Mambohub goes to Lao!

Mambohub.com has co-operated with Thai Journalists Association (TJA) to help Lao Journalists Association(LJA) organize the workshop on "Website Building by Mambo CMS" for Lao media personals during 16-17 September 2006. This event will be a great opportunity for Mambo to promote usage in Lao. Mambohub.com also arranges the Component and Template workshop on 23-24 September and basic workshop on 8th October which there are many people interested in and our Mambo Basic workshop# 20 on 27th August got a very good feedback.

Book review

The Mambo content management system is generally easy to install, set up, configure, and use, but that doesn't save you from the complexity of designing and managing a large Web site. Mambo may be easy to install, but the post-install configuration has so many facets and possibilities that it's easy to drown in the details. Wiley Publishing's new Mambo book accelerates Mambo site development by providing new Webmasters and small publishers with the requisite details and tips to get a Mambo site into production the way they want it in a short amount of time.

Mambo in the Raw!

Team Mambo has released a new flavor of Mambo -- the Raw Core installation. This installation is for everyone who wants a Mambo with a smaller footprint; for those who don't want sample data, a WYSIWYG editor, and a bunch of components and modules you may not use.
The Raw Core is currently available for download and feedback. We've only released 4.6 RC2 in this format for now. If the feedback supports continuing down this path, the Team will move forward with developing this idea.

A Blueprint for Mambo

Global publisher, John Wiley & Sons has released their newest Visual Blueprint title -- Mambo: Your Visual Blueprint for Building and Maintaining Websites with the Mambo Open Source CMS.Wiley’s Visual Blueprint series relies on a series of short (one or two page) chapters that focus on the accomplishment of discreet tasks. The chapters are illustrated with screen shots from the system and provide a step-by-step breakdown of exactly what the user needs to do to complete a task successfully. The task chapters are supplemented by charts and explanatory screens which detail the interface, the controls and key concepts.The title, authored by Ric Shreves, provides the most comprehensive documentation yet released for the award-winning Mambo Content Management System (CMS). “The Mambo system is widely acknowledged as under documented,” notes the author, “with this title, Wiley has moved in to help address the need for accessible and comprehensive documentation for users.”

Upgrading from 4.5.2 to 4.5.2.3

How to upgrade from 4.5.2 - 4.5.3h
This guide describes how to update Mambo version 4.5.2 to version 4.5.3h.

First of all,it is important to determine which version of Mambo *exactly* you are running.You can do this by looking in the "includes" folder in your Mambo directory and reading the file named "version.php".

If indeed you are running 4.5.2,you are advised to bring your Mambo up to version 4.5.2.3 before attempting to patch to 4.5.3.For this you will need the Patch_4.5.2_to_4.5.2.3.zip

The first and most basic rule is to back up your current Mambo files before attempting any upgrade - FTP* a copy of your Mambo folder to your PC,or at least copy all your Mambo files to a directory named "backup" outside of public_html, your server web folder.Take a back up of your database too.Here's how.or,at a pinch if you don't have phpMyAdmin,you can use this method though phpMyAdmin is preferable.

* FTP - Windows users should be aware of these issues:http://webtips.dan.info/misc.html

With your back ups safely stored,you can proceed to the next step.Take your Mambo site offline,there are two means of doing this.You can do it via Mambo's Administrator Console Site > Global Configuration > under the "site" tab change Site Offline to "yes".(you'll need to make configuration.php writable to do it this way.CHMOD 777 is sometimes the only value which works on some servers,and that is scary,even for a moment)

Alternatively,take a copy of configuration.php,open it in a text editor on your computer and set $mosConfig_offline = '0'; to $mosConfig_offline = '1'; upload this modified file in ASCII mode to your server,overwriting the old.You can also do this via cPanel's file editor - but take great care not to insert a carriage return (space) after the final ?> or you will get an array of errors all over the header of your Mambo site which will scare the heck out of you and keep everyone scratching their heads until they figure out the mistake.

Check that your site is now offline by accessing your Mambo URL - taking the site offline during patching is important because your server can lock files and prevent them from being overwritten correctly if you do not.

Next,simply unzip Patch_4.5.2_to_4.5.2.3.zip on your computer,fire up your FTP client and copy the extracted folders and files inside to your Mambo directory,carefully overwriting the corresponding folders/files.Basically,click "Yes" or "O.K" each time your FTP client prompts you,asking if you want to replace the existing folder/files of the same name.

** See this note from Asphyx:http://forum.mamboserver.com/showpos...21&postcount=5

That done,you can repeat the process with the 4.5.2.3 - 4.5.3h patch.

These are the official patch instructions from within the Patch_4.5.2.3_to_4.5.3h.zip

Mambo 4.5.2.3 to 4.5.3h Patch Installation Instructions:

Below you will find the steps to bring a Mambo 4.5.2.3 system up to the 4.5.3h version. This will NOT bring prior versions up to date. You should first try to bring prior versions up to the 4.5.2.3 patch level before applying the 4.5.3h patch.

Step 1: Backup your site (both database & site files).

Step 2: Take your site offline: Site->Global Configuration->Site Offline (YES).

Step 3: Extract all files inside the patch into your Mambo installation. The files are organized in a hierarchy identical to your 4.5.2.3 install. Let them overwrite the existing files.

Step 4: Log into the Administration system of your Mambo site, goto the Site>Global Configuration screen, click on the "Server" tab and turn ON register globals emulation. With a brand new 453h install this will default to ON, but with the patch you will need to set it manually. Leaving this OFF may cause certain site functions and/or components not to function as expected.

Step 5: Bring your site back online: Site->Global Configuration->Site Offline (NO).

That's it. Patch complete.Another alternative to the 4.5.3h patch is to simply replace all the core files in your Mambo directory with the full 4.5.3 package.

There are no database upgrades between the above mentioned versions.

Many thanks to maligned-geek for permission to use his upgrade guide