Don’t tear your hair out if you can’t make one of your modules display correctly on Internet Explorer. Just design an alternative (simplified) version of the module, and use the following rules to display different modules for IE browsers. You can just as easily detect other browsers such as the iPhone and present different information just for them – or hide modules to suit the smaller browser.

It’s easy to randomise your modules in Joomla – just set up MetaMod with the following PHP rule, and customise the “return” numbers to match the ids of the modules you want to use. Add more as appropriate.

In company intranet systems you may be able to identify certain groups of users by the IP address of the client. These MetaMod recipes allow you to to detect an individual or range of IP addresses, and change modules based on this information.

Use this rules to show a module only the first time that a user views a certain page. On subsequent page views you can either display an alternative module, or no module at all. (See also: Show a module just once for any user [with cookies])

Let’s say you want everyone to know when a particular person is logged in to the system (e.g. for technical support). This recipe allows you to display a module for as long as this person is logged in to the system!

MetaMod has great support for dates and times. You can make simple rules that publish and unpublish modules at certain dates and times, but that’s just the beginning. Rules like these are great for displaying certain modules during “shopping hours”, radio programme broadcasts, sports seasons etc.