Personal
Joomla visionaries, we stand at the edge of something extraordinary. Our CMS is a beacon of possibility—its unmatched ACL, seamless multilingual support, and boundless flexibility empower us to craft digital worlds like no other. Yet, for every heart we win with Joomla’s brilliance, another hesitates at its gates, daunted by complex configs and unfamiliar terms. Years ago, at an SAP consultancy called Simplement, I glimpsed a spark that could light our path forward: the SAP Pre-Configured Client (PCC). It transformed a titan’s complexity into an open door. Now, imagine we channel that same magic into a Joomla PCC extension—a third-party dream that welcomes the world to our CMS without dimming its fire. Let’s dare to envision it together!
Ever solve a problem just for a moderator to derail it—and another to smugly point out the obvious? Welcome to the Joomla circus. I sling code and try to keep the Joomla world spinning by dipping into the forums and Stack Exchange to help out, drop some wisdom, maybe fix a thing or two. But lately, it’s less about solutions and more about dodging one-uppers who’d rather flex than contribute. Spoiler: when they’re moderators, it’s not just annoying—it’s a death knell for the platform.
I’ve been a developer long enough to know the drill: you’ve got to keep learning, keep growing, or you’re toast. Sticking to my niches is comfortable, but dipping into new languages, techniques, and approaches? That’s where the real juice is. Lately, though, I’ve been spending a lot of time peering over the fence—reviewing someone else’s code. Sometimes I’m hunting for bugs to feel smug about; other times, I’m hoping to spot brilliance in someone else’s code that I can quietly admire (or borrow). Most of the time? I find over-engineered messes or half-baked ideas that make me mutter, “Not Invented Here,” under my breath. You know the story—they didn’t do it my way, so it’s wrong.
Numbers don’t lie, and Joomla’s are a wake-up call. Today, I’m fighting back with Content - Amazon Product Advertising API, a new extension that lets site owners weave Amazon’s Product Advertising API into their Joomla site—pull product data, earn affiliate revenue, all seamless. Unlike the only two other Joomla PAAPI extensions—both paid—mine’s free. WordPress has 220 free PAAPI extensions. Joomla’s 1 free (mine) and 2 paid vs. their 220 free is a gap I’m here to close.
For years, Joomla felt like a digital barn-raising—everyone pitching in, sharing tools, and building something bigger than themselves. I’ve been part of that from the start, releasing free extensions like my Fields - XMLForm because that’s what kept the engine running: a community of creators trading ideas freely, no tolls or tickets required. My SaaS gig—hosting aviation platforms—pays the bills, and sure, it’s a quieter part of my story, but the extensions were always the heart of it—pure Joomla optimism in action. My SaaS business was built on top of Joomla. It was a potluck where everyone brought a dish to share, until lately. Some developers feast on what’s still free, then lock even the basics behind a paywall—whatever happened to tossing out the staples for free and charging for the spice?
Picture this: mid-20teens, I’m contracted to build an iOS app and a website for a Cable TV hardware company. The app’s a custom RF calculator—Joomla’s in my blood, so I know it’ll anchor the website too. I deliver the app, spot-on, and start asking about the site. Then the rug gets yanked. Investor politics kick in—some bigwig’s buddy gets the gig because the site needs to “pop” for their IPO. My Joomla pitch? Too boring, too “technical.” They go WordPress. Weeks after launch, it’s hacked—tens of thousands of spam emails blast out, their domain’s blacklisted, and ahead of the IPO, they can’t email a soul. The IPO flops. Company’s dead in a year. I’m left shaking my head—Joomla could’ve saved them, but nah, they wanted “pop.”
For my wife's poultry show (Yellow Rose Classic), each of the show sponsors gets a banner. Unfortunately, most of her sponsors either didn't have a logo, or their logo was a low-quality image. That is not to say the images were bad; they were just not something we could scale up to banner size without significant loss of quality. So I get to do some SVG work.
Supporting my wife's hobby, I find myself making another commercial. It's a good cause, the Texas Independent Flock Owners Association supports and promotes agriculture in Texas.