Joomla 1.5.9 [Vatani], the Security Release. Here’s a run of what’s in the release:

Statistics for the 1.5.9 release period:

• Joomla 1.5.9 contains:
  • 81 issues fixed in SVN
  • 55 commits
• Tracker activity resulted in a net decrease of 1 active issue:
  • 169 new reports
  • 92 closed
  • 81 fixed in SVN
• At the time the 1.5.9 release was packaged, the tracker had 113 active issues:
  • 63 open
  • 47 confirmed
  • 3 pending

Joomla has a new release, Joomla 1.5.8 [Wohnaiki]. This release contains a number of bug fixes and two moderate-level security fixes. Just 2 months after the release of Joomla 1.5.7, another release is now available.

SVTech Youtube Module allows you to display your YouTube video in a module with following features
* Displays list of videos, uploaded at youTube by user
* Plays video with “lightbox” kind of effect.
* Based on jQuery framework
* Admin Configurable youTube user ID
* jQuery Conflict with mooTools fixed
* Added Pagination support
* Pagination is javascript based and next set is displayed without reloading page

Don’t like the default font in Joomla 1.5? JsIFR3 plugin integrates the Scalable Inman Flash Replacement (sIFR) in Joomla 1.5 and lets you use any font on your Joomla website. The sIFR version is sIFR 3 – r419 which is the newest and most stable version so far.
There are 14 different plugin settings that can be set in the Joomla backend, for example text-color, font-weight etc. 11 fonts are allready included and custom fonts can be used aswell.

I havent tested this plugin much yet, but it seems very useful. The Article Link oomla! 1.5 Plugin (Editor Button/Editor-xtd) enables joomla administrators directly link articles within article editor.

JoomlaExtensions released YouTube Video Bar Module for Joomla. The YouTube Video Bar Module is based on the Google AJAX Search API and embeds a strip of YouTube videos on your site allowing your users to watch the video channels you’ve selected without leaving your site. Configurable parameters include: vertical/horizontal bar, filter/display by channels, filter/display by search criteria, video thumbnail size customisation, filter by most viewed, top rated and/or recently featured.

Here’s a short article/tutorial from JoomlaShack, on how to enhance your Joomla template for SEO. A bit simple but useful tip IMHO.

Another cool module for Joomla. Now webmasters can create a module wherein the website users can access their webmail through their website. Useful especially if the site is set-up as intranet.

Installed this plug-in awhile ago and I liked it. The name says it all. Component as content plugin allows you to include components inside your content, even those that are published in the front page.

Here’s a quick guide I have found at the Joomla Forums that is very helpful in adding videos to your VirtueMart items using the AllVideos plugin. I find this very informative and useful so I would like to share this with everybody.

Another good source of Joomla extensions, some of which I regularly use, is JoomlaForge. My favorite is their Content Slider, a module that allows you to place up to 10 content items.