This one always catches me out and I find myself looking up the same thing time and time again. So for future reference I thought I’d make a note.

When you install Joomla there’s an setting check that lists any problems with your set-up that may effect the running of Joomla! In my case (both on 1&1 AND on MediaTemple) the Recommended Settings have flagged Display Errors as “On” when it should be set to “Off” – The solution is pretty simple.

Open the htaccess.txt file installed with Joomla! add:

php_flag display_errors “0”

save it to your server and rename it .htaccess

Voilà!

Do you want a module to display the first sentence of a random news article every time you refresh your Joomla based website? Fear not help is on the way.

1) Write your news article and note the Read More button located at the very bottom of the text edit panel. Basically you write a brief intro at the beginning of your article and hit the Read More button to separate it from the main content of your website.

2) In the paramenters panel on the right of your screen find Intro Text and select Hide from the drop down list.

3) Go to the Newsflash module in the Module Manager, copy it and rename the copy with a suitably logical name. eg: myNewsFlashModule

4) Edit myNewsFlashModule and add the following settings to the Advanced Parameters Panel

5) Note the option to Randomly Change one at a time and the blank No of Articles field.