New Demo Site Now Available
We have now consolidated our four demo sites into just one. You can now view all our extensions at
http://demos.phil-taylor.com/administrator/
Take a look around! The demo resets its blank state every 60 mins, you are auto logged in as a super admin so you dont even need a password! 
*Some functions have been disabled.
Demo site availability
Over the next few days we will be moving the demo sites for our products to a new server (hosted by the most excellent redstation.com in the UK)
During this time the demo sites will be up and down as you may see the old server or the new server.
This is phase one of a new launch we will be doing soon – watch this space!
New version of bfForms released with new features
I have just uploaded a new verison of bfForms with a few new features, the main one being Pausable forms (or “Save and come back later” forms for registered and logged in users). As always I have released it early with sponsorship from a customer, but I have not had time to document all the features I promise I’ll commission this asap.
This release also fixes some long standing niggle bugs that were starting to annoy me, so I fixed a lot of little minute issues that you might not notice unless you found them first (Oh and a couple of biggies)
Hope you like it – another release will be made sooner with some more new feature.
UPDATE: This release also includes the SMTP fix for non standard SMTP ports and SSL
(Forgive the brief blog post – I’m battling some personal family issues and dont have a lot of time right now to expand)
Announcing the all new myJoomla.com
We are pleased to announce this bank holiday weekend the immediate availability of our new download and service site at https://secure.myJoomla.com
We have served from the myJoomla.com domain for several years now the downloads that you purchase from us, and we are in the process of releasing some amazing new services and products that will rely on the new foundation that we set today. Don’t worry you dont need to re-register, just login with your existing myJoomla login details!
Geeks amongst you will notice that the new myJoomla.com site is NOT running Joomla! which might shock some of you – however, being a Zend Certified PHP5 Developer I thought it was time to harness the power and flexibility of the Zend Framework and so built the whole new site in Zend Framework 1.8
myJoomla.com – your current resource for downloads of purchased products, and invoices, – and soon to become a whole lot more powerful – watch blog for more details soon…
(Everything at secure.myjoomla.com is conducted over SSL, however we will soon be replacing the standard SSL certificate with a brand new EV SSL Certificte (
To give the “green bar”) just like our contact page )
VAT added to all purchases in line with the UK Law
Following our return to trading through our UK company I am sorry to report that in line with UK law VAT will now be added to all transactions at the standard rate of 15% currently. This will be applied to EU Countries only and will be added during your paypal checkout. USA Customers and non-EU Countries will not have to pay this extra tax
Moving House
PLEASE BE PATIENT if you have sent me and email – and refrain from sending me abusive messages….. you know who you are…
I am moving house at the moment, and only have mobile broadband access and my main PC is in a box! I dont have all the tools I need to do my job and so therefore I cant
I’ll be up to full speed by next Monday again.
Thanks to those who are being patient
Important Changes To Our Services
I write to inform you of some important changes to your relationship with my services. As many of you know, a few years ago we moved to Jersey, Channel Islands to be closer to my wifes family. At that time we started to trade through “Blue Flame IT (Jersey) Ltd.” a Jersey registered company.
On Monday 18th May, we will be returning back to Tewkesbury, England.
This means, with effect from that date, all services will be provided through our UK Registered company “Blue Flame IT Ltd” and VAT at the prevailing rate (Currently 15%) will be applied to all invoices raised after that date in line with current UK Law. (If you are located in the EU for VAT purposes).
All product purchases made through paypal will also have VAT applied to them if you are in the EU (For VAT purposes). This additional amount will be added at the paypal checkout.
Blue Flame IT Ltd is a UK registered company having company number of 04936037 and is VAT registered with VAT Number 970 5375 05.
Blue Flame IT Ltd complies with the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002.
Blue Flame IT Ltd is registered with the UK Information Commissioner and complies fully with the Data Protection Act so you rest easy knowing we take custom privacy seriously.
Please bear with us during the transition period as we update our FAQs and our website/branding once again.
Massive Update To Blue Flame Forms Now Available.
At the time of writing we are pleased to announce a major release of Blue Flame Forms with YET MORE NEW FEATURES!
AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD FOR EXISTING CUSTOMERS RIGHT NOW!
The NEW FEATURES include, but are not limited to:
- The ability to paste in ANY form HTML code, and have bfForms parse and setup the fields so that you can add validations and actions with ease – thats right, you can now take the HTML of ANY FORM you create in ANY form generator, or dreamweaver etc…, paste it into bfForms and click a single button and have all the fields setup ready for you to play with in our application! I’ll blog more on this exciting new feature soon. (Unless Brian blogs on it first!)
- “One Moment Please” form processing splash screen – 100% configurable (or turn it off if you want)
- 10 New validation rules, making it even easier to ensure your submissions are valid.
- Includes new International Bank IBAN code validations
- Includes Allowed/Denied domain name whitelist/blacklist
- Realtime Spammer and Phishing checks integrated to 3rd party services
- Yet more spam transparent checks, email address validation rules, and hostname/ip validation checks – Thanks #zf
- JCE Editor Support – Use the popular JCE Editor in our extensions
- New Export format specifically for MS Excel users, preserves the leading Zeros in fields
- Better support for Mac/Safari Browser Users
- Integration with Google Gears Plugin
- Embed Forms in Content Items!
- or into a module position – your choice!
- New Hidden Form Field to store submitted date
- New Hidden Form Field to store visitors IP address
- New Hidden Form Field to store Random Number
- Automatically Generate the content of the emails send – ONE CLICK!
ok I’m going to stop there…. but there are a load more features other than these just released as stable!
So go and check out the ONE CLICK demo site here: http://demo.joomla-forms.com/administrator/
Then go any purchase at the SPECIAL OFFER PRICE of only GBP£20.00 on our offers page
I’m Declaring Email Bankruptcy!
I have been toying with this idea to make me more productive for some time now, and then today I found out that I was not alone and that the term “Email Bankruptcy” is in fact something that has been done by many others over the years…
So as of today – I have Zero Emails in my Inbox. (I just deleted over 500!)
Question: Whoah there you might say… Why have you done that?
Answer: Well because the last 10 emails I replied to all replied back to me saying the problem was resolved or they don’t need assistance any more! – a waste of my time – some of these emails have built up over time as I have been out of the office, some of these emails can be answered by READING THE FAQ and some are just plain stupid.
Question: Does this mean you are not answering emails?
Answer: No it doesn’t – I will still answer any email sent me from now on, even if its a resend of an earlier email, by you resending it I know that its important and needs my attention rather than being one email in a big sea of emails…
Question: I sent you an email last week, am I going to get a reply?
Answer: Not unless you resend it !!!
Question: Why are you doing this!!!!
Answer: Simple – there are just not enough hours in a work week to reply to all the new emails and the historic ones built up over the last few weeks (months!) and why should I waste time researching, composing and replying to emails where my replies are no longer required…
Question: Ok then, so where else can I find help to save me emailing you?
Answer: to be honest I use a lot of quick replies to FAQ posts and Blog posts where 80% of all my email queries have already been answered, please try searching the blog, or visiting the products FAQ page (Especially Forms for Joomla, there are some articles in there I email people about all the time!!)
Question: So how long will it take for you to reply to my next email?
Answer: Don’t Know but a hell of a lot sooner than before I declared email bankruptcy!
(Ok I lied, I am keeping about 10 emails from the last few hours in my inbox as they are current and require my input 
)
The Future: Well its easy to “keep up” when I’m in the office, also this frees up more time for development, its been far tooooooo long since my latest releases and we have some exciting new features to roll out, including some bug fixes
So Thanks for your patience email me if you really need to
Phil Taylor Passes Zend PHP5 Certified Engineer Certification
What a day!
Today, I sat the Zend PHP5 Certified Engineer Certification exam AND PASSED!
This is my first PHP industry qualification (I don’t think there are many PHP certifications apart from the Zend ones!) and now makes me the ONLY Zend PHP5 Certified Engineer in Jersey, Channel Islands, UK!
What does this mean for you? Well it is a certification that puts me apart from other developers and shows the level and commitment I have taken in learning PHP 5 and in applying that knowledge in real word situations. As far as I know, no other Joomla Extension Developer has obtained this grade. (I may be wrong!)
More details about the Zend PHP5 Certified Engineer Certification can be found on the Zend.com website.
Although my name has not yet been added to their yellow pages, you can authenticate my certification by clicking here (Pearson Vue) and entering:
- Registration Number 225168069
- Validation Number 1329096747
I just want to acknowledge someone here. Andrew Eddie!, the original lead developer on an old project called Mambo – without him, his encouragement, his example, his code, I would never have got into PHP and would never be where I am today. Thank you Andrew – Bitwise Operators (aka Masks in Mambo 4.5) are part of the Exam!!!!!