Attend Our Regular Monthly Meeting

Chairperson: To Be Decided
6:00 - 6:15 - Introductions
6:15 - 8:00- Presentations

Presentation 1: Web Applications and Software as a Service

Description: Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, is the new buzzword these days, and increasingly traditional applications are being replaced with online solutions to sell products, manage projects, and automate an increasing amount of our work. So how does SaaS work, and how do we get in on the game?

We'll take a look at how to implement a cloud-based service, using the Joomla framework as a specific example of how to implement such services. We'll examine the business model, technical requirements, and challenges relating to deployment and continuous development of a successful web application.

Presenter: Toby Patterson is the founder and lead developer of Moolah E-Commerce ( http://moolah-ecommerce.com ), an hosted service that provides an e-commerce solution for business services. Toby was a Joomla developer in 2009, and continues to work with Joomla and other frameworks in commercial products.

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Presentation 2: A common Joomla Website Security Issue

Description: This will be a short talk and demonstration of one aspect of Joomla website security - securing uploaded documents such as .pdf files. Just requiring a login to see certain menu items on your website is not in itself sufficient to keep uploaded documents like .pdf files hidden. Take for example, XCompany's Board of Directors with login credentials to see the otherwise hidden Board of Directors menu. Every year XCompany provides the board minutes and a link to a file with a name of the same format: http://www.XCompany.com/images/Annual_Report_2013.pdf. Well, what happens if someone who is no longer a board member in 2014 decides to take a guess and look in the same directory she linked to last year, for the same file name with only the year changed from 2013 instead of 2014? If it exists, she will retrieve it unless something more than Menu ACLs are used to secure it. A couple of solutions to this problem will be discussed and demonstrated including .htpasswd files, Anti-leaching scripts, and the Joomla DOCman extension.

Presenter: Stewart Newfeld supports many websites that were created by other developers, and security loopholes similar to the one addressed in this talk pop up from time to time.

8:00-8:30 Lightening Round Question and Answers, Networking. Advice on what Joomla techniques and Extensions to use to do what you need done.