RocketTheme Blog

02
Mar 2011
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Posted by Andy Miller

Update on Joomla 1.6 Conversion Progress

Over the past two months we've been diligently working on the process of converting our Joomla 1.5 framework, extensions, and templates to Joomla 1.6. As we've explained in previous blog posts, this is not a trivial task and on top of our existing heavy development workload, this has taken more time than we had originally anticipated. However, we are now making great progress, and the last few major hurdles have been tackled. Today we released 9 Joomla 1.6 extensions, and we have at least 8 more that are very close to being packaged and released also.

Gantry Framework for Joomla 1.6

Last week we released our first 'Beta' of the Gantry framework for Joomla 1.6. This was a major release and actually was a fairly radical update that included a huge overhaul of the user interface for Gantry that we feel is a big advancement. We'll release the first 'stable' version of Joomla 1.6 shortly as the beta release had only a few minor issues to speak of. Keep your eyes out for this soon.

Joomla 1.6 Extensions

Today we released the first set of Joomla 1.6 extensions that have been converted from Joomla 1.5. The extensions are as follow:

Joomla 1.6 Extensions Now Released: (15 Extensions)

We have 8 more extensions that are tested and very close to being ready for final release and packaging, so those next releases will include the following extensions:

Sometimes it's easy to forget just how many extensions we have available. We certainly were surprised at the size of the spreadsheet we generated when we started the conversion process. There are quite a few extensions that were 'one-offs' for a certain template, or are very old that we don't plan on updating. A quick summary of extensions that are still pending conversion, and those that are not planned on being updated are as follows:

Joomla 1.6 Extensions Pending Conversion: (6 Extensions)

  • RokComments
  • RokFeature
  • RokIntroScroller
  • RokMicroNews
  • RokQuickCart
  • RokSlideshow

Extensions NOT being ported to Joomla 1.6: (4 Extensions)

  • RokContentRotator (very old)
  • RokNewsRotator (very old)
  • RokZoom (very old)
  • RokSlide (precursor to RokTabs)
  • RokBridge (too complicated)

This is a total of 21 Joomla 1.6 extensions at the end of the day, and only 5 we are not converting, phew!

NOTE: RokDownloads will be undergoing a rewrite this coming year, and the new version will be available for Joomla 1.5 and 1.6

Joomla 1.6 Templates

The question we get asked the most regarding Joomla 1.6 is in regards to the status of our Joomla templates. This of course makes sense, but our templates are often tied quite closely to our extensions and we can't very well release a template without the associated extensions. That is the reason we have focused on converting our Gantry Framework and our key extensions first. Now we have a very good handle on these, the templates can follow.

We plan on releasing our "March 2011" Joomla template for both Joomla 1.5 and Joomla 1.6 with as much similar functionality as possible between them. Soon after that is out we plan on releasing the Tachyon template and it's associated extensions for Joomla 1.6.

Joomla 1.6 Templates Now Released: (15 Templates)

Joomla 1.6 Templates currently in development: (1 Templates)

  • Crystalline Template

In the weeks to follow we plan on releasing more templates in reverse order starting from newest and working backwards. This is now our top priority and we are going to focus on converting as many of them as fast as possible.

An important thing to note, is that at this time we do NOT plan on creating Joomla 1.6 RocketLauncher packages. Our plan is to wait until there are solid content migration tools as well as the resolution of some major Joomla 1.6 bugs.

03/18/2011 - UPDATED - Tachyon, Maelstrom, Paradox and Hybrid have been released for Joomla 1.6

03/21/2011 - UPDATED - RokStories and RokFeatureTable have been released for Joomla 1.6

03/24/2011 - UPDATED - RokStocks, RokWeather, RokTwittie, RokNewsFlash, RokMiniNews and RokLatestNews have been released for Joomla 1.6. Also added "1.6 Templates in Development" status

03/30/2011 - UPDATED - Added Somaxiom and Afterburner to the 1.6 templates in progress with conversion.

04/21/2011 - UPDATED - Added Syndicate, Omnicron, Zephyr, Panacea and Somaxiom to the released 1.6 templates list. Added Juxta, Quantive, Crystalline, Kinetic, and Dominion to development list

05/23/2011 - UPDATED - Added Juxta, Quantive, Kinetic, Dominion, and Afterburner Templates to the 1.6 releases list