One day while adding Google Analytics code to a site, I thought to myself, "There has to be an easier way". Yes, I know that adding the Tracker Code to a template is easy, but still, I knew that it could be automated a little. So, I did what any good Joomla! citizen would do. I checked the extensions site. While there, I found a couple modules that would insert the Tracker Code, but a module is not the ideal way to go about it. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is a bad way to do it. What I needed was a Plugin. To my surprise, there was not one. So, I wrote my own.

Did I mention that it is free?

Recently, while writing a component for Joomla! 1.5, I wanted to check a field to make sure that it was not a duplicate before saving. This is not too complicated, but if it was a duplicate, I wanted to take the user back to the Edit page with their information already filled in. By this, I mean that I did not want them to have to reenter everything that they already had.

The idea is that we want to capture what they Posted, then populate the Edit page back with those variables instead of a blank form (in case of new) or stored information (in case of edit).

Sending an email is one of the easiest things to do in Joomla!. You just have to make one call and the Frame work "magically" does the rest for you. It really is that easy. So, let's dig in!

Previously, in my blog posted titled "Google Apps – The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread", we discussed Google Apps. Today, I want to talk about how easy it is to integrate Google Analytics into your Joomla! website.