Joomla: Status Update

So it's been weeks since this project started and I like our group's progress so far. In last week's meeting, we discussed the difficulties we faced trying to re-create the current mockup. We agreed that it's not the best way of creating a demo mockup for the competition website. Instead, we tried to replicate the mockup the way the CMS wants to do it. In other words, try to replicate most of the functions seen in the mockup even if it doesn't look exactly the same as the mockup images.

Last week, I was stuck trying to get phpBB3 to work with Joomla for our forum. I stumbled upon a Joomla plug in called JFusion. It's main purpose is to integrate other software like phpBB3 into Joomla. Installation was easy as always with Joomla. The problem is that JFusion failed to do what I wanted it to do. The dual login module of this plugin wasnt working for some reason. I spent hours reading the forums and other websites for possible fix but failed to fix the problem. After two days of trying to get it to work I finally gave up and looked for ano

ther way to get a forum running for our project. This is when I found Kunena. Kunena is so much easier to work with and the best part, it's integrated in Joomla as a module! No need for dual logins because every website user will be part of the forum. I also like that it opens up within the Joomla website instead of going to a whole new different page.

Another goal that we achieved this past week was the implementation of Google Gadgets. It's actually pretty simple to put any gadget in our Joomla website. I installed a Joomla module called Mod HTML. This allows developers to copy and paste a script and act as a module in

Joomla. I then did some manipulation to get the module to be in an article so that I can post it in the home page once the users log in. So far everything is running smooth. I have a Bejeweled game gadget on the home page of our Joomla website. I also tried to implement a work in progress Stoplight gadget that the other group is working on.

For next week, I will try and add more content to the website to have a fully working Joomla mockup site. Another feature that I will try to implement is UH's CAS login. This is what UH uses to authenticate the users of their web services. Below are some screenshots of what I have so far in Joomla.

-David Joel Lazaro