How to Install

Running Joomla! on Synology NAS

From small-and-medium business to individual users, Synology products offer a full range of choices to fulfill different needs, while sharing some similar characteristics- eco-friendly, quiet, and versatile.

Pre requisites

Download the Synology package Joomla-1.7.2.spk

In the Control Panel of your Synology DSM NAS, go to “Web Services” and activate

• Enable Web Station
• Enable MySQL

Read more: Running Joomla! on Synology NAS

Digital watermarking with PHP and GD2

Digital watermarking is the process of possibly irreversibly embedding information into a digital signal. The signal may be audio, pictures or video, for example. If the signal is copied, then the information is also carried in the copy. In visible watermarking, the information is visible in the picture or video. Typically, the information is text or a logo which identifies the owner of the media. [Wikipedia]

If you decide to go with an online watermarking, you can let watermark picture on the fly using php and .htaccess (at the cost of additional CPU server resources).

Read more: Digital watermarking with PHP and GD2

How to Solve a Problem with Joomla! jos_session

I was not seeing this error since at least 3 years:

DB function failed with error number 1016

Can't open file: 'jos_session.MYI' (errno: 145) SQL=INSERT INTO `jos_session`
( `session_id`,`time`,`username`,`gid`,`guest`,`client_id` )
VALUES ( '4bc998b10d92bf4107976d0edacdbb26','1246725653','','0','1','0' )

It happen sometimes and cause are unknown. While it is quite disturbing to have no more access to Joomla! frontend or backend, the fix is quite easy. You must repair this table jos_session, If you have access to

PhpMyAdmin

Require an access to the Plesk/CPA panel.

Go to your Joomla database, select the table jos_session (tick the checkbox) and choose "Repair table" from the drop-down you find at the bottom of the list of tables.

Using PHP

Maybe the most easiest for non techies people

I found this useful script http://www.cafewebmaster.com/repair-all-mysql-databases-tables-php, upload it at root of your host (in /httpdocs) under repair.php for example and run it, you’ll see the following:

Tick repair, provide your login and password for database,

Remove the scripts after use, or add a die(‘not for use, edit script first’); at the top of it just in case it may be use to inject something in your database!

Shell access

For the most advanced of us, which understand Unix and have shell access

# mysql –udblogin -p

mysql>  use joom;

mysql> REPAIR TABLE jos_session;

+-------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------------+
| Table                   | Op     | Msg_type | Msg_text                           |
+-------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------------+
| joom.jos_session        | repair | warning  | Number of rows changed from 0 to 2 |
| joom.jos_session        | repair | status   | OK                                 |
+-------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------------+

Finding Joomla! login and password

These informations can be found in httpdocs/configuration.php under $user and $password as seen below

..

var $user = 'hkuin47Gdfver';
var $db = 'joom';
var $dbprefix = 'dfrtCsdef_';
var $mailer = 'mail';
var $fromname = 'Happpp';
var $sendmail = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';
var $smtpauth = '0';
var $smtpsecure = 'none';
var $smtpport = '25';
var $smtpuser = '';
var $smtppass = '';
var $smtphost = 'localhost';
var $MetaAuthor = '1';
var $MetaTitle = '1';
var $lifetime = '15';
var $session_handler = 'database';
var $password = afedfhrr546fdhcfcv;

..

And if the repair failed?

Run the following sql to drop the table and make it new. Copy it into the PhpMyAdmin SQL field.

DROP table if exist `jos_session`

CREATE TABLE `jos_session` (
  `username` varchar(150) default '',
  `time` varchar(14) default '',
  `session_id` varchar(200) NOT NULL default '0',
  `guest` tinyint(4) default '1',
  `userid` int(11) default '0',
  `usertype` varchar(50) default '',
  `gid` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
  `client_id` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
  `data` longtext,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`session_id`(64)),
  KEY `whosonline` (`guest`,`usertype`),
  KEY `userid` (`userid`),
  KEY `time` (`time`)
) TYPE=MyISAM CHARACTER SET `utf8`;

Watermarking your images with ImageMagick

Digital watermarking is the process of possibly irreversibly embedding information into a digital signal. The signal may be audio, pictures or video, for example. If the signal is copied, then the information is also carried in the copy. In visible watermarking, the information is visible in the picture or video. Typically, the information is text or a logo which identifies the owner of the media. [Wikipedia]

I decide to go with an offline watermarking first, but you can let any Joomla!® extension watermark picture on the fly using php and .htaccess (at the cost of additional CPU server resources).

Why Watermarking pictures?

There is a lot of reasons, among others:

• To limit images stealing, advanced users will still be able to crop/blur your watermark through!
• To drive more new users/returning visitors to your site, anybody using your images in a forums may want to visit your site if the watermark can be read (don’t use complex logo, except if you have a well known brand)
• To advertise your online work,

Read more: Watermarking your images with ImageMagick