Javeed Chida

Every now and then, there comes a time in a CMS developer's life when the sin of taking default settings for granted takes its toll.    There. I phrased that carefully so it would make a list of quotable quotes some day. Now, let me get to it.   Like many developers out there, I am a huge fan of content-driven...

Let me begin by clarifying that this post has nothing to do with the Harry Potter universe.   But seriously. You know what I mean by wizards, don’t you? Those helpful series of screens that gather a set of choices from the user and then use the captured choices to do something for the user. Often times, one user selection can lead to a different...

This short post brings together the little pieces critical to crafting an ADT in velocity to provide direct download links to documents in your Documents and Media repository. You will find parts of this solution strewn across forums and blogs.    In essence, you'll have to do two things: 1. Add the following property to your...

(or) Why categories are so much more than nestable tags "I LOVE tags," Jaffer managed despite a mouthful of spiced lamb ouzie.   Sergei was finding the younger guest a bit annoying. The kid had ambled in from the snow to get a bite. Sergei himself had come in to escape the noise that seasoned other cafeterias. He fancied Abou Shousha's...

In my last technical post titled Content SEO - Hidden in Plain Sight, I exposed a caveat in the way the title of a content item is auto-crafted by Liferay. Here’s an excerpt from that article, which I hope highlights the problem. If not, I encourage you to give that post a read..   Note that the Title specified is Young Night. But if you look at what got into the...

After a thirty-minute train ride sitting amidst super-excited teenagers, even the energized atmosphere of a downtown Chicago Tuesday morning seemed like a peace cloud. Anyway, got to the Hilton in good time for a bagel and creamcheese breakfast and an aromatic Colombian brew before Sergio's session.   Create Amazing Web Services with Liferay DXP (Sergio Gonzalez) ...

Here's a running note dump of my day 1 at Liferay Symposium North America 2016, here in Chicago. This is just to pique your curiosity if you couldn't make it out here AND your interests happen to match mine. Wait for the slide decks and presentations to be shared by Liferay so you get it all. Keynote (Bryan Cheung) Bryan did it again, making his point with the same...

It cannot be that it was just forgotten, This fundamental feature, thus I sought Through thick of forum, blog, e'en post ill-gotten Until my quest returned me to the spot Where sat the creature with expression cursed Inquiring why I didn't look here first.   This...

The Glorious Simplicity of Structure Inheritance This field (highlighted yellow) on a structure editing screen is what I am talking about. When I first saw the words Parent Structure there, the following thoughts came to mind, in increasing order of coolness All fields in the parent structure are inherited by the child structure The idea of polymorphic...

I came across the idea of a generic template recently, and put it to good use.  If you don't know what I mean by generic template, let me clear that up right away.   A generic template is really just a content template that is not tied to a structure. The point of it is that you can sparate your template code as you see fit, including the generic...

If you've been using the Liferay CMS, you are probably familiar with a journal article's Categorization tab wherein you can specify the tags and the categories for the journal article. If you aren't familiar with those terms, you should read up on Categorization. Tags and categories are indispensable to a well-defined content architecture, apart from being the most convenient...

I recently presented this to a group of non-technical users. The feedback was positive, and made me think this may be useful to others. Why did I make this presentation? I put this little presentation together because a lot of our users, who were being trained to contribute content, had trouble distinguishing a web content item from an instance of the Web Content Display...

I've been busy building web application content. A simple form with three fields Under the form, a table shows the previously added records The data in the table can grow to several hundred Blah blah blah We've done this many times. And we've got enough tools from here to the mooon and back to get it all done pretty well. But of late, I've been...

This is not really a technical post. In what follows, I share two little tips for Liferay 6.2 users. This may also be useful to developers, unless you prefer crafting SQL to solve all your data problems (which you probably do). Let's get to them. #1: Find journal articles that use a particular structure Read the errata. When I was starting out with Liferay...

Content Friendly URL? This is one of those tidbits you get served on a platter if you're lucky enough to attend a Liferay training session. Anyway, content friendly url may not be the legit term, but what I'm referring to is a URL crafted using a Journal Article's urlTitle attribute, which is stored in every journalarticle record btw.  ...

Okay, that is a mouthful. To rephrase my compound title, we'll be talking about an approach that  uses search to update a content item that follows a structure tailored to a template that renders a megamenu. There! Thats the flow in a nutshell. If that already has the gears turning in your head, then you're welcome. Ta-ta! But if you need more,...

I'd like to point out at the outset that the content of this post may be mundane for the seasoned Liferay developer. What I really want to demonstrate is the ease with which the problem (defined below) can be solved quickly and easily through use of the portal's architectural mechanisms and APIs. The Problem Customize the out-of-the-box Search portlet's presentation of results...

LRNAS2015 was everything I hoped it would be. Every session was packed with demos of upcoming 7.0 features that left anyone using 6.2 very grateful (I was) that they weren't on an even older version. Upgrading for 6.2 won't go unaided, but will require some careful planning and testing. Here is a small slice of new features I am looking forward to with equal parts interest and...