Andy Sharman's www.udjamaflip.com

Simple Google Analytics Joomla Module

Saturday, 09 January 2010 00:10

On an almost weekly basis at work a Google Analytics for a Joomla installation needs to be applied, now I'm very aware that we can just place it directly into the template file, however it is much more user friendly and easier to use to have a simple Google Analytics module so we can easily apply google analytics to existing joomla installations as well as new ones.

Placing fb:multi-friend-selector (friend invite form) into an fb:dialog (facebook popup)

Thursday, 03 December 2009 13:45

Recently I have been doing a lot of work with Facebook apps, and occasionally I came across issues such as this one with the FBML (Facebook Markup Language) and FBJS (Facebook JavaScript) where they seemed very difficult or impossible to do. I was trying to make a simple popup with my FBML application (note not Iframe applicaiton) and the popup using the fb:dialog element is not adjustable in its size, so instead of attempting to adjust that I change the row count of the invitation form, which was almost there. Then by removing the border it was only 2 pixels out so I did a little CSS hack using negative margins.

Breaking the silence

Monday, 30 November 2009 22:40

Its been over a month since a blog post, and I figured I would give the world an update into what I'm getting upto. Basically I'm actively developing on two personal projects currently, one being a jQuery desktop template and another being a remake of the well known tick based game myphppa, it is being reinvented as a Facebook application, although the application stage is in early stages (soon to be opened under BETA) and the jQuery desktop template soon to be available under Open BETA I would ask everyone is patient and "watch this space" the myphppa application will be released under the name of MYFBPA a slight name modification to suit the new environment that will be holding it. Thanks for waiting, it will be worth it!

Beginners guide to Search Engine Optimisation

Thursday, 22 October 2009 07:26

Recently I have had a lot of exposure to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and it turns out that trying to find real information about search engine optimisation isn't as easy as it would seem, you would think that people who have a real insight into the effects behind SEO would be online happily sharing their discoveries with other developers but unfortunately the ones who do are generally uneducated, and the others want you to pay for the information. I am not claiming myself as a fully qualified expert in search engine optimisation and all of its real effects across search engines (not just Google), however, I do feel that there is some real lacking content out there on this subject, and as such I would like to give my opinion and knowledge of SEO, its at least worth what it costs (FREE) unlike most companies out there which are peddling claims to get to the top of Google for frivilous un-used search terms at extortionate prices. Here I am going to explain how to structure content correctly, and hopefully a few tips for search engine optimisation you haven't heard of.

How to setup a blog...

Monday, 28 September 2009 07:10

As most of the traffic knows coming to this site, they have read in the papers about my story of taking on a giant company with my own blogging and beating them in Google for certain search terms in order get some attention from them to get my complaint resolved. Although a website like this does take time, and costs money I am going to explain two ways of creating a blog firstly in this post a simple way of setting up a free blog, and then later how to create a more advanced blog and the benefits of software choices.

David and Goliath

Thursday, 17 September 2009 21:27

This is a term that has been thrown around a lot when describing the articles about me, my blog and my battle against Thomson over my holiday to Tunisia. It seems that I am not the only person out there, and I do believe Thomson to be sorry now they realised the steam roller of fame this story has received this week. They have invited me down to them to dicuss how to improve their customer services and I would like you (the readers) to tell me what you think needs to be done!

Thomson Complaint - Resolved, but...how?

Monday, 07 September 2009 07:27

During my complaint about my horrible Thomson Tunisia holiday, I wrote on my blog displaying how angry I was about the service I received and not only that, but when I complained I was completely ignored. Just prior to me going away to Spain I received the cheque from Thomson to recompense me for my horrible Thomson holiday. Although this was an amicable amount, it was not what I deemed to be a credible amount, and as such I feel someone who doesn't go through the lengths I did to get get noticed by their company will probably receive nothing.

La Tomatina Information

Monday, 31 August 2009 18:07

Just returning from Spain I thought I would post some information about La Tomatina which is a tomato fight festival in a small town called Bunol near Valencia. La Tomatina is quite a young tradition in Spain, but is very popular with backpackers and tourists. I went this year for the second time and spoke to a few people on the way there and back and noticed a lot of La Tomatina go-ers found many blog posts inaccurate in information about the festival.

Joomla! module and templateDetails XML file creator

Tuesday, 11 August 2009 07:26

As any Joomla! developer will know, its great fun creating the template/module/plugin or component but not fun having to manually write that list of files into the xml file afterwards! Here is a solution, the module above will simply let you upload a .zip (without your .xml file and then it will parse through the .zip and then output some clean XML file list for you automatically.