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What's new in Joomla 1.6 menu items?

05.02.11

Let's say you create a link to a single article in Joomla 1.5 (called an article layout). Beyond the standard items you could configure with Joomla 1.5, like the title, alias, parent, and so forth, there were some limited parameters you could set for the article:

Comment extensions are a popular feature to add to Joomla websites, they are a lot of choices, all with slightly different features. In previous posts, I have talked about how all websites can be online communities, but often when people start thinking about comments, they question is "what is the best comment extension for my Joomla website?" But I rather think that this is missing the point... I received a review copy of Joomla! 1.5 Multimedia from Packt Publishers and was expecting to read a lot that I already know about Images and the image manager in Joomla!. But instead it was an eye-opener about the possibilities that Joomla! and some special extensions gives you to create a complete multimedia experience for your visitors. This [...]

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Joomla! Multimedia – A Book Review about Images, Video and More… | Joomla Mulitmedia

Right now the hottest online businesses are online membership websites. Whether learning how to create email newsletters or networking for partners, subscription based membership sites are *the* way to generate revenue from your own expertise.

The two pieces to the puzzle to be successful with your membership website are expert help and guidance, and a powerful platform.

Keep reading and I'll tell you how you can get both, a world renowned expert who will teach you, and a comp[...]

In case you had not heard, Joomla 1.7 will be released on July 19, 2011. This is is the first release under Joomla's new 6-month release schedule. There have been many posts about Joomla's new release cycle and how it will impact your sites and your business (including these two from Jen). Unfortunately, Joomla does not always do the best job communicating consistently and clearly with its community. Fortunately, Barrie and Jen are here to help you with all of your Joomla 1.7 questions!

Last week the Joomla Project team released Joomla 1.5.12, codename "Wojmamni Ama Woi." No explanation for the Swahili meaning was given, but this version's various security and bug fixes are easily explained by checking out the project's 1.5.12 release.

The notes on Joomla.org[...] So I have been updating my Joomla book website, I discovered a problem with my RSS. Ironically, I discuss exactly NOT doing what I did in the book, but do as I say, not what I do (or something).I wanted to redesign my home page. Right now its a category blog - an obvious choice for book news - and then fixed content in the category description. I wanted to change because it's difficult to manage the meta description in Joomla in this layout, so I wanted to change it to a uncategorized article, and then load { loadposition } to show news links.

When we speak at events, or do Joomla training, one of the questions we get asked again and again is:

"What are your favorite Joomla extensions?"

There have been lots of people that have tried to answer this question, and its a hard one. One thing that I think makes it hard is the question isn't "what is the best extension?" That sort of question is really focusing on a particular scenario. The questioner perhaps means something like "what is the best [...]

There has been some debate and a little confusion (and some misinformation) about whether or not extension developers should upgrade their extensions to Joomla 1.6. The short answer is "yes, except if you have an extension that is now ruled obsolete by the new functionality."

With the release of Joomla 1.6, the Production Leadership Team embarks on time-based release cycles. In the past, features would be worked on in the development trunk and when complete, the release was declared "ready." So a new version of Joomla is never released until all the planned features are set and stable. This is the reason why both Joomla 1.5 and Joomla 1.6 each took three years to complete. This results in a long lag time for third-party developers to update their extensions to work with three years worth of core changes. That can be a daunting task for even the smallest of extensions.

Time-based release cycles are a totally new approach for Joomla. The way it works is there's a vision/theme set for the next release around six months in advance. For the July 2011 release, the theme is "Rediscover Content."

This vision is what the Production Leadership Team has outlined as top priorities for the release and comes from community ideas in the Joomla Idea Pool (or the Joomla Feature Tracker) in accordance with what the development team determines as in line with the vision. That doesn't mean that all the goals listed will make it into the next release or that nothing except those goals will be included, but it provides a focused path for the team and those in the community who want to help contribute. 

Once a new version is released, there's a period of maintenance and bug fixes. Then the teams go into the next development phase of working on the next version. During this phase, features are worked on and stable branches are merged into the code trunk. Anyone who wants a code branch to work in can request one and it's their responsibility to ensure what they're working on works with the latest stable code trunk. This improves the likelihood it will get merged into the core and means that developers can work on anything they want all year round, regardless of release timing. Once it's ready, it can go into the trunk which prevents the "coding frenzy" that happens in the period leading up to a release (instead of a "stabilization frenzy"). Then there's a merging phase around 6 weeks before the release date where the code is stabilized up until the final date.

All this ensures the trunk is constantly stable and a release theoretically can happen on any given day. So every six months to the day, there will be a Joomla release. The contents of that release (which will obviously vary from release to release) will determine the numbering structure. So we have to refer to future releases by their dates, not numbers (therefore, that doesn't mean Joomla 1.7 will be coming out in July 2011, or ever). 

The changes from Joomla 1.5 to 1.6 are huge (in my humble opinion it should really be called Joomla 2.0) mainly because of the change in ACL and the new content structure—it's been three years in the making. But going forward, the changes needed in extensions to make them compatible with upcoming releases should be much smaller due to the shorter release cycle. This means this is the last time extension developers should have to "bite the bullet" in the time needed to update their extensions.

That also means extension developers will need to switch to a more progressive development process—doing smaller updates and incremental development work instead of a huge chunk of time every few years when a new version is released. In the past, it was a stretch to have an extension compatible with two different versions of Joomla. With this new model, an extension may be compatible with five or six versions due to the shorter cycle. Extension developers will be able to better plan their own development effort and costs (subscription-based sales will likely increase under this model since users won't take the tact that they'll only buy when there's a new version, but instead will keep a continuous subscription). Some of this also applies to site builders and administrators. The incremental changes from version to version will make life much easier for those folks upgrading from release to release (whether a long-term release or not). 

So if you're a Joomla extension developer, it actually does make practical and business sense to upgrade to Joomla 1.6 since roughly the same amount of work will be needed to upgrade to the July 2011 version of Joomla. The work to upgrade to the July release will likely be trivial, you'll be one of the first group of extensions on the cutting edge, and your customers will certainly be happier.

Watch Live here!

SEOMoz just posted a great list of 14 best practices for modern SEO that they are using with their consulting clients. Some real interesting tips, like the lack of importance of H1 tags and  meta keywords.

Keep reading for review of the 14, with some notes about possible Joomla implications.

You can read more about these at SEOMoz: SEO Best Practices

Title Tag Format

Primary Keyword - Secondary Keywords | Brand
Or
Brand Name | Primary Keyword [...]

thumb_screen I've been a huge fan of Drupal's Content Creation Kit for a long time - its a module that extends the core content functionality of Drupal, allowing you to create different types of 'content' - made up of a variety of fields such as embedded media (photo/video/etc...), email links, html/web links and so on.  CCK's architecture is scalable and allows for 3rd party developers to add new fields to it as additional modules; so the usefullness of CCK grows exponentially in time.

Actually, for a time I saw this amazing module really setting joomla and drupal apart - as, Joomla felt really limited in its potential to grow beyond a CMS and become let's say, an 'application framework.'  However, I'm excited to report today that this is all about to change...

One of the great things about working at Simplweb is helping people quickly and easily launch their Joomla websites. Two recent launches we had have been a news website about Haiti and a small business Veterinary Hospital in Waterbury, VT. Two very different sites. Infohaiti.net provides up to date news from Haiti in a high article volume blog type format, and all in the french language. Waterburyvethospital.com is a small business brochure site for a brand new vet clinic that aims to establish their web presence.

Today I'd like to announce a new project by the Joomla! team called 'Joopal'. Joopal is a new CMS featuring the power of objects offered to you by Joomla! with the immense hook system delivered to you by Drupal. Joopal is based on Joomla! 1.5 and features Drupal 6 the way PHP5 meant it to be done: with objects instead of globals and incredibly long function names. Joopal is compatible with the Drupal 6 functions and maintains all of those globals for backwards compatibility whilst providing a new object orientated approach to the functions you know and love.

The power of Joomla! with Drupal configurability

Joopal permits you to use your traditional Drupal blocks anywhere a Joomla! module can do and also allows you to integrate Drupal's modules as if they were a normal Joomla! component. This permits your Joomla! site to pick and choose the features and functionality you need against two of the world's most popular content management systems!

Development Evolved

Joopal provides developers with the power of the Joomla! Web Application Framework as well as Drupal 6's many interfaces. Joopal allows Joomla! developers to leverage features found in Drupal and allows Drupal developers to discover the joys of objects. For Drupal developers, objects are a recently added to PHP in version 3 that permit encapsulation of your data and providing tools to permit the removal of globals from your code.

But it doesn't stop there! In addition to creating object orientated versions of the Drupal Core in addition to the function/global system, you can seemlessly use Joomla!'s Framework complete with on demand autoloading objects.  With two popular frameworks behind you, there is no way you can go wrong!

Getting Involved

Like Joomla!, Joopal is a community driven project and we need you to help us out! Joopal needs Drupal testers to help port their components and reveal issues with the system. Joopal also welcomes any developers wanting to fix issues and improve Joopal by submitting patches or even working in a more dedicated role. With Joopal and your involvement, anything is possible! So what are you waiting for, sign up the the Joomla! Development General mailing list and start working on Joopal today!

Follow Sam Moffatt on Twitter.

Be sure to read the latest proposal for Joomla's leadership structure and give them comments and feedback for what's being planned. (You may need to join the Leadership Group at the Joomla People site in order to provide that feedback.) This is important, because Joomla's leadership and direction impacts your business, particularly if you are making money building Joomla websites for clients.

Joomlashack's Inspirion Joomla Template is one of the most innovative templates currently on the market. Its built using the 960 grid, a CSS system that gives you a tableless layout and a fast loading site, great for SEO!

Its one of the first commercial professional templates to validate XHTML Strict. This is a high benchmark t[...]

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Two Free Joomla 1.6 Templates

13.01.11

As part of my new Joomla 1.6 book, I have two free Joomla 1.6 templates you can download. They are Fresh and Optimus, originally developed at Joomalshack and ported by me to Joomla 1.6. Fresh was used in the chapter about using Joomla 1.6 to develop school websites. Optimus was used in the chapter about using Joomla 1.6 to develop blog websites.

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Joomla Tools and Resources from Mashable

09.05.09

I just read a great page that gives you lots of website links with high quality information about Joomla. Altough the Title of 30+ Joomla Tools and Resources doesn’t really give you tools like modules or components, a lot of the sites featured in this post do have some fine extensions for your Joomla website. I know I [...]

Post from: Joomla SEO Blog by Pathos-Seo.com

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The JoomlaFCK Editor for Joomla 1.5 out now!

09.05.09

If your are looking for a different editor for your Joomla 1.5 based website, you should really check out the best free editor JoomlaFCK, read here more about this great Plugin.

Post from: Joomla SEO Blog by Pathos-Seo.com

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Get 20% off Joomlashack Clubs

05.06.11

Joomlashack is having a great sale until midnight Friday June 3rd! Get 20% of the Joomlashack Developer club or Joomlashack University and 10-15% off templates and extensions.

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The Path Forward: Migration and the Future

21.01.11

 So we're now about one week into the stable cycle for Joomla! 1.6 and it seems that the biggest question that is on people's minds is upgrading/migration. There is a great deal of interest from people who want to keep their existing sites, but who also want to try out the latest and greatest features that Joomla! 1.6 has to offer.

When the Production Leadership Team met in San Francisco last September, the release of Joomla! 1.6 was one of the big topics we had to grapple with.  We had made good progress already, but there was still a good amount of work to be done.

Given the situation we found ourselves in, together with the fact that there was already a community member (Matias Aguirre) who was working on a migration tool, we decided that it was better to support the effort already in progress than to spend time duplicating what was already in progress.

So, the bottom line is this:

Migration to Joomla! 1.6 - We recommend people interested in migrating to use Matias Aguirre's jUpgrade extension.  Testing and feedback from the community will play an important role in perfecting this extension.
Migration to the July 2011 release - We are planning to implement a site importer in this release that will allow you to import your data from either Joomla! 1.5 or Joomla! 1.6.
As per the Development Strategy, we intend to manage change much more carefully moving forward. This, combined with our shortened release cycle means that upgrades and migrations will go a lot smoother. 
Joomla! 1.5 is a Long Term Support (LTS) release. This means that it will be supported for approximately 15 more months. That makes the estimated date for End of Life of Joomla! 1.5 to be April 11, 2012.
The next LTS release will take place in January of 2012.

Joomla! 1.6 not only marks the introduction of major features that people have been waiting for (granular access control, unlimited category depth), but also the shift to a new development strategy that will enable us to release continual updates on a regular basis while making the upgrade process as painless as possible.