Joomla 1.6 Beta Released

28 May 2010

Anyone in the know in website development circles will know how important it is for website content management systems to continuously evolve.

In the case of Smith and Wise we develop websites on four different scales, 1). Small Holding / Under 10 pages sites, 2). Small Content Management System backed sites, 3). E-Commerce Websites based on Content Management Systems and finally, 4). Full blown Online Community and Social Networking type websites. The later three options rely strongly on our knowledge of content management systems, of which, we tend to choose Joomla for most of our work due to it's stability and expandability. So with this in mind, when we heard there was a new release of Joomla (Joomla 1.6) we had to get our hands on the BETA testing copy!

We are just installing it now, but when we get our head around it, will be report back with the results, however we don't expect to develop specifically for Joomla 1.6 until at least November of this year, and all our current CMS websites should be supported until Q3 2011, or upgraded for free before then if required.

To find out more, just click read more!

Joomla 1.6 In Detail

Now that we have caught your interest, you are probably interested in the techie side of things, scroll down to see our findings, the first section is for everyone who is interested in Joomla 1.6 including clients. 

 

General Comments

27th May 2010
We have become aware of the release of Joomla 1.6 Beta, this is a great development for Smith and Wise and our clients, as Joomla 1.6 should bring more clientside independence to content management, and more functionality as far as user access.

Official rollout will most likely begin Nov/Dec 2010, with support remaining for Joomla 1.5 systems until atleast early 2012. If systems need to be made redundant before that date Q3 2011, all upgrades to Joomla 1.6 will be free. All systems currently in development will be upgraded to Joomla 1.6 free of charge, although additional element charges may apply.

 

28th May 2010
Our brief look over Joomla 1.6 so far suggests much greater support over user access, and much easier implementation of W3C Standards in template and site design.

 

1st June 2010
Looking through Joomla, user management features have been improved, also editor functions are much quicker to load. Generally, on first look, administration section is much easier to use than Joomla 1.5

 

Techie Stuff

28th May 2010
Please note, Joomla 1.6 requires much higher server settings than Joomla 1.6. These settings include the requirement of MySQL 5.0.4. The approximate server disk space required is around 15MB, plus obvious Database requirements.

 

1st June 2010
Much faster loading on administration backend than Joomla 1.5. Also frontend has moderate optimisation improvements. User Level MGMT features are unbelievably advanced in comparison to Joomla 1.5. Full build of Social Networking websites now definately possible.

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