Honu's Voice

Creating a Rotating Header Image For your Artisteer Joomla Template

2010-08-01T20:19:00.001-07:00

I have seen a lot of different tricks out there for this, but most of them require lots of hacking and code modifying. The average user without a lot of code knowledge might have tons of trouble or errors. In this tutorial, I'll show you a way to do it, that will not require a lot of code steps or skills to achieve the desired effects.

1. Adding a "header" position to your template's index.php.

Open up your template's index.php and find where the code says: <div class="art-header">. Right after the closing > add the following code:


<div class="Header">
<jdoc:include type="modules" name="header" style="xhtml" />
</div>


2. Adding the Position to your template's templateDetails.xml

In your template's templateDetails.xml, find the code where it looks like this:

<positions>
<position>left</position>
<position>right</position>
<position>top</position>
<position>banner</position>
<position>header</position>
<position>footer</position>
<position>pathway</position>
<position>user1</position>
<position>user2</position>
<position>user3</position>
</positions>

Add <position>header</position> to the list of positions somewhere in between the <positions></positions> tags.

3. Install Simple Image Rotator into your Joomla Website.

4. After the module is installed, go to the module manager, and open the "Simple Image Rotator" module. You will need to do 5 things.

On the left column:

Change "show title" to no.
Set "enabled" to yes
Change the "position" to "header"

On the right column:

Set the "image folder path" to the location on your server where you have put your header files.
Change the "Image (header) width" and the "Image (header) height" to the width and height of your images.

Save and look at your page! now the images will cycle at random through your images! I hope this helps the people like me who have wanted to do this function, but didn't want to spend a lot of time and effort making this happen.

Internet Marketing is like picking fruit

2010-07-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing is a scary term. What do you do???

We have been receiving so much information on the subject, we decided to put together a plan on how to do it based on the current technologies and how internet users can be reached. Our research shows that the processes are not complicated but they are very time consuming. But on the other hand the results are quite exciting.

The biggest thing that needs to be done is to research, then analyze and finally plan your approach. The urge is to jump right into the process and "blast" the world with information. But there are so many portals to consider. Analysis is important to making the right decision on where to spend your marketing dollar. The research part of the plan does something else, it helps you focus on your marketing direction and that takes that "forest feeling" out of the equation. Research enables you to see the fruit bearing trees. Shaking a spruce tree to get apples to fall doesn't work. Neither does advertising or putting information in front of someone who is not interested won't get new clients.

So, don't be scared of Internet Marketing rather plan and prepare. The fruit is there for the picking.

Technology as we see it

2010-06-18T07:15:00.002-07:00

I saw an article on the news about blogging and making money. What a great idea! It was quite interesting to see how people are writing and other people reading and then going to other sites they saw listed on the blog site. Because of the visit to other sites posted on the web site, the blogger is making money and advertiser is making money and everyone has a great experience.

The idea is not new but the ways to do it are a lot easier with new technologies. Best part is that it appears that this form of technology meets the need of a lot of people.

So you want to have a Blog and make some money on the side, well with a little help from my friends at KMH Kreations you can be blogging soon. It is actually a lot of fun...

Flash For Froyo!

2010-05-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

In an interview with the New York Times, Google's Vice President Andy Rubin tells the world that Adobe's Flash will be supported on the Android Operating System 2.2 or Froyo (Frozen Yogurt) as it is usually referred to.

When asked about Apple's decision to not allow flash development for the iPhone, Andy compares Apple to North Korea, due to the removal of choice. "When they can’t have something, people do care. Look at the way politics work. I just don’t want to live in North Korea."

The whole thing started after Apple updated its iPhone developer program license. The updated version included this paragraph:

“3.3.1 - Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).”

The definition of stupidity is: doing the same thing twice, expecting different results. There must be some reason that even though, Macs have better graphics, better nano-technology, and less bugs, they still lose in the market to PCs. Hmm. Could it be Price & Compatibility?

Andy Rubin also said: "Open is open and we live by our own implementations.” This should be Google's new slogan! Truer words have never been spoken! In the end, Andy Rubin feels that it is only a matter of time before Android sales exceeds iPhone sales, and with an all encompassing, universal Google-rich, open source solution that includes Flash (which is already widely used), it may seem, that the world is about to see the "Rise of the Droid" era, while iPhone may get ironically shut out, just like they have done to Adobe.

Do you think that Apple is making the same mistake twice? Comment & Share Your Thoughts!

I have a website, why do I need to update it?

2010-04-06T15:36:00.004-07:00

This is probably one of the toughest subjects for a customer to understand.

We typically ask the question, "Do you know the difference between a "Static" and a "Dynamic" website?" To explain we then ask if once you buy or build a website do you think you are done, well if so, then what you want and have is a "Static" site. Nothing changes on it!

A "Static" site may be okay to store information but if you want people to come visit your site again and again and learn about you and your company, and then buy or at least associate with you it needs to constantly change and that is definition of a "Dynamic" site.

Website are much like clothing, styles change and that influences what cutomers and clients think of you and how they feel you will take care of them. Your webmaster needs to be always looking for new and improved ways to tell your story and help you to promote your business.

The bottomline is if you are getting all the business you expect from your website? GREAT, but if not then it is time to consider an update to increase your contact visits and business prospects.

Why Have a Website?

2010-03-05T11:58:00.001-07:00

When I talk with clients about their website desires. The reasons or actual needs that are explained are always very interesting and a bit confusing. There tends to be a want and desire but little true direction on what shape or form the web site should have.

The true heart of what we find to answer the why are:

Grow a business by expanding the customer base through the use of the web
Reach various current or new target audiences, knowing that more and more people use the web to find the business services they want or need
Find new and more efficient ways to communicate with existing and future customers
To keep up with the times and show you are a savey business that understands your clients needs
Bottom line, the client's customers expects to see a web presence

To understand the why of the client, we perform a survey with our clients. Our activities always need to center on the clients web needs and what business activities they wish to have that involve the web. Our approach to this is we do an interview with the principle parties of the business. We have a survey that we have developed over time that helps us understand and actually provides the client through their own thoughts and concerns the direction they want the project to follow.

We do not follow a cookie cutter approach, rather KMH Kreations tailors their efforts to the Customers true sense of why and we answer the how of the equations with an intergated plan that achieves the planned objective.

In conclusion, KMH Kreations thinks dynamically about your why, then acts progressively to find the best path to the objective and all the while is being creative.