I noticed, while cruising around in phpmysqmin, after importing a couple hundred RSS articles with FeedGator into Joomla! that a lot of the content item's metas and attribs were missing. I especially didn't like that being the administrator, my id was associated with all these articles which I'm not authoring. The site's socialization features attribute them to me. I created a user called "joomlabot" so that I could assign all these site mechanic tasks to it. (Now, if I could just remember to login as joomlabot before performing site maintenance! ;)

"The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few, or the one".

With over 3,000 article content items to juggle, I pondered the fastest way to update all these tables, and then go through the pain of updating those handful which are blog entries with other queries.

I used SQL query to fill in all the missing data for all the article content - in this case common among them all - are `created_by`, `attribs`, and `metadata`. I looked up the user ID of the joomlabot, wrote a set of pre-filled semi-empty attribs, and then set a 2 line metadata for author and follow.

Here's the code:

UPDATE `database_name`.`jos_content` SET `created_by` = 'Numeric ID of my bot', `attribs` = 'show_title=
link_titles=
show_intro=
show_section=
link_section=
show_category=
link_category=
show_vote=
show_author=
show_create_date=
show_modify_date=
show_pdf_icon=
show_print_icon=
show_email_icon=
language=en-GB
keyref=value
readmore=', `metadata` = 'robots=follow
author=joomlabot';

*read my comment below.

Getting SSL running in Joomla! 1.5.x Tribulations

...on XP and Vista.
"Heart attack!" is an understatement while at 5am as I was trying to beat the EST crowd and my dedicated server "seemingly" disappeared. I had been working for about 5 hours installing SSL, testing, and everything was great on Ubuntu. I FTP'd from a Vista x64 rig to the box and BAM...the whole server's HTTP was inaccessible, at least from every hard wired Windows rig on my home network.

This was the day I discovered exactly how valuable my Android G1 cell has become to my profession. I could go on and on about the things I tried. People I called. Research I bared. Once I found the culprut, I intended to prove it by retaking steps to make this bug rear it's ugly head.

If this happens to you, don't think cPanel has banned your ip. Don't fret, your router isn't tossing a fit on your windows machines. Don't dig in your SSL, though deleting old crts out of your browsers is probably a great idea.

It's harsh, but it had to be done. Yep, it's the Vista Firewall...go hit the big "RESET to Default" button to get back to work.

Great! So, now "we" have all the little pieces of SSL in place on the dedicated server, including a dedicated IP. I fired up Joomla! Admin, and bingo-rama what a sweet treat! It actually behaves rather nicely when the server is properly configured, according to my tricorder.;}.

If you're having problems getting HTTPS running in Joomla! 1.5.x, start with your SSL and make sure it's 100% on the server. My only gripe to date is when I use the link to "Preview" the site, it maintains the "https" in the new or tabbed windows...something I'll have to investigate.

Tips:.htaccess, purchased SSL cert, dedicated IP for your website, cache management, update all applications locally to the new dedicated IP, dump old browser certs.