This information requires Joomla (1.5.x series) Global Configuration/System/Session Handler to be set to "database" and plugin "includePHP installed for the following information to be valid.

Current and active user sessions are stored in a cookie on the user local drive. The cookies are domain related (i.e.; when you lookup a cookie on your local system it's stored by the site name then cookie name). The following functions provide access to the Joomla cookie created during log-in;

Another round with Joomla! and it's great environment. I recently installed an extended menu system at NASCAR This Week's website. The site contains some flash elements like menus and videos. The top menu consists of drop-down items now and those items were disappearing behind the flash items on the pages.

I've seen a lot of sites out there that display this problem. I always thought it looked hideous and wondered why that developer left it looking like crap. I still don't know why a web developer would leave a menu system in that condition, but I did find the solution.

I found this at Contract Web Development and didn't want to let it go...

Before we begin, you must have access to your database. If you don't, pass these instructions on to someone that does.  It's also a good idea to backup your database before making changes, just in case something goes awry.

Finding the Password

• Log in to your Joomla database (via phpMyAdmin for example)
• Click to edit the _users database (will be preceded by your account name, for example: example_users
• Edit the entry for where usertype = "Super Administrator" (should be the first record)

Resetting the Password

In the password field you'll notice a string of characters. Joomla uses a one-way encoding method, which means you won't be able to retrieve your old password. However, you will be able to reset the password to a new one using mySQL's built in MD5 function:

UPDATE example_users SET password=MD5('yourpassword') WHERE usertype = "Super Administrator";

Voila - you just successfully reset your Joomla password Go to your joomla domain at example.com/administrator and try logging in with the new password. You should be logged in as Super Administrator.

Troubleshooting

If for some reason the above method does not work try encoding a password that contains only alphanumeric (a-z, 0-9) characters. This method may not work if your password contains special characters (@!#$).