It always feels a little bit like cheating to use display: none in any css declaration, but its such an easy and useful tool that sometimes it's the best (read easiest) way to add some flexibility to the way certain content gets displayed on the page.

As you are probably already aware, the Joomla module class suffix system is a seriously powerful system and in my opinion really underpins Joomla templating and opens up a world of flexibility and configuration for the end user.

The following is a really simple hack that allows you to hide certain modules on small screens using the magic of media queries combined with a module class suffix.

Joomla 1.7 has simplified much of the Joomla content workflow, making things easier and faster to do. However, one of the things that has gotten slightly more complicated is finding and emptying the trash.

In Joomla 1.5, I'm sure you know that the article trash can be easily managed and emptied by selecting Content > Article Trash from the main menu. In Joomla 1.7, that menu item is gone but the trash feature is still there.

You already know that the Zen Grid Framework allows for basic css and javascript to be added in the template administration. But what if we want to add functionality for something like FancyBox? This is a little beyond the scope of the basic include functionality, so let's look at a good, efficient way to do this.

Have you ever needed a simple way to provide your clients or users with a screenshot of all the preference panels in a module, menu, or content item? With this little trick you can quickly and easily provide screenshots for support, user documentation, or personal reference.

jQuery as you are probably aware is sometimes billed as javascript for designers. I don't pretend to be a javascript expert by any means, but what I love about jQuery is that it's possible to cobble together some simple code that will work around some design constraint without needing to have an indepth working knowledge of core javascript principles. Seasoned developers may take issue with this but ultimately I think it encourages people to use javascript first and then slowly begin to learn the deeper foundations of its logic.

I've used fixed elements in some of our templates (most notably the Insideout Joomla template) and you will notice I've attached position: fixed to the left sidebar on this blog as well.  One of the limitations of the fixed elements is that they often don't play well with small screen resolutions and so this is where jQuery comes in.

Even though the Zen Grid Framework comes with a plethora of module positions you may at times want to add your own module position to your customised layout. The process for doing this is relatively straight forward and for the most part doing so follows the standard Joomla 1.5 conventions.

To do this you need to take advantage of the Zen Grid Framework override system. For this example lets assume that the module position you want to add sits above the top row of modules ie above top1, top2, top3 and top4. The best place to put your new code in this case would be in a top.php override file.

To read the rest of this tutorial please visit the Joomlabamboo knowledgebase.

One of the side projects I've been working on for the last six weeks or so is a little redesign of the Joomlabamboo site as well as a new documentation or knowledge base for our Joomla templates and Joomla extensions. I've just taken another swing through the knowledgebase and although there is still a little way to go, it's progressing quite nicely. I'm hoping that we may launch early in the new year even if it's just a soft launch while we iron out the kinks and take feedback on usability etc.