Joomla vs Wordpress vs Drupal

Published
by
Chalupa
on October 15, 2009
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

This is obviously a Wordpress blog, but with other projects I have, there has been some confusion on what the best platform is for the job.  I think this pretty much sums it up.

http://www.compassdesigns.net/joomla-blog/how-to-choose-between-joomla-drupal-and-wordpress

Successfully imported Wordpress 2.7 into Joomla 1.5

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 30, 2009
in Advice, Joomla, Nerdy/Geeky and Wordpress
. 0 Comments

In my last post, I exported mojoBlog to Wordpress, I successfully got mojoBlog converted into Wordpress and then exported Wordpress into an XML file.  Following the instructions from http://www.daydreymer.com/index.php/Technical/Tools/wordpress-export-to-joomla/All-Pages.html, I was then able to take that XML file and convert it into an SQL file to import into my Joomla 1.5 database.

Here are a few hiccups along the way that might help you out if you’re trying this.

  • Make sure you setup your Section/Category where you want all your blog posts to reside in Joomla.  The SQL generator has a place where you can enter the Section/Category IDs.  I did not do this the first time and all of a sudden I had 385 orphaned articles in Joomla.
  • When importing my SQL file into my database through PHPMYADMIN, uploading the file didn’t work, but if I copied/pasted the file into the textbox that seemed to work just fine.
  • Lastly, I was receiving a really weird error when trying to import in my database.  Turns out there was some weird javascript inside a particular blog post that was screwing everything up.  I was able to just edit the SQL file and remove the javascript code.

I’m not sure if I could be much help to your particular situation, but feel free to leave a comment if you’re having some problems and I can try.  I don’t know how many people are using mojoBlog, but the support seems to have dried up and it’s been over a year since version 0.17 was supposed to be released.  If I were you, I’d move your mojoBlog to Wordpress, if not Joomla.  Getting mojoBlog migrated to something else will allow me to update my Joomla 1.012 site to Joomla 1.5.  If you haven’t seen the new version, you’re in for a surprise.  Things are much, much better than they were before.

I’m continuing to post to my mojoBlog blog and need to figure out a few more things before I can migrate everything.  I still working on figuring out how to import my comments.  Supposedly !JoomlaComment can do that.  That’s my next project.

I exported mojoBlog to Wordpress

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 30, 2009
in Nerdy/Geeky and Wordpress
. 0 Comments

I feel like I just worked a technology miracle.

I’m trying to export my mojoBlog content to Joomla.  I finally found one tool that still exists and works.  I wasn’t able to access the site today at work, but was able to at home.  So if you try the link and it doesn’t work, maybe just try again later.

Bye Wordpress! is a tool available at DayDremer.com.  The exact link is - http://www.daydreymer.com/index.php/Technical/Tools/wordpress-export-to-joomla/All-Pages.html

After downloading an .exe file, all you have to do is tell it where the XML export of your Wordpress blog is, choose where to save the Joomla-friendly exported file to, choose your options and click GENERATE.  The problem with mojoBlog is the export feature does not exist.  This is a stripped down version of Wordpress made available for Joomla users.  I finally got around it, but it’s not pretty.  Here’s what I did.

Step 1: Export mojoBlog to Wordpress

  • I exported my mojoBlog database tables to my desktop using the PHPMYADMIN tool for my website.
  • I found the installation files for Wordpress 2.7 (I don’t know if the version number matters, but I figured 2.7 was going to be safer than 2.8) and copied them to my server.
  • I imported my database tables (see Step 1) using PHPMYADMIN to another database.  This is where they needed to be for the Wordpress 2.7 installation.
  • I checked the wp-config.php file for Wordpress and made sure my database settings were correct.
  • I followed the standard instructions for a Wordpress upgrade.  I navigated to http://www.mysite.com/wp-admin.  This initiates the upgrade procedure.  Everything seemd to work fine, but the upgrade windows said “mojoblog” on them.  After the upgrade was complete, it was redirecting to my old Joomla site where mojoblog is installed.

Step 2: Modify the database

  • Somewhere in the database files there were references to my old site.  I needed to change these to point to this new instance of Wordpress I just installed.  I found a few instances of my old site URL in the wp_options table so I edited those entries to point to the new URL.
  • I checked http://www.mysite.com again, but things were still weird.

Step 3: Re-run the upgrade

  • I navigated back to http://www.mysite.com/wp-admin again and this time I saw the standard Wordpress upgrade screen saying my database needed to be upgraded.  So I upgraded the database.
  • It then took me to the login screen but I was not able to login with my administrator account.  I had forgotten that all user accounts for mojoBlog were handled by Joomla.  So my user table was empty.  I needed to create an admin account.

Step 4: Create an admin account

  • I went into the wp_users table and inserted a new entry for the user “admin.”  I wasn’t sure on some of the fields, but I happened to have another Wordpress site setup, so I opened wp_users table there and tried to copy the settings.
  • I tried logging in and was able to, but I didn’t have sufficient privileges to access the Control Panel.  Wordpress was seeing my account as just a normal user.
  • I checked the wp_usermeta table and had to create an entry for the admin account so it knew this user had administrator privileges.  I now had access to the Control Panel for the blog.

Step 5: Backup Wordpress to an XML file and follow instructions at http://www.daydreymer.com/index.php/Technical/Tools/wordpress-export-to-joomla/All-Pages.html

From here I was able to pick up and start following the instructions for the Bye Wordpress! tool.  I had a slight hiccup where the program wouldn’t open on the computer I was using, but I was able to move the file over to my laptop, along with my Wordpress XML backup, and do everything there.

Next step is to try and import my file to Joomla.

Think I’m sticking with Joomla

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 30, 2009
in Joomla, Nerdy/Geeky and Wordpress
. 0 Comments

For the past two days I’ve been trying to work out exactly how I could move my Joomla site over to Wordpress.  It was going to be complicated.  Even after I figured out how to export my mojoBlog content, move all of my Joomla content into WP categories, acquire a menu system to mimic the old site, and import the users….I was still left with the SEF stuff.

This may not seem like too big of a deal, but I’ve spent the past two years trying to make a web site people want to come to and have acquired a Google Rating of 4.  I’m pretty proud of that and am not looking forward to losing that.  I know there are plugins that could help, but the truth is I know I wouldn’t be able to figure out all the redirects.  I have over 400 content items without even considering the blog, not to mention all of the internal links withing those content items.

After talking it over with Soulman, he sold me on upgrading to Joomla 1.5.  Everything on that site works wonderfully except for the blog.  He helped me to consider a few blogging options, both free and not-free, and I’ve been working out the details.  I should be able to port all of my mojoBlog items into Joomla core content and I think I’ve found a way to export all the comments.  I think I can tie the comments to the posts, but I haven’t tested it yet.  Other than a couple of tiny other hurdles that should be behind me soon, there isn’t too much more to figure out.  Looks like I’m going to stick with Joomla on this one guys.

Edit: Turns out every tool, I have found, that used to be able to import Wordpress content into Joomla doesn’t exist or doesn’t work anymore.  If you have any leads on something that will accomplish this, I’d love to hear it.

Exporting mojoblog

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 29, 2009
in Joomla and Wordpress
. 0 Comments

So this is turning out to be more and more complicated.  I knew mojoBlog is a stripped down version of Wordpress, but didn’t realize how stripped down.  It has no export function.

I think what I’ll have to do is export the tables, move the files, and then do a standard Wordpress upgrade.  This doesn’t sound too bad except the tables are bigger than 2MB so I can’t do the standard upload using phpmyadmin.  They cap file sizes.  I could try a few tables at a time, but I think most of it is all in one table which is over 2MB by itself.  I’ll figure it out.  Just trying to be careful and test things before I start messing around with actual data.

Joomla to Wordpress

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 29, 2009
in Joomla, Nerdy/Geeky and Wordpress
. 2 Comments

I’ve had a Joomla site running for a little over 2 years now.  What started off as just a content-based site gradually turned into a content site with a blog which then morphed into a heavily updated blog with some content.  If you’ve used Joomla, you know it’s hard to get decent blog tools without paying any money.  Being a fan of Wordpress, I settled on mojoBlog shortly before the developer stopped having time to work on it.  It’s a great, little stripped-down version of Wordpress, but it’s also full of bugs and just doesn’t quite do what I want.

Lately I’ve been kicking around the idea of exporting everything to Wordpress.  I can’t upgrade to Joomla 1.5 because mojoBlog won’t work.  If I did upgrade to 1.5 I would have to pay some money to get the blog setup and running again.  Last night I found an importer/exporter that will take Joomla content items and bring them into Wordpress 2.7.  I know that’s not the most recent version, but it’s easy to upgrade from there.  The hardest part was finding an old installation file.

From there, I just need to figure out how to tweak the template so things display how I want, import users, and figure a way to keep my permalinks.  I’ve found a few plugins that I think will be very helpful both in menu style, user roles, and multiple permalink formats.  As I’m testing these out and finding things I want to use, I’ll report back with what I’ve found and what works.

Self reference doesn’t match document location

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 21, 2009
in Advice, Nerdy/Geeky and RSS
. 4 Comments

<atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" href="http://mysite.com/feed" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/mysite.com');" type="application/rss+xml" /><item>

If you have ever ran your RSS feed through a feed validator and received the message: “Self reference doesn’t match document location” and have no idea what that means, I may have a few tips for you.

While this is just a recommendation and not an error, it could still cause you problems depending on how you’re using your feed.  I host my RSS feed on my own site, run it through FeedBurner and then distribute the feed to different sites for distribution.  One of those places has been having problems with my feed lately and I’ve had this recommendation showing up after trying to validate it through http://feedvalidator.org.

I didn’t think it was worth worrying about, but I recently fixed it just to make sure it wasn’t causing any problems.  It took me a while to figure it out, but it’s basically a self-referencing link.  If for any reason the URL of your feed does not exactly match this, you’ll get the “recommendation” message.

  • The first thing to check is to make sure that link is the URL people use for your feed.  If you’re doing fancy HTTP or .htaccess redirects, you should be giving people the destination URL, not the one that redirects them to something else.
  • The next thing to check for are spaces in your URL.  Even though some operating systems allow spaces in file names, it’s a general practice to try and avoid them.  Try using dashes or hyphens.
  • The last thing to remember is your links are case-sensitive.  If you’re sending someone to http://mysite.com/feed but your RSS feed references itself as http://mysite.com/Feed, you’re going to get the “error” message when you try to validate your RSS feed.  The hard part can be tracking down where this is set,  depending on how your feed is created and how you’re manipulating it.

I hope these few tips can help you out.  Generally it’s hard to find any help when looking around for an answer to a question like this.

Baked Potatoes

Published
by
Chalupa
on May 13, 2009
in Food
. 3 Comments

Tonight I was feeling like some vegetables, which isn’t too uncommon, and decided on potatoes.  If you love baked potatoes but don’t have the patience to wait for your oven to pre-heat and cook your tuber, you should try microwaving it.  After cleaning and poking your potato(s) with holes, microwave it for about 5 minutes.  If you’re worried about it drying out, just wrap it in a paper towel immediately after cleaning/rinsing.  After microwaving, wrap the potato in foil and it’ll cook itself.

Afterwards I like to mash/spread my potatoes on a plate and pile on the goodies.  Today I went with butter, garlic, oregano, chives, pepper,sour cream, cooked carrots and peas, and ketchup on top.  Delicious.  I was going to take a picture but accidentally ate it all.

Are film critics a dying breed?

Published
by
Chalupa
on April 16, 2009
in Movies
. 0 Comments

I’ve been hearing that will all the layoffs and job troubles, many newspapers are scrapping their film reviewers.  Do you still have a local film critic where you live?  Here’s a site that is being continually updated with the last full time film reviewers left.

http://moviecitynews.com/voices/2009/090302_critics.html

National Grilled Cheese month

Published
by
Chalupa
on April 14, 2009
in Cheese, Cooking and Food
. 0 Comments

I most definitely have a soft spot in my heart and stomach for grilled cheese.  Many can also attest to my unusual choices for making these delectable sandwiches with specific bread, meat, vegetable and cheese combinations.  I’m interested in seeing what kind of grilled cheese recipes will be posted.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/04/april-is-national-grilled-cheese-month.html