Posted by: Joel Larkin
on Mar 12, 2009
Over the last year i've been using an Open Source Church Database called ChurchDB or ChurchInfo. This database allows non-profits(specifically targeted at churches now) to track members, create directories, track donations & pledges, and other perform membership functions. Unfort this application doesn't have some basic functions.
I've released a version (in downloads) of this that allows for table prefix's and the ability to un-publish certain fields from the directory (Phone Numbers & Emails). I'm currently working on an installation front-end that would enable the table prefixes (right now you have to edit the SQL file to put your own prefix in) and the modifications to the front-end to control unpublishing certain fields.
Posted by: Joel Larkin
on Feb 19, 2009
I recently came across and excellent application for Christian websites called RefTagger. This application finds bible verses and links them automatically to the translation of your choice providing a quick reference capability without manually building the links.
Unfortunately this application did not have an easy integration with Joomla, it required manually modifying the template and inserting the appropriate code (which can be a drag if you want to make changes). I wrote a module to take care of this and it's avaialble in the downloads section of the site.
Posted by: Joel Larkin
on Jan 26, 2009
I had a recent issue on a website running QuickFAQ when I enabled it's JomComment integration. The JomComment "Panel" would not show up, a bunch of bullets would appear instead. After tracing this down I realized that the JomComment style sheets were missing.
A simple HACK to fix this is to add the stylesheet to the proper view file (components/com_quickfaq/views/items/view.html.php).
After the quickfaq CSS is added add this line:
Posted by: Joel Larkin
on Jan 22, 2009
I've recently made some code changes on a website to address some nagging issues with SermonSpeaker's latestsermons module. The following is the list of things I changed and you can find my version in the downloads section.
- Removed Extra
tags after a closing list item tag - Converted from
to <br> (for validation on the mouseove tops) - Added a Module Class Suffix to give Module styling
- Moved the end of the ">" at the end of link tag to after IF statement (if you turned mouseover OFF the list items would dissapear).
- Added DATE_FORMAT parameter to allow custom date in mouseover text.
Posted by: Joel Larkin
on Jan 15, 2009
I've been using SermonSpeaker 3.0/3.1 to organize & display sermons for customer websites. It was annoying me for awhile the default view that was presented (see below). It gives a Play Icon and the text (Play) as two seperate links requiring you to click on the links in order to get to a download link. I made some simple modifications to offer a download link right next to the play icon in order to simplify things.
In SermonSpeaker.PHP
Edit Line 238, 277,279,281,283,285 which are $query lines to include sermon_path after sermon_title. (remember each line contains a different sort)
Posted by: Joel Larkin
on Jan 15, 2009
After a few days of downtime I decided to spend some time today updating the Agora Plugin. I've been working on other things but wanted to circle back and make some improvements.
- Created a "Language File" allowing you to specify what will be displayed when no posts show up.
- Created an additional Plugin Parameter called Date Format which allows you to change the format of the date (I didn't like Day Month Year). This uses the PHP Date Function so check the manual for formatting options.
- Removed all the irrelavant code
- Updated some icons
This should work pretty well as nothing major has changed. I hope (when I get some additional time) to be able to update the Avatar used in Agora to the JomSocial avatar.
Posted by: Joel Larkin
on Jan 11, 2009
I developed a plug-in to JomSocial to address a need on our church website. The need was to have forum posts from a particular user show up on their profile. Unfortantely we use Agora which doesn't seem to get much development. I based this code of the FireBoard plugin AzrulStudies developed. You can download this from www.myne.org/downloads.html
Posted by: Joel Larkin
on Jan 7, 2009
Our Church uses a Church Member database system called ChurchInfo. In our Church we track members and regular attenders separately however we do similar things for each group (like track birthdays). The system out of the box only allows us to report members birthdays. This is kind of annoying and requires running a "free-text" query to get around.
Recently I got a request from the church secretary (my wife) to change this behavior. They wanted to have a drop down box selecting the month and a select box with the Classifications (Member, Regular Attender, etc) on the Query screen so they could easily see what they were doing.
I was able to modify the system pretty easily and wrote up how I did it. Here is what I did. It involved modifying a file (QueryView.php) and a few rows within the sytem.
Posted by: Joel Larkin
on Mar 5, 2008
I've had various servers over the years running SSH but recently I've seen more and more brute force attacks from various locations around the world. I've recently been looking at modifying the hosts.deny file for the IP addresses that attempt more than 1,000 invalid connections per day however this shouldn't be a manual process in this day and age so I turned to the internet for an answer.
I came across this utility: DenyHosts (http://denyhosts.sourceforge.net/). It looks pretty neat and the setup was relatively simple and pretty well documented. Various tests illustrate it works pretty well even if it has a bit of a lag prior to modifying the hosts.deny.
I'd recommend implementing a similar utility for anyone running a publically accessible SSH Service.
Posted by: Joel Larkin
on Jan 5, 2008
This is a two part process. First check to see if the server supports TLS by doing the following:
- telnet mail.server.com 25
220 mail.server.com ESMTP PostFix - ehlo testing
250 mail.server.com
250-PIPELINING
250-SIZE 10240000
250-VRFY
250-ETRN
250-STARTTLS - quit
Once you have determined that starttls is a supported command do this:
openssl s_client -starttls smtp -crlf -connect mail.server.com:25
