Web Concepts

On the Lunarpages blog this month we have been discussing some of the greatest scripts out there that you can install on just about any web hosting plan Lunarpages offers to you.  For those who might have missed it, here is a roundup of all the third-party script reviews we did over the month of November.

Best phpBB Web Host Out There?

Could Lunarpages in fact be the greatest phpBB web host out there?  I would say so.  For those of you who do not know, phpBB is one of the most widely used open source forum solutions to date. 

Magento Hosting Comes to Lunarpages

As a professional and open-source e-commerce solution, Magento is offering your online store access to unprecedented flexibility and control.  You can also get it up and running here with Lunarpages, if you are using one of our new LPCP controlled accounts.

Hosting with osCommerce

One of the most widely used shopping cart scripts out there is osCommerce.  It gives the shop owner an open-source online e-commerce solution.  You might have already known that, however did you know a number of our web hosting plans come with a way to get it installed in a single click?

Get bbPress Hosting at Lunarpages

Yesterday, we took a look at WordPress, so today I figured we would check out it’s message board (and less popular) brother from another mother, bbPress.  Forum software can often be slow, bloated and filled with holes – however bbPress is the total opposite. The focus is around being easy to use, speedy, and compliant.

Vanilla Web Forum Hosting at Lunarpages

Lunarpages fully supports the lightweight and simple Vanilla forum script.  What is Vanilla? It is an open-source, standards-compliant, multi-lingual, fully extensible discussion forum for the Web. While it is not supported via the cPanel’s Fantastico or LPCP’s WebApps manager, the script is simple enough for anybody to download, setup and install in minutes. 

E-Commerce Hosting with Zen Cart

The free, user-friendly and open source shopping cart software, Zen Cart is perfect for any e-commerce web site hosted at Lunarpages.  With the thoughts of shop owners, programmers, designers and more in mind, Zen Cart is one of the best third-party shopping cart scripts out there.

PHPlist Hosting with Lunarpages

One of the world’s best open-source newsletter managers can be installed a number of different ways, here at Lunarpages.  PHPlist is a free script that will handle all your  newsletter or mailing lists for you.  It is downloaded over 10,000 tie per month – and is possibly one of the most popular open-source scripts.

WordPress Hosting at Lunarpages

All this month, on the Lunartics blog, we will highlight some of our favorite third-party scripts.  From image galleries to message boards, there will be a little something for everybody.  To get things started, I thought I would discuss with you why WordPress is my absolute favorite blogging script.

SMF Web Hosting at Lunarpages

Possibly one of the best forum scripts out there to date, Simple Machines Forum, is more than welcome to be hosted here at Lunarpages, on many of our web hosting plans.   It is a free, professional grade software package that will have you setup with your own online community in just seconds.

Get Your Joomla Hosting on at Lunarpages

The award winning content management system, which enables you to build web sites and powerful online applications is more than welcome at Lunarpages.  Joomla is all that, and so much more.  For people looking for an easy to use and powerful script to manage their digital empire, Joomla is a good way to go.

For more help with third-party scripts at Lunarpages, be sure co check out our web hosting wiki.

Related Tips and Tricks:

• SMF Web Hosting at Lunarpages
• Vanilla Web Forum Hosting at Lunarpages
• Get bbPress Hosting at Lunarpages

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

Could Lunarpages in fact be the greatest phpBB web host out there?  I would say so.  For those of you who do not know, phpBB is one of the most widely used open source forum solutions to date.  It’s user friendly installation process and easy to use administration panel has made it one of the most popular forum scripts out there too. 

At Lunarpages, you have the option to install phpBB manually, via cPanel’s Fantastico script collection or if you have the LPCP control panel, through the WebApps Pool.  Every method listed, is very simple to do.  You can customize phpBB to fit any situation.  With the modifications and styles they provide, you will be able to setup a set of forums that are powerful enough for your needs and look just the way you want them to look.

• Learn More About the phpBB Features

The only big flaw I can find with a script like phpBB is it is very exploit prone.  Due to the fact that it is very popular, it gets hit with security issues more than your average forum script.

Need Help? To help you get started, here are a few tutorials to help:

• How to Install phpBB onto Your Own Hosting Account
• CHMOD Permissions for phpBB
• How to Create a Private Forum

You can find more help and tutorials about phpBB at the web hosting wiki too.  The folks at OpenSourceCMS also provide a demo of phpBB you can try out before you install it on your own web hosting account. 

November is Lunarpages Script Month!

Keep watching the Lunartics blog all throughout the month on November for even more third-party script suggestions, tutorials, tips and more.  You can also get tons of information and details about just a handful of the third-party scripts we support on the web hosting wiki.  We also have a special forum dedicated to third-party script discussions over at the Lunarforums.  Subscribe today to the Lunartics RSS feed for instant updates when we release a new script suggestion!

Related Tips and Tricks:

• Web Hosting Forums Get a New Design
• Hosting with osCommerce
• SMF Web Hosting at Lunarpages

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

Possibly one of the best forum scripts out there to date, Simple Machines Forum, is more than welcome to be hosted here at Lunarpages, on many of our web hosting plans.   It is a free, professional grade software package that will have you setup with your own online community in just seconds. 

How to Install SMF? – Simple Machine Forum comes with both cPanel’s Fantastico and LPCP’s WebApps collections, respectfully.  You are also more than able to download the installation package from SMF’s official site, and install it yourself. 

• How to Install SMF Manually

Mods, Themes and Upgrades… oh my! – SMF, like many third party scripts we provide to you, comes ready, willing and able to handle a number of different plugins, or as they call them “modifications”.  These mods will add features, remove features and many more possibilities.  SMF is also no stranger to customized themes either.  You can browse through their directory of themes, or design your own.  The forum script is also very well written, and is kept up to date, as soon as a security (or any other) flaw arises. 

More SMF Tutorials and Help

Here are a few more SMF tutorials, tips and more we have collected:

• Simple Machine Forum FAQ
• How do I delete the Simple Machines logo on the default SMF theme?
• How do you add custom tabs to the Core (default) theme menu?
• Convert Current Forum Software to SMF
• What is repair_settings.php?

For more information, and help – be sure to check out the web hosting wiki.

Want to play with it, before you install it, yourself? Play with the demo that is hosted over at OpenSourceCMS.

November is Lunarpages Script Month!

Keep watching the Lunartics blog all throughout the month on November for even more third party script suggestions, tutorials, tips and more.  You can also get tons of information and details about just a handful of the third party scripts we support on the web hosting wiki.  We also have a special forum dedicated to third party script discussions over at the Lunarforums.  Subscribe today to the Lunartics RSS feed for instant updates when we release a new script suggestion!  

Related Tips and Tricks:

• WordPress Hosting at Lunarpages
• Vanilla Web Forum Hosting at Lunarpages
• Get bbPress Hosting at Lunarpages

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

Lunarpages fully supports the lightweight and simple Vanilla forum script.  What is Vanilla?  It is an open-source, standards-compliant, multi-lingual, fully extensible discussion forum for the Web. 

While it is not supported via the cPanel’s Fantastico or LPCP’s WebApps manager, the script is simple enough for anybody to download, setup and install in minutes.  For more help on the install process, check out this quick guide I wrote up for the Lunarpages web hosting wiki.

Addons Galore – One of Vanilla’s big strengths is the fact that is supports a number of awesome addons to extend the script even further.  Via their addon page, you can check out a number of themes, plugins and applications available for your own Vanilla message board installation.

• Browse Through the Most Popular Addons for Vanilla!

Want to take the script out for a test drive?  Check out the demo features on OpenSourceCMS to take a look at both the front end and the back end of this fantastic forum script.

For more Vanilla support and help – be sure to check out:

• Vanilla Help, Tutorials and More on the Web Hosting Wiki

November is Lunarpages Script Month!

Keep watching the Lunartics blog all throughout the month on November for even more third party script suggestions, tutorials, tips and more.  You can also get tons of information and details about just a handful of the third party scripts we support on the web hosting wiki.  We also have a special forum dedicated to third party script discussions over at the Lunarforums.  Subscribe today to the Lunartics RSS feed for instant updates when we release a new script suggestion!  

Related Tips and Tricks:

• Web Hosting Forums Get a New Design
• Get bbPress Hosting at Lunarpages
• WordPress Hosting at Lunarpages

&copy Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

Need a simple flash gallery tool?  Look no further than SimpleViewer.  It can take any bundle of online photos and make it into a gallery that somebody could spend hours upon hours browsing through.

This free online script will allow you to have a beautiful flash-powered image gallery in no time at all.  This is a great free script for any photographers who wish to highlight their own pictures, or artists who want to show off their most recent creations.

Here are some of the features:

• Intelligent image pre-loading.
• Intuitive image navigation
• Lightweight (17k).
• Customizable interface – Set text color, frame color and width, navigation position.
• Resizable interface – Interface scales to fit browser window.
• Cross platform – Windows/Macintosh/Linux (requires Flash 8 or higher).

Check out some of the examples here:

• Hi-Res Example – Full-browser, no captions.
• Lo-Res Example – Full-browser, captions, background image.
• Small Format Example - Embedded in HTML page.

Want to give it a shot?  You can learn more about this great free script over at SimpleViewer.net.  It is free to use, and if you like it – you could always purchase the pro version for a few more perks and services.

Related Tips and Tricks:

• Hundreds of Free Stock Photos for Your Web Sites
• Preview, Review and Download Free Fonts!
• Quick and Easy Online Surveys for Your Web Site

&copy Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don′t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

As a tiny class to help you with the creation of simple tab navigation, MooTabs is perfect for any web designer who wants to dabble with having a smother navigation.  Under 3kb in size, it mixes the power of Ajax, JavaScript and CSS to do some amazing things to your web site’s navigation.

I can’t really do it justice by just describing it, so I would encourage you to check out some of the demos:

• MooTabs using default CSS File and AJAX to get the panel’s content: Watch
• MooTabs using default CSS File and Default Options: Watch
• MooTabs using a modified CSS File and custom Options: Watch
• MooTabs using another modified CSS File and custom Options: Watch

The most recent update to the tab class package was the new Ajax tabs option.  You can now retrieve tab content via Ajax.  It might not be for everybody, but if your interested in how to make a more dynamic web site with more fluid navigation – give MooTabs a download. 

Related Tips and Tricks:

• Free Design Stencil Kit from Yahoo!
• Fun JavaScript Effects for Your Web Site
• All the Lunar News That is Fit to Print

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

So how do you track file downloads in Google Analytics? 

It is actually easier than you might think.  If you want to track files (like .zip, .pdf, .mp3 or anything else) and see how many times they have been downloaded, you must use the correct corresponding JavaScript code.  As mentioned by Google (if you search the help documents deeply enough) because these links do not lead to a page on your site containing the tracking code, you’ll need to tag the link itself with the _trackPageview() JavaScript if you would like to track these downloads.

For example, if you wanted to track every time somebody downloaded your eBook .pdf file, that was stored at www.yourdomain.com/files/ebook.pdf you would need to add the following to the <a&gt; tag:

<a href=http://www.yourdomain.com/files/ebook.pdf onClick=&quot;javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(’/downloads/ebook’); &quot;>

If that doesn’t do it for you, you might need to update your tracking code, or check here for how to do this with the older tracking code.  24 to 48 hours later, you should see your files in question being tracked.  You download count (using the example above) would show up as /downloads/ebook.

As a bonus for people using WordPress, you can do this automatically with the Ultimate Google Analytics plugin.  Hope that helps those of you using Google Analytics to track your latest web site statistics!

&copy Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

Cheat sheets are becoming a popular way of storing a lot of little tips and tricks all at one central location.  Now in all honesty, none of us are really “cheating” by making use of these tools.  We are just giving our brains a little help when we don’t remember the exact code or steps on how to do things.  When it comes to web development, there are a lot of different cheat sheets available to use.

Here are a few cheat sheets I like to keep handy:

• HTML Cheat Sheet
• PHP Cheat Sheet
• ASP Cheat Sheet
• ASP.Net Cheat Sheet
• JavaScript Cheat Sheet
• JSP Cheat Sheet
• htaccess Cheat Sheet
• CSS Cheat Sheet

There are a number of different resources for cheat sheets too.  Here are a few of my favorites (just in case the one you were looking for is missing from the list above). 

• Cheat Sheets on Added Bytes
• Cheat-Sheets.org

What are some of the various cheat sheets out there that you enjoy?  Having these handy helpers close to you can really help when it comes to finding out an answer quick, without having to memorize a lot of data. 

&copy; Lunarpages Web Hosting - Great web hosting with unlimited disk space and bandwith for only $4.95 per month? Check out the Winter Special!

Original post by Mitch

By Mitch “New Year, Baby!” Keeler

Happy New Year!  What, what do you mean I am a day early?  Ah well, hope you all have a safe yet enjoyable night tonight, and your 2009 is ten times more Lunarful than 2008 was.  To help you count down the clock, here are some of the most popular posts from the past month.

• 20 Awesome Paint.Net Tutorials
• Setup Your Lifestream with WordPress
• Come Join Lunarpages on Facebook!
• 25 Color Tools for Any Webmaster
• Minimize Sidebar in WordPress 2.7
• Top 10 Most Popular Support Topics
• Free Watermark Tool for Your Images
• Quick and Easy Online Surveys for Your Web Site
• Marketing Your Brand on YouTube
• Follow the Web 2.0 Traffic Trends

Have a safe and happy new year, everybody!

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Great web hosting with unlimited disk space and bandwith for only $4.95 per month? Check out the Fall Special!

Original post by Mitch

by Tiara Rea

I know everyone’s been waiting on pins and needles for the final decision, but let me stall just one more minute to say we really appreciated everyone’s efforts in this contest! All the WP themes submitted were just fantastic, and our staff had an incredibly difficult time choosing a top theme. They were all just phenomenal!

Also, here’s a brief rundown of how the voting worked:

Themes were judged by Lunarpages staff members and community. All submissions were judged by the following criteria:

• Community Votes: 25%
• Staff Votes: 25%
• Creativity, Originality, &amp Uniqueness: 25%
• Overall Theme &amp; Usability: 25%

And now, for the winners!!!

First Place Winner: NewBlue by BlogDesignStudio

With the lead in Community votes and about 10% staff votes, this was our clear winner! BlogDesignStudio has now won $1,000 and 5 years free web hosting!!! We really loved this theme, guys, so your congratulations are well deserved!

Second Place Winner: Floral Day by SimplyWP

With over 300 community votes, a whopping 35% of our staff votes brought this theme into second place due to its creativity and the fact that nearly all our techies loved this theme for its usability as well! SimplyWP has won $300 and 3 years free web hosting! All your themes were lovely, so congratulations!

Third Place Winner: Styleicious by ThaSlayer

Styleicious was a clear top 3 from the start, and with around 5% of our staff votes, ThaSlayer has won 3rd place!! That gives him $100 and 1 year free web hosting! This was a wonderful theme, ThaSlayer, so congrats!

For Series 3, we also decided to let our CEO and Staff choose overall winners based on Creativity, Usability, and the total amount of staff votes. For these votes, we didn’t take community voting into consideration, so here’s our Staff and CEO vote!

CEO Choice: E-Storage Plus by Roger

Our CEO was impressed not only with the potential of this WP Theme for any webmaster for personal or business use, but also the amount of amazing themes Roger submitted. Our CEO had a hard time picking just one for his favorite. Roger, you’ve won 1 year free web hosting!

Staff Choice: Dreamworks Redux by Vinh Le

This theme wasn’t even up for any of the weekly voting rounds, but our staff sure loved it!! Congratulations, Vinh Le! You’ve won 1 year free hosting!

To claim your prizes, just email affiliate@lunarpages.com

Now you can see ALL the participants and download over 90 Free WordPress Themes!!

Thanks for your participations everyone, and stay tuned to see if there will be a Series 4 anytime soon.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - $25 off Web Hosting! Coupon Code: blo⡕

Original post by Tiara