of the Community Leadership Team.

Introducing Joomla Utilities WHM Tool for Resellers

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

Wendy Robinson

If you’re a regular reader of this blog then by now you’ve heard about our Joomla Utilities cPanel tool for easy upgrading, security fixes, permissions fixes and site migration among other features available for our Joomla Hosting customers.

Recently we’ve taken all of the great cPanel plugin features and integrated them into WHM (Web Host Manager) as an extra convenience for our Rochen Reseller Hosting customers.

Joomla Utilities for WHM

Joomla Utilties for WHM is in the plugin section of the left side menu

The WHM plugin will allow you to easily upgrade all core files for Joomla 1.5 or 1.6 installations that are hosted on your Reseller account right from WHM instead of having to do all manually from their individual cPanel accounts.   You can upgrade the installations individually or you can also choose to update them all at once!

In addition to the upgrading feature we’ve also added the ability to fix file permissions and apply security tweaks, again directly from WHM to your Joomla 1.5 and 1.6 installations and just like when upgrading, you can choose to apply the changes to individual installations or all at once.

You can find the WHM Joomla Utilities tool in the Plugins section at the bottom of the left side menu in your WHM account.

Joomla Utilities Installation List

Displays a list of all Joomla 1.5 and 1.6 Installations within your Reseller account

-Wendy

Wendy Robinson joined the Rochen team in June 2010 as a sales support staff member. She is also currently involved with the Joomla! project as a member of the Community Leadership Team.

Introducing Rochen Alert

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Wendy RobinsonWith Rochen’s leading edge hosting infrastructure we provide the most secure and production ready environment for your Joomla!, Drupal and WordPress based websites, and our technical support team is there to assist 24/7 with any server related issues you might experience.

However, the responsibility of maintaining and securing websites lies with the site owner (you). This includes core upgrades, extension upgrades, file permissions and settings. That can be a daunting task if you have multiple websites to manage, each functioning with a unique combination of addons and possibly using different content management systems.

Rochen has recently introduced a unique service that can help you keep your websites secure and avoid spending money and/or lengthy periods of time fixing your site in the event of a compromise. This new service is Rochen Alert.

What is the best way to prevent an attack or compromise and be sure that your site is as secure as possible? By keeping yourself informed about the software you use and making sure you are receiving every bit of critical security news that gets released. The reality is that it can be rather tedious to comb through all the news you receive and it’s possible that the amount of spam and irrelevant information that lands in your inbox can keep you from getting the critical news when you need it.

The advantage of Rochen Alert is that it allows you to subscribe to a security notification service that will send you automatic emails any time a critical security vulnerability or upgrade is reported. This covers not only core but also extensions, modules and plugins that pertain to Joomla!, Drupal, and WordPress. The spam, junk and irrelevant news is filtered out ensuring that only the important information gets sent to you.

How does it work?

The system is powered by a proprietary engine built to discover, categorize and deliver security related information. It combs the internet continuously ingesting security related topics and rejecting everything else.

  • Security notifications for scripts you choose. E.g. Joomla, Drupal, WordPress etc.
  • Security notifications for plug-ins or extensions. E.g. Joomla Extensions, WordPress plug-ins etc.
  • Clear instructions on resolving the issue contained within the security notification.
  • Alerts about threats provided within hours of release.

With Rochen Alert you can carry on with your day, manage your business, and be sure that any critical security notifications will find their way to you before most people even know about them. As the alerts arrive within a timely manner you can take necessary steps to prepare your sites ahead of time, keeping your own site safe and allowing your clients to have full confidence that their websites are in good hands with you.

Our security optimized hosting infrastructure combined with the convenience and quality of Rochen Alert notifications will always keep you one step ahead of everyone else, including the hackers.

Where Can I Sign Up?

Rochen Alert is available here for a annual subscription fee. Upon sign up you can choose your own combination of alerts pertaining to each of the three big content management systems, Joomla!, Drupal and WordPress. As soon as your order is processed you will be on the list to start receiving your critical alert notifications.

Can I get a discount?

Sure! For a limited time you can use the promotional code “alertpromo” and receive $10 off the annual subscription fee for the first year of your Rochen Alert service. The promotional code will expire January 31, 2011, so sign up soon in order to save!
-Wendy

Wendy Robinson joined the Rochen team in June 2010 as a sales support staff member. She is also currently involved with the Joomla! project as a member of the Community Leadership Team.

Rochen’s Joomla Utilities – Making Joomla Easier

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

Wendy RobinsonHave you ever wished you could upgrade your Joomla installation with the click of a button? What about being able to quickly fix all of your Joomla file and directory permissions without manually checking each one? Have you been locked out of your website and wanted an easy way to reset your Joomla super administrator password?

Now you can do all of this and more directly through your Rochen account’s cPanel interface. Recently you may have noticed a new addition to your cPanel options called “Joomla Utilities”.

This cPanel plug-in is an additional Joomla Hosting feature exclusive  to Rochen that will allow you to easily install, upgrade, maintain and enhance the security of your Joomla websites. Currently you will see the “Joomla Utilities” option in your cPanel but we must advise that at this time it is still in BETA. However, we’re excited about these new features and we couldn’t wait any longer to give you a preview.

Some of the Joomla Utilities features include: -

  • Simple Joomla installation tool that unlike other “auto installers” always installs the latest stable version of Joomla
  • Ability to install multiple Joomla installations to your secondary domains,  sub domains and sub directories
  • Automatic security hardening for new Joomla installs
  • Reset the password for any Super Administrator account under a Joomla site
  • Update the Joomla Core in a single easy step
  • Security tweaks that prevent arbitrary scripts from running
  • File and Directory Permission optimization / repair tool – useful if moving a Joomla site to Rochen from another host
  • Easily password protect your Joomla Administrator panel
  • Joomla sites that were not initially installed using the “Joomla Utilities” feature can still be managed and updated
  • The “Joomla Utilities” are built directly into your Rochen account’s cPanel so there is no third-party extension to install or maintain under Joomla meaning zero hassle
  • White labeled so that resellers can offer Joomla Utilities to their own clients without Rochen being visible

We’ve prepared a short five minute demonstration video that we encourage you to watch: -

As soon as the Joomla Utilities are ready for use on live and production websites we will let you know. In the meantime, as always, keep those sites secure and up to date! A great way to stay informed and prevent possible compromises to your sites is  to follow the Joomla Security Mailing List, and the Vulnerable Extensions List.

Rochen are working to add an additional range of features to the Joomla Utilities over the coming months. We welcome any comments or feedback you may have regarding the current feature set.

Update: Please see our recent blog post with the new Joomla Utilities features: The choice to install Joomla 1.5 or Joomla 1.6 as well as the ability to migrate a Joomla website (1.5 or 1.6) from another host to your Rochen hosting account!

- Wendy

P.S. The “Joomla Utilities” option is available on all Rochen’s shared servers so is ready for immediate use by Business Hosting and Reseller Hosting customers. Managed Virtual Server (MVS) and full Managed Server customers can request this be installed on your server at no extra charge by opening a technical support ticket via the My Rochen customer portal.