Saturday 3 October 2009

Works as designed, but not necessarily as expected...

(for those non-Australian's out there, translate to; “Gee... It didn't do what I thought it would...")

Written by Russell Winter

Australia

Well, if any of you have seen some of my posts in the forum, you know that when I get on a roll, man. I can post some dooozies... So the plan is to deliver a series of articles in collaboration with a number of other Joomla! experts and well-known characters that relate to Site Planning, Integrity, Security and Maintenance over the coming months. For some of you, these might be a little basic, while others might find them to be worth the time spent reading them, we hope it will be the latter.

By way of an introduction for those that might not know me and to re-acquaint myself with those that do. I am Russ Winter, I live in Melbourne, Australia and have been around Joomla! for a couple of years now, you can commonly find me in the forums under the name of RussW. I tend to hangout in the Installation and Security forums mostly, but have been known to peruse the rest of the forums on occasion, I am probably best know for my odd sense of humour but can occasionally post something useful. I have most been recently been involved with the development of the Joomla! Tools Suite project and have been fortunate enough to also have been invited to join the newly formed Joomla! Security Strike Team (JSST).

Security, Integrity and Maintenance is an absolutely huge topic and is easily one of the biggest mine fields for new hands and experienced community members alike, over the coming months I will endeavour, with the help of many of the Joomla! experts and well known characters, to dispel some of the misunderstandings and urban myths, whilst also trying to simplify some of the hype and complexities of the topic.

Topics that are currently on the list to be covered are:

  • Joomla! Site planning and preparation
  • The meaning of “writable”
  • Common hosting provider configurations
  • Unix permissions and ownership issues
  • Backup and recovery best practices
  • Site lock down techniques and methods
  • Joomla! maintenance and upgrades procedures
  • Third party tools and utilities to assist the cause

and along the way.... why Australia is just so kewl...

The folks of the Joomla! Community Magazine and the JSST are looking forward to delivering this series of articles to you and hope you will find them useful and informative over the period.

Source: http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/549-works-as-designed-but-not-necessarily-as-expected.html