Web Site Changes

Some time ago I took down the home page and the content management system (cms) it was running from. It's been a challenge to keep the Mambo/Joomla system up to date and secure while sections of the code I had re-written or large functions such as the (once upon a time) image management system, integration system with the forum, membership/user level/group management to name a few were commercial components purchased to make a pretty good tutorials site.

From the beginning the hardest part was to get the commercial components up to date with every security update released for the cms system. Some went out of business, some cost extra to update and others just would not work (some all 3!! That's a story in itself!!). All in all it has been a lot of work, cash and more grey hairs to keep it going.

Recently, because of the forum integration system, both the forum and the cms had to be upgraded to the latest release at the same time. A lot of the code I had written for certain areas needed to be re-done as a lot of the base code for the cms had changed dramatically. Needless to say all the commercial components needed to be upgraded as well.

I actually purchased some of the new components when I realised the amount of work and time (grey hairs) that would be needed to get the site up and running again. It can be done, but I believe the system became too complicated because of the added user management features that are still not present at this time in the latest release of Mambo/Joomla cms.

So what you see before you is a new beginning for this website. The look and feel of the old front page will be reproduced as much as possible as I have time available but the main changes are to the way it works. With any luck, everything should be more simple for everyone (and I hope for a very long time).

This new home page will become more functional and personalised over the coming weeks. Should you have any problems/questions or notice anything that you think we should be aware of, please post this in the forum so we can check to make sure everything is working as it should.

Thanks for your patience
Jason