About this Blog

This is a second in a array of blog posts about vital Joomla websites as good as a developers who built them. First up was Jack Bremer as good as a U.K. humanities website theArtsDesk.com.

This week we’re articulate with Fotis Evangelou about a vital Greek sports website Gazzetta.gr.

1) Hi Fotis. Could we plead it us a small bit about yourself?

Fotis EvangelouI’m a co-founder & handling executive during Komrade Ltd. I’m a Geology tyro castaway (!) as good as I’ve been office office office building websites professionally for roughly 10 years. I’m additionally a owner of JoomlaWorks, determined in 2006. In late 2007, Komrade was shaped as good as given afterwards we’re flattering advantageous to have built a small of a world’s tip Joomla! formed websites (in conditions of caller traffic) similar to Gazzetta.gr as good as TNAWrestling.com

2) What or who is Gazzetta.gr?

Gazzetta.gr is a sports headlines website as good as right away a single of a tip websites in Greece. It was launched early 2008 as good as right away it averages some-more than 5 million visitors per month. It was essentially a second plan as Komrade, a initial being TNAWrestling.com (2m+ visitors/month). So we can additionally contend which we got a flattering good begin as Komrade! Gazzetta.gr is run by 25+ sports reporters with most years of hold in both imitation as good as online publications. It’s corroborated financially by a vital IT associated association in Greece.

3) How did a plan with Gazzetta.gr come about?

The people during a behind of Gazzetta.gr elite to deposit in an “open source” solution, carrying suffered from “closed source-itis” in a past, which price them both time as good as money. Joomla! held their eye as a most appropriate probable open source resolution for Gazzetta.gr – generally given it had such a outrageous community. We were approached by them as we were already concurred professionals in a Joomla! village by JoomlaWorks. We sat down, discussed their needs as good as in 2 months a site was ready to launch.

4) Do we know given they finished a preference to have have have have have have have have make have use of of of of of of of of of of Joomla?

Strong village participation was patently pass to this decision. They would not be scored equally to a single association usually for whatever reason. Another large reason was a friendship of a Joomla! director interface, which was (and still is) light years forward compared to most open source as good as even commercial/closed source CMSs.

5) Question from Paulo Williams: What extensions did we have have have have have have have have make have use of of of of of of of of of of in office office office building a site?

Gazzetta.gr is right away in a second version, formed wholly upon Joomla! 1.5 as good as K2. K2 is used as a categorical focus for articles, tags, comments as good as some-more in Gazzetta.gr. It handles around 95% of all publishing/editorial associated tasks.

Aside K2, we have have have have have have have have make have use of of of of of of of of of of a following publicly accessible extensions: Frontpage Slideshow, AllVideos, Simple Image Gallery Pro, Google Ad Manager from Joomlaworks as good as JCE as good as Update Manager from third parties.

We additionally grown a following law extensions:

  • A member to discharge a “news stand” area of a website
  • A multi-use procedure for K2 which fetches calm in assorted ways as good as filters as seen upon a frontpage of a website as good as most middle pages
  • A mutated chronicle of a default “cache” plugin which comes with Joomla!, which deals with page caching/performance as good as creates certain which a complete website is scrupulously served from dual CDNs (content placement networks) which we have have have have have have have have make have use of of of of of of of of of of (one from Akamai, a alternative from Gloman/Live24.gr).

6) What vital obstacles did we come opposite during a build?

To be honest, Gazzetta.gr v2 (the stream version) was a happiness building, with no genuine obstacles in a way. We had a right apparatus (K2) upon a right height (Joomla! 1.5.x), we had a good pattern as good as we had a (bad) hold from v1 (which used Joomla! v1.0.x). v1 was a most bigger suffering to discharge for assorted reasons. First of all, a core of com_content (the categorical calm member of Joomla!) was significantly altered to copy a templating needs of a design. So it finished upgrading to a ultimate Joomla! 1.0.x recover unequivocally hard. Upgrades to open extensions used was additionally an emanate as there was no “overwrite/upgrade” underline in a Joomla! installer. So lots of primer work usually for upgrading.

In v2 we wrote a elementary migrator from WordPress to Joomla!/K2 (as v1 of Gazzetta.gr enclosed around 9 WordPress formed blogs in subfolders), altered Joomla! v1.0.x articles in to K2, re-wrote a “news stand” member to an MVC-based Joomla! 1.5 member as good as afterwards we proposed integrating all to a brand brand brand brand new design. Moving a WordPress blogs to K2 in Joomla! 1.5 unequivocally finished a disproportion to a paper group as they right away had to discharge usually a single website (instead of 10 previously). Having all calm in a single database finished it better/faster for Google to yield calm as good as for people to poke a site. And most appropriate of all? The editors did not skip a single bit of WordPress functionality as it’s fundamentally enclosed in K2 facilities by default. So a work upsurge altered to better.

One thing we severely took in to care was creation v2 as modular as possible, with no hacks during all in a core of Joomla! or any alternative core/third-party extension. If we longed for to magnify a functionality of something in Joomla! (like a default “cache” plugin) we took which “something” as good as cloned it, afterwards lengthened it. For which matter, we longed for “clean” solutions for all as good as resolution which we could re-use. We used Google’s Ad Manager heavily, so we wrote an prolongation for Joomla! which we after publicly expelled by JoomlaWorks. We did a same thing for most of K2′s right away default modules. Our needs “translated” in to modular solutions, which we were equates to to minister behind to a community.

Gazzetta.gr Screenshot

7) Question from Jack Bremer: For those of us which haven’t finished it, what hurdles do we face building as good as coding in Greek rsther than than English?

In a Joomla! v1.0.x days we used to contend a opposite placement to a strange set up supposing by joomla.org which was UTF-8 optimized. That approach we could simply work with non-latin languages (like Greek) inside of Joomla!. Joomla! 1.5.x is right away regulating UTF-8 by default, which was a healthy step, given a CMS became so renouned worldwide as good as had to residence regional/language associated issues once as good as for all. The have have have have have have have have make have use of of of of of of of of of of of denunciation files additionally creates localization a lot easier. So building a Greek website right away is matching (as a process) to building an English formed website.

8) How do we hoop 5+ million uniques per month upon a Joomla site?

We have have have have have have have have make have use of of of of of of of of of of dual calm placement networks (CDN) as we referred to above. They hoop 99% of a bucket of a website as good as they offer calm intensely fast. If we didn’t have have have have have have have have make have use of of of of of of of of of of which solution, we’d have to setup as good as contend a smoke-stack of servers to copy usually a apportionment of a opening of a CDN (note which we have have have have have have have have make have use of of of of of of of of of of 2 CDNs given we indispensable to mangle a bandwidth costs otherwise – a single is used for articles a alternative for a “news stand” area). If you’re in to which kind of traffic, regulating a CDN is a usually (and most cost-effective) way.

But I’ll give we a good tip here… Joomla!’s built-in “cache” plugin, which is “off” by default is simply amazing. It can “convert” Joomla! web pages in to immobile HTML pages, to illustrate portion a website *extremely* fast. This is a dark gem in Joomla!. For a integrate of days, we run a website with a mutated chronicle of a “cache” plugin, whilst being strike by thousands of users as good as portion a couple of million page views. You know what? Joomla! would reason upon usually excellent though a CDN if Apache could hoop a gazillion connectors as good as didn’t run out of memory!!! It was extraordinary what opening can be enjoyed from usually a plugin of reduction than 100 formula lines. Of march it’s a design of a Joomla! framework/API which permits such a small plugin to yield this opening gain! we disbelief any alternative open source CMS can do that!

Of march it was some-more price in effect to go on regulating a CDN. Otherwise we’d have to supplement brand brand brand brand new hardware. And of march a approaching further of a Gazzetta.gr iPhone app as good as a recover of a widgets area would direct even some-more bandwidth…

9) Question from James Frisen: How does K2 fit in to your commercial operation model?

K2 was built to residence veteran needs inside of a industry, not usually a Joomla! community. It combines a most appropriate concepts from a tip open source CMSs in to a stretchable height which Joomla! is. Every website we set up right away is formed off K2. Instead of gripping this “tool” of a work for us, we motionless it was most appropriate to recover it to a community, so alternative people could good from it. In a small reduction than a year, we’ve managed to set up a good village around it (as people comprehend a intensity of regulating K2) as good as we all a time urge a member to residence brand brand brand brand new needs as good as urge performance.

We do not have income without delay off K2, though indirectly: we can set up underline abounding websites for a clients in reduction time compared to deploying apart extensions, with improved coherence as good as no hacks to core files. That equates to an value for us as good as a clients in regulating a Joomla! platform. Clients can’t come up to us right away as good as contend “can we do this with Drupal or WordPress?”!! Allow me to contend which Joomla! as good as K2 is THE torpedo online edition combination. Using K2, we can set up a news/magazine/portal-like site with writer blogs, product catalogs, work portfolio, hold base, download/document manager, office listing, eventuality inventory as good as some-more a easy way! And given K2 is extensible with one more fields to a bottom object form, we can emanate category-specific calm types, e.g. article, blog post, product page, office listing. It usually creates sense!

Final thing I’d similar to to contend about K2 is which we built it given we know as good as conclude a energy of a Joomla! platform. But we additionally know a weaknesses, which distortion with calm display as good as ACL (access turn control). With K2 we have been equates to to fill these gaps in and, a same approach people have have have have have have have have make have use of of of of of of of of of of VirtueMart for e-shops, we hold which people can have have have have have have have have make have use of of of of of of of of of of K2 for their calm associated needs as well.

10) Do we have anything else special programmed for Gazzetta.gr?

Version 2 saw a large enlarge in to trade for a website. From 3.5+ million visitors we went to 5+ millions in usually 2 months as good as a numbers have been still increasing. we theory a idea of a paper group is to have Gazzetta.gr a tip sports headlines website in Greece. Our consistent idea is to pull a boundary as good as try brand brand brand brand new things where possible. There have been most thoughts right right away to magnify a stream content, though I’m fearful I’m not authorised to plead in detail. What is certain is a further of a RESTful API in to K2, which will capacitate us to yield assorted services to alternative websites as good as applications during a small indicate in a nearby future.

Over to You …

Do we know of a vital or quite engaging site which we should underline here? Email your suggestions to steve.burge@opensourcematters.org. Be certain to include:

  • The website URL
  • Why a site is interesting
  • An email residence for a developer

Next week we’ll be interviewing Dan Lopez who helped set up Linux.com. If we have any questions you’d similar to us to ask him, email steve.burge@opensourcematters.org<!–
var prefix = 'mailto:';
var appendix = '';
var attribs = '';
var trail = 'hr' + 'ef' + '=';
var addy27286 = 'steve.burge' + '@';
addy27286 = addy27286 + 'opensourcematters' + '.' + 'org?subject=Joomla%20Site%20Blog%20Suggestion';
var addy_text27286 = 'steve.burge' + '@' + 'opensourcematters' + '.' + 'org';
document.write( '‘ );
document.write( addy_text27286 );
document.write( ” );
//–>.


Source:Interview with Fotis Evangelou About Gazzetta.gr

Tags:

No Comments
Joomla Translation