The Joomla! community is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Joomla! 1.5.6 [Vusani]. This is a quick turnaround security release to address a high level security issue and it is recommended all users upgrade immediately. For more information about this exploit, click here to visit the Joomla Security Blog. (http://developer.joomla.org/security/news/241-20080801-core-password-remind-functionality.html) Instructions New installation (http://help.joomla.org/content/category/48/268/302/) Upgrade from an existing Joomla! 1.5 version (http://docs.joomla.org/Upgrading_1.5_from_an_existing_1.5x_version) Migration from Joomla! 1.0.x (http://docs.joomla.org/Migrating_from_1.0.x_to_1.5_Stable) See below for manual installation instructions Download the Joomla 1.5.6 full package now (http://joomlacode.org/gf/download/frsrelease/8232/30034/Joomla_1.5.6-Stable-Full_Package.zip) Downlaod update packages (http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&frs_package_id=3883) Release Notes SECURITY [HIGH] Fixed security hole in reset logic to check for proper token length. Manual Installation For some users a manual installation of the 1.5.6 Security Patch is a faster process. To manually apply the 1.5.6 Security Patch, upload the following files, replacing the existing files: /components/com_user/models/reset.php /changelog.php /includes/framework.php /administrator/includes/framework.php /libraries/joomla/version.php /libraries/joomla/environment/uri.php This patch will only update installations of Joomla 1.5.5. If you're using an earlier version, it is recommended you update prior to updating these files.

The August 2008 Joomla! Community Magazine (http://community.joomla.org/preview/issue/4-2008-08-joomla-community-magazine.html) is available now and it's loaded with cool stuff about the World's Greatest Open Source CMS. (Biased? pfff!) Month after month, you will find articles on Joomla! 1.5 Web sites, GPL-compatiable extensions, events, communities around the world, ways to get involved, learning resources for beginners, site integrators, and developers, and the latest buzz on what's happening in the Joomla! project.What kind of buzz, you ask? Well, this month, it's all about JoomlaConnect™ (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/535-introducing-joomlaconnect.html), a brand new service that aggregates Joomla! community news from all around the world. Joomla! Core Team member and Communications Team Lead Louis Landry (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/56-louis-landry.html) developed this nifty new tool for us to use. So, if you are interested in some RSS action, get your blog firing J!, and see Getting Connected to JoomlaConnect (http://community.joomla.org/connect/get-connected.html).Feature ArticlesThis month, Joomla! Core Team member and Development Working Group Coordinator, Andrew Eddie (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/66-andrew-eddie.html) kicks off the Features Section by revealing an encouraging external market survey (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/519-cms-market-share-report-joomla-in-top-3.html) that shows Joomla!, WordPress (http://wordpress.org), and Drupal (http://drupal.org) as leading Open Source CMSs worldwide. Hat tip to our friends and partners in free software. Andrew also discusses training resources (http://community.joomla.org/preview/article/520-empowering-joomla-developers-with-knowledge.html) for developers and calls on the faithful to lend a hand updating our dev doc. Come on, it'll make you feel good.This is very cool --> International award winning author and illustrator Sarah Verroken (http://community.joomla.org/preview/author/77-sarah-verroken.html) shares her creative process (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/525-joomla-15-web-site-sarah-verroken-award-winning-illustrator-and-author.html) that resulted in a captivating J! 1.5 Web site showcasing her unique and beautiful work. Then, more cool design --> Per André Rønsen (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/78-per-andre-ronsen.html) combines creative talents in theology, music, and design into a hot J! 1.5 Web site for Soul Kids (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/526-joomla-15-web-site-per-andre-ronsen-soul-kids.html).This month's Joomla! Forum Member of the Month (http://community.joomla.org/preview/article/523-joomla-forum-member--july-2008-marieke-van-der-tuin.html) is Marieke van der Tuin, undeniably one of the hardest working contributors in all of J! land. Oh, and make certain to check out the great, new GPL'ed extensions highlighted (http://community.joomla.org/preview/article/514-joomla-15-gpl-extensions-for-august-2008.html) by our very own Toni Marie (http://community.joomla.org/preview/author/57-toni-marie.html).Involved CommunityJoomla! is powered by an involved community all around the world. Case in point, Vancouver Joomla! Day organizer Wendy Robinson (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/80-wendy-robinson.html) shares Ten steps to a successful event (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/529-events-perspectives-from-a-joomla-day-organizer.html). On the other side of the planet, Chorn Sokun (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/82-chorn-sokun.html) and John T Denny (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/81-john-t-denny-phd.html) highlight what's going on with the Cambodian Joomla! community (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/530-international-joomla-users-group-of-cambodia-jugcam.html). Then, from San Francisco, Ron Severdia (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/74-ron-severdia.html), founder of PlayShakespeare.com, discusses his J! 1.5 site, also the subject of his recent CNN Comcast Newsmakers (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/518-community-involvement-playshakespearecom-featured-on-cnn.html) interview.Then, Joomla! developer, Alan Langford (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/72-.html) of Toronto shares a thoughtful piece on why he participates in Open Source (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/517-involvement-why-i-love-open-source-alan-langford.html) and Google Summer of Code participant, Mostafa Muhammad (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/83-mostafa-muhammad.html) sends Greetings from Wikimania 2008 (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/532-events-wikimania-conference.html) in Egypt. Core Team member and Fundraising Team Lead, Michelle Bisson (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/73-Michelle%20Bisson.html), (Wait a minute! Isn't that a lot of Mounties? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Mounted_Police)) invites the community to support Joomla! financially (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/516-involvement-support-joomla-2008-08-01.html). Give until it hurts. Well, at least give, if you are able, knowing every little bit helps...Joomla! LearningThere are several great articles aimed at skill development for Joomla! community members. Those just starting with Joomla! 1.5 are encouraged to read the Learning Joomla! using Sample Data (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/522-introductory-learning-joomla-using-sample-data.html) written by Mark Dexter (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/75-mark-dexter.html). Site Integrators will get good value from Sam Moffatt (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/524-site-integrator-improve-the-security-of-your-joomla-administrator-sam-moffatt.html)'s Improve the Security of your Joomla! Administrator (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/524-site-integrator-improve-the-security-of-your-joomla-administrator-sam-moffatt.html) article; practical tips from Andrew (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/66-andrew-eddie.html)'s Legacy Mode in Joomla! 1.5 (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/513-site-integrator-legacy-mode-in-joomla-15.html) and Search in Joomla! 1.5 (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/512-site-integrator-search-in-joomla-15.html) pieces; and inspiration from J! talent Jennifer Marriott (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/79-jennifer-marriott.html)'s Resources for Designers (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/527-site-integrator-resources-for-designers.html) article.For developers, Jens-Christian Skibakk's tutorial entitled Creating a single package for Admin and Site Languages (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/528-developer-creating-a-single-package-for-admin-and-site-languages.html) will help you take advantage of recent Installer improvements introduced by Jens. If you are geek enough, check out the tutorial Dynamic loading of lists using AJAX in a MVC component (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/531-developer-dynamic-loading-of-lists-using-ajax-in-a-mvc-component-mathieu-chauvinc.html) written by the very talented, Mathieu Chauvinc (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/531-developer-dynamic-loading-of-lists-using-ajax-in-a-mvc-component-mathieu-chauvinc.html).Joomla! Project Really good effort from the Joomla! project this month. Development Working Group Leads Sam Moffatt (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/author/64-sam-moffatt.html) and Anthony Ferrara (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/510-working-group-spotlight-joomla-bug-squad.html) share this month's release updates on Joomla! 1.5.4 and 1.5.5 (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/534-release-update-joomla-154-and-joomla-155.html) . The Joomla! Extensions Directory takes the Working Group spotlight (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/533-working-group-spotlight-joomla-extensions-directory.html) -- and exceeds 3,500 Joomla! Extensions! And, finally, there is that very cool announcement about JoomlaConnect™ (http://community.joomla.org/magazine/article/535-introducing-joomlaconnect.html).Next month?Much more, and even a bit more on top of that. So, come back and get some. September's line up is all firmed up but if you are interested in sharing an article with the Joomla! Community Magazine for October, we might have a spot for that. Just contact us at Joomla.Magazine@community.joomla.org (mailto:Joomla.Magazine@community.joomla.org) and let us know what you would like to share. Until then, have fun with Joomla!.

July 14, 2008 marks the beginning of year three of Packt's friendly competition between world class free software communities for who earns bragging rights to the much coveted 2008 Best Overall Open Source CMS (http://www.packtpub.com/award). Not only is this recognition a great way to encourage, support, and reward the incredible efforts of free software communities, but, there is also a nice cash award shared with those projects fortunate enough to win. The time for the Joomla! community to act is now! Head over to Packt and nominate Joomla! for the Best Overall Open Source CMS Award (http://www.packtpub.com/article/nominate-overall-open-source-cms-winner/system/Joomla) and for the Best PHP Open Source CMS (http://www.packtpub.com/article/nominate-open-source-php-cms/system/Joomla). While you are there, check out the new Open Source CMS Most Valuable Player (http://www.packtpub.com/article/nominate-open-source-cms-mvp) award. Nominate (http://www.packtpub.com/article/nominate-open-source-cms-mvp) someone who has worked hard to make Joomla! better and has made it easier and more fun for others to get involved. Help get the word out. Fire up those blogs. Post it on forums. Share it in your newsletters. E-mail your friends. Activate your RSS feeds because nominations begin today and continue until August 25th, 2008 (http://www.packtpub.com/award_timeline). Let's bring home the Best Overall Open Source CMS (http://www.packtpub.com/award) award for Joomla! in 2008! Show your support by voting for Joomla! today (http://www.packtpub.com/article/nominate-overall-open-source-cms-winner/system/Joomla)!

The Joomla! community is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Joomla! 1.5.5 [Mamni]. This is a quick turnaround release to address the Duplicate Title error from 1.5.4 (http://developer.joomla.org/coordinator-blog/188-154-duplicate-titles.html) . This release also contains important SEF URL improvements and fixes for com_content in addition to a number of bug fixes and improvements. It has been nearly three weeks since Joomla! 1.5.4 was released (content/view/5180/1/) on July 8, 2008. The Development Working Group (http://community.joomla.org/contributors/developers.html) 's goal is to continue to provide regular, frequent updates to the Joomla! community. Instructions New installation (http://help.joomla.org/content/category/48/268/302/) Upgrade from an existing Joomla! 1.5 version (http://docs.joomla.org/Upgrading_1.5_from_an_existing_1.5x_version) Migration from Joomla! 1.0.x (http://docs.joomla.org/Migrating_from_1.0.x_to_1.5_Stable) Download Joomla! 1.5.5 and update packages (http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse frs_package_id=3846) Want to test drive Joomla!? Try the online demo (http://demo.joomla.org/) . Documentation is available (http://docs.joomla.org/Beginners) for beginners. Release Notes Fix Duplicate Titles Bug (content/view/5216/1/#dup) SEF URL improvements and fixes for com_content (content/view/5216/1/#sef) Fixed error restricting Search to Article content, only Archived Articles now link correctly with SEF URLs Category Blog pagination and Link List corrected Category List Menu Item and Frontend now allow List length selection Fixed Contact Item Bad Word parameter that prevented email Private Messaging Search now returns results SWF Banner correction allowing definition of dimensions Improved 403 reporting for Submit Article and Web link permission issues Register to Read More fixes for Newsflash Page Break and Read More fixes JA Purity Hornav position, login token code, and language string fixes BEEZ fieldset alignments for Search and Read More link corrections Installer fixes for updates to Components and Modules mosmsg now used by 1.0.x extensions

The Joomla! community is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Joomla! 1.5.4 [Naiki]. This is a normal maintenance release which includes a few low to moderate security issues, many bug fixes, and several very nice improvements. It has been a little over ten weeks since Joomla! 1.5.3 was released (content/view/4852/74/) on April 24, 2008. The Development Working Group (http://community.joomla.org/contributors/developers.html)'s goal is to continue to provide regular, frequent updates to the Joomla! community containing the latest bug fixes and minor enhancements. Instructions New installation (http://help.joomla.org/content/category/48/268/302/) Upgrade from an existing Joomla! 1.5 version (http://docs.joomla.org/Upgrading_1.5_from_an_existing_1.5x_version) Migration from Joomla! 1.0.x (http://docs.joomla.org/Migrating_from_1.0.x_to_1.5_Stable) Download Joomla! 1.5.4 and update packages (http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse frs_package_id=3786) Want to test drive Joomla!? Try the online demo (http://demo.joomla.org/). Documentation is available (http://docs.joomla.org/Beginners) for beginners. Release Notes Big Fixes: Major Cache overhaul, including unit testing for quality assurance Router issues related to extending the router Menu ordering issues when nested menus were used Several Search component fixes, including the removal of HTML tags as possible search results Menu permissions issues Unpublished menu item issues, including fatal errors and allowing an unpublished menu item to be selected as default Banners can handle Flash items Polls and Latest and Most Popular articles listed in the Administrator now support GMT dates Page titles now follow more consistent rules (see Page Title Parameters (content/view/5180/1/1/2/) for more information) Several OpenID improvements Security Fixes: LDAP security fix to prevent unauthorized access to administration Added security to file caching to prevent unauthorized access to cached pages User Redirect Spam fix htaccess global variable security fix when SEF is enabled (See .htaccess Security Fix (content/view/5180/1/1/1/#htaccess)) Additions/Changes: OnBeforeContentSave and onAfterContentSave Event Triggers added (See Content Trigger Additions (content/view/5180/1/1/1/#Content_Trigger_Additions) for more information) Ability to abort a save by returning false in the onBeforeContentSave trigger Added JA_Purity template (See JA_Purity Template (content/view/5180/1/1/1/#JA_Purity_Template) for more information) Help screens updated (See Help Screens (content/view/5180/1/1/1/#Help_Screens) for more information) Supports installing site and admin languages in one package (See Language Installation Improvements (content/view/5180/1/1/1/#Language_Installation_Improvemen) for more information) All line endings changed to \n instead of a mix of \r\n and \n

The Joomla! Community Portal (http://community.joomla.org) is a new web site for the Joomla! community. There you will find a constant source of information about the activities powering the Joomla! project, learn about Joomla! Events (http://community.joomla.org/events.html) worldwide, and see if there is a Joomla! User Group (http://community.joomla.org/joomla-user-groups.html) nearby. A new, monthly Joomla! Community Magazine (http://community.joomla.org/magazine.html) promises an interesting overview of project activities, community accomplishments, and learning material. Those who regularly contribute to Joomla! will tell you the best way to get more out of the project is to participate actively. In doing so, you learn. Your contributions help shape the project. You build a support network. You find business opportunities. You start to see the bigger picture and recognize the value of the Joomla! community. It is not always easy to know how to get started as a project contributor. The Joomla! Community Portal makes opportunities for involvement more visible for those interested. At Joomla!, there are always a wide variety of activities underway. The Joomla! Core Team (http://community.joomla.org/core-team-blog.html), Documentation Working Group (http://community.joomla.org/contributors/documentors.html), Joomla! Extension Directory editors (http://community.joomla.org/contributors/jed-editors.html), Forum Moderators (http://community.joomla.org/contributors/forum-moderators.html), Translation Working Group, (http://community.joomla.org/contributors/translators.html) and Development Working Group's (http://community.joomla.org/contributors/developers.html) blogs and RSS feeds will help you keep up with everything that is happening. The Joomla! Events Team helps coordinate activities all over the world and shares information about Joomla! Days (http://community.joomla.org/events/joomladays.html), Expo's and Trade Shows (http://community.joomla.org/events/expos.html), and other community meetings (http://community.joomla.org/events/community-meetings.html). Attending events is an excellent way to meet members of the community, find opportunities to collaborate, and have fun. Review the Joomla! Event Calender (http://community.joomla.org/events/calendar/Joomla%21%20Official%20Events%20Calendar.html) to find an event of interest to you. Joomla! User Groups (http://community.joomla.org/joomla-user-groups.html) are a great way to build a local Joomla! support network. On the Joomla! Community Portal (http://community.joomla.org), a list of groups and contact information is available to make locating a group easier. If there is no Joomla! User Group in your area, consider starting one (http://www.opensourcematters.org/content/view/99/70/). The Joomla! Community Magazine (http://community.joomla.org/magazine.html) promises to be a must read each month. Community members will take turns sharing cool Joomla! 1.5 Web sites, Joomla! 1.5 GPL'd extensions, event information, involvement opportunities, and articles about local communities. A section on learning contains great material for introductory learners, professional Web site integrators, and talented developers. The project section of the magazine will keep you up to date on release information, working group profiles, and the latest project information. We look forward to seeing you at the Joomla! Community Portal (http://community.joomla.org).

Front row (left to right): Lorenzo Garcia and Andrew Eddie; Back row (left to right): Ryan Ozimek, Levis Bisson, Sam Moffatt, Wilco Jansen, Louis Landry, Elin Waring, Michelle Bisson, Rob Schley, Alex Kempkens, Dave Huelsmann, Chris Davenport, and facilitator Adrian Ganz; Not pictured: Joomla! Core Team members Brad Baker and Ole Ottosen and OSM Board Members Wendy Robinson and James Vasile who were unable to attend the summit. The Joomla! Core Team (content/blogcategory/13/29/) and Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. (http://www.opensourcematters.org/content/blogcategory/37/62/) held their annual summit last week in the beautiful area near Pfronten, Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfronten). Meeting as a group is obviously rare given the community's international presence. And yet, it is important to take time to evaluate where the project has been and to consider how best to guide it's continued growth. We thank each of you who contribute to this project. Whether you are a member of a working group, or you donate money, or you help new people get started in the forums, or you write code, documentation, or translations, or you organize Joomla! Day events, or you assist with your local Joomla! User Group, your efforts make Joomla! better. If you are hoping to get more involved with the community, but you don't know how to get started, consider participating in the Pizza, Bugs and Fun (http://developer.joomla.org/home/26-coordinator-blog/138-what-it-takes-to-bake-a-pizza.html) event scheduled for the last two weekends of June. Soon ideas and plans from the summit will begin to emerge, but these concepts will only take shape and can only bring positive impact when powered by the Joomla! community. We encourage your involvement and look forward to working with you, all together, to ensure the continued success and growth of the Joomla! project.

The South African Joomla! community (http://www.joomla.org.za/) is pleased to invite you to the first Joomla! Day South Africa - Durban (http://www.joomladay.co.za/), an event to be held June 20 and 21, 2008, at the Varsity College, Durban North (http://www.varsitycollege.co.za/slideshow.aspx?Campus=durbannorth). Durban is the third largest city in South Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa), a popular destination for tourists, and considered to be the busiest port on the African continent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa). It is an ideal location for those interested in Joomla! to gather. Joomla! Days offer an excellent opportunity to learn, network with other Joomla! users and developers, and discover ways to contribute to the Joomla! Project. The South African Joomla! community (http://www.joomla.org.za/) has been hard at work to ensure that this year's Joomla! Day event is at least as informative and fun as the three previous successful South African events held during 2007. The Joomla! Day South Africa - Durban Agenda (http://www.joomladay.co.za/component/option,com_attend_events/Itemid,/task,view/id,5/) presents two full days of activities: Day 1: Business Community Day—The agenda for Friday, June 20, is designed around the needs of the business community. Those who have roles like Web master, business decision maker and marketing manager will find helpful, relevant topics. The Business Community Day is a non-technical event focused on helping make a business case for using Joomla. If you need help and information to determine whether or not Joomla is suitable for your business, this session for you. Day 2: User Community Day—The agenda for Saturday, June 21, is focused on the Joomla! user community. This is a technical and business session, covering topics of interest for those who set up and manage Web sites for themselves or clients. Topics on this day will cover Web site security, migration, templating, extensions, hosting and business strategies for Web site developers. Joomla! Day South Africa events are run by the Joomla! Southern African Community Portal (http://www.joomla.org.za/), a non-profit organization. Register online (http://www.joomladay.co.za/component/option,com_attend_events/Itemid,/task,view/id,5/) now to attend. Your registration includes refreshments, a Joomla! t-shirt and an information packet. Joomla! Days are well-attended worldwide. A key benefit of attendance is the opportunity to connect with members of the Joomla! community, including speakers, designers, Web site builders and developers. We wish the very best and an enjoyable Joomla! Day event to our South African Joomla! community.

The Joomla! Project is evolving. What started with a more closed, small organization is developing into the much larger and more open organization that produces, protects and supports the Joomla! Project today. This month is filled with events reflecting that evolution. This last December we had a Pizza, Bugs and Fun (content/view/4274/74/) event that was key to getting Joomla! 1.5 ready for its phenomenal release in January. It also provided an opportunity for us as a community to get to know each other a little better and build relationships that will continue to drive the Joomla! project into the future. If you can, you should consider participating in the second PBF (http://developer.joomla.org/home/26-coordinator-blog/112-pizzas-at-the-joomla-bazaar.html) coming up this month. It will be even bigger than the first. In our continuing effort to lower barriers to participate (http://developer.joomla.org/home/26-coordinator-blog/81-lowering-bariers.html) in the project and improve communication, we've recently relaunched the Joomla! developer section (http://developer.joomla.org/) with a series of blogs so that the various development related teams can keep everyone updated on what is going on and provide another format for people to discuss ideas. We have also started development on Joomla! 1.6 after a public process requesting features and receiving input on specific improvements to the next minor release of Joomla!. Getting Together With the huge growth of the Joomla! project and its community, there is much to be discussed and worked on with respect to sites and infrastructure. Because of this, the Joomla! Sites and Infrastructure Working Group will be having their first ever meeting (content/view/4971/1/) this summer in Vancouver just before the first Joomla! Day Vancouver (http://vancouver.joomla.ca/). This is a big event for the Joomla! project and a great opportunity for everyone involved to discuss new ways of supporting the Joomla! project and its community through our sites and infrastructure. We hope to see as many of you working group members as possible there and hope that everyone who can attend the Joomla! Day (http://vancouver.joomla.ca/) will come out and participate. Next week, the Joomla! Core Team (content/blogcategory/13/29/) and Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. (http://www.opensourcematters.org/content/blogcategory/37/62/) will be holding their next summit in Pfronten, Germany. The primary focus of this four-day summit will be to discuss how to steer the Joomla! Project into the future. Teams will be blogging from the summit to share items of discussion and get your direct feedback. We want to thank and honor everyone that has helped guide the Joomla! Project through these last few years. Four Joomla! Core Team members who have done just that and recently moved on to focus on other endeavors are Johan Janssens (content/view/23/87/), Shayne Bartlett (content/view/32/87/), Peter Russell (content/view/34/87/) and Rob Schley (content/view/2032/87/). Rob continues to serve the Project by sitting on the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. (http://www.opensourcematters.org/) We thank each of them for their years of dedicated service and wish them all the best for the future. Getting Involved The re-launch of the developer section (http://developer.joomla.org/) is aimed at improving communication and lowering barriers to entry in Joomla! development. But, the Joomla! Project requires more than development skill to innovate and run efficiently. We are also looking to do this in other areas. There is a new site we are working on which aims to accomplish those same things on a much larger scale. You won't want to miss the juicy details and inside discussion at the Sites and Infrastructure meeting during Joomla! Day Vancouver (http://vancouver.joomla.ca/). As previously announced, the second Joomla! PBF (http://developer.joomla.org/home/26-coordinator-blog/112-pizzas-at-the-joomla-bazaar.html) is happening soon. This new event is geared towards getting Joomla! 1.5.4 ready for release and squashing as many bugs as possible. Anyone and everyone can participate in helping make Joomla! better. Working all together there is no limit to what we can achieve so come be a part of the magic (http://docs.joomla.org/Pizza_Bugs_and_Fun_2).

The Vancouver Joomla! community invites you to the first Joomla! Day Vancouver (http://www.vancouver.joomla.ca/). The event is scheduled for Saturday, June 14th, 2008, from 9 AM to 5:30 PM, and will be held at the Vancouver Public Library (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Public_Library) in downtown Vancouver (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver), beautiful British Columbia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia), Canada (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada) . Joomla! developers and enthusiasts from the greater Vancouver area and all over the world will attend this important community driven and inspired event. Many are flying in for Joomla! Day Vancouver (http://www.vancouver.joomla.ca/) and the Sites and Infrastructure Working Group (http://docs.joomla.org/Sites_and_Infrastructure_Working_Group)'s general meeting (content/view/4971/1/) scheduled the day before. This will be a great gathering of community members and a perfect opportunity to network with others. The presenters (http://www.vancouver.joomla.ca/index.php/presenters) and coordinators for Joomla! Day Vancouver (http://www.vancouver.joomla.ca/) include some of the original creators and maintainers of the Joomla! CMS framework: Presenters: Brad Baker (content/view/30/85/) - Joomla! Core Team Member Chris Adams (http://www.rochen.com) - CEO of Rochen Limited Levis Bisson (content/view/28/85/) - Joomla! Core Team Member Michelle Bisson (content/view/29/85/) - Joomla! Core Team Member Steve Burge (http://www.alledia.com) - CEO of Alledia Louis Landry (content/view/824/85/) - Joomla! Core Team Member Jennifer Marriott (http://www.jennifermarriott.com) - Joomla! Working Group Member Toni Marie Swats (http://www.mydynamicsite.com) - Joomla! Working Group Member Coordinators: Wendy Robinson - Joomla! Forum Workgroup Member RMD Studio (http://www.rmdstudio.com/) Jentekk Web Solutions (http://www.jentekk.ca/) Peer Globe Technology (http://www.peerglobe.com/) Tazzu Networking Community (http://www.tazzu.com/) Tickets are only $25 CAD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_dollar) if you register online (http://vancouverjoomladay.eventbrite.com/) or $30 CAD on the day of the event. This nominal price covers admission for an entire day of presentations and networking, a Joomla! Day T-shirt, coffee, tea, light snacks, and a chance at several great prizes. 350 West Georgia Street (http://www.vancouver.joomla.ca/index.php/location) in Vancouver, Beautiful British Columbia, Canada Joomla! Days are for everyone, from the Joomla! beginner to the wise veteran of this award winning content management system. At Joomla! Day Vancouver (http://www.vancouver.joomla.ca/) you will have an excellent opportunity to meet members of the Joomla! Core Team and Working Groups and to discover ways to get more involved with the project and community. We are confident that attendees of Joomla! Day Vancouver (http://www.vancouver.joomla.ca/) will have a great time together and look forward to hearing about the success of this event.

The first Joomla! Day Philippines (http://www.joomla.org.ph/) is scheduled for Saturday, June 14, 2008, to be held at the Engineering Library and Computer Science Building on the Diliman (http://www.up.edu.ph/) campus of the University of the Philippines (http://www.upd.edu.ph/) in Quezon City (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quezon_City), Philippines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines). The morning event is offered at no charge and does not require registration. Those interested in attending the afternoon event are encouraged to register soon (http://www.joomla.org.ph/joomladayphilippinesregistration.html) before limited seats are sold out or the June 5 registration deadline passes. Since knowledge in technology helps ensure a competitive edge in the 21st century, Joomla! Day Philippines (http://www.joomla.org.ph/) is a great opportunity for Filipinos. Learning to take full advantage of this award-winning open source content management system can empower professionals and amateurs to build and administer feature-rich, powerful web sites without requiring programming experience. Attending Joomla! Day Philippines (http://www.joomla.org.ph/) can help start building skills needed to make that happen. Joomla! Day Philippines 2008 Agenda Coordinators Jhondie Abenaza (http://www.jdam.us/), aka Jdam (http://forum.joomla.org/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile u=24423), and Guilliam Roque (http://www.joomlaconsultancy.net/), aka Guilliam, (http://forum.joomla.org/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile u=188) announced the agenda for Joomla! Day Philippines (http://www.joomla.org.ph/) to include: Morning Session The morning session is available at no charge, requires no advance registration. 8 AM - Registration 9 AM - Welcome Address 9:15 AM - Introduction of Speaker 9:20 AM - Keynote by Johan Janssens, Joomla! developer and former Core Team member 10:30 AM - Question and Answers 11 AM - Panel Discussion on Joomla! Experience with local Joomla! developers and experts 11:45 AM - Questions and Answers 12:00 noon - End of Morning Session Afternoon Session Registration (http://www.joomla.org.ph/joomladayphilippinesregistration.html) is required. Joombie Section 1 PM - PHP and MySQL for the Lazy! - Clodelio Delfino, President PHPUGPH (http://phpugph.com/) 2 PM - Introduction to Joomla! 1.5.x - Paul De Paula 3 PM - Local and Remote Joomla! Installation - Errole Guttierez 4 PM - Joomla! Templating for the Newbie Developer Section 1 PM - Migrating to Joomla! 1.5.x - Israel D. Canasa (Raeldc) 2 PM - Extension for Joomla 1.5.x - Jhondie Abenaza (Jdam) (http://www.jdam.us/), Moderator Joomla! PH (http://forum.joomla.org/viewforum.php?f=21) 3 PM - Copyright Issues/Creative Commons - Atty. Magdalena Lepiten and Guilliam Roque (http://www.joomlaconsultancy.net/), Moderator Joomla! PH (http://forum.joomla.org/viewforum.php?f=21) 4 PM - Joomla! 1.5 Application Layer - Johan Janssens, Joomla! developer and former Core Team member Two days following the Philippine Independence Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Declaration_of_Independence), the Joomla! Filipino community will celebrate software freedom by attending the first-ever Joomla! Day Philippines (http://www.joomla.org.ph/). As others all around the world have found, Joomla! Day events are a great opportunity to learn how to use Joomla!, to network with other Joomla! users and developers, and to find ways to contribute to the project. We wish the Filipino Joomla! community the very best as they get together to celebrate Joomla!.

The developer.joomla.org (http://developer.joomla.org/) Web site has been re-launched using Joomla! 1.5. You are invited to frequently visit and enjoy a steady stream of information shared by approximately 50 bloggers, each of whom are actively involved with Joomla! development. Reading their blogs and providing your feedback is an excellent way to stay in touch with Joomla!. Keep up-to-date on what is new in Joomla! Development On developer.joomla.org (http://developer.joomla.org/), you will find posts from Joomla!'s Development Working Group Coordinators (http://developer.joomla.org/), Andrew Eddie and Wilco Jansen. Here, the coordinators share key development directions such as the decision to raise the Joomla! 1.6 minimum requirement to PHP 5.2 (http://developer.joomla.org/home/26-coordinator-blog/75-joomla-goes-php-5.html) and discussions on community issues such as how best to lower the barriers for participation (http://developer.joomla.org/home/26-coordinator-blog/81-lowering-bariers.html). In addition, presentation material of interest to developers will frequently be shared following Joomla! Day events and technical conferences. Developer.joomla.org (http://developer.joomla.org/) is the place that Joomla! Bug Squad (http://developer.joomla.org/bug-squad-blog.html) members keep the community apprised of their efforts. Joomla! has adopted a release early, release often (http://catb.org/%7Eesr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ar01s04.html) model as evidenced by the three (content/view/4560/74/) maintenance (content/view/4720/74/) releases (content/view/4852/74/) already made available since the January 22, 2008 (content/view/4488/74/) release of Joomla! 1.5. If you are interested in helping with Joomla! development, a great way to get started is to participate with the Joomla! Bug Squad (http://developer.joomla.org/bug-squad-blog.html). If you want to get involved, talk to Andrew or Wilco. In mid-February the Joomla! Developer Team called for white papers for Joomla! 1.6 (content/view/4578/1/) consideration. Nearly 150 white papers were submitted (http://forum.joomla.org/viewforum.php?f=500) and 50 were accepted for Joomla! 1.6 (http://groups.google.ca/group/joomla-devel/browse_thread/thread/78c7117730cd0c28/a5da8590e2ea6bd9?tvc=2#a5da8590e2ea6bd9). This work is now underway. Team members will share their progress and requests for community feedback on the Joomla! Developer Team blog (http://developer.joomla.org/developer-team-blog.html). Often, developers will share other great news, such as the announcement by Nur Aini Rakhmawati regarding the Joomla! 1.5 Debian package (http://developer.joomla.org/developer-team-blog/17-developer-team-blog/86-joomla-debian-package.html). Google Summer of Code Project Blogs The 2008 Joomla! Google Summer of Code (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008.html) project teams are blogging on the Joomla! Developer Web site. Nakul Ganesh S expressed the gratitude (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/advanced-media-manager/10-advanced-media-manager/94-gift-from-joomla.html) of the entire group when he thanked PackT (http://www.packtpub.com/) for sharing copies of James Kennard's book Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development (http://www.packtpub.com/joomla-one-point-five-extension-framework/book) with each GSoC participant. That book will help these talented developers build what promises to be a great list of extensions for Joomla! 1.5. It will be worth your effort to follow these blogs and provide your input on those extensions that hold promise for your site development needs. As you can see, developer.joomla.org (http://developer.joomla.org/) is already a great way to stay up-to-date with Joomla!. You are invited to join these conversations and provide your feedback. We also encourage you to consider how you can contribute to help improve Joomla!.

The Joomla! Sites and Infrastructure Working Group (http://docs.joomla.org/Sites_and_Infrastructure_Working_Group) has scheduled their first general meeting for Friday, June 13, 2008, to be held in conjunction with Joomla! Day Vancouver (http://vancouver.joomla.ca/). The purpose of this meeting is to discuss issues, such as moderating practices and member involvement in the Joomla! forums, and to consider ways to continue to improve support for the Joomla! community. Joomla! Day Vancouver (http://vancouver.joomla.ca/) begins at 9:00 AM on Saturday, June 14, and is shaping up to be another great community event. Speakers include Chris Adams, Brad Baker, Levis Bisson, Michelle Bisson, Steve Burge, Louis Landry, Jennifer Marriott, and Toni Marie Swats. Joomla! Days offer excellent opportunity to learn, network with other Joomla! users and developers, and to discover ways to contribute to the Joomla! project. Whether you are simply considering using Joomla! or you have been developing sophisticated Joomla! extensions for awhile, you are invited to attend. Register soon (http://vancouverjoomladay.eventbrite.com/) and feel free to ask questions (http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=342 t=230184) about the event in the Joomla! forums.

Joomla! Day Sydney 2008 (http://sydney.joomladay.org.au) is scheduled for Monday, May 19, 2008, in conjunction with CeBIT Australia (http://www.cebit.com.au/). Community members from Sydney, Australia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney) are finalizing plans for a great event to be held at the beautiful and world famous Sydney Conference and Exhibition Centre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Convention_and_Exhibition_Centre) located in Darling Harbour (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darling_Harbour). The event agenda (http://sydney.joomladay.org.au/) is designed to share a broad range of technologies and ideas with a diverse audience of designers, students, charities, businesses, technical experts, and end users. Topics include: A technical discussion entitled Joomla! 1.5: Under the Hood delivered by Andrew Eddie (http://www.newlifeinit.com/), Joomla! Core Team member and Development Working Group coordinator. Andrew will also present a session on Joomla! 1.5 Template Overrides, an empowering toolset for Web site designers and developers. Brad Baker (http://www.xyzulu.com/), Joomla! Core Team member and Joomla.org forum administrator will share helpful information for Web site Performance and Security. Dinah Randall (http://spikesystems.com.au/), founder and president of the Sydney Joomla! User Group (http://www.joomladay.org.au/index.php?option=com_content view=category layout=blog id=33 Itemid=80) and Joomla! Day conference organiser will speak on Joomla! Creative - Templates and Design. Norm Douglas (http://nerdsonsite.com.au/intro/AU/default.asp) will present an overview entitled Getting Started with Joomla!. Patrick Jackson (http://www.kpsystems.com.au/) will share Joomla! Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies and techniques needed to improve visibility of Joomla! Web sites. Damian Hickey (http://www.openfreeway.org/home/blogs/damian-hickey/browse/1.html) will share how Freeway (http://www.openfreeway.org/) easily integrates with Joomla!, resulting in powerful eCommerce solutions. Ashton Murphy (http://ashtonmurphy.com/) will share his experiences on the Google Highly Open Participation Contest (http://code.google.com/opensource/ghop/2007-8/) and a cool surprise. At the end of the day, attendees can ask questions of a panel of Joomla! experts. Following the event, all are invited for drinks and conversation Monday evening and to visit the Joomla! stand at CeBIT from May 20th to 22nd. Throughout the Open CeBIT conference, several Joomla! open source presentations will be held at CeBIT's Open Source Theatre. Register now (https://www.mycebit.com.au/rego08/index.php) for Sydney Joomla! Day. Those who register by May 14th will receive early bird discounts and a better chance at getting one of the T-shirts only available for the first 100 registrants. We hope that the Sydney Joomla! Day 2008 is a great success and an enjoyable and informative way to have fun with Joomla!. For more information, see: Sydney Joomla! Day 2008 (http://sydney.joomladay.org.au/) Register now (https://www.mycebit.com.au/rego08/index.php)

The Joomla! community is pleased to announce that Google is sponsoring 15 amazing projects (http://code.google.com/soc/2008/joomla/about.html) in our fourth Google Summer of Code (http://code.google.com/soc/). Students and mentors from all over the world will work together this summer to bring great things to Joomla!. This year, Joomla! is honored that CiviCRM (http://civicrm.org/node/328) is also part of the team. Sincere thanks to Google for their continued support of Joomla! and the 175 other free and open source organizations participating. Congratulations to the Joomla! Google Summer of Code 2008 Students Your proposals were selected from a very competitive pool of nearly 100 applications. Thank you to the mentors willing to share time for this important effort. Projects that held the most promise were selected and we look forward to seeing this work shared with the community this fall. This summer, each GSoC project team (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008.html) will share their progress on the developer.joomla.org (http://developer.joomla.org) site. Community members are invited to use the links below to join these conversations as the blogging begins over the next few weeks. End user feedback is an integral part of building useful solutions. If you have questions, please contact (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/16-overall-project/19-gsoc-project-managers.html) Wilco Jansen or Ian MacLennan, Joomla!'s GSoC project managers. Joomla! Google Summer of Code 2008 Projects and Students Advanced Media Manager (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/advanced-media-manager.html), Nakul Ganesh S, Mysore, India (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysore) CiviCRM: Aesthetics and Usability (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/civicrm-aesthetics-and-usability.html), Jon Volkman, Seattle, Washington (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle%2C_Washington) CiviCRM: Multi-language Support (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/civicrm-multi-language-support.html), Piotr Szotkowski, Warsaw, Poland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw%2C_Poland) Contact Directory (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/contact-directory.html), Chantal Bisson, Quebec City, Canada (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City%2C_Canada) Content Type Management (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/content-type-management.html), Ercan Özkaya, Konya, Turkey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konya%2C_Turkey) Custom Content Layouts (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/custom-content-layouts.html), Jaap Woltjes, the Netherlands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Netherlands) Forms (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/forms.html), Mostafa Muhammad, Cairo, Egypt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo) Multi-DB Support (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/multi-db-support.html), Alex de Azevedo, Brazil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil) Multimedia Portal (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/multimedia-portal.html), Marcelo Eden, Recife (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recife), Brazil OpenSocial (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/opensocial.html), Shannon Quinn, Atlanta, Georgia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta%2C_Georgia) Research Management (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/research-management.html), Luis Galárraga, Guayaquil, Guayas Ecuador (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guayaquil) Semantic Web (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/semantic-web.html), Danh Le Phuoc, Vietnam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam), studying in Ireland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland) Tags (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/tags.html), Jacek Zielinski, Poznan, Poland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poznan%2C_Poland) Unit Testing (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/unit-testing.html), Scot Inscore, Whitewater, Wisconsin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater%2C_Wisconsin) Version Control (http://developer.joomla.org/gsoc2008/version-control.html), Flavio Kubota, Campinas, Brazil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campinas%2C_Brazil).

Credit: Judith Tepper. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Byron_lighthouse.jpg) The Joomla! community in Byron Bay is looking forward to their first ever Joomla! Day event. Joomla! Day Byron Bay 2008 (http://www.joomlabyronbay.com) will be held on Sunday, May 11, from noon until 5:30 PM. Those visiting the area for the Joomla! Day event will want to consider taking time needed to enjoy Byron Bay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Bay)'s beautiful beaches, parks, and nature reserves. This easternmost tip of Australia is a popular destination for tourists. As event organizer, Greg Cromwell, explains in this invitational video (http://www.joomlabyronbay.com), Joomla! Day events are for a wide variety of people, including developers, site builders, designers, and end users. Not only will attendees learn new skills, but perhaps more importantly, these events can strengthen the local support network and offer opportunities for collaboration. The Agenda (http://www.joomlabyronbay.com/index.php?option=com_content view=article id=45 Itemid=55) for Joomla! Day Byron Bay 2008 (http://www.joomlabyronbay.com) includes the following: Greg Cromwell (http://bushmarketing.com/) will open the session, welcome attendees, and overview the day's events. Brad Baker (http://www.xyzulu.com), Joomla! Core Team member, will demo a live installation of Joomla!, discuss important security and performance issues, and provide an introductory overview of the CMS environment. Andrew Eddie (http://www.newlifeinit.com/), Joomla! Core Team member and Development Working Group Coordinator, will instruct attendees how to take full advantage of Joomla! 1.5's Template Override System. Damian Hickey (http://www.openfreeway.org/forums/profile.php?mode=viewprofile u=3 sid=61bf3d3787c3bd9f282944ffe5d6ed8b) will demonstrate how to use Joomla! with Freeway (http://www.openfreeway.org/), an exciting open source eCommerce environment. Filling out the day will be various case studies, including a review of Joomla! with SugarCRM (http://www.sugarforge.org/), where community members will share real life experiences, lessons learned, and search engine optimization techniques needed to successfully deploy Joomla! for non-profit, community, and business purposes. Joomla! Day Byron Bay 2008 (http://www.joomlabyronbay.com) will take place at the Bush Branding and Marketing (http://bushmarketing.com/) studio in the Byron Bay Arts and Industry Estate. Since only 50 participants will be able to attend, organizers expect the event to fill up very quickly. For that reason, you are encouraged to register (http://www.joomlabyronbay.com/link_index.php?option=com_freeway ecPath=2 openfile=events_view1.php Itemid=53) right away. We wish the Byron Bay Joomla! community a successful event and look forward to seeing pictures and hearing about Joomla! Day Byron Bay 2008 (http://www.joomlabyronbay.com). For more information: visit http://www.joomlabyronbay.com (http://www.joomlabyronbay.com) and register online (http://www.joomlabyronbay.com/link_index.php?option=com_freeway ecPath=2 openfile=events_view1.php Itemid=53).

The Thai Joomla! Community is looking forward to their second Joomla! Day Bangkok (http://joomladay.in.th/) in Thailand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand)'s beautiful and thriving capital city (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok). The event will be held on Saturday, May 10, 2008, from 9:00 AM until 5:30 PM at the Chaophya Park Hotel (http://www.chaophyapark.com/). JoomlaCorner (http://JoomlaCorner.com) and the National Electronics and Computer Tecknology Center (NECTEC) (http://www.nectec.or.th/english/) invite you to attend Joomla! Day Bangkok 2008 (http://joomladay.in.th/) which promises to be an incredible day of learning, sharing, and networking with others. This year, several key members of the Joomla! community are scheduled to speak: Mr. Samuel Moffatt (http://sammoffatt.com.au/) - Joomla! Core Team and Developer Working Group; Mr. Alex Kempkens (http://thinknetwork.com/) - Joomla! Core Team, Joomla! Events Coordinator, and core developer for JoomFish (http://www.joomfish.net/); Mr. Johan Janssens (http://www.joomlatools.org/) - Joomla! Development Working Group; Mr. Toby Patterson (http://www.gmitc.biz/) - Joomla! Development Working Group; Mr. Akarawuth Tamrareang (http://www.joomlacorner.com/) - Joomla! Bug Squad, core developer for VirtueMart (http://VirtueMart.net), and JoomlaCorner.com (http://JoomlaCorner.com). The agenda for Joomla! Day Bangkok 2008 (http://joomladay.in.th/) includes a wide variety of interesting topics. Whether you are a professional Web site editor, publisher, developer, or administrator, or if you are simply interested in learning more about Joomla!, there will something for you. Topics to be presented include: Overview of Joomla! 1.5, with a focus on new features available; Discussion of how to create accessible Web site designs; Review of important security issues; Implementing authentication using LDAP and Active Directory; Migrating to Joomla! 1.5; Implementing Multi-lingual support for Joomla! 1.5 using JoomFish (http://www.joomfish.net/); Instruction on how to create extensions for Joomla 1.5; Presentation on the Joomla! 1.5 Framework; Instruction for converting Joomla! 1.0 components to Joomla! 1.5; Presentation of Joomla! e-Commerce Edition (VirtueMart). All over the world, local communities gather at Joomla! Day events. This past weekend Joomla! Days were held in France (content/view/4782/1/) and Norway (content/view/4790/1/). Already this year, Spain (content/view/4818/1/), the Netherlands (content/view/4678/104/), Melbourne (content/view/4480/1/) and Italy (content/view/4460/1/) held successful Joomla! Days. Several more May events are soon to be announced. Joomla! Days are a great way for people who are interested in Joomla! to get together, learn from one another, find ways to contribute to the Joomla! community, and have fun. We wish for our community members in Thailand an enjoyable and successful Joomla! Day Bangkok 2008 (http://joomladay.in.th/). For more information: visit http://joomladay.in.th (http://joomladay.in.th/) and register online (http://joomladay.in.th/registrationen.html).